The Trump administration is proposing a $103,265 fee for most new H-1B visa applications, including applicants already in the U.S., after a federal appeals court struck down its earlier $100,000 levy; hospitals, research institutions, and other nonprofits would be exempt. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Ukrainian investigators say Russia is using Nvidia’s Jetson Orin minicomputers to power fully autonomous AI-guided drones that can identify and strike targets without human approval, even though Nvidia says the devices aren’t sold in Russia and were designed for civilian use. The New York Times has more here.

If you've been running local AI models on a Mac mini, Apple's reportedly about to give you a reason to upgrade: according to Bloomberg, a new version with the M5 or M6 chip could land within days, ahead of September's iPhone event.

Lerer Hippeau reduced quarterly reporting from 15 days to two 

How? Standard Metrics' MCP connected its structured investment data and company KPIs with the rest of its stack. Read More 

By Connie Loizos

Oura, the smart ring maker, with offices in San Francisco and Finland, is reportedly planning to raise up to $3 billion as soon as next month in a U.S. IPO that values the more than 900-person company at [spits out coffee] north of $16 billion, according to Bloomberg. The outlet adds that investors are expected to sell a major chunk of stock in the offering.

A $16 billion valuation would mark an enormous jump from the $10.9 billion valuation Oura was assigned last September, when it closed an $875 million Series E round backed by Fidelity, ICONIQ, Whale Rock, and Atreides, joining earlier backers like Dexcom, The Chernin Group, Forerunner Ventures, Coatue, and Temasek.

The wearables space has gotten crowded fast.

Samsung launched its own ring, the Galaxy Ring, two years ago. But Oura’s most direct rival may be the fitness band maker Whoop, which has undergone its own reinvention. Once a performance tool for elite athletes and young men, Whoop has spent the past year courting a much broader audience, layering in hormone tracking and blood-panel testing for perimenopause and thyroid health. The move drove its own valuation up to $10 billion back in March. Oura has followed a similar path, evolving from its starting niche of biohacking CEOs into a more mainstream sleep-and-recovery brand.

Oura announced in May that it had filed confidentially for an IPO.

Delix Therapeutics, a seven-year-old Boston startup that develops non-hallucinogenic psychiatric drugs designed to promote brain plasticity without psychedelic effects, raised an $85 million Series C round at a $190 million pre-money valuation. The deal was led by Johnson & Johnson. Highly Capitalized Network has more here.

Fasset, a seven-year-old Los Angeles startup that lets consumers and businesses hold, send, spend, and invest across currencies and assets using stablecoins for settlement, raised a $68 million round at a $1 billion post-money valuation. SBI Group was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $119 million this year. CoinDesk has more here.

General Intuition, a 10-month-old New York startup that is building foundation models to train generalized AI agents to move through space and time, is reportedly in talks to raise funding at a $6 billion pre-money valuation, with new investors Valor Equity Partners, Point72 Ventures, and 776 as well as previous investors Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst rumored to be participating. The company raised $320 million at a $2.3 billion valuation just two months ago. TechCrunch has more here.

Perplexity, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that operates an AI search engine and chatbot, is discussing a multibillion-dollar funding round with Nvidia at a $30+ billion valuation, according to The Information. PYMNTS has more here.

Xpeng’s robotics business, which is developing its IRON humanoid robot and physical AI models, raised a $900+ million round at a $6.3+ billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by IDG Capital, with Tencent, Alibaba, and Gaorong Ventures also participating. Reuters has more here.

Mantel Capture, a four-year-old startup based in Cambridge, MA, that develops carbon capture systems for power plants and heavy industrial facilities to reduce emissions from existing operations, raised an $18 million Series A round co-led by Constellation Technology Ventures and Azimut Investments. The company has raised a total of $50 million. More here.

Standard Metrics, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based portfolio management platform for venture capital and private equity, just announced $20 million in Series B funding led by 8VC, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, Spark Capital, January Capital, First Trust Capital Partners, Socii Capital, Kindergarten Ventures, Calm Ventures, Gaingels, and more. 8VC had also led the outfit's $23.7 million Series A round back in 2022. CEO John Melas-Kyriazi shares more here.

Quintessent, a seven-year-old startup based in Santa Barbara, CA, that develops comb lasers and optical components that help AI data centers connect AI clusters with lower-power, more reliable links, raised a $40 million Series A round led by Cycle Capital, with Goldman Sachs XIG-Industry Ventures, Hina Liberty Capital, Susquehanna International Group, InterVest, Safar Partners, Ciena, Foothill Ventures, M Ventures, Osage University Partners, and Sierra Ventures also digging in. More here.

Boldr, a four-year-old London startup that helps HVAC contractors connect heating and cooling systems to power-grid flexibility programs, raised a $5 million round led by Unconventional Ventures, with Ada Ventures, Tetard Ventures, Davidovs Venture Collective, Roxbury Asset Management, Inclimo Climate Tech Fund, Prosegur, Techstars, and S20 Fund also participating. Tech Funding News has more here.

Kazimi, a two-year-old Berlin startup that helps app developers verify first-party data and distinguish real users from bots by securing mobile communication signals, raised a $2.6 million pre-seed round led by Market One Capital, with IBB Ventures also buying in. EU-Startups has more here.

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Blackbird Ventures, Australia's biggest venture capital firm, has just closed a $1.05 billion (about US$753 million) sixth fund, with new international backers Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Schroders' Singapore private equity arm, and Adams Street Partners joining local super funds Hostplus, Aware Super, HESTA and the Future Fund as the 14-year-old firm looks to build a stronger U.S. presence to court global founders. Australia’s Financial Review has more here.

Hugging Face, a 10-year-old New York City AI platform that lets developers and researchers share, test, and deploy models and datasets, has reportedly been approached about an acquisition valuing the company at $13 billion or more, though no deal has been reached. TechCrunch has more here.

Infineon Technologies, a German semiconductor giant specializing in power systems and IoT chips, agreed to acquire C2i Semiconductors, a two-year-old Bangalore startup that develops software-defined power controllers and smart power stages for AI data centers. Terms were not disclosed. C2i raised a total of $19 million from Peak XV Partners, Yali Capital, and TDK Ventures. More here.

Minimus, a four-year-old Israeli cybersecurity startup founded by the team behind Twistlock, is shutting down less than three years after raising a $51 million seed round from YL Ventures and Mayfield after failing to gain enough commercial traction; remaining cash will be returned to investors. CTech has more here.

Fast fashion retailer Shein finally launched its long-awaited Hong Kong IPO, seeking to raise as much as $1.8 billion at a valuation of up to roughly $27 billion, down about 70% from its $98.2 billion peak in 2022. Bloomberg has more here.

The Wall Street Journal reports that President Trump personally pushed the Justice Department to settle its antitrust case against Live Nation after meeting with CEO Michael Rapino, helping the company avoid a forced Ticketmaster sale despite states later winning a monopoly verdict. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Sam Altman says he worries AI could end up controlled by a handful of companies, models, or individuals, warning that fears over AI safety could also push society to trade too much liberty for centralized control. Business Insider has more here.

Meta has hired prominent AI researcher Luke Metz for its Superintelligence Labs, where he will report directly to Alexandr Wang. Metz left OpenAI for Thinking Machines in 2024 and returned to OpenAI earlier this year, before this latest move. Proactive has more here.

Politico says data centers may be having an “oh s—t” moment, as even Republican leaders like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott are beginning to turn against new projects amid voter anger over rising power bills, water use, and generous tax breaks. More here.

This weekend, Chinese humanoid robots broke two major human sprint records at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, with Lightning running 100 meters in a sizzling 9.39 seconds and Tiangong Ultra beating the world record for the 400 meters by almost five seconds. The Telegraph has more here. [Note: not every robot managed to break a record …]

Business schools are rushing to train a new generation of chief AI officers even as companies are still figuring out what the job should entail and whether the title will last. Bloomberg has more here.

Would you give an AI the keys to your inbox, Slack, and calendar? OpenAI's engineers are betting you will. TechCrunch talked to the team behind ChatGPT Work, who admit Claude Code got the agent formula right first but who insist their models have closed the gap.

Wired bought three counterfeit Rolexes from Chinese “super clone” factories and found them so convincing that a roughly $500 fake Oyster Perpetual fooled staff at Rolex’s flagship London store.

There’s money in them thar tees.

LinkedIn cringe.

Slow Learner’s new $195 Dust Jacket is a Portuguese-made cotton work jacket designed for bibliophiles, with multiple pockets sized specifically to carry books and reading gear.

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