Bloop. As many of you let us know, we forgot to link to our interview with Chi-Hua Chien of Goodwater Capital in last night's newsletter; apologies. Here is that link, and here is the podcast interview if you'd rather hear the whole thing. (Also, the podcast introduction said Facebook was founded at Stanford — clearly we need more sleep.)

Speaking of which, we had a great night in El Segundo at our StrictlyVC event. So fun. Thank you to our terrific hosts at Aerospace Corporation, who helped us pull together a great crowd, including the city's mayor, who we thoroughly enjoyed meeting. Photos and coverage coming soon. :)

Trump administration officials are telling Anthropic that if it wants to rerelease Claude Fable 5, it must prove the model’s guardrails cannot be bypassed, even though independent security experts say fully preventing jailbreaks may not be possible. Wired has more here.

Waymo recalled nearly 4,000 robotaxis and suspended highway driving after identifying at least 13 cases in which its vehicles drove into highway sections closed for construction in Phoenix and the San Francisco Bay Area, the company’s sixth robotaxi recall. TechCrunch has more here.

According to The Information, early Chinese backers of Manus – including HSG, ZhenFund, and Tencent – are planning to buy the AI agent startup back from Meta at the same $2 billion price Meta paid after Beijing ordered the company to unwind the deal amid scrutiny of U.S. investment in advanced Chinese AI startups. Reuters has more here.

Amazon Web Services is in early talks to sell racks of its Trainium AI chips to outside companies for use in their own data centers, a shift that would push AWS more directly into Nvidia’s market even as Amazon says demand for its in-house chips is already outstripping supply. TechCrunch has more here.

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OpenAI is bringing on some big names to the team in the lead-up to its public debut: Google DeepMind AI legend Noam Shazeer and former Trump White House AI policy official Dean Ball. 

Shazeer, a co-lead at Gemini and the founder of AI role-playing startup Character AI, announced his departure on Wednesday. He had been at Google since 2000, leaving only for a three-year period when he left to co-found Character AI. Two years ago, Google re-hired Shazeer in a $2.7 billion deal that gave the tech giant access to the startup’s technology. 

The move is the latest in a series of shufflings between the top AI labs, including Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta. Shazeer is credited for being one of the foundational minds behind modern generative AI. He co-authored the seminal 2017 paper “Attention Is All You Need,” which introduced the Transformer architecture.

Before leaving Google, Shazeer had also reportedly been stirring the pot when it came to political issues. According to The Information, Shazeer voiced opinions on internal messaging boards on transgender identity and Israel’s war in Gaza that resulted in management deleting his posts. 

Whether those controversies will follow him to his new employer remains to be seen. In the meantime, OpenAI is also shoring up its policy credentials by bringing Ball to the team. Ball had a brief stint last year in the White House, where he helped publish America’s AI Action Plan before stepping down to rejoin the techno-libertarian think tank the Foundation for American Innovation as a senior fellow.

Baseten, a seven-year-old San Francisco startup that provides software and computing infrastructure for companies running and optimizing open-source AI models, is reportedly finalizing a $1.5 billion round at an $11 billion to $13 billion valuation co-led by Altimeter Capital, Conviction, Spark Capital, Sands Capital, and Wellington Management. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Dream, a three-year-old Tel Aviv startup that provides national cyber defense systems and data platforms that help governments detect threats and identify vulnerabilities, raised a $260 million round at a $3 billion post-money valuation. The deal was co-led by Bicycle Capital and Group 11, with Antler, Bain Capital Ventures, and Tru Arrow Partners also taking part. The company has raised a total of $410+ million. SecurityWeek has more here.

General Intuition, a one-year-old New York startup that develops foundation models for training AI agents to understand and navigate space and time, is reportedly in talks to raise approximately $300 million at a $2+ billion valuation from backers including Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, Khosla Ventures, and General Catalyst. TechCrunch has more here.

Genspark.ai, a three-year-old Palo Alto startup that runs an AI workspace that uses autonomous agents to create presentations, financial analyses, software applications, business documents, and internal business tools, raised a $100 million Series B round at a $2.6 billion post-money valuation. Investors included Sozo Ventures, Korea Mirae Asset, and UpHonest Capital. The company has raised a total of $645 million. More here.

Gradial, a three-year-old Seattle startup that deploys agents within enterprise marketing tools to create, review, ensure brand compliance, and publish content while automatically fixing gaps in search results, raised a $65 million Series C round at a $675 million post-money valuation, according to Axios. The deal was led by Insight Partners, with previous investors VMG, Madrona, and PruVen Capital also contributing. GeekWire has more here.

Prem AI, a startup based in Lugano, Switzerland, that lets hedge funds and law firms run AI agents and models on their own infrastructure, is reportedly in the market to raise a $100 million Series A round at a $500+ million valuation. Current investors include HongShan co-founder Fan Zhang, David Maisel, Jim Breyer, and Index Ventures. Tech Funding News has more here.

Verse, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that manages energy procurement and usage data and orchestrates on-site battery storage to help data centers and large power users secure and optimize power access, raised a $54 million Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with GV, NVIDIA, and Norrsken VC also anteing up. More here.

Architect Labs, a one-year-old Palo Alto startup that develops AI systems to design and verify custom chips, raised a $24 million seed round led by Kindred Ventures, with TQ Ventures, Race Capital, and Together Fund also joining in. More here.

Frontier Health, a two-year-old London startup that develops tools that help NHS administrative teams track patient pathways, follow up on test results, and flag delays to improve care coordination and reduce waiting times, raised a $12.8 million round led by Atomico, with firstminute capital and XYZ Venture Capital also chiming in. The company has raised a total of $16 million. Tech Funding News has more here.

Katalyst Space Technologies, a six-year-old startup based in Flagstaff, AZ, that develops spacecraft that perform satellite servicing missions including installing sensors, conducting proximity operations, and boosting orbiting spacecraft for government and commercial customers, raised a $12 million round led by Geodesic Capital, with Fortitude Ventures also pitching in. Dealroom has more here.

Kvasir Technologies, an eight-year-old Danish startup that converts lignin-based agricultural and forestry residues into marine biofuels that can replace fossil ship fuels without engine modifications, raised an $11.5 million Series A round. Investors included European Energy as well as previous investors Mærsk Growth, Footprint Fund, and the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO). ESG Today has more here.

NeuralTrust, a four-year-old Barcelona startup that develops software for discovering, monitoring, governing, and securing AI agents, raised a $20 million seed round led by Alstin Capital, with VentureFriends, Seaya, Kibo Ventures, Banc Sabadell, EA Ventures Plug and Play Fund, and Finaves also taking part. Tech.eu has more here.

Warren, a two-year-old Belgian startup that operates employer-sponsored pension funds and analyzes compensation, pension, and banking data to guide employees’ retirement saving and financial planning decisions, raised an $11.5 million seed round led by Motive Ventures, with F Capital as well as previous investors Entourage, Syndicate One, and 100IN also opting in. EU-Startups has more here.

BoolSi, a three-year-old Boston startup that compiles segments of software code into custom digital circuits and coprocessors for FPGAs, helping developers accelerate compute-intensive workloads without hardware design expertise, raised a $6 million seed round led by Fine Structure Ventures, with Pillar VC, Fifth Quarter Ventures, and Coalition Ventures also participating. More here.

Cargofy, a nine-year-old startup based in Ukraine and Cedar Rapids, IA, that deploys AI agents that automate freight operations workflows for logistics companies by handling carrier communications, documents, dispatch, and back-office coordination, raised a $6 million Series A round co-led by u.ventures, Toloka, and Movens Capital. EU-Startups has more here.

Klipy, a San Francisco startup founded late last year that provides an API that lets developers integrate GIFs, memes, stickers, and short video clips into apps and manage, search, and monetize that content, raised a $3.8 million round. Investors included Google's AI Futures Fund, I2BF, Silvercircle VC, Sturgeon Capital, Red Swan Ventures, and Intuition Ventures. More here.

Soource, a two-year-old Italian startup that automates supplier discovery, qualification, comparison, outreach, and data enrichment using a verified supplier database to improve enterprise procurement workflows, raised a $3.4 million seed round led by Vertis, with Tenity and Club degli Investitori as well as previous investor 360 Capital also engaging. The company has raised a total of $5.7 million. More here.

Turbo Law, a one-year-old startup based in San Mateo, CA, that analyzes legal records and case files to build and maintain structured views of litigation matters for defense law firms and insurers, raised a $3.8 million seed round led by Revo Capital and including previous investors Treeo VC, BridgeX Ventures, Alchemist Accelerator, and Gokul Rajaram. Tech.eu has more here.

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Accenture is spending $4.18 billion on three industrial cybersecurity startups, taking a majority stake in Dragos and acquiring runZero and NetRise outright as it expands its $10 billion cybersecurity business into tools that protect factories, power grids, and other connected infrastructure. Reuters has more here.

Elastic, the enterprise software company behind Elasticsearch and observability tools that help companies search, analyze, and monitor large amounts of data, has agreed to acquire DeductiveAI, a three-year-old startup that uses AI to detect and resolve software bugs, for up to $85 million, according to TechCrunch. DeductiveAI raised a $7.5 million seed round last year at a $33 million valuation from investors including CRV, Databricks Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, and PrimeSet. TechCrunch has more here.

Kardigan, a three-year-old South San Francisco biotech developing precision medicines for cardiovascular diseases, raised $400 million in an upsized IPO and saw its shares rise as much as 31% in its Nasdaq debut. Reuters has more here.

SpaceX shares fell another 3.6% to just under $185, leaving the average post-IPO buyer roughly back at breakeven after a two-day, 20% slide erased much of the stock’s surge from its $135 IPO price to a $225 intraday high. CNBC has more here.

According to a new book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, President Trump openly mocked Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos for sending Trump fawning texts following his 2024 win, with Elon Musk calling the text “first-class groveling.” Wired has more here.

Wired says internal records from Dialog – a secretive invite-only group co-founded by Peter Thiel – were left exposed online, revealing members and attendees from U.S. politics, finance, tech, national security, and academia along with private details they were told would not be shared and a 2026 retreat agenda spanning AI, nuclear power, battlefield technologies, sex, cult-building, and World War III. Also exposed: details from a matchmaking app the group hosted. More here.

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng reportedly made a no-poaching pledge a condition of investing in the Chinese AI lab’s $7.4 billion first outside funding round, underscoring how fiercely China’s tech giants are competing for AI talent. CNBC has more here.

Oh, snap! Yann LeCun called Elon Musk’s xAI “kind of a failure,” arguing that the company will struggle to hire top AI talent after the exit of its founding team and that leasing its data centers to rivals like Anthropic looks more like a way to recoup infrastructure costs than a sign of frontier-model strength. Business Insider has more here.

Intel shares rose as much as 10% after President Trump said Apple had agreed to work with the chipmaker to design and build chips in the U.S., extending a 522% rally over the past 12 months as Intel’s foundry ambitions have gained backing from Nvidia, Apple, and Elon Musk’s planned Terafab project. CNBC has more here.

Kalshi is courting Wall Street firms that want to use prediction markets as a hedging tool, with Susquehanna, Jump Trading, Greenlight Commodities, and FalconX exploring institutional trades tied to political, commodity, and other business-specific risks. The New York Times has more here.

Nation-state hackers are increasingly routing their attacks through ordinary home devices so their traffic appears to come from U.S. households rather than foreign governments or criminal infrastructure. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Snap is spinning off its internal generative AI video team into Dotmo, a new company focused on AI models for interactive gaming experiences, citing high development costs. As part of the proposed deal, Snap would retain a large equity stake and license the startup its technology. TechCrunch has more here.

New York celebrated the Knicks’ first NBA championship parade on Thursday, flooding Lower Manhattan in orange and blue after a 53-year title drought, with fans climbing scaffolding, sanitation trucks, and traffic lights to watch Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Spike Lee, Ben Stiller, and others roll through the Canyon of Heroes.

Scientists have an image problem.

Sir Ernest Shackleton’s journal entries from the week he stayed home with his sick kids.

And here’s the Norwegian parliament doing the same.

A four-acre Tuscan-style compound in lower Bel Air has listed for $65 million, offering about 15,000 square feet across a main house and guesthouse, city-to-ocean views, a private Sangiovese vineyard, a wine cellar, a 1920s-style disco, an infinity-edge pool, and parking for 25 cars.

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