April 25th Newsletter

The dollar hit a three-year low on Monday as Trump attacked Fed Chair Powell for not lowering rates, causing markets to tumble. Just a day after, markets rebounded, after Treasury Secretary Bessent signaled a likely de-escalation of the U.S.-China trade war, and Trump retracted his threats against the Fed Chair, saying he had “no intention of firing [Powell].” Additionally, the IMF slashed its 2025 U.S. growth forecast from 2.7% to 1.8%, citing trade tensions, weakening consumer demand, and inflationary pressure from tariffs. On the M&A front, Capital One’s $35.3B merger with Discover was approved, creating a payments giant to rival Visa and Mastercard. In tech, Apple and Meta were fined a combined $800M by the EU for violating the Digital Markets Act, prompting U.S. officials to condemn it as economic extortion. In addition, Elon Musk will scale back his role at DOGE to focus on Tesla, as analysts cite political ties and leadership missteps for the 71% drop in profits and missed expectations. Lastly, Trump signed an executive order to boost AI in K-12 schools, directing agencies to fund AI courses, research, and apprenticeships, with plans to form a task force to promote classroom use. 

Fairness Opinion for Data Privacy Compliance Platform

Stepmark Partners provided a fairness opinion to a leading data privacy compliance platform in connection with the divestiture of a legacy product in January 2025. This transaction enabled the company to reinvest proceeds into its core strategy and positioned the legacy product to deliver greater value under new ownership.

The fairness opinion to the Board of Directors served as an independent perspective to establish the legacy product's value prior to its divestiture.

About Us

Stepmark Partners is the premier investment bank dedicated to the AI industry. We provide end-to-end financial services for our clients, including M&A advisory, capital raising, market intelligence, and fractional CFO support for early‑stage companies.

Top 5 AI Highlights

[1] 💼 OpenAI is in talks to acquire Windsurf for $3B, targeting the second-fastest-growing AI coding startup with $100M in ARR. The move reflects OpenAI’s push to strengthen its position in the competitive developer tools market as rivals like Google’s Gemini and Anthropic accelerate. The pivot to Windsurf came after OpenAI’s unsuccessful bid to acquire Anysphere, maker of the AI coding assistant Cursor, which turned down multiple offers in favor of independence and is now eyeing a $10B valuation with $300M ARR. More from TC. 

[2] 💰 Elon Musk’s xAI is planning to raise up to $25B to develop Colossus 2, a next-gen supercomputer designed to train massive AI models. The system could support up to 1 million NVIDIA GPUs and cost $35–$40B, setting a new benchmark in AI infrastructure. With current revenue near $1B and a projected valuation of $150–$200B, xAI is aiming to rival OpenAI. Colossus 2 will power advanced models like Grok, positioning xAI as a key force in the race for AI dominance. More from WccfTech.

[3] 🧭 On the AI Safety and AI employees front, Anthropic is advancing both AI alignment and virtual work. Its Societal Impacts team analyzed 300,000+ Claude interactions, showing the model reflects values such as honesty, safety, and support. The company also warns autonomous AI "employees" could emerge within a year, accessing internal systems, yet posing risks like rogue code deployments. At the same time, Anthropic launched a “model welfare” program to study whether AI models could warrant moral consideration, with a focus on signs of distress and ethical interventions. More from Anthropic,  Axios, and TC.

[4] 🚚 Rivian is ramping up its AI ambitions by adding Cohere CEO and AI pioneer Aidan Gomez to its board. Gomez, co-author of the landmark “Attention Is All You Need” paper and a former Google Brain researcher, now leads Cohere, a Canadian firm powering enterprise AI for clients like Oracle and Notion. His appointment comes as Rivian deepens its $5.8B AI-driven software venture with Volkswagen and advances its in-house AI assistant. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe says Gomez’s AI vision will be key to integrating cutting-edge intelligence across vehicles and operations. More from TC. 

[5] 🧠 On 60 minutes, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis revealed powerful new AI tools with wide-ranging impact. Astra, a multimodal assistant that can see and hear, marks a step toward embodied AI capable of understanding and interacting with the physical world. Genie 2 turns static images into interactive 3D environments, allowing AI agents to train through simulation. Veo 2 creates photorealistic videos from text. Hassabis predicts AGI within a decade—unlocking breakthroughs like disease cures—but cautions about the risks as AI approaches human-level intelligence. More from CBS and X.

Founder’s Corner

Good M&A market for small and medium startups to join forces

What We Read This Week

• Neuralink is seeking $500M at $8.5B valuation, as its brain-tech ambitions drive a sharp valuation surge. (YF)

• Huawei is launching an AI chip rivaling Nvidia’s H100 as U.S. bans squeeze China’s AI hardware supply. (Reuters)

• FTC is suing Uber over deceptive Uber One charges, citing unauthorized billing and obstructive cancellation practices. (CNBC)

• Walgreens is paying $300 million to settle U.S. claims that it illegally filled opioid prescriptions and sought reimbursements. (CNBC)

• Chipotle is entering Mexico in 2026, partnering with Alsea in its first Latin American expansion. (Bloomberg)

• Google is cutting remote roles and requiring office return 3 days/week to retain jobs amid an AI spending pivot. (CNBC)

AI M&A and Fundraising news (Apr 18 — Apr 24)

• 1Fort: Commercial insurance automation platform, raised a $7.5M Seed

• Adaptive Computer: No-code web app builder using AI, raised a $7M Seed

• Arcana Labs: AI-powered content production suite, raised a $5.5M Seed

• Ascertain: AI case management assistant for healthcare, raised a $10M Series A

• Bauplan: Data layer for AI systems, raised a $7.5M Seed

• Brandlight: AI visibility optimization for brands, raised a $5.75M Seed

• Brellium: AI to help clinics automate chart review, raised a $16M Series A

• Capably AI: Agentic business automation platform, raised a $4M Seed

• Cluely: AI desktop assistant to help users “cheat on everything,” raised a $5.3M Seed

• Deep Infra: AI inference cloud platform, raised a $18M Series A

• Endor Labs: Scans code for AI/dev vulnerabilities, raised a $93M Series B

• ExaForce: AI agents for enterprise SOC automation, raised a $75M Series A

• Goodfire: Decodes AI model logic at the neuron level, raised a $50M Series A

• Groundup.AI: IoT + AI sound sensors for industrial efficiency, raised $4.25M

• Instrumental: AI platform to help nonprofits find grants, raised $55M

• Kenzo Security: AI platform for cyber threat response, raised a $4.5M Seed

• Lace AI: Call analytics for home service businesses, raised a $14M Seed

• Listen Labs: AI for analyzing voice-based interviews, raised $27M

• Manychat: Automation for messaging app marketing, raised $140M

• Noxtua (prev. Xayn) : AI for legal research and document drafting, raised a $87M Series B

• Nuvia: AI sales productivity platform with automation agents, raised $10M

• OKAPI:Orbits: AI-powered space traffic management platform, raised a $14.32M Seed

• Ravenna: AI help desk for internal IT/Ops, raised $15M Pre-Seed

• Reco: Maps SaaS tool usage and risk behavior, raised $25M

• Scamnetic: Detects and prevents digital scams, raised a $13M Series A

• Spur: AI QA engineer for e-commerce and travel, raised a $4.5M Seed

• Terra Security: AI to stop ransomware and zero-day threats, raised a $8M Seed

• Theseus: Visual navigation system for drones, raised a $4.3M Seed

• Theo AI: AI-based legal prediction engine, raised $6.46M

• Windfall: AI-powered people intelligence for GTM insights, raised a $65M Series B

• Zeno: AI-native workspace for legal work, raised a $2.3M Seed