July 11th Newsletter

Author

Da Yu
July 11, 2025

As of close on July 10, 2025

 This week, President Trump revisits tariffs by imposing a 50% copper levy, reintroducing a 35% tariff on Canadian goods, and adjusting U.S. policy toward Mexico by implementing a 21% tariff on Mexican tomatoes, which could cause U.S. Tomato prices to rise by 10%. On the consumer front, rent rewards startup Bilt is chasing a $10B valuation, tripling since last August, despite lingering concerns over its co-branded card model. In tech, TikTok readies a U.S.-only “M2” app ahead of its 2026 divestiture deadline, with ByteDance retaining a minority stake. Nvidia hit $4T valuation, becoming the world’s most valuable firm, and the first to reach $4T, driven by surging AI chip demand, 6x revenue growth in 2 years, despite China export curbs and rising competition. Apple’s AirPods are set to surpass $100 billion in lifetime revenue by 2026, fueled by modest growth and deeper AI integration. Finally, Jack Dorsey unveiled “Bitchat,” a decentralized offline messaging app promising secure, surveillance-free communication.

Top 5 AI Highlights

[1] 🧱 Cloud GPU giant CoreWeave is acquiring data center operator Core Scientific in a ~$9B all-stock deal, gaining direct control of 1.3 GW of capacity and slashing $10B in future lease obligations. The move consolidates AI compute real estate amid surging demand and reflects a long-term bet on vertical integration in AI infrastructure. CEO Mike Intrator framed the acquisition as a power+real estate play-“we’re not paying rent for the next 15 years.” Regulatory approval expected by Q4 2025. More from CNBC.

[2] ⚡xAI released Grok 4, its most advanced model yet, now running on 24,000 H100s, shortly after the chatbot made antisemitic comments. The controversy added pressure to X CEO Linda Yaccarino, who resigned this week after a turbulent tenure marked by advertiser exits and the xAI merger. Meanwhile, Musk confirmed that xAI is shipping an entire overseas power plant to the U.S. to fuel its next datacenter: a 1 million GPU cluster consuming up to 2 GW—enough to power 1.9 million homes. More from TechCrunch, Tomshardware, and NYT.

[3]💸 Cursor, an AI coding developer, unveiled a new Pro plan with unlimited Auto mode usage and a $20/month credit toward GPT-4.1, Claude Sonnet, Gemini, and other top-tier models. The switch from request-based limits to API-token pricing reflects shifting cost structures in LLM usage. Cursor acknowledged the rollout caused confusion and is offering refunds to affected users. Median monthly credit covers ~225 Sonnet 4 or 650 GPT-4.1 requests. More from Cursor.

[4] 🧭 Perplexity debuted Comet, its first AI-powered browser, exclusive to $200/month Max users and early invitees. Comet combines AI-native search, web navigation, and a sidecar “Comet Assistant” that can manage tabs, summarize emails, and interact with page content. The launch comes amid rumors that OpenAI is building its own AI browser, making Perplexity the first serious challenger to ship one. While a strong distribution play, Comet currently struggles with more complex tasks, limiting its mainstream utility. More from Techcrunch. 

[5]🕶️ Meta has acquired a 3% stake ($3.5B) in EssilorLuxottica, the world’s largest eyewear firm, signaling deeper investment in smart glasses. The partnership, already producing Ray-Ban smart glasses with Meta AI, could expand to a 5% holding. Analysts see this as a bet on ambient AI and on-device assistants as the next computing surface. The move comes just days after Xiaomi unveiled its own AI smart glasses on June 29, which early reviews suggest outperform Meta’s in real-time translation, navigation, and latency. Meta's aggressive push appears to be aimed at staying competitive in a rapidly evolving industry. More from Yahoo and Android Central.

Founder’s Corner

ARR has grown faster than valuations

Source: X

What We Read This Week

  • French AI upstart Mistral seeks $1 billion MGX-led equity plus hundreds-million-euro debt, elevating its €6.5 billion valuation, funding Europe’s largest Nvidia-backed AI campus, and Macron-aligned sovereignty push. (TC)

  • Megan Greenwell’s Bad Company pulls back the curtain on private equity, exposing the human toll of debt-fueled takeovers. (NYT)

  • SpaceX may raise new funds at a $400B valuation—potentially a U.S. private-company record—driven by Starlink's growth and Starship milestones, with a concurrent secondary share sale for insiders. (MSN)

  • TSMC Q2 revenue jumped 39% to $32B, topping estimates, on Nvidia- and Apple-driven AI demand. Ongoing $100B capacity build backs 2025 mid-20% sales growth outlook target.

  • Waymo launches teen accounts in Metro Phoenix, allowing 14–17-year-olds solo rides. Aimed at expanding its user base, the program includes parental tracking and plans broader city rollouts. (BBG)

  • Adobe for Business forecasts U.S. online spending to hit $24B during Amazon’s 4-day Prime Day—matching two Black Fridays—driven by mobile shopping, AI tools, and steep discounts on electronics and clothing. (Adobe) 

  • Sam’s Club may raise prices on discretionary goods like kitchen appliances due to tariffs, but will freeze prices on 1,000+ summer staples to retain members, who drive 80–90% of profits. (WSJ)

AI M&A and Fundraising news (July 3 — July 10)

  • 75F: IoT and AI-driven commercial HVAC automation startup, raised $45M Series B

  • Arago: Photonic AI chips cutting data-center energy, raised a $26M Seed

  • Asepha: AI platform to automate pharmacy operations, raised $4.0M Seed
    Bastazo: AI prioritizes exploitable security vulnerabilities, raised a $5.3M Seed

  • Biorce: AI optimizes pharma clinical trials, raised $5M

  • Blok: AI user-simulation testing for mobile apps, raised a $5M Seed

  • Castellum.AI: AI-driven financial crime compliance platform, raised $8.5M Series A

  • Cerebrium: Serverless AI infrastructure for multimodal applications, raised $8.5M Seed

  • CoreWeave: Acquiring Core Scientific for $9B all-stock deal

  • Foundation EGI: Custom LLMs for complex engineering tasks, raised a $23M Series A

  • GetWhy: AI analyzes interviews into consumer insights, raised a $20M Series A extension

  • Gradient Labs: Agentic AI for regulated industries, raised a $13M Series A

  • Groq: AI chipmaker seeking $300-$500M raise at $6B valuation

  • Harrison.ai: Australian CT scan, X-ray, and pathology slide AI analysis firm, raised $112M Series C

  • Live Story: No-code omnichannel digital content platform, raised $3.13M Seed

  • Mistral: Generative AI firm seeking up to $1B equity raise

  • Nominal: AI automates accounting and finance workflows, raised a $20M Series A

  • OneText: “Text-to-buy” network for shopping via text, raised $4.5M Seed

  • Parspec: AI pricing software for construction suppliers, raised a $20M Series A

  • Parter: AI tracks hardware component lifecycles, raised a $5.5M Seed 

  • Pimloc: AI video privacy and redaction platform, raised $5M
    SandboxAQ: AI and quantum security solutions for enterprises, raised $95M

  • ScienceMachine: AI agents streamline biotech experiments, raised a $3.5M pre-seed

  • Subtotal: Retail account linking and purchase tracking API, raised $6.61M Seed

  • Sundial: AI analytics and data observability platform, raised a $16M Series A

  • Tandem: AI assistant for scheduling and reminders, raised a $3.8M Seed
    Vellum: AI prompt and model development platform, raised a $20M Series A

  • ZeroEntropy: AI contextual search retrieval infrastructure, raised a $4.2M Seed