Top News

Apple is weighing a major AI pivot by potentially replacing its in-house Siri models with tech from Anthropic or OpenAI, signaling that its internal efforts have fallen behind and that it's finally willing to look outside to stay in the race. Bloomberg has more here. 

Meta is formalizing its AI strategy by consolidating all teams under a new Superintelligence Labs group, tapping Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang to lead the charge and stacking its bench with hires from DeepMind, Anthropic, OpenAI, and other rivals. TechCrunch has more here.

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Tesla Sends Driverless Model Y from Factory to Customer to Promote Its Robotaxi Tech

By Sean O'Kane

Just a few days after launching a limited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, Tesla pulled off an additional stunt meant to show off the progress of its self-driving car software. The company let a Model Y SUV drive roughly 15 miles from Tesla’s factory to the apartment complex where the car’s new owner lives, completing what CEO Elon Musk called the first “autonomous delivery” of a customer car.

The vehicle was supposedly equipped with the same software Tesla’s robotaxi Model Ys are using in Austin, but upon delivery was downgraded to the commercially available Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software that requires drivers to pay attention and be ready to take over at any moment. No one was on board and Musk claimed no remote assistance was given to the car.

The stunt came at an auspicious time for Tesla, which is set to release second-quarter delivery figures this week and financial results for the period later this month. Those numbers are expected to be grim for Tesla, which saw sales fall in 2024 — before Musk took a chainsaw to the company’s public image by getting involved with the Trump administration. Sure enough, Tesla’s stock price shot up late Friday after Musk first posted about the drive (although it has since fallen after a rough day of trading Monday).

I used to live in the city and have driven through this area of South Austin a lot; the path the Model Y took was complex, even on a bright, sunny day in the middle of the afternoon. In the 30-minute video of the trip (Tesla also posted a sped-up version that lasts around 3.5 minutes), the car merges on and off of a highway, turns right on red, navigates a small roundabout, and makes an unprotected left turn.

These were challenging scenarios for autonomous vehicles that were in development just a few years ago, so it’s striking to see a car navigate them all in one go in real day-to-day traffic.

More here. 

Massive Fundings

Cato Networks, a 10-year-old Tel Aviv company whose cloud platform is designed to replace traditional corporate VPNs and firewalls for offices and remote workers, raised a $359 million Series G round at a $4.8+ billion post-money valuation. The deal was co-led by Vitruvian Partners and ION Crossover Partners, with additional participation from previous investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Acrew Capital, and Adams Street Partners. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an eight-year-old startup based in Cambridge, MA, that is developing compact fusion reactors, raised an undisclosed amount from Google believed to be in the neighborhood of the company's previous $1.8 billion Series B round. TechCrunch has more here.

Klar, a six-year-old Mexico City startup that offers app-based financial services to consumers and small businesses, raised a $170 million Series C round at an $800 million post-money valuation. The deal was led by General Atlantic, with Santander Group, GrupoTelevisa, and Grupo Formula as well as previous investors Prosus, IFC, Mouro Capital, and Quona Capital also participating. The company also raised $20 million in debt. Bloomberg has more here. 

Levelpath, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that makes AI-powered procurement software for enterprises looking to replace outdated systems, raised a $55 million Series B round led by Battery Ventures, with previous investors Benchmark and Redpoint also digging in. TechCrunch has more here. 

Tandem Health, a one-year-old Stockholm startup that uses AI to automate clinical documentation and reduce administrative workload for European doctors, raised a $50 million Series A round led by Kinnevik, with Northzone, Amino Collective, and Visionaries Club also participating. SiliconANGLE has more here. 

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

AppsForBharat, the five-year-old, Bengaluru-based startup behind the Hindu devotional app Sri Mandir, has raised $20 million in a new round just nine months after securing $18 million. Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital led the Series C with participation from existing investors, including Indian billionaire and tech veteran Nandan Nilekani’s Fundamentum Partnership, Elevation Capital, and Peak XV Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Campfire, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to automate accounting and ERP tasks for tech companies, raised a $35 million Series A round led by Accel, with Foundation Capital, Y Combinator, and Capital 49 also engaging. TechCrunch has more here. 

Cred, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that helps businesses forecast demand, sales, and inventory needs by analyzing their internal data and providing predictive insights, raised a $15 million seed round led by Defy.vc, with HOF Capital, Alumni Ventures, LDV Partners, Streamlined Ventures, SilverCircle, Octopus Ventures, BAM Ventures, and Gaingels also participating. More here.

Sceye, a 12-year-old company based in Moriarty, NM, that builds solar-powered airships that operate in the stratosphere to provide internet access, monitor the environment, and support communications for government and commercial customers, raised a $15 million first tranche of a planned Series C round. SoftBank provided the funding. More here.

Skynopy, a two-year-old Paris startup that sells access to ground stations that let satellite operators send and receive data from their satellites more efficiently, raised a $17.6 million seed round. Investors included Alven, Expansion, Omnes, and CNES as well as existing investor Heartcore Capital. The company has raised a total of $21.1 million. Payload has more here.

Tailor, a four-year-old startup based in San Francisco and Tokyo that makes modular ERP software designed to automate operations across industries using APIs and AI agents, raised a $22 million Series A round from ANRI, JIC Venture Growth Investments, New Enterprise Associates, Spiral Capital, and Y Combinator. TechCrunch has more here. 

Smaller Fundings

Bonx, a three-year-old Paris startup that provides AI-powered software that helps manufacturers track operations, manage resources, and make faster decisions across their factories, raised a $8.6 million seed round led by 9900 Capital, with Kima Ventures, Purple, OSS Ventures, and Dynamo Ventures also contributing. Silicon Canals has more here.

Cosma, a three-year-old startup based in Nice, France, that uses fleets of autonomous underwater drones and AI-driven mapping tools to create detailed, 3D maps of the ocean floor for marine researchers, environmental agencies, offshore construction firms, and regulators, raised a $2.9 million round. WIND and Ternel co-led the deal, with 50 Partners, Caisse d’Épargne Côte d’Azur, and IFREMER also pitching in. EU-Startups has more here.

Epigenica, a five-year-old Stockholm startup that develops lab tools that help pharmaceutical companies and researchers study how genes are turned on or off in cells, with the goal of improving drug discovery and diagnostics, raised a $2.2 million round. Voima Ventures led the investment, with Navigare Ventures and Leksell Social Ventures as well as previous investor Almi Invest also stepping up. Arctic Startup has more here.

LogicFlo AI, a one-year-old Boston startup that builds tools that let life sciences teams automate research tasks like data analysis, documentation, and experiment planning using custom AI assistants, raised a $2.7 million seed round led by Lightspeed. More here.

Tibo Energy, a three-year-old Dutch startup that offers software that helps large buildings and factories lower energy costs by forecasting demand and controlling when and how they use electricity, raised a $7.1 million seed round led by Kompas VC, with Hitachi Ventures and WEPA Ventures as well as previous investors SET Ventures and SpeedInvest also taking part. Silicon Canals has more here.

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New Funds

Kinetica, a one-year-old Tel Aviv VC firm that backs early-stage defense startups and dual-use tech companies, is reportedly in the market to raise a $150 million fund with support from former Israeli generals and U.S. defense officials as well as VC and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale. CTech has more here. 

Exits

Clio, a 16-year-old Canadian company that supplies practice management software to lawyers, is acquiring vLex, a 25-year-old company based in Miami and Barcelona that provides AI-driven legal search and document analysis, for $1 billion in cash and stock. TechCrunch has more here. 

Linqto, which pitched itself as a gateway for retail investors to buy into buzzy startups, is now facing federal investigations, fraud allegations, and a likely bankruptcy after revelations that customers may never have legally owned the shares they were sold. Oops. The Wall Street Journal has more here. 

People

Leo Radvinsky, the reclusive owner of OnlyFans, is quietly shopping the adult-content platform for as much as $8 billion after turning it into a massively profitable juggernaut with over 300 million users and $1.3 billion in dividends pocketed since 2019. The Wall Street Journal has more here. 

Michael Saylor's bitcoin-or-bust strategy at MicroStrategy has turned the company into a $108 billion crypto proxy worth nearly double its actual bitcoin holdings, drawing fire from legendary short-seller Jim Chanos. The Washington Post has more here. 

Navin Chaddha, managing director of the 55-year-old Silicon Valley venture firm Mayfield, is betting big on AI’s ability to transform people-heavy industries like consulting, law, and accounting. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he also thinks some rival investors are less savvy when it comes to AI deals. As Chaddha tells Connie, "I think 80% of the people are going to lose money. They don’t know what they’re doing."

Data

A record number of startups valued at $5 billion or more are dominating private markets in 2025, now representing just 13% of unicorns by count but more than 50% of total valuation and funding, with OpenAI and Scale AI alone pulling in 73% of this year’s haul. Crunchbase News has more here.

Essential Reads

Microsoft says its new diagnostic AI correctly identified diseases in 80% of cases compared to 20% for doctors while cutting costs by 20%. Wired has more here.

Tinder will now require new users in California to complete a facial recognition check during sign-up in an effort to weed out bots and duplicate accounts, expanding a verification feature already active in Colombia and Canada. TechCrunch has more here. 

China’s tech giants are back on the M&A trail and aggressively pursuing deals in AI, gaming, and international markets as the government shifts gears to build homegrown champions and cut dependence on U.S. tech. Bloomberg has more here. 

Amazon is now using over one million robots in its warehouses, nearly matching the number of human workers. The Wall Street Journal has more here. 

Detours

A new global study finds that people deemed "cool" are typically seen as extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open, and autonomous.

A new trailer for the sci-fi adventure flick Project Hail Mary just dropped; it's based on a book by the author of The Martian. Check it out here. 

Retail Therapy

A $79 million waterfront estate outside Seattle could set a new state sales record, with 14,200 square feet spread across three levels, six bedrooms, nine baths, a 10,000-bottle wine cellar, infinity pool, private dock, lakeside pavilion, detached gym, and glass walls that open to sweeping views of Lake Washington.