February 27th Newsletter

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Global tensions are rising fast: the Trump administration is pushing to lift global tariffs to 15% under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act after the Supreme Court voided $130bn in levies imposed via the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, while sovereign debt has surged to a record $348tn in 2025, fueled by defense and AI spending even as private borrowing cools. U.S. initial jobless claims rose 4,000 to 212,000; continuing claims fell to 1.833 million. February unemployment was steady at 4.3%. On Wednesday night, Nvidia posted a record $215.9bn in annual revenue (+65% YoY), with Q4 sales up 73% YoY. Salesforce CEO dismissed "SaaSpocalypse" fears, highlighting AI agents as enhancing rather than replacing SaaS platforms amid earnings beat. Elsewhere in tech, eBay will cut 800 jobs (6%) to “reinvent” operations, despite 2025 revenue rising 8% to $11.1B and GMV up 7% to $79.6B. On Thursday, Block announced that it will cut 4,000+ jobs, shrinking from 10,000 to under 6,000, as Jack Dorsey pivots to an “AI-native” model despite rising gross profit and improving profitability. Lastly, Netflix abandoned its $27.75/share bid for Warner Bros. Discovery after Paramount Skydance raised its all-cash offer to $31/share, including a $7B breakup fee; NFLX +10%, WBD -2%.

Top 5 AI Highlights

[1] 💰 OpenAI raised $110B at a $730B valuation, backed by Amazon ($50B), Nvidia ($30B), and SoftBank ($30B), expanding AWS ties and targeting $280B revenue by 2030. Separately, they deepened multi-year partnerships with major consulting firms (Accenture, BCG, Capgemini, McKinsey) to accelerate enterprise AI adoption beyond pilots, focusing on scalable deployments. The company also hired Ruoming Pang, former AI infrastructure lead at Meta (which he joined after a $200M Apple exit), marking continued high-level AI talent reshuffling across top labs. Details on CNBC, Reuters, and The Information.

[2] 🤖 Perplexity unveils “Computer,” a 19-model cloud agent workspace, as Samsung is embedding Perplexity directly into every new Samsung Galaxy S26 at the OS level—the first time Samsung has granted non-Google/non-Samsung deep system access—using Perplexity’s APIs to power complex, web-based queries across ~800M devices. More on Samsung and Forbes.

[3] 📈 Cerebras Systems confidentially refiled for a U.S. IPO after raising $1B at a $23B valuation and securing a $10B, 750MW compute deal with OpenAI through 2028. Simultaneously, Generate Biomedicines, an eight-year-old startup based in Somerville, MA, that uses AI to design protein-based therapeutics, is targeting a valuation of up to $2.17 billion in a U.S. IPO that could raise $425 million. The company was incubated by the VC firm Flagship Pioneering. See The Information for more on Cerebras, and Reuters for more on Generate Biomedicines.

[4] ⚡President Donald Trump will host Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, Oracle, and OpenAI at The White House in March to sign a pledge to self-fund power for new AI data centers, aiming to curb grid strain, protect ratepayers, and sustain U.S. AI leadership. Find out more on Fox News.

[5] 🇺🇸 Anthropic acquired Seattle-based Vercept, valued at $67M in 2025, to bolster Claude’s computer-use agents. Additionally, Anthropic replaced its binding Responsible Scaling Policy with a flexible, nonbinding safety framework, loosening self-imposed AI guardrails while maintaining restrictions on weapons and mass surveillance use as pressure from the Department of Defense mounts regarding how the government can use the company’s models. Finally, the company alleged DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax created 24,000+ fake accounts, generating 16 million Claude prompts for model distillation, raising IP theft and U.S. national-security concerns.  For the Vercept acquisition, see GeekWire. Further info on the company’s safety framework is on CNN and TechCrunch. Read more about fake account accusations on TechCrunch.

✨Open Source AI Development

[1] 🔎 Perplexity has open-sourced (MIT license) two new search-focused AI models—pplx-embed-v1 and pplx-embed-context-v1 (0.6B and 4B sizes)—that help systems better match questions with relevant content. They rank at the top of major benchmarks like MTEB and ConTEB, achieve 73.5% Recall@10 internally, and reduce storage needs by 4x to 32x, making large-scale web search far more efficient. More from Perplexity Research.

[2] 🇨🇳 Chinese open-source AI models from MiniMax and Moonshot AI led OpenRouter’s ranked token usage with 4.55T and 4.02T tokens, ending US dominance as China’s enterprise AI adoption surged 263% in H2 2025. See more on South China Morning Post.

[3] 🦞 Meta AI researcher Summer Yue’s OpenClaw agent deleted her entire inbox after ignoring stop commands. The now-viral incident highlights risks of personal AI assistants, showing guardrails can fail with large data or context overload. Details on TechCrunch.

[4]🧋 Recent open-source AI model launches from ByteDance, Alibaba Group and Moonshot AI have blended with holiday giveaways (e.g., bubble tea), intensifying competition, boosting downloads and challenging US labs with open-source, developer-friendly alternatives. More info on The Financial Times.

[5] 👾 The open-source Cline CLI, an AI-powered coding assistant for developers, was hijacked in a supply chain attack that auto-installed OpenClaw, exposing AI-driven risks in open-source workflows. Further details on The Hacker News.

Founder’s Corner

Series A to B Has Gotten Harder

What We Read This Week

• Alphabet-owned robotics software company Intrinsic is joining Google, collaborating with DeepMind and leveraging Gemini AI to advance industrial robotics, following acquisitions and partnerships aimed at making manufacturing more accessible and automated. (TechCrunch)

• Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs are deploying agentic AI to monitor trading activity, flag anomalies, reduce compliance false positives, and safeguard against misconduct—keeping humans in the loop for final decisions. (Bloomberg)

• A hacker exploited Anthropic’s Claude chatbot to steal 150GB of Mexican government data—including tax, voter, and employee records—by “jailbreaking” the AI; OpenAI’s ChatGPT also assisted in lateral network moves. (Bloomberg)

• The Trump administration ordered U.S. diplomats to oppose data-sovereignty laws, citing AI risks, targeting the EU GDPR and Digital Services Act, promoting the Global Cross-Border Privacy Rules Forum amid tensions with China. (Reuters)

• General Atlantic plans to sell a ByteDance stake, valuing the company at $550B—up 66% from last year—following TikTok U.S. divestment, highlighting soaring private-market investor appetite and potential IPO windfall. (Reuters)

• Google spinout Aalyria raised funds at $1.3B valuation for space-based communications tech, drawing investor interest in satellite networking. (CNBC)

• OpenAI hired former Roblox executive Arvind KC as Chief People Officer to lead hiring and employee development amid expansion and a $100B+ funding round. (Bloomberg)

• Stripe is exploring a potential acquisition of PayPal, valued at $43.3B after a 6.7% stock drop, as Stripe hits $159B valuation; talks remain preliminary as PayPal has struggled amidst increasing competition from Apple Pay and Google Pay. (Bloomberg)

• Waymo and Tesla revealed details of their “remote assistance” programs: Waymo uses ~70 RA agents (half offshore) advising 3,000 robotaxis without direct control, while Tesla operates domestic remote operators for oversight, ensuring human safety oversight in self-driving deployments. (Wired)

AI Fundraising news (Feb 20 — Feb 26)

• Avantos: AI-native client management platform company, raised a $25M Series A

• Axelera AI: AI inference chip company, raised a $250M Series D

• Basis: AI accounting workflow agents company, raised a $100M Series B

• Code Metal: AI code translation and verification company, raised a $125M Series B

• Emerald AI: AI data center energy optimization company, raised a $25M seed

• Frankenburg Technologies: AI-driven anti-drone missile systems company, raised a $35.4M Series A

• FreeForm: AI-native metal 3D printing systems company, raised a $67M Series B

• Gambit Security: AI-native cyber resilience platform company, raised a $61M seed and Series A

• General Magic: AI SMS insurance automation agents company, raised $7.2M

• Happyhotel: AI hotel revenue management software company, raised a $7.7M Series A

• Harper: AI insurance submission automation company, raised a $46.8M Series A and seed

• Hypercore: AI loan management automation platform company, raised a $13.5M Series A

• InScope: AI financial reporting platform company, raised a $14.5M Series A

• Jump: AI financial advisor workflow automation company, raised an $80M Series B

• Koah: AI chatbot ad monetization platform company, raised a $20.5M Series A

• Letter AI: AI sales enablement guidance platform company, raised a $40M Series B

• MatX: AI chip startup company, raised $500M+

• Nimble: AI real-time structured web data platform company, raised a $47M Series B

• Potpie: AI context unification platform company, raised $2.2M

• Profound: AI brand visibility analytics company, raised a $96M Series C

• Rapidata: AI model human feedback platform company, raised an $8.5M seed

• SambaNova: AI data center chip company, raised a $350M Series E

• Sherpas: AI wealth management automation agents company, raised a $3.2M seed

• Slang AI: AI hospitality voice automation company, raised a $36M Series B

• SolveAI: AI enterprise coding startup company, raised a $50M Series A

• Stacks: AI accounting workflow automation company, raised a $23M Series A

• Subject: AI K-12 curriculum support platform company, raised $28M

• Taalas: AI model silicon acceleration company, raised $169M

• Ten63 Therapeutics: AI drug discovery company, raised $22M

• Thema: AI private equity market mapping platform company, raised a $4.5M pre-seed

• Turbine: AI biological simulation drug discovery company, raised a $25M Series B

• Ubicquia: AI-enabled infrastructure monitoring platform company, raised a $106M Series D

• Vizzia: AI video surveillance analytics company, raised a $35.3M Series B

• VoiceLine: AI voice workflow automation agents company, raised an $11.8M Series A

• Xflow: AI-powered B2B cross-border payments platform company, raised a $16.6M Series A