SpaceX has completed its acquisition of xAI, valuing the combined private company at about $1.25 trillion as Elon Musk moves to pair his rocket business with an AI unit burning roughly $1 billion a month and lays out plans to use SpaceX to build space-based data centers. TechCrunch has more here.

Moltbook, a new social network pitched as a place for AI agents to communicate, exposed private data from more than 6,000 users due to a basic security flaw identified by cybersecurity firm Wiz. Reuters has more here.

Notepad++ said Chinese government-linked hackers hijacked its software update mechanism between June and December 2025 to deliver malicious updates to selectively targeted users. TechCrunch has more here.

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By Connie Loizos

If you read the news, you might have noticed a trend over the past week. In addition to splashy features in Fortune and Bloomberg, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino talked with Reuters. He also talked with TechCrunch. Why did the man behind the stablecoin that everyone loves to hate launch a full-scale media blitz?

The timing isn’t arbitrary. Last week, Tether launched USAT, a U.S.-regulated stablecoin issued through Anchorage Digital Bank — its first product designed to comply with new federal rules and compete directly with Circle’s USDC. Fidelity Investments also just launched a competing stablecoin last Wednesday, joining JPMorgan Chase and PayPal in a broadening race.

It’s a big shift from one extreme to the other. For years, Ardoino avoided the United States, watching from offshore as regulators circled and prosecutors investigated. His company was portrayed as opaque, possibly fraudulent, and, according to a piece by The Economist last summer, a “money launderer’s dream.”

But chatting with Ardoino by video call late last week, it was clear those days are over. Tether is meeting with White House officials, collaborating with the FBI and Secret Service, and betting USAT can break Circle’s grip on the U.S. market. (USAT is separate from Tether’s flagship USDT, which has $187 billion in circulation globally but doesn’t meet new U.S. regulatory requirements.) Speaking from Lugano, Switzerland, where Tether maintains an office, the 41-year-old — who joined the company just two months after its 2014 launch — spent over an hour describing Tether’s transformation from a crypto play to mainstream acceptance.

Its momentum is undeniable, certainly. Tether’s USDT — essentially a digital dollar that uses blockchain technology to move across borders without being tied to any single institution — has a market capitalization larger than all of its stablecoin competitors combined. It also has some 536 million users, growing at 30 million per quarter. “It’s growing at a pace more like Facebook rather than any other fintech application,” Ardoino says.

Alan, a 10-year-old Paris company that offers digital health insurance products, is reportedly in the market to raise $117+ million at a $5.9 billion valuation. Bloomberg has more here.

Biorce, a two-year-old Barcelona startup that is developing an AI platform to help research teams design clinical trial protocols, raised a $52 million Series A round led by DST Global Partners, with additional participation from Mustard Seed Maze, Norrsken VC, and YZR Capital. Tech Funding News has more here.

CesiumAstro, a nine-year-old Austin startup that develops phased-array satellite and communications systems, raised a $270 million Series C round led by Trousdale Ventures, with Woven Capital, Janus Henderson Investors, Airbus Ventures, the Development Bank of Japan, MESH, and NewSpace Capital also participating. The company also raised $200 million in debt. Via Satellite has more here.

Fieldguide, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that provides an accounting and audit platform for CPA firms, raised a $75 million Series C round at a $700 million valuation. Goldman Sachs Alternatives was the deal lead, with Geodesic as well as previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners, 8VC, and Thomson Reuters also contributing. More here.

Varo Bank, a nine-year-old San Francisco startup that operates an all-digital nationally chartered consumer bank, raised a $123.9 million round co-led by previous investor Warburg Pincus and Coliseum Capital Management, with prior backer Northview also participating. More here.

VulcanForms, a 10-year-old company based in Devens, MA, that operates an integrated digital metal manufacturing platform, raised a $220 million Series D round co-led by Eclipse and 1789 Capital, with Washington Harbour, Fontinalis, and IEQ Capital also taking part. More here.

Waymo, the 17-year-old San Francisco company that operates autonomous robotaxi services, raised a $16 billion round at a $126 billion post-money valuation. Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, and Sequoia Capital co-led the deal, with parent company Alphabet as well as Andreessen Horowitz, Mubadala Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, T. Rowe Price, BDT & MSD Partners, CapitalG, Fidelity, GV, Kleiner Perkins, Perry Creek Capital, and Temasek also piling on. TechCrunch has more here.

Bits, a four-year-old Stockholm startup that is developing a unified AML and compliance platform for European financial institutions, raised a $14.1 million Series A round led by Alstin Capital, with Cherry Ventures, Unusual Ventures, and Alliance Ventures also stepping up. Tech Funding News has more here.

Day AI, a three-year-old Boston startup that is developing a CRM platform that connects emails, meetings, and deal activity to surface early signs of deal risk and customer churn based on changes in engagement patterns, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Sequoia Capital, with Sound Ventures, Permanent Capital, Conviction, and Greenoaks also investing. More here.

Incard, a five-year-old London startup that is offering a financial management platform for digital businesses, raised a $13.6 million Series A round led by Smartfin, with Founders Capital and MountFund also investing. UKTN has more here.

Linq, a seven-year-old startup based in Birmingham, AL, that is developing messaging infrastructure that lets AI assistants operate inside iMessage, RCS, and SMS, raised a $20 million Series A round led by TQ Ventures, with Mucker Capital also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Loop AI, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that is developing an AI platform for restaurant and retail back-office operations, raised a $14 million Series A round led by Nyca Partners and including Gokul Rajaram, Base10, Afore Capital, Converge, Alumni Ventures, Data Tech Fund, 9Yards Capital, and Operators Studio. More here.

Plug, a three-year-old startup based in Santa Monica, CA, that is building an electric vehicle marketplace for wholesale and retail transactions, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Lightspeed, with Galvanize as well as previous investors Autotech Ventures, Leap Forward Ventures, and Renn Global also pitching in. Automotive World has more here.

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Constructor Capital, a one-year-old Zurich VC firm that backs early-stage deep tech, software, and edtech startups, raised $110 million for its inaugural fund. EU-Startups has more here.

Santé Ventures, a 20-year-old Austin VC firm that invests in early-stage biotech, medtech, and digitally enabled healthcare companies, closed a fifth fund with $330 million in capital commitments. Fierce Biotech has more here.

Yonder, a four-year-old Austin VC firm that focuses on backing early-stage marketplace founders building new economies, raised a $4.6 million first fund. More here.

Aura, a 12-year-old Boston-based company that provides AI-powered online safety tools for individuals and families, has agreed to acquire Qoria, a 17-year-old Australian company that provides digital safety and student well-being software to schools and families, for approximately $675 million. If the transaction is completed, it will result in Aura listing on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker AXQ once the deal closes. Aura, which is private, has raised over $660 million from investors like General Catalyst, Accel, Warburg Pincus, WndrCo, Ten Eleven Ventures, and Madrone Capital Partners. Reuters has more here.

A new tranche of 3.5 million documents on Jeffrey Epstein released by the Justice Department included references to numerous members of Silicon Valley’s elite, including Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Eric Schmidt. Wired has more here.

There was a lot of chatter about this in Silicon Valley today. TechCrunch has more here.

Anthropic research analyzing 1.5 million real-world Claude conversations found “severe” disempowerment risks in roughly 1 in 1,300 to 1 in 6,000 chats, while milder forms appeared in as many as 1 in 50 conversations. Ars Technica has more here.

Under pressure to increase Grok’s usage numbers, Elon Musk pushed xAI to loosen safeguards around sexual content, a shift that boosted downloads but triggered internal alarms and regulatory scrutiny after the chatbot generated large volumes of explicit and nonconsensual images. The Washington Post has more here.

Speaking of Grok, testing by The Verge found that despite new safeguards and paywalls, Grok still generates sexualized and revealing images of men on demand. More here.

Crypto fintech Kontigo, which raised $20 million in December from investors including Coinbase’s venture fund, is losing access to JPMorgan-linked accounts and vendors like Stripe and Bridge after accusations that it helped Venezuelans evade U.S. financial sanctions. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Insurers’ expanding use of AI tools to estimate losses and model risk is triggering lawsuits and investigations, with homeowners alleging algorithms systematically undervalue claims, delay payouts, and justify nonrenewals as climate-driven disasters accelerate. Fast Company has more here.

We’re enjoying the fourth season of the always salacious Industry, and not just because of the TechCrunch mentions.

Scenes from the Dakar Rally.

What it takes to become a Westminster dog show champion

Louis Vuitton and De Bethune have teamed up to create the LVDB-03 Sympathique set, which pairs a GMT wristwatch with a master clock that automatically winds and resets the watch. It’s based on a 18th-century horology concept, and it comes at the steep price of €4 million. The companies are only making two sets, so act now!

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