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- June 27th Newsletter
June 27th Newsletter

As of close on June 18, 2025, Juneteenth was a national holiday
Inflation remained tame, with core PCE rising just 0.1% in May, its softest streak since the pandemic, though Fed Chair Powell signaled caution on rate cuts amid tariff uncertainty and Trump’s public criticism. U.S. continuing jobless claims hit 1.97 million, the highest since 2021, signaling prolonged unemployment amid a cooling labor market, while initial claims dipped, and the Fed warns of tariff-driven layoffs. The stock market reached an all-time high this week. On the domestic front, the Supreme Court greenlit Trump's migrant deportation policy. Zohran Mamdani’s shock NYC mayoral primary win panics Wall Street, triggering fears of higher taxes, rent freezes, and socialist policies that could drive financiers and developers out of the city. In tech, Circle’s rally stumbled as investors eyed competitive pressure despite stablecoin regulation gains. Bumble shares surged 26% following a 30% layoff in staff, and the return of founder Whitney Wolfe Herd. Tesla launched its robotaxi pilot in Austin with limited, invite-only rides at $4.20. While hailed as a milestone, issues like wrong-lane driving, delays, and long waits highlighted safety concerns. Still, investor enthusiasm pushed shares higher on hopes of a high-margin services future. In cybersecurity, a staggering breach of 16 billion passwords hit major platforms such as Apple, Google, and Facebook, made record as one of the largest data breaches in history.
Top 5 AI Highlights
[1]🚀 SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son is pitching a $1T AI and robotics hub in Arizona, eyeing TSMC and U.S. backing, including Trump allies. The proposed mega-complex would anchor America’s AI future, focused on hardware and automation. The move comes amid intensifying global competition for AI dominance and infrastructure scale, echoing Son’s past grand tech bets. More from MSN.
[2]🧠 OpenAI and Jony Ive’s io are developing a mysterious AI hardware device—possibly not in-ear—amid a trademark fight with iyO. Court filings reveal early prototypes, IP sensitivities, and a stalled $200M acquisition offer. Meanwhile, OpenAI eyes productivity tools to rival Microsoft Office and Google Workspace, deepening its enterprise push. More from TC, YF, and the Court order.
[3] 🚨 Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab has closed a record-setting $2B seed round at a $10B valuation, just six months after launch. Backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Conviction Partners, the stealth AI firm is building on Murati’s leadership legacy from OpenAI, with top talent like John Schulman onboard. Unlike rivals such as Safe Superintelligence, which remains vague with only a landing page, Murati’s startup is known to have more defined ambitions. Meta reportedly eyed an acquisition before pivoting to partner with Scale AI. More from TC.
[4] ⚡ WSJ’s Joanna Stern traces the energy trail of AI prompts—from laptops to roaring Nvidia GPU clusters in Virginia’s data centers. A single AI video can use as much power as grilling a steak—twice. With demand surging, AI could consume 12% of U.S. electricity by 2028. Tech giants remain opaque, pushing researchers to estimate impact. More from WSJ.
[5]💰 Databricks and Perplexity co-founder Andy Konwinski is launching Laude, a $100M AI research fund and institute. Its flagship $15M grant backs UC Berkeley’s new AI Systems Lab led by Ion Stoica. Konwinski, who profited from Databricks’ $62B valuation and Perplexity’s $14B, is blending nonprofit research with commercial investments. Laude aims to fund “Slingshots” (early-stage research) and “Moonshots” (long-horizon challenges), with support from AI leaders like Jeff Dean and Joelle Pineau. More from TC.
Founder’s Corner
For SAFEs, the amount raised has a bigger impact on valuation caps

Source: X
What We Read This Week
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says AI now completes 30-50% of workloads with 93% accuracy, prompting staff cuts and echoing similar automation-driven reductions at CrowdStrike, Klarna and Amazon. (CNBC)
During a Hard Fork live taping, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman condemned The New York Times’ data lawsuit, cited Meta’s $100 million poaching offers, and noted Microsoft friction, underscoring escalating media-tech AI tensions. (TC)
Google Labs debuts Doppl app, letting users upload photos for animated virtual outfit try-ons. (Google)
Temu’s US sales plunged 25% amid drastic ad cuts, following Trump’s tariff changes. While Temu pivots to Europe, rivals like Shein, Amazon, and Walmart rebound with resumed growth and steadier marketing. (BBG)
BP shares surged over 10% on reports Shell eyed an $80B takeover—the biggest oil deal since the ’90s. Shell denied talks, calling it “market speculation.” BP later trimmed gains to +2%. The speculation follows BP’s strategic pivot back to oil and gas amid pressure from activist investor Elliott Management. (CNBC)
CareerBuilder + Monster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will sell its job board operations to gig-work platform JobGet, ending decades of legacy as pioneers in online job recruitment. (MSN)
AI M&A and Fundraising news (June 20 — June 26)
Abridge: AI to automate doctors' notetaking, raised a $300M Series E
aedifion: Property-focused AI tech startup, raised a $20M Series B
Arine: AI-driven medication optimization platform, raised a $30M Series C
BackOps AI: AI-driven automation for back-office operations, raised $0.5M
Blank Metal: AI-native engineering firm for enterprise AI deployment, raised a $3M Seed
Botpress: Platform for deploying autonomous conversational agents, raised a $25M Series B
Browserbase: Develops headless browsers for AI agents and apps, raised a $40M Series B
Centific: AI data foundry for model development, raised a $60M Series A
Cluely: Cheat-on-anything tool, raised a $15M Seed
Conquest Planning: AI-driven custom financial planning platform, raised a $80M Series B
Decagon: AI-powered customer service agents for enterprises, raised a $131M Series C
Delphi: AI clones, raised a $16M Series A
DESKi: French AI cardiac imaging software, raised a $6M Seed
Eventual: Data engine for unstructured data processing, raised a $20M Series A
Eytrix: AI video surveillance with natural language query, raised a $29M Series A
Gradient Network: Runs AI on decentralized networks like Solana, raised a $10M Seed
Harvey: Legal AI startup serving clients like KKR and PwC, raised a $300M Series E
Haddy: AI-powered 3D-printing microfactory for manufacturing, raised a $3.45M Seed
Hyve: AI-driven financial planning tool for institutions, raised a $11M Seed
LanceDB: Open-source multimodal vector database platform, raised a $30M Series A
Lyceum: EU-based compute for AI training tasks, raised a $11.9M pre-seed
Mahalo: AI for automating post-purchase tasks, raised a $2.6M Preseed
Mercanis: AI procurement agents for enterprises, raised a $20.4M Series A
Metaview: AI tools to automate hiring processes, raised a $35M Series B
Meridian: AI-powered deal management for PE/M&A, raised a $7M Seed
Moonnox: AI tool for consulting firm project management, raised a $2M Seed
Nephrolytics: AI clinical intelligence for nephrology care, raised a $2.5M Seed
OpenRouter: LLM prompt routing based on cost/speed, raised $40M across Seed and Series A
OutSee: AI analysis of genomes to predict disease, raised a $2.4M Seed
Paraform: AI-enhanced recruiter marketplace platform, raised a $20M Series A
PhysicsX: AI to design industrial parts like engines and drones, raised a $135M
Polar: Payment infrastructure for AI-first companies, raised a $10M Seed
Predibase: AI startup acquired by Rubrik for over $100M
Pangram Labs: AI-generated content detection technology provider, raised a $4M Seed
Quinn: AI-powered financial planning platform, raised a $11M Seed
Qualytics: AI-powered data quality platform, raised a $10M Series A
Salestools AI: B2B SaaS automating enterprise sales with AI agents, raised a $2.2M Seed
Sanmai: AI-powered ultrasound for mental health, raised a $12M
Snowcap Compute: Building AI computing chips using superconducting tech, raised a $23M Seed
SuperDial: AI voice agents for admin healthcare calls, raised a $12M Series A
Synthflow: No-code voice AI agent builder, raised a $20M Series A
Thinking Machines Lab: A Secretive AI startup founded by Mira Murati, raised a $2B seed
Uncountable: AI tools to accelerate R&D development cycles, raised a $27M Series A
Veda: Decentralized finance yield infrastructure platform, raised a $18M Series A
Voicecare AI: AI agents for healthcare admin calls, raised a $4.5M Seed
Wispr Flow: An AI headset that transcribes speech, raised a $30M Series A
Xbow: AI-powered automated penetration testing, raised a $75M Series B
Zama: Homomorphic encryption for blockchain/AI, raised a $57M Series B
Zeelo: AI-powered shared shuttle planning, raised a $23M Series B