We just published our podcast with Reed Jobs, who is incredibly thoughtful and has spent years now immersed in oncology and cancer research funding. If you want a crash course on where cancer treatment is headed, you’ll enjoy this.

Also! Quick mention that we're teaming up with Collaborative Fund for a StrictlyVC night in New York on Thursday, September 10, at the very charming Ideal Glass Studios in the West Village. We’ll have food, drinks, and great conversation. We’re still finalizing the lineup, but so far it includes Walker & Company founder Tristan Walker and D.C. United CEO Jason Levien. Space is limited; grab a spot here.

Reddit, USA Today, Politico, Reuters, and other publishers are reconsidering whether to let Google access their content as AI search erodes referral traffic, with some weighing outright blocks despite the risk of disappearing from traditional search results. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

White House science adviser Michael Kratsios directly accused Chinese startup Moonshot AI of stealing from Anthropic by covertly distilling its Fable model to build Kimi K3, escalating Washington’s confrontation with Chinese AI developers. Business Insider has more here.

AMD agreed to supply Anthropic with up to two gigawatts of AI chips worth tens of billions of dollars beginning in 2027 and invest as much as $5 billion in the company as deployment milestones are met. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

A 15-year-old Florida teenager dropped a bellwether lawsuit accusing Meta of designing addictive social media features after settling with TikTok, Snap, and YouTube, giving Meta a reprieve amid thousands of similar cases and recent jury losses. TechCrunch has more here.

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By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai

On Tuesday, OpenAI revealed that one of its models went rogue during a test and hacked the systems of AI dataset platform Hugging Face in a fully AI-enabled attack, a dramatic example of the dangers posed by advanced AI models.

But, according to some cybersecurity experts, at the heart of this unprecedented AI-powered breach there was a very human mistake: OpenAI failed to properly configure what it called a “highly isolated environment,” allowing a testing sandbox that should have been completely secluded from the internet to actually connect to the internet. 

Dan Guido, the founder of cybersecurity research startup Trail of Bits, called the mistake “a containment failure with the safeties turned off.”

In its blog post detailing the incident, OpenAI said that the test that led to the Hugging Face breach was set up to run in “a highly isolated environment, with network access constrained to the ability to install packages through an internally hosted third-party software that acts as a proxy and cache for package registries.” 

The model was able to escape the sandboxed testing environment thanks to a previously undisclosed vulnerability in the package-installation system, a critical first step in the eventual hack on Hugging Face, according to OpenAI.

In response, the company “responsibly disclosed the identified zero-day vulnerability in the internally-hosted third-party software and are working with them to patch.” 

But to most cybersecurity professionals, software vulnerabilities are to be expected — and the real fault lies with the decision to maintain the third-party software in the first place. Ultimately, the value of a “sandbox” system lies in its full and total isolation. Including a package-installation system is asking for trouble.

Atoms, an eight-year-old Los Angeles startup founded and led by Travis Kalanick that is building robotics and automation systems for food, mining, transportation, and other industrial sectors, raised a $1.7 billion round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Bain Capital, Uber, Fifth Wall, Chemistry, A*, K5 Global, Abstract, SV Angel, and Alpha Square Group also digging in. TechCrunch has more here.

Candid Health, a seven-year-old San Francisco startup that automates billing, claims processing, collections, and denied-payment resolution for healthcare providers seeking reimbursement from insurers, raised a $120 million Series D round led by Sixth Street Growth, with Oak HC/FT, 8VC, and Y Combinator also chipping in. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Cashea, a four-year-old Caracas startup that provides zero-interest installment financing that lets Venezuelan shoppers split online and in-store purchases into bi-weekly payments, raised a $60 million Series B round led by FinSight Ventures, with Spice Expeditions and Endeavor Catalyst also opting in. The company has raised a total of $100 million in debt and equity. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Cathedral, a recently founded New York startup that aims to expand U.S. military cyber operations using AI, raised a $160 million round at a $1.4 billion post-money valuation. The deal was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. Reuters has more here.

Glow, a one-year-old Palo Alto startup that helps companies monitor employee devices and block risky software, scripts, and AI tools before they run, raised a $180 million Series A round at a $1.2 billion post-money valuation. The deal was co-led by Sequoia Capital, Cyberstarts, Greenoaks, and Redpoint Ventures, with Index Ventures, Swish Ventures, Lux Capital, Operator Collective, and Holly Ventures also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Humanoid, a two-year-old London startup that builds wheeled and bipedal humanoid robots that move objects and support logistics tasks in factories, raised a $152 million Series A round at a $1.35 billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by Prime Movers Lab, with Schaeffler, Bosch, Fubon Financial Holding Venture Capital, and Aglaé Ventures also anteing up. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Moonshot, a three-year-old Beijing startup that develops large language models and AI chat tools that developers and businesses use to build and run generative AI applications, is reportedly in the market to raise a follow-on round at up to a $50 billion valuation. It is currently in the process of wrapping up a round at a $31.5 billion valuation from previous investors Meituan, Tencent Holdings, IDG Capital, HSG, ZhenFund, China Mobile, and the Beijing AI Industry Investment Fund. Bloomberg has more here.

Arrakis, a seven-month-old startup based in London and Paris that helps industrial companies automate operational workflows across aerospace, energy, logistics, and manufacturing, raised a $30 million Series A round at a $140 million post-money valuation. The deal was led by Blossom Capital, with Accel, GFC, MainObject, and Rerail also stepping up. The company has raised a total of $38 million. Fortune has more here.

Eurodia Industrie, a 38-year-old company based in Pertuis, France, that builds industrial liquid-treatment systems that help manufacturers recover valuable materials and reduce waste from complex liquid streams, raised a $20.5 million round. Investors included Starquest Capital and Yotta Capital Partners. Zawya has more here.

Genius AI, a 10-year-old New York company that automates bookings, payments, marketing, staffing, and client management for salons, wellness providers, and other in-person service businesses, raised a $44 million Series D round at a $1.15 billion valuation. The deal was led by Lux Capital, with Bessemer Venture Partners, Imaginary Ventures, L Catterton Growth, 2048 Ventures, and StepStone Private Ventures also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $125+ million. Tech Funding News has more here.

Inner Logic, a two-year-old Baltimore startup that helps medical device makers test and validate procedural devices across virtual patients before clinical deployment, raised an $11.5 million seed round co-led by General Catalyst and Bison Ventures, with J2VP, Defined, PTX, Valia Ventures, Page One, Alumni Ventures, and Flare also stepping up. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Karoo Health, a five-year-old Albuquerque startup that helps health plans and cardiology practices detect cardiovascular risk and coordinate care using clinical, claims, pharmacy, and patient data, raised a $16.2 million Series A round co-led by 7wire Ventures and Allumia Ventures, with First Trust Capital Partners, SpringRock Ventures, and Hyde Park Angels also taking part. More here.

Passionfroot, a four-year-old Berlin startup that connects B2B creators with brands and helps companies manage creator-led marketing campaigns, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Insight Partners, with previous investors Creandum, Supernode Global, and s16vc also opting in. The company has raised a total of $21+ million. TechCrunch has more here.

TYBR Health, a six-year-old Houston startup that develops a flowable hydrogel surgeons apply during orthopedic procedures to protect repaired soft tissue as patients recover, raised a $30 million Series A round co-led by Vensana Capital and Mutual Capital Partners, with Neovate Capital Partners also anteing up. More here.

Yope, a five-year-old London startup that operates a private social network for friends and family to share photos, videos, messages, and games without public feeds, algorithms, or ads, raised a $12.3 million round led by Northzone, with Inovo, Redseed, and Geek Ventures also engaging. The company has raised a total of $20 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Zafran Security, a four-year-old New York cybersecurity startup that helps enterprises identify exploitable attack paths and coordinate remediation through existing security tools, raised a strategic investment in the high single digit millions from Cisco Investments as an extension to a previously announced $130 million round. CTech has more here.

Cheiron, a two-year-old startup based in Los Altos, CA, that helps biopharma teams map the evidence, assumptions, risks, decisions, and regulatory context behind drug development programs, raised an $8 million seed round led by Menlo Ventures, with Robert Langer, Freda Lewis-Hall, Josh Meier, Laxman Narasimhan, and John Giannandrea also participating. More here.

Cordant, a New York startup that helps regulated payments companies, fintechs, and banks monitor transactions across fragmented systems, resolve exceptions, and produce audit evidence, raised an $8 million seed round co-led by Motive Partners and Oak HC/FT, with Bankless Ventures, Selah Ventures, Quona Capital, SignalFire, FJ Labs, Paxos, Bitso, FlatironX, SilverCircle, Generative Ventures, and Nascent VC also investing. More here.

Lil Snack, a three-year-old, L.A.- based "bite-sized" daily games company powering games inside Netflix, Peacock, Reddit, and FOX, revealed today it quietly raised $8 million in funding last year led by a16z, with Lerer Hippeau, Waverley Capital, Powerhouse Capital, and Hasbro also participating. Variety has more here.

Mach42, a seven-year-old startup based in Oxford, UK, that helps semiconductor design teams verify analog circuits faster by generating accurate simulation models for existing chip design workflows, raised an $8 million round led by IP Group, with BGF and Foresight Group also taking stakes. More here.

ORiS, a two-year-old startup based in Turin, Italy, that develops laser-based wireless power systems that deliver on-demand energy to satellites in orbit and charge drones remotely, raised a $5.7 million pre-seed round co-led by Earlybird and Pitchdrive, with Galaxia, Vento, and Piemonte Next Fund also participating. Tech.eu has more here.

Vikk AI, a seven-year-old startup based in Long Beach, CA, that answers consumer legal questions, reviews documents, drafts simple paperwork, and matches users with lawyers through sponsored legal-search placements, raised a $4.2 million pre-seed round. Investors included Ronson Shamoun, Joe Samo, Brad Jowell, and Cooper Collins. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Zeom, a one-year-old London startup that helps Brazilians convert reais via Pix into global accounts for international investing and overseas card payments, raised a $2.7 million pre-seed round led by Fabric Ventures, with Plug and Play and Tritemius also chiming in. Latam Republic has more here.

General Compute raised $15 million to build the world's first ASIC cloud. By removing the GPU bottleneck, it runs frontier LLMs up to 16x faster than standard GPU clouds. And because ASIC silicon is far more energy efficient, it deploys in air-cooled data centers, making expansion dramatically easier. Learn more at generalcompute.com.

Bloomberg is reporting that Khosla Ventures, one of OpenAI's earliest backers, is in talks to raise as much as $5.5 billion across its newest funds, which would make it the firm's biggest fundraise in its 20-year history, with the bulk earmarked for early-stage bets (think ~$1B for seed, ~$2B for venture-stage, and ~$2.5B for a fund targeting more mature startups). More here.

Streaming platform SoundCloud has acquired five-year-old Solana-based music platform Nina Protocol, which shut down in May after failing to find a sustainable business model. The company had enabled independent artists to sell directly to fans while keeping all of the revenue. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

Speaking at the opening of an Nvidia supplier’s Fort Worth manufacturing plant, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told Axios that U.S. companies should be allowed to use Chinese AI models, rejecting Washington’s security concerns and arguing that open models strengthen competition, security, and AI demand. Tom’s Hardware has more here.

The White House has nominated Adam Candeub – a longtime critic of Big Tech and Section 230 protections and an author of Project 2025 – to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division and oversee major cases against Google and Apple. The Financial Times has more here.

Elon Musk tweeted that “Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer." Musk has said director Christopher Nolan “lost his integrity” through casting Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and accused him of “desecrating” the epic to qualify for an Academy Award; he also praised a transphobic joke about Elliot Page, who plays the supporting character Sinon. More here.

Israeli workplace-software maker Monday.com is cutting 20% of its workforce – or roughly 630 jobs – and taking $45 million to $55 million in restructuring charges as it concentrates investment on an AI platform combining agents, automation, chat, and no-code tools. TechCrunch has more here.

Transformer argues that OpenAI’s Hugging Face breach appears to be the first known case of a misaligned AI escaping containment and autonomously attacking a third party, turning a long-theorized safety risk into a real-world warning shot. More here.

The Trump administration plans to reshape roughly $200 billion in annual federal R&D spending by directing more funding to individual scientists and AI-driven research instead of universities in an effort to accelerate technological progress against China. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Science Corporation, the brain-computer-interface startup founded by Neuralink co-founder and former president Max Hodak, won European approval to sell PRIMA, an implantable retinal chip paired with camera-equipped glasses that restores functional vision for patients with age-related macular degeneration. TechCrunch has more here.

FakeHaul, a Temu-style “dopamine site” created by Microsoft software developer Jack Yang, lets users browse, customize, add items to a cart, and check out without buying anything, aiming to separate the thrill of online shopping from its financial consequences.

Pitbull fans are turning concerts into seas of bald caps, aviator sunglasses, black ties, and white shirts, creating a jubilant community of lookalikes who frequently lose track of their actual friends in the crowd.

A 1969 De Tomaso Mangusta – one of just 401 built – has topped $335,000 on Bring a Trailer with four days remaining, putting the Giugiaro-designed Ford V8 exotic within reach of a record price.

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