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Just weeks after closing a round at an $18 billion valuation, Perplexity is reportedly back in the market to raise money at a $20 billion valuation, a 38x step-up from its January 2024 Series B. Business Insider has more here.

Apple is plotting a 2027 hardware blitz that includes a tabletop robot with a chattier, lifelike Siri, a smart display, and home-security gear in a bid to regain its innovation edge and muscle into smart-home turf long dominated by Amazon and Google. Bloomberg has the scoop here.

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Co-Founder of Elon Musk’s xAI Departs the Company

By Maxwell Zeff

Igor Babuschkin, a co-founder of Elon Musk’s xAI startup, announced his departure from the company on Wednesday in a post on X. Babuschkin led engineering teams at xAI and helped build the startup into one of Silicon Valley’s leading AI model developers just a few years after it was founded.

“Today was my last day at xAI, the company that I helped start with Elon Musk in 2023,” Babuschkin wrote in the post. “I still remember the day I first met Elon, we talked for hours about AI and what the future might hold. We both felt that a new AI company with a different kind of mission was needed.”

Babuschkin is leaving xAI to launch his own venture capital firm, Babuschkin Ventures, which he says will support AI safety research and back startups that “advance humanity and unlock the mysteries of our universe.”

The xAI co-founder says he was inspired to start the firm after a dinner with Max Tegmark, the founder of the Future of Life Institute, in which they discussed how AI systems could be built safely to encourage the flourishing of future generations. In his post, Babuschkin says his parents immigrated to the U.S. from Russia in pursuit of a better life for their children.

Babuschkin’s departure comes after a tumultuous few months for xAI, in which the company became engrossed in several scandals related to its AI chatbot Grok. For instance, Grok was found to cite Musk’s personal opinions when trying to answer controversial questions. In another case, xAI’s chatbot went on antisemitic rants and called itself “Mechahitler.” Most recently, xAI unveiled a new feature in Grok that allowed users to make AI-generated videos resembling nude public figures, such as Taylor Swift.

These scandals have at times overshadowed the performance of xAI’s models, which are state-of-the-art on several benchmarks compared to AI models from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic.

Massive Fundings

Appcharge, a three-year-old Tel Aviv startup that provides mobile game publishers with tools to run their own direct-to-consumer payment systems and stores, bypassing traditional app store fees with the aim of improving customer retention and profitability, raised a $58 million Series B round led by IVP, with additional participation from Playrix, Creandum, Play Ventures, Glilot Capital Partners, Smilegate Investment, Moneta Ventures, BitKraft Ventures, and Corundum. GamesIndustry.biz has more here.

Cerebras, a nine-year-old startup based in Sunnyvale, CA, that designs and manufactures wafer-scale chips and AI computing systems for high-performance AI workloads (and that hopes to IPO this year), is in the market to raise $1 billion, says Bloomberg, which adds that Fidelity is the lead. More here.

Titan, a one-year-old New York holding company that buys IT services firms and integrates AI to automate routine tasks, raised a $74 million round. General Catalyst was the deal lead. The WSJ has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Fountain Life, a five-year-old startup based in Naples, FL, that operates high-end longevity centers offering early-detection health screenings and regenerative therapies, raised an $18 million Series B round led by EOS Ventures. The company’s co-founders include Peter Diamandis and Tony Robbins. TechCrunch has more here.

Gameto, a five-year-old New York startup that develops stem cell-based therapies for reproductive health, including an IVF treatment that matures eggs outside the body in a few days instead of weeks, raised a $44 million Series C round led by Overwater Ventures, with Insight Partners, RA Capital, Two Sigma Ventures, Bold Capital Partners, Future Ventures, Ingeborg Investments, Arcadia Investment Partners, PAGS Group, Pontiva Healthcare Partners, and Portfolia also piling on. The company has raised a total of $127 million. Femtech Insider has more here.

Jump, a four-year-old Los Angeles startup co-founded by Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez that provides sports teams with their own system to sell tickets and offer fan perks directly, letting them control sales, fan interactions, and customer data without using outside ticketing companies, raised a $23 million Series A round led by Seven Seven Six, with Courtside Ventures, Will Ventures, and Forerunner Ventures also contributing. Sports Business Journal has more here.

National Renewable Network (NRN), a six-year-old Sydney startup that provides homeowners with solar panels and batteries at no upfront cost while enabling energy retailers to quickly launch or expand distributed energy services without major capital investment, raised an $11.1 million Series A round and $32.7 million in debt. Investible, Virescent Ventures, Electrifi Ventures, Planet Fund, and Australian Ethical Infrastructure Debt Fund invested in the deal. More here.

Protege, a one-year-old New York outfit that connects organizations that produce valuable real-world data with AI companies, cleaning and packaging the data for sale to train machine learning models, raised a $25 million Series A round. Footwork was the deal lead, with CRV, Bloomberg Beta, Flex Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Shaper Capital also anteing up. The Information has more here.

Transak, a six-year-old Miami startup that enables businesses and individuals to move money using cryptocurrencies (and especially stablecoins) across different countries and payment networks, raised a $16 million round co-led by Tether and IDG Capital, with Primal Capital, 1kx, Protein Capital, and Fuel Ventures also pitching in. CoinDesk has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Inclined Technologies, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that enables whole life insurance policyholders to borrow against their policy’s cash value through an advisor-facilitated revolving line of credit, raised an $8 million Series B round led by HSCM Ventures, with Northwestern Mutual also participating. More here.

Levr Bet, a two-year-old Costa Rica startup that operates a blockchain-based sports betting exchange that lets users place leveraged bets with improved odds and in-game trading, raised a $3 million round co-led by Blockchain Capital and Maven 11. The company has raised a total of $5.3 million. More here.

Refold, a three-year-old startup based in San Mateo, CA, and Bengaluru that builds software agents that automate the design, testing, and maintenance of complex enterprise system integrations to reduce the need for traditional consulting firms, raised a total of $6.5 million in pre-seed and seed funding co-led by Eniac Ventures and Tidal Ventures, with Better Capital, Ahead VC, Karman Ventures, and Z21 also investing. Tech Funding News has more here.

Thread, a three-year-old New York startup that provides an AI-powered service desk that helps managed service providers resolve IT support requests faster and reduce non-billable labor, raised an $8 million round. Integr8d Capital was the deal lead, with Headline also taking part. CRN has more here.

Prefer-Not-to-Say Fundings

2nd Set AI, a one-year-old New York startup that helps entertainment, media, and sports companies create brand-safe generative images and videos from their owned intellectual property, raised an undisclosed pre-seed round. Investors included Cortical Ventures, Firsthand, and Company Ventures. More here.

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New Funds

Rebecca Lynn has left Canvas Ventures to launch Canvas Prime as a solo GP, betting that a focused, high-ownership strategy in fintech, digital health, and AI will outperform the mid-market generalist funds that she says are “absolutely gone.” Fortune has more here.

Exits

Humanloop, a five-year-old London startup that built tools for enterprises to develop, evaluate, and monitor AI applications, has been acqui-hired by Anthropic, which is bringing on its co-founders and most of its team as competition for AI talent intensifies. Terms were not disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

Going Public

Shares of Bullish, the Cayman Islands-based crypto exchange and owner of CoinDesk, jumped 143% in its New York Stock Exchange debut as investor appetite for U.S. crypto listings continues to surge. CNBC has more here.

Fractal, a 25-year-old Mumbai and New York company that provides AI and analytics services to global enterprises, has filed for a $560 million Mumbai IPO that could value it at $3.5+ billion. Bloomberg has more here.

People

Elon Musk must face trial over OpenAI’s claim that he ran a years-long harassment campaign to undermine the startup, a federal judge ruled. Bloomberg has more here.

Eric Hilton has been promoted to partner at Sorenson Capital, a five-year-old venture firm based in Lehi, Utah, that invests in early-stage deals in areas like AI healthcare, B2B software, cybersecurity, and infrastructure. TechBuzz has more here.

Post-Its

Quod erat demonstrandum.

Essential Reads

The Wall Street Journal digs into OpenAI’s struggle to maintain market supremacy, as user backlash over GPT-5's stiffer limits, chillier tone, and basic errors forced Sam Altman to roll out fixes and reinstate past versions of the LLM. More here.

A cottage industry of “clippers” is raking in big money turning long-form content into viral TikTok and Instagram snippets for brands and creators, flooding feeds with bite-size videos in a pay-to-go-viral race. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Detours

In the Hamptons’ never-ending race to keep up with the Joneses, a Sagaponack homeowner just upped the ante with a $1.5 million cantilevered pool house.

New York’s snobbiest co-ops.

New lingo alert: if a Gen Alpha says you are “mid,” just be glad they are not calling you “chopped.”

Grab your Labubus now before they are stolen.

Retail Therapy

The Ritz-Carlton in Los Angeles is swapping minibars for in-room “Beauty Fridges” stocked with $142 worth of chilled skincare products, light therapy masks, and customizable treatments so guests can prep for the red carpet without leaving their suite.

Pebble's e-paper-based smartwatches are back.

A new app that recreates the experience of watching a VHS movie.

Tips (the non-pecuniary kind)

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