August 1st Newsletter

Author

Da Yu
August 01, 2025

We will be on summer break from next week until the week of August 25th. Thank you for your continued support. Hope everyone is enjoying the summer!

🍂 Now Accepting Intern Applications for Fall 2025!
Stepmark Partners is excited to welcome a new cohort of Fall Analysts beginning on September 8th. If you're passionate about the intersection of AI and deal-making, we invite you to apply. To learn more, please email [email protected].

As of close on July 31, 2025

With global trade dynamics in flux, the U.S. Q2 GDP surged 3% vs. a 2.3% forecast, driven by plunging imports and stronger consumer spending. The Fed kept interest rates unchanged for a fifth-straight time this Wednesday. Meanwhile, the U.S. and EU sealed a major agreement setting a 15 percent baseline tariff, with Europe committing to $750 billion in U.S. energy purchases and $600 billion in new investments. U.S. and China resume key trade talks in Stockholm to avert August tariff hike; discussions aim to prevent escalation. With the August tariff deadline looming, countries without U.S. agreements face at least a 15–20% tariff: Canada (35%), India (25%+), Mexico (30%), and China (30%), amplifying global trade tensions. Meta will allow coding job applicants to use AI assistants during interviews, aiming to reflect real developer workflows and embrace “vibecoding” as AI agents begin writing most company code. Figma shares jumped 250% in its IPO on Thursday, the closing price more than tripled its IPO price of $33, raising 1.2 billion. Firefly Aerospace set its IPO range at $35 to $39, aiming to raise $632 million amid a $1.1 billion backlog and growing space tech interest. 

Monthly AI Financing Report: Since January 2025, we have started sharing a monthly report of the top AI financing activity gathered from public and proprietary sources. See the latest release of the July update here.

Top 5 AI Highlights

[1] OpenAI has secured an $8.3B round at a $300B valuation, 5x oversubscribed and led by Dragoneer with support from Blackstone and TPG. OpenAI’s annualized revenue recently reached $13B. Meanwhile, rival Anthropic is pursuing a $5B raise led by Iconiq at a $170B valuation. Details from NYT and CNBC.

[2] Samsung signed a $16.5B semiconductor deal with Tesla to supply next-gen AI6 chips through 2033, confirming Texas fab dedication as Musk hints deal size could exceed announced value. Also for AI Chips, AI chip startup Groq, known for developing ultra-fast processors optimized for inference, is in talks to raise $600M at a $6B valuation, doubling in a year amid key infrastructure partnerships. Read more on CNBC and TechCrunch

[3] 🧠 Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, unveiled Meta’s vision for personal superintelligence, aiming to empower individuals with deeply personalized AI that enhances creativity, relationships, and daily life, positioning Meta as a people-first alternative to centralized AI automation. Read the full letter on Meta

[4] 🏛️ The U.S. DOGE Service is deploying an AI tool to eliminate 50% of federal regulations by Jan 2026, aiming to cut costs and bureaucracy, despite legal, technical, and staffing concerns. More from the Washington Post.

[5] 🤖 Unitree has unveiled the $5,900 R1, an AI-powered humanoid capable of cartwheels, handstands, and kickboxing, featuring 26 joints, vision recognition, and voice interaction. Read more on TechRadar and watch the R1 in action.

Founder’s Corner

AI-native companies are graduating to Series B faster

Source: X

What We Read This Week

  • CyberArk shares surged 13% on acquisition talks with Palo Alto Networks, which may offer over $20B—marking Palo Alto’s largest potential deal amid rising demand for AI-driven identity and cloud security. (CNBC) 

  • Fable Studio, backed by Amazon, launches AI platform, Showrunner, letting users create animated shows for $10 to $40 per month. Creators earn 40% revenue from remixes. First show “Exit Valley” mocks tech titans.

  • Microsoft launches Copilot Mode in Edge, offering AI-assisted browsing for tasks like research, shopping, and content drafting—marking a leap in “agentic” web use, though adoption and privacy concerns linger. (TC)

  • Mercedes-Benz will integrate Microsoft Teams and 365 Copilot into its 2026 CLA, enabling in-car video calls and productivity features—positioning vehicles as a third workspace while emphasizing safety and control. (PL)

  • Reid Hoffman sees AI as "amplification intelligence," not replacement—empowering people with superagency. He urges leaders to experiment now, using AI as a co-pilot to stay competitive and cognitively sharp. (NP)

  • JPMorgan and Coinbase partner to link bank and crypto accounts, bypassing aggregators. Customers can fund wallets with Chase cards, use rewards; direct links launch in 2025 amid data-access fee tensions. (BBG)

  • Mars will invest $2B in U.S. factories, expanding snacking, food, and pet-care lines—building on $6B already spent to boost domestic production and tap evolving consumer preferences like health-conscious snacking. (WSJ)

Q2 Earnings Highlights

  • Meta shares surged over 10% after beating expectations with Q2 revenue of $47.52B, up 22% YoY. Net income climbed 36% YoY to $18.34B, fueled by strong ad performance and AI-driven efficiency. The company raised its Q3 revenue outlook and boosted capital expenditure guidance, while daily active users grew to 3.48B.

  • Microsoft beat estimates with 18% revenue growth, driven by Azure’s $75B in sales, up 34% YoY. Shares jumped 8% after hours on Wednesday, lifting its market cap past $4T for a brief period.

  • Apple beat estimates with 10% revenue growth to $94B, driven by iPhone’s $44.6 billion sales, up 13% YoY. Shares gained 1.6% after hours on Thursday, keeping its valuation near $3T. Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, acknowledged that ”Apple is open to M&A that accelerates our roadmap.”

  • Amazon topped forecasts with 13% net sales growth to $167.7B, powered by AWS’s $30.9B haul, up 17.5% YoY. Shares slipped about 3% after hours, trimming earlier gains. AI-driven launches, from Alexa+ and DeepFleet robots to Kiro IDE and Bedrock AgentCore, support Jassy’s Q3 sales target of up to $179.5B.

AI Fundraising news (July 25 — July 31)

  • 4ag Robotics: Autonomous farming robots boosting agricultural efficiency, raised a $29.26M Series B

  • Aidoc: AI for real-time hospital clinical decisions, raised $150M

  • Ambience Healthcare: AI automates medical documentation and admin tasks, raised $243M

  • Anthropic: Large language model developer, close to raise $5B

  • Armada: Mobile AI data centers for remote environments, raised $131M

  • Atmosphere Data Centers: AI-optimized hyperscale data center infrastructure startup, raised a $2.17M Seed

  • BlinkOps: AI agents automate complex cybersecurity workflows, raised a $50M Series B

  • Buena: AI automates property management operations for landlords, raised $58M

  • Caspian: AI financial insights engine for capital markets, raised a $5.4M Seed

  • Composio: Developer tools to build and deploy AI agents, raised a $25M Series A

  • Dropzone AI: AI security analysts monitor threats autonomously, raised a $37M Series B

  • E2B: AI-native platform streamlines enterprise financial operations, raised a $21M Series A

  • E28: AI-driven automation for enterprise software processes, raised a $21M Series A

  • Fable: AI-generated security awareness training for employees, raised $31M

  • FluidCloud: Distributed computing infrastructure optimized for AI workloads, raised a $8.1M Seed

  • GrottoAI: AI compliance and risk management tooling, raised a $4.69M Seed

  • Hightouch: Data and AI agent platform for marketers, raised a $12M Series C

  • JotPsych: AI scribe automates behavioral health notes, raised a $5M Seed

  • Julius AI: Natural language data analytics interface for spreadsheets, raised a $10M Seed

  • Keye: AI computer vision tracks retail inventory shrinkage, raised a $5M Seed

  • LegalOn: AI reviews contracts and identifies legal risks, raised a $50M Series C

  • Legion: AI security operations center replaces manual triage, raised $38M

  • Lumana: Vision-language models enhance large-scale video surveillance, raised a $40M Series A

  • Makersite: AI platform for sustainable product design decisions, raised a €60M Series B

  • Novotech: Asia-Pacific clinical research organization leveraging AI, raised a $9M Series B

  • OpenAI: AI research and deployment company, raised $8.3B

  • PlayerZero: Detects bugs before AI agents deploy code, raised $15M

  • Positron AI: Appliance accelerates transformer inference at edge, raised a $51.6M Series A

  • Promptfoo: AI security and evaluation tooling for developers, raised a $18.4M Series A

  • Ramp: AI-powered platform automates corporate finance workflows, raised a $500M Series E-2

  • Retab: Document AI extracts data from financial records, raised a $3.5M Preseed

  • Rune Technologies: AI optimizes complex military logistics processes, raised a $24M Series A

  • Salient: AI automates post-loan mortgage processing tasks, raised a $60M Series A

  • Sparrow: AI consolidates leave management and compliance workflows, raised a $35M Series B

  • Spear AI: Defense-oriented AI data analysis for 3D assets, raised a $2.3M Seed

  • Teramount: Fiber-to-chip optical interconnects for AI hardware, raised a $50M Series A

  • Trunk Tools: AI organizes and summarizes construction documentation, raised a $40M Series B

  • Tzafon: Building foundational AI infrastructure for enterprises, raised a $9.7M Preseed

  • Xelix: AI automates accounts payable workflows and insights, raised a $160M Series B

  • Z.ai: Provider of open-source frontier AI models, raised $1.5B