June 20th Newsletter

US consumer sentiment rose by the most since January 2024 to 60.5 in June, buoyed by easing inflation fears. While the Fed held rates steady at 4.25 to 4.5 percent, it signaled that two cuts are still possible in 2025 amid persistent inflation and slowing growth. At the G7, Trump and UK Prime Minister Starmer finalized a new US-UK trade agreement covering autos and aerospace, reinforcing a transatlantic alliance, though details remain limited. In tech, Meta introduced ads and subscriptions to WhatsApp’s Channels and Updates tabs, marking a major shift to monetize its three billion users. On the consumer front, the Trump Organization launched Trump Mobile at $47.45 per month, offering US-made phones, global data, and additional services. Anne Wojcicki reacquired 23andMe for $305 million through TTAM Research Institute, positioning the company for a turnaround in genomic and telehealth services. Meanwhile, Amazon and Roku partnered to combine 80 million connected TV households, aiming to boost ad efficiency and reduce over-frequency. 

Top 5 AI Highlights

1] 🤖 Meta is intensifying its AGI push. After investing $14.3B for a 49 % stake in Scale AI, it attempted, but failed to acquire Safe Superintelligence (SSI). Now it is courting SSI co-founder Daniel Gross and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, a move that would also bring their NFDG venture fund under Meta’s influence and further strengthen Alexandr Wang’s team. In addition, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently revealed Meta’s rumored $100 million signing bonuses to try to poach talent from OpenAI, underscoring a mounting talent arms race within the AI industry. More from CNBC and TechCrunch.

[2] 🧠 Google is cutting ties with Scale AI, its largest AI data-labeling partner, after Meta acquired a 49% stake in the startup at a $29B valuation. Google had planned to spend nearly $200M with Scale this year to support training for Gemini, its ChatGPT rival, but is now shifting work to competitors. The fallout could be significant for Scale, whose core revenue relies on a few large clients. Other major customers, including Microsoft, OpenAI, and xAI, are also pulling back. More from Reuters.

[3] ⚔️Tensions between OpenAI and Microsoft are escalating as OpenAI must become a public-benefit corporation by year-end to secure $20 billion in funding, yet Microsoft wants a larger stake and guaranteed model access after any AGI breakthrough. OpenAI recently agreed to acquire coding firm Windsurf for $3 billion and plans to bar Microsoft from its IP. Executives are weighing an antitrust complaint while the FTC already probes Microsoft’s AI deals, escalating uncertainty and threatening to disrupt Azure’s distribution of OpenAI tools during global rollout. Details on WSJ.

[4] 🛡️ OpenAI has been awarded a $200M U.S. Department of Defense contract to deliver advanced AI systems for national security, marking the launch of its new "OpenAI for Government" division. The contract tasks OpenAI with prototyping frontier models for both military and enterprise use cases—from proactive cyber defense to healthcare services for military families. This follows a recent collaboration with defense tech firm Anduril and signals OpenAI’s growing ambition to become a core government AI contractor. Work will be centered in Washington, D.C. More from WSJ and CNBC. 

[5] ☀️ Amazon announced plans to invest $13 billion through 2029 to build new AI-optimized data centers across Australia, its biggest investment in the region to date. The expansion will be powered in part by three new solar farms and will strengthen AWS’s capacity to serve generative AI and cloud workloads. Officials project this move could contribute up to A$600 billion annually to Australia’s GDP by 2030. Amazon has also trained over 400,000 Australians in digital skills to support AI adoption. More from BBG.

Founder’s Corner

Rising Series B valuations on decent round volume

What We Read This Week

• Canva is acquiring AI-powered ad analytics startup MagicBrief, expanding beyond design into marketing performance. MagicBrief’s tech will power new tools, letting Canva users analyze and optimize ads within its platform. (CNBC)

• Wimbledon and IBM launch Match Chat and enhance Likelihood to Win, using AI to deliver real-time insights and dynamic predictions. (AI Magazine) 

• Wix acquires Base44 for $80M, adding a chat-based no-code AI app builder; Base44 will continue to operate as a distinct product and business, but will benefit from the scale and support from Wix. (Wix)

• Watch: Software in the era of AI with Ex-Tesla AI Chief and OpenAI Founding member, Andrej Karpathy (YouTube)

• Intel announced plans to cut up to 20% of its Foundry division starting in July 2025 as part of a continued restructuring effort. (MSN)

• Microsoft plans thousands more layoffs, mainly in sales, post-fiscal year-end, as it reins in costs amid massive AI investments; follows 6,000 cuts in May targeting product and engineering roles. (Bloomberg)

• Waymo begins manually testing autonomous vehicles in NYC, eyeing legal changes to launch driverless services; expansion continues amid 250K+ weekly rides across four major U.S. cities. (CNBC)

• Amazon’s Zoox opens large-scale robotaxi plant in California to support 10K yearly units; first commercial launch in Las Vegas this year, aiming to expand amid intensifying AV competition. (CNBC)

• NYC’s congestion toll slashed Manhattan traffic delays by 25%, cut regional gridlock up to 14%, and raised $216M in five months, debunking fears of worsened traffic outside toll zones. (Bloomberg)

AI M&A and Fundraising news (June 13 — June 19)

• Airo Group: AI-enhanced drones, pilot systems, eVTOL aircraft, raised $60M in an IPO.

• Alta AI: AI-powered personal styling and shopping platform with virtual wardrobe digitization, raised $11M Seed.

• AndrenaM: Connectivity and network infrastructure startup, raised $10M Seed.

• Animaj: AI-powered kids’ media and animation automation firm, raised $85M.

• Aspora: Borderless banking platform for global diaspora communities, raised $50M Series B.

• Autonomize AI: AI agents manage healthcare, life-science data, raised a $28M Series A.

• Bolo AI: Industrial assistant retrieves data from legacy systems, raised $8.1M Seed.

• Browserbase: Cloud service automates browser-driven web tasks, raised a $40M Series B.

• Canary Technologies: AI guest platform for hotel mobile check-in, raised a $80M Series D.

• Caris Life Sciences: AI molecular profiling for precision disease care, raised $459M in an IPO.

• Commons Clinic: Hybrid orthopedic care supported by proprietary AI, raised a $26M Series B.

• Conveyor: AI automates vendor security questionnaires and RFPs, raised a $20M Series A.

• Coralogix: AI observability platform delivering real-time software insights, raised a $115M Series E.

• Crosby: AI-powered contract review for startup legal, raised $5.8M Seed.

• Ellipsis Health: Voice-based AI care manager post patient visits, raised a $45M Series A.

• Extend: Document processing platform automating paperwork workflows, raised a $17M Seed & Series A.

• Felicis: VC firm raising AI-focused investment fund, raised a $900M fund.

• GroundControl Software: Vertical SaaS platform automating quality documentation in regulated manufacturing, raised $2M Seed.

• HOPPR: Medical imaging AI platform that provides foundation models for developers to build diagnostic applications, raised $31.5M Series A.

• Illumine: AI-powered childcare management platform for early childhood education centers, raised $2.5M Seed.

• Iterate.ai: Low-code secure edge-AI deployment platform, raised $6.4M.

• Knowunity: Personalized AI study companion with peer notes, raised $31.2M Series B.

• Landbase: AI automates outreach marketing for sales teams, raised a $30M Series A.

• Lovable: Chat-based AI builds full-stack apps, raised $100M.

• Maven: Enterprise AI agents for customer support automation, raised a $50M Series B.

• Multiplier Holdings: Technology company that acquires professional services firms and integrates AI automation to enhance operations, raised $27.5M.

• Nabla: AI assistant transcribes and summarizes clinical visits, raised a $70M Series C.

• Nuwacom: Secure AI-first enterprise workspace platform for team collaboration with strict compliance, raised €3.2M (~$3.64M) Seed.

• Olyzon: AI platform optimizes connected-TV ad campaigns, raised $3.8M Seed.

• Pano AI: AI cameras detect wildfires for early response, raised a $44M Series B.

• Parallel Bio: AI and immune tissue predict drug efficacy, raised a $21M Series A.

• PublicAI: Web3-driven AI company building artificial verification layers through blockchain technology, raised $8M Series A.

• Rapidise: AI-enhanced logistics and delivery platform, raised $5M Seed.

• Renow: Platform managing returned and secondhand retail goods in Europe, raised ~$2M Seed.

• Riiico: AI turns factory scans into CAD-ready twins, raised $5M Seed.

• Ryght AI: AI maps trial sites for drug researchers, raised $3M Seed.

• Sunrise Robotics: Intelligent industrial robotics startup developing robot cells for manufacturing automation, raised $8.5M.

• Superscale: Game analytics and optimization platform, raised $1.2M.

• Sword Health: Remote physical therapy combining AI and clinicians, raised $40M.

• Tennr: AI document parsing automates healthcare workflows, raised a $101M Series C.

• Traversal: AI-powered site reliability engineering platform for software troubleshooting and observability, raised $48M Series A.

• Uncountable: AI organizes experimental data to accelerate R&D, raised a $27M Series A.

• Uptime Industries: Lunchbox-sized device to run agents without the cloud, raised $2M Seed.

• Warp: AI-driven logistics network optimizing warehouse routing, raised a $10M Series A.

• Xfolio: French-Lebanese fintech developing unified portfolio management platform for wealth managers, raised $2M Seed.

• Yupp: Platform compares AI answers and rewards feedback, raised $33M Seed.