☕ Google launches its AI vibe-coding app, Musk’s xAI nears $20 billion capital raise & Anthropic plans to open India office.
OpenAI now has an app store for ChatGPT & More.
📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: Elad Gil on spotting billion-dollar markets, early-stage financial models, Marc Andreessen on productivity, Nikita Bier on validation.
Google launches its AI vibe-coding app Opal in 15 more countries.
Wall Street analysts explain how AMD’s own stock will pay for OpenAI’s billions in chip purchases.
Anthropic plans to open India office, eyes tie-up with billionaire.
OpenAI now has an app store for ChatGPT.
Musk’s xAI nears $20 billion capital raise tied to Nvidia chips.
Trump’s DOE proposes cutting billions in grants for GM, Ford, and startups.
xAI hires former Morgan Stanley banker Anthony Armstrong as CFO.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
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DAILY PICKS
🗞️ What else is brewing
Elad Gil’s framework for spotting billion-dollar markets before they look big. (Link)
Do early-stage startups need a financial model for fundraising? (Link)
Marc Andreessen’s guide on productivity. (Link)
Validating without launching by Nikita Bier. (Link)
Must-read resource you need to learn about venture capital. (Link)
Jeff Bezos’ decision-making framework every founder should know (from 2015 shareholder letter). (Link)
The number one fundraising mistake founders make. (Link)
Amanda Zhu on how she got to $2M in founder-led sales. (Link)
Allen Yang on tips learned about running a product waitlist (Link)
The AI application spending report: where startup dollars really go. (Link)
When you’re really ready to launch: a founder’s framework. (Link)
What investors ask and how to answer: A practical Q&A prep kit for founders. (Link)
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
RunBuggy, a Phoenix, AR-based company developing a platform focused on automotive transportation and logistics, raised $37M in Series B funding. The round was led by Centana Growth Partners, with participation from The Presidio Group.
Eradivir, a West Lafayette, IN-based clinical-stage biotechnology company, raised $10M in private funding. Backers were not disclosed.
Energy Robotics, a Darmstadt, Germany-based company providing an AI software platform for autonomous inspection with robots and drones, raised $13.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Blue Bear Capital and Climate Investment (CI), with participation from Futury Capital, Hessen Capital, Kensho VC, and TADTech.
Kadence, a San Francisco, CA-based workplace operations platform provider, raised $20M in Series A funding. The round was led by High Alpha, with participation from Kickstart and Midwich Ignite, alongside support from Okta co-founder Frederic Kerrest, Slack co-founder Cal Henderson and Pluralsight founder Aaron Skonnard, who recently joined Kadence’s board.
Attuned Intelligence, an Orlando, FL-based healthcare AI company, raised $13M in Seed funding. The round was led by Radical Ventures and Threshold Ventures.
HyperSpectral, an Alexandria, VA-based AI-powered spectral intelligence company, raised $7M in Series A funding. The round was led by RRE Ventures and Kibo Ventures, with participation from existing investors.
Peer AI, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an agentic AI platform for life sciences regulatory documentation, raised $12.1M in funding. The round was led by Flare Capital Partners and SignalFire. Other investors included Greycroft, Atria, Alumni Ventures, Gaingels, and Mana Ventures, along with angel investors.
Tycho AI, a Cambridge, MA-based aerial vehicle technology (UAV) company building resilient navigation and AI systems for unmanned vehicles, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by FirstMark with participation from seed round investor Pillar VC.
Oath Surgical, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI platform that embeds automation across the entire surgical journey raised $24M Series A funding. The round was led by FPV Ventures with participation from McKesson Ventures and existing investors OSE, Black Opal Ventures, Tau Ventures, and Rogue VC.
Hipp Health, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI-native platform that streamlines administrative work, clinical documentation, and compliance for behavioral health practices, raised $6.2M in Seed funding. The round was led by RTP Global with participation from Swift Ventures, Rackhouse Venture Capital, and Difference Partners.
Ewake, a Paris, France-based AI teammate for software reliability provider, raised €2M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Connect Ventures, with participation from 2100 Ventures, Notion Capital, Insiders, 50partners, alongside angel investors including Amirhossein Malekzadeh.
Datamonk, an Amsterdam, the Netherlands-based provider of an agentic AI-powered platform automating medical imaging data migrations, raised $1.9M in Pre Seed funding. The round was led by Healthy.Capital and Nina Capital, with participation from angel investors including Jeroen Tas, former Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer at Philips, and Harm-Jan Wessels.
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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
Sugar Free Capital, a NYC-based venture capital firm, has launched with its $32m inaugural fund. Rhe fund raised within just six months with commitments from institutional investors, and the family offices of technical luminaries, including executives from Nvidia, Citadel, Jane Street, Renaissance Technologies, Crusoe and The Boston Consulting Group.
Jonathan Crystal, a longtime insurance operator turned solo GP, announced the close of NYC-based Crystal Venture Partners Fund I, at $33m. Crystal Venture Partners’ LP base includes senior executives from global insurers, GPs from top venture and growth funds, and family offices with domain expertise, many of whom had worked with Jonathan previously.
TCG Crossover, a Palo Alto, CA-, and San Francisco, CA- and NYC-based healthcare investment firm, closed its third fund, TCGX Fund III, with $1.3 Billion in capital commitments. Fund III received support from both current investors and new institutional investors, foundations, pensions, and endowments. With this close, TCGX has now raised more than $3.1 Billion in total capital since its founding in 2021.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
Google launches its AI vibe-coding app Opal in 15 more countries
Google expanded Opal, its AI-powered app builder that turns text prompts into mini web apps, to 15 new countries including India, Japan, Brazil, and Singapore.
Opal now features faster performance, step-by-step debugging in its visual editor, and support for running workflow steps in parallel for more complex builds.
Initially launched in the U.S. in July, Opal competes with tools like Canva, Figma, and Replit, empowering nontechnical users to create, customize, and share apps without coding.
Wall Street analysts explain how AMD’s own stock will pay for OpenAI’s billions in chip purchases
OpenAI’s expanded partnership with AMD includes buying 6 gigawatts of compute capacity, paid for using AMD stock warrants — up to 160 million shares that vest as AMD’s stock hits milestones, potentially reaching $600 per share.
Analysts say the deal effectively lets AMD finance OpenAI’s purchases, since OpenAI could sell shares over time to cover GPU costs — a move UBS estimates could make OpenAI’s stake worth around $100 billion.
Despite being a financial gamble, analysts view the deal as a strategic win for AMD, validating its Instinct GPUs for AI workloads and helping it capture up to 30% market share in next-gen data center builds.
Anthropic plans to open India office, eyes tie-up with billionaire:
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is in India to establish a new Bengaluru office and explore a partnership with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries to expand access to its Claude AI assistant.
The company is also engaging with Indian government officials, including Prime Minister Modi, while hosting developer-focused sessions with Accel and Lightspeed in Bengaluru.
India is Anthropic’s second-largest market after the U.S., with 48% year-over-year growth in Claude app downloads and a 572% rise in consumer spending, signaling strong local adoption.
OpenAI now has an app store for ChatGPT
OpenAI is launching interactive applications from companies like Figma and Spotify directly inside ChatGPT’s conversations, letting users call them by name or have them appear automatically when needed.
Developers can build these new experiences using a preview of the Apps SDK and the Model Context Protocol, which allows for fully interactive UIs, actions, and even video playback.
People can log into their existing product accounts within the chat interface, while OpenAI plans to support future monetization for creators through its recently launched Instant Checkout feature.
Musk’s xAI nears $20 billion capital raise tied to Nvidia chips
Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI is raising up to $20 billion in new financing — including about $2 billion in equity from Nvidia — to fund its next-generation data center, Colossus 2.
The round combines $7.5 billion in equity and up to $12.5 billion in debt, structured through a special purpose vehicle to purchase Nvidia GPUs.
Nvidia declined to comment, while xAI hasn’t responded; the raise marks a major scale-up from earlier reports of a $10 billion target at a $200 billion valuation.
Trump’s DOE proposes cutting billions in grants for GM, Ford, and startups
The Trump administration plans to cancel over $500 million in Department of Energy grants, affecting major automakers like GM, Ford, and Stellantis, as well as more than a dozen clean-tech startups.
Cuts target projects funded under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including a $189M grant to Brimstone for low-carbon cement and $100M+ to Anovion for synthetic graphite production.
Startups in battery recycling, insulation, and industrial materials — including Li Industries, Sublime Systems, and Skyven Technologies — are also at risk, potentially disrupting key U.S. clean-energy and manufacturing initiatives.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other news
xAI hires former Morgan Stanley banker Anthony Armstrong as CFO
Elon Musk’s xAI appointed former Morgan Stanley banker Anthony Armstrong as its new CFO; he previously advised Musk during the Twitter acquisition.
Armstrong will oversee finances for both xAI and X, which merged in April, succeeding outgoing CFO Mahmoud Reza Banki.
His appointment follows several high-profile departures at xAI and X, including general counsel Robert Keele, co-founder Igor Babuschkin, and former X CEO Linda Yaccarino.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
💼 Today’s VC & startup job opportunities
All-In-One VC Interview Preparation Guide: With a leading investors group, we have created an all-in-one VC interview preparation guide for aspiring VCs. Don’t miss this. (Access Here)
ESG Intern - ESG Enterprise | UK - Apply Here
Senior Associate, Vertical AI - Primary | USA - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - Capital Oven | India - Apply Here
Capital Formation Associate - B Capital Group | USA - Apply Here
Trade Operations Lead - Manhattan Venture Partner | USA - Apply Here
VP of Fundraising - Scale Asia Venture | Japan - Apply Here
Research Analyst - Positive Sum | USA - Apply Here
Fund Operations Associate - TNB Aura | Singapore - Apply Here
Analyst - Nightdragon | USA - Apply Here
Valuation & Investment Data Analyst - Techstar | USA - Apply Here
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