TikTok signed binding agreements with Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX to form a U.S.-controlled version of the app, a step toward avoiding a federal ban while leaving Chinese ownership just under the legal threshold. The New York Times has more here.

Another day, another rumor about an impending OpenAI financing. Today, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the AI powerhouse is looking to raise up to $100 billion at up to an $830 billion valuation. More here.

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By Tim De Chant & Amanda Silberling

President Donald Trump’s social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), said on Thursday that it’s merging with TAE Technologies, a Southern California-based company that has been chasing the dream of fusion power for nearly 30 years.

The all-stock transaction, valued at more than $6 billion, would expand Trump Media’s presence into the nascent fusion power space while data centers clamor for more electricity amid the ongoing AI boom.

Fusion industry insiders expressed curiosity over the deal and voiced concerns about potential conflicts of interest with the U.S. Department of Energy. Last week, industry representatives met with Energy Department officials, urging them to help direct billions of dollars toward fusion projects, and earlier this year, the DOE announced a new roadmap to guide commercial efforts in the sector, though it didn’t commit any new funds alongside the announcement.

TMTG is the parent company of Truth Social, the microblogging platform that the president spun up after he was banned from platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook in the wake of the January 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol. At launch, the president called it “a rival to the liberal media consortium,” and said he wanted to “fight back against the Big Tech companies.”

TMTG went public last year via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), a technique used to go public by private companies that want to raise money quickly but aren’t yet mature enough to take the traditional IPO route. In the quarter ended September 30, 2025, TMTG reported that it recorded a loss of $54.8 million on revenue of $972,900.

Truth Social and the company’s streaming platform have failed to generate much revenue, but TMTG has nevertheless managed to amass $3.1 billion in assets, largely through its cryptocurrency investments and partnerships.

TMTG CEO Devin Nunes, formerly a Republican congressman, stated that the company’s acquisition of TAE would “cement America’s global energy dominance for generations.” The companies said they plan to site and begin construction on “the world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant (50 MWe)” next year, and have plans for more fusion plants that are expected to generate between 350 megawatts to 500 megawatts of electricity.

Addition Therapeutics, a four-year-old South San Francisco startup that is developing gene therapies using lipid nanoparticles and RNA-based enzymes to make treatments more durable and broadly applicable, raised a $100 million Series A round. Investors included SR One, with Pivotal Life Sciences, Abingworth, and the Gates Foundation. BioPharma Dive has more here.

Exein, a seven-year-old Rome startup that provides embedded runtime security software for internet-connected device firmware, raised a $117.2 million round led by Blue Cloud Ventures and including HV Capital, Intrepid Growth Partners, Geodesic Capital, and JP Morgan. SecurityWeek has more here.

Fuse Energy, a four-year-old London startup that builds renewable power assets, trades electricity, and sells energy directly to households and businesses, raised a $70 million round at a $5 billion valuation. The deal was co-led by Lowercarbon Capital and Balderton Capital, with Ribbit Capital, Lakestar, Latitude, QuantumLight Capital, Future Positive Capital, Creandum, Accel, Rosberg Ventures, and DSquared also participating. EU-Startups has more here.

Imprint, a six-year-old New York startup that provides co-branded credit card programs for consumer brands, raised a $150 million Series D round at a $1.2 billion valuation. Khosla Ventures was the deal lead, with Thrive Capital, Ribbit Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Hedosophia, Spice Capital, and Timeless also contributing. Tech Funding News has more here.

Lovable, a three-year-old Stockholm startup that lets users build software applications using text prompts, raised a $330 million Series B round at a $6.6 billion valuation. The deal was co-led by CapitalG and Menlo Ventures, with NVentures, Salesforce Ventures, Databricks Ventures, T.Capital, Atlassian Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, Khosla Ventures, DST Global, EQT Growth, and Kinship Ventures as well as previous investors Accel, Creandum, and Evantic also piling on. TechCrunch has more here.

Nirvana Insurance, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that uses real-time driving telematics and machine learning to price and manage commercial trucking insurance, raised a $100 million Series D round at a $1.5 billion valuation. The deal was led by Valor Equity Partners, with Lightspeed Venture Partners and General Catalyst also opting in. The company has raised a total of $260+ million. Crunchbase News has more here.

Salient, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that automates loan servicing with AI, raised a $60 million Seed A round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The company has raised a total of $70 million. Fortune has more here.

Syremis Therapeutics, an Israeli startup founded this year that is developing medicines for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, raised a $165 million Series A round co-led by Dexcel Pharma and Third Rock Ventures, with Bain Capital Life Sciences, GV, QVT, and Pictet also digging in. More here.

Armadin, a new cybersecurity startup founded by Mandiant creator Kevin Mandia that is using AI to automate offensive security testing, raised a $24 million seed round from Ballistic Ventures and is reportedly in talks with Accel, GV, and Kleiner Perkins to raise $100+ million at a $600+ million valuation. The Wall Street Journal has the scoop here.

Ben, a six-year-old London startup that provides AI software to help enterprises manage employee benefits, raised a $27.5 million round led by Mercia Ventures, with Atomico, Cherry Ventures, DN Capital, Seedcamp, and QuantumLight Capital also participating. More here.

Clarity Pediatrics, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that provides virtual pediatric chronic care, raised a $14.5 million Series A round led by Jackson Square Ventures, with City Light Capital, MassMutual Catalyst Fund II, GingerBread Capital, Scrub Capital, and Operator Collective as well as previous investors Rethink Impact, Maverick Ventures, and Homebrew also engaging. More here.

Endra, a one-year-old Stockholm startup that automates mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design for commercial buildings, raised a $20 million seed round led by Notion Capital, with Norrsken VC also participating. Fortune has more here.

Enlightra, a three-year-old startup based in Lausanne, Switzerland, that uses chip-scale lasers to replace copper cabling in data center GPU clusters, raised a $15 million round. Investors included Y Combinator, Runa Capital, Pegasus Tech Ventures, and Protocol Labs. Tech Funding News has more here.

Logpresso, a 13-year-old Seoul company that provides cloud-native security log monitoring and threat detection software, raised a $10.8 million Series B round. Investors included KB Investment. The company has raised a total of $15.6 million. More here.

Thread, a three-year-old New York startup that develops an AI service desk platform for managed service providers, raised an $18 million round led by Susquehanna Growth Equity, with Headline also investing. The company has raised a total of $30 million. More here.

Feanix, a two-year-old startup based in Asheville, NC, that uses genetic testing and software to guide livestock breeding decisions, raised a $5.3 million seed round led by Initialized Capital, with additional participation from Overwater Ventures, General Catalyst, and Collab Fund. More here.

Gambit Cyber, a two-year-old Dutch startup that provides threat exposure management software for identifying and prioritizing cyber risks, raised a $3.4 million seed round led by Expeditions, with Bitdefender Voyager Ventures also taking part. The SaaS News has more here.

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Cloudberry, a Helsinki and London VC firm founded this year that invests in early-stage semiconductors, photonics, and advanced materials, has completed a €30 million first close of its debut fund. ArcticStartup has more here.

Boatsetter and GetMyBoat agreed to merge, combining two peer-to-peer boat rental platforms into a single company that says it’s on track for more than $100 million in annual bookings. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

A New York investment manager allegedly ran a fake pre-IPO scheme selling shares in drone-maker Anduril that he didn't actually have, underscoring that in the age of billion-dollar private tech companies, even the scams have become ambitious. (He was arrested at JFK, which feels very on-brand for someone allegedly running a multimillion-dollar con.) Reuters has the story here.

Former Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun is reportedly in early talks to raise €500 million at a €3 billion valuation for a new AI startup focused on building systems that understand the physical world for uses like robotics and transport. The Financial Times has the scoop here.

Palo Alto is weighing new restrictions on billionaire housing compounds belonging to Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Laurene Powell Jobs, and Marissa Mayer. The New York Times has more here.

North Korea remained the dominant crypto threat actor in 2025, stealing over $2 billion despite fewer attacks, as embedded IT workers and increasingly brazen recruiter and investor impersonation schemes drove a record 76% share of all major crypto platform breaches worldwide. Chainalysis has more here.

Reuters is reporting that China has secretly built a prototype of an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, signaling Beijing may be years closer to making advanced AI chips than previously anticipated. More here.

The UK’s AI Security Institute warns that rapidly advancing AI is lowering barriers to dangerous lab work, accelerating cyber intrusion capabilities, and improving self-replication skills, raising national security risks as non-experts gain access to techniques once limited to specialists. Transformer has more here.

Former UK finance minister George Osborne has taken on a senior executive role at OpenAI while also stepping into an advisory position at Coinbase, underscoring how U.S. tech companies are increasingly tapping British political heavyweights to navigate AI and crypto regulation. TechCrunch has more here.

The Wall Street Journal let an Anthropic-powered AI agent run a newsroom vending machine for three weeks, and it promptly gave away inventory, bought bizarre items like a live fish, and burned through its budget. More here.

NBA star Kyrie Irving accidentally knocked out a humanoid robot during what was supposed to be a lighthearted demo at the Dallas Mavericks practice facility.

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