Top News

In a rare 99-1 vote, the Senate stripped a proposed federal ban on state-level AI regulation from the Trump-backed budget bill, marking a major loss for tech execs like Sam Altman and Marc Andreessen and signaling growing bipartisan resistance to industry-led efforts to block local oversight. TechCrunch has more here. 

Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI has raised $5 billion in equity and $5 billion in debt in order to scale its infrastructure and Grok chatbot. CNBC has more here. 

Anthropic has reportedly quadrupled its ARR to $4 billion since the beginning of the year, but it just lost key researchers Boris Cherny and Cat Wu to Cursor. The Information has the scoop here.  

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Cloudflare Launches a Marketplace That Lets Websites Charge AI Bots for Scraping

By Maxwell Zeff

Cloudflare, a cloud infrastructure provider that serves 20% of the web, announced Tuesday the launch of a new marketplace that reimagines the relationship between website owners and AI companies — ideally giving publishers greater control over their content.

For the last year, Cloudflare has launched tools for publishers to address the rampant rise of AI crawlers, including a one-click solution to block all AI bots, as well as a dashboard to view how AI crawlers are visiting their site. In a 2024 interview, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince told TechCrunch these products were laying a foundation for a new type of marketplace in which publishers could distribute their content to AI companies and be compensated for it.

Now, Cloudflare is bringing that marketplace to life.

It’s called Pay per Crawl, and Cloudflare is launching the “experiment” in private beta on Tuesday. Website owners in the experiment can choose to let AI crawlers, on an individual basis, scrape their site at a set rate — a micropayment for every single “crawl.” Alternatively, website owners can choose to let AI crawlers scrape their site for free, or block them altogether. Cloudflare claims its tools will let website owners see whether crawlers are scraping their site for AI training data, to appear in AI search responses, or for other purposes.

At scale, Cloudflare’s marketplace is a big idea that could offer publishers a potential business model for the AI era — and it also places Cloudflare at the center of it all. The launch of the marketplace comes at a time when news publishers are facing existential questions about how to reach readers, as Google Search traffic fades away and AI chatbots rise in popularity.

There’s not a clear answer for how news publishers will survive in the AI era. Some, such as The New York Times, have filed lawsuits against tech companies for training their AI models on news articles without permission. Meanwhile, other publishers have struck multi-year deals to license their content for AI model training and to have their content appear in AI chatbot responses.

More here. 

Massive Fundings

Genesis AI, a Paris and Palo Alto startup founded in December that is building a universal AI model to allow different kinds of robots to perform a wide range of real-world tasks, raised a $105 million seed round co-led by Eclipse and Khosla Ventures, with additional participation from Bpifrance, HSG, and Eric Schmidt. TechCrunch has more here.

Surge AI, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that provides data labeling for AI training, is reportedly raising a $1 billion first-time funding round at a $15+ billion valuation, according to Reuters. PYMNTS has more here. 

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Ambrook, a five-year-old New York startup that provides bookkeeping, invoicing, and payment tools for farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural businesses, raised a $26.1 million Series A round co-led by Thrive Capital and Field Ventures, with BoxGroup, Designer Fund, Mischief, and Not Boring as well as previous investor Homebrew also contributing. Fortune has more here.

Circulate Health, a one-year-old Seattle startup that offers clinics a blood-filtering treatment that removes toxins to support longevity and wellness customers looking for advanced health maintenance, raised a $12 million seed round led by Khosla Ventures, with Seaside Ventures and CSC Ventures also stepping up. GeekWire has more here.

Deeto, a three-year-old New York startup that uses AI to collect real customer quotes and automatically deliver them at key moments in the B2B buying process to help companies build trust and close deals faster, raised a $12.5 million Series A round. Jump Capital was the deal lead, with UpWest, TAL Ventures, Mertor, and TAU Ventures also weighing in. The company has raised a total of $17 million. More here.

Emerald AI, a one-year-old startup based in Washington, DC, that sells software to data centers that helps them adjust computing workloads based on grid conditions in order to save energy and reduce costs during periods of high electricity demand, raised a $24.5 million seed round led by Radical Ventures and including NVentures, AMPLO, CRV, and Neotribe. More here.

Gallant, an eight-year-old San Diego startup that develops off‑the‑shelf stem‑cell injectables for veterinarians to treat chronic conditions in dogs and cats, raised an $18 million Series B round led by Digitalis Ventures, with NovaQuest Capital Management as well as prior backers Bold Capital and Hill Creek Partners also investing. More here.

Portal Biotech, a four-year-old London startup that is developing a portable device that reads entire protein molecules one by one to detect pathogens on the spot for fields like disease monitoring and environmental testing, raised a $35 million Series A round co-led by the NATO Innovation Fund and Earlybird Venture Capital, with We Venture Capital, British Business Bank, and WS Investment Company as well as previous investors SCVC, Pillar VC, 8VC, Amino Collective, and Outsized also participating. More here.

Syntis Bio, a three-year-old Boston startup that has developed a pill that temporarily coats the small intestine to curb appetite and help treatobesity and rare metabolic diseases, raised a $33 million Series A round led by Cerberus Ventures, with Mansueto Investments, Woori Venture Partners, and Apollo Labs as well as previous investors BOLD Capital Partners, W. R. Berkley Corporation, Safar Partners, Portal Innovations, Colorcon Ventures, and Cerity Partners Ventures also piling on. More here.

Smaller Fundings

Aircon, a four-year-old Dallas startup that builds AI-powered software that helps air cargo freight forwarders quickly generate accurate shipping quotes, raised a $5 million seed round. Blumberg Capital and Las Olas VC co-led the financing. The company has raised a total of $8 million. More here.

Civ Robotics, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that makes autonomous surveying robots and machines that deploy construction materials, raised a $7.5 million Series A round led by AlleyCorp, with Bobcat Company and ff Venture Capital also investing. The company has raised a total of $12.5 million. Engineering News-Record has more here. 

Datagram, a one-year-old crypto startup that runs a blockchain-powered network that lets companies tap unused computing, storage, and bandwidth across devices to power real-time apps like gaming, AI, and telecom, raised a $4 million pre-seed round led by Blizzard the Avalanche Fund, with Animoca Brands, Cointelegraph, Amber Group, Aquanow, Arche Fund, DePIN X Capital, ISKRA, JDI Ventures, and Yellow Capital also opting in. The Defiant has more here.

Kerys Software, a one-year-old French startup that is building secure virtualization tools to enable companies to run multiple work environments on fewer physical machines, raised a $7.3 million pre-seed round. Investors included Daphni, Seedcamp, and Backtrace. Tech.eu has more here.

TopK, a one-year-old Prague startup that is developing a cloud-native search engine so that developers and AI systems can query both structured and unstructured data from one platform, raised a $5.5 million seed round. Earlybird, KAYA, and Irregular Expressions invested in the deal. Silicon Canals has more here.

Woodchuck, a one-year-old startup based in Grand Rapids, MI, that uses AI-powered systems to identify, sort, and convert wood waste from construction and manufacturing sites into renewable biomass fuel, raised a $3.8 million seed round led by Mason Fink, with NorthStar Clean Energy, Alloy Partners, and Beckett Industries also engaging. More here.

Zango, a one-year-old London startup that automates compliance for banks by using AI agents trained on regulations to monitor updates, flag gaps, and prep for audits without manual review, raised a $4.8 million round. Nexus Venture Partners was the deal lead, with South Park Commons, Notion Capital, No Label Ventures, and Start Ventures also anteing up. Silicon Canals has more here.

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New Funds

Catalio Capital Management, a five-year-old New York firm that invests in healthcare and biotech, has closed its fourth fund with a $400+ million raise. TechCrunch has more here. 

Exits

Grammarly, a 15-year-old San Francisco company that makes AI writing tools, has acquired Superhuman, a 9-year-old San Francisco startup that has built a fast, AI-powered email client used by professionals. Terms were not disclosed. TechCrunch has more here. 

Going Public

Figma, whose $20 billion acquisition offer from Adobe was thwarted by regulators in 2023, has officially filed to go public on the NYSE, promising to “take big swings” on acquisitions and giving venture backers like Index, Greylock, Kleiner Perkins, and Sequoia hope for long-awaited liquidity. TechCrunch has more here. 

People

Sam Altman told OpenAI staff that "[m]issionaries will beat mercenaries," in a leaked memo slamming Meta’s AI talent raid, brushing off the defections as second-tier, and arguing that Meta’s approach will create deep cultural problems. Wired has more here. 

Peter Thiel, Palmer Luckey, and Joe Lonsdale are backing Erebor, a new national bank aiming to fill the post-Silicon Valley Bank vacuum for crypto-friendly, defense-adjacent, and AI-focused startups. It plans to offer stablecoin services and operate entirely online out of Columbus, OH. The Financial Times has more here.

After Elon Musk resumed his attacks against President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill," Trump said today that "we'll have to take a look" into deporting Musk. The Verge has more here. 

Data

Google’s data center electricity use more than doubled between 2020 and 2024; it is now consuming 30.8 million megawatt-hours of electricity, or, by our reckoning, enough electricity to power all of the homes in Chicago and Los Angeles for a year. TechCrunch has more here. 

Essential Reads

And you thought $100 million pay packages was a lot. Meta is reportedly luring top AI talent with eye-popping pay packages of up to $300 million(!) over four years alongside unlimited compute access. Wired has the scoop here.

Detours

Great pools from around the world. 

Engineering the perfect brownie. 

China's first humanoid robot soccer league is not exactly riveting TV.

Retail Therapy

Now you can take the famed Orient Express on a tour of Italy's best golf courses. È una goduria.

An AI-powered tennis buddy.