March 21st Newsletter

Author

Da Yu
March 21, 2025

As of close on March 20, 2025

The Federal Reserve is holding interest rates steady at 4.25%-4.5%, signaling two cuts later this year. The Fed cited uncertainty from tariffs, projecting higher inflation and unemployment. In markets, equities bounced back slightly this week after last week's selloff. In politics, Trump is set to sign an executive order shutting down the Department of Education. Also, two NASA astronauts have returned from the ISS via SpaceX after being stranded for nine months. In tech, Google announced its acquisition of cloud security startup Wiz for $32 billion, its largest deal and the largest cybersecurity acquisition to date. Additionally, Elon Musk’s X raised nearly $1 billion in equity funding at an enterprise value of $44 billion, up from $10 billion in September 2024. Meta’s Llama AI model surpassed 1 billion downloads, growing 53% since December. Also, Anthropic’s Claude can now search the web, available only for paid users. Lastly in sports, March Madness kicked off yesterday and the San Francisco Giants sold a 10% stake to private equity firm Sixth Street to fund stadium upgrades. 

Starting this week, we moved the public comps to a monthly cadence and will include it as a part of our monthly AI financing report.

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

Top 5 AI Highlights

[1] 💾 At its GTC 2025 conference, Nvidia announced Blackwell Ultra, an advanced AI chip shipping later this year, and Vera Rubin, a next-gen CPU and GPU expected in 2026. Blackwell Ultra expands on the original Blackwell architecture with improved AI inference, greater memory capacity, and more efficient processing, specifically for enterprise and cloud-based AI applications. Also this week, GM expands its Nvidia partnership to digitize factories using Omniverse and Cosmos for virtual testing and robotics, while adopting Drive AGX for future self-driving and in-cabin safety systems. More from CNBC and Nvidia.

[2] 🏗️ Nvidia and xAI are joining BlackRock and Microsoft in the AI Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), a $30 billion initiative to expand AI-focused data centers. The group, launched in September with backing from investment firms Global Infrastructure Partners and MGX, aims to secure critical energy solutions with GE Vernova and NextEra Energy. While capital inflow details remain undisclosed, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink emphasized the collaboration’s potential. More from Reuters.

[3] 💡 Y Combinator’s latest Demo Day highlighted a new wave of AI-driven startups, with 80% built on large language models. Some have already hit $10 million in annual revenue with fewer than 10 employees, a feat YC CEO Garry Tan calls unprecedented. Among the standouts is Abundant, which enables seamless human intervention in AI automation, boosting reliability. A shift in fundraising strategy is also emerging, as founders raise less VC capital, choosing AI-driven efficiency over heavy investment. This batch signals a bold new era of lean, AI-powered startups. Hear more from Garry on YouTube.

[4] 🔍 Perplexity AI is eyeing a valuation jump to $18B in a new $500M–$1B round, as it scales its generative AI search engine. With $100M ARR and 15M users, it’s drawing heavyweight backers like SoftBank, Nvidia, and Jeff Bezos. Amid fierce competition from Google and OpenAI, the startup’s enterprise tools and finance features hint at broader ambitions. More from Bloomberg.

[5] ⚖️ A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., has ruled that AI-generated artwork without human authorship cannot be copyrighted. The decision upholds the U.S. Copyright Office’s rejection of Stephen Thaler’s attempt to copyright an image created by his AI system, DABUS. The ruling reinforces the legal precedent that human authorship is a "bedrock requirement" for copyright protection. Thaler plans to appeal, arguing it discourages innovation. The decision aligns with previous rejections of AI-assisted works, shaping the legal landscape for generative AI. More from Reuters.

Founder’s Corner

Q2 is typically the fundraising season

Source: X

What We Read and Watched This Week

  • The Federal Reserve is slowing its balance sheet runoff to prevent potential market disruptions as the U.S. debt ceiling approaches. (WSJ)

  • Watch: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed Newton at GTC, an AI-powered robot with an advanced physics engine, developed by DeepMind, Disney Research, and Nvidia. (Youtube)

  • Rippling sued Deel, alleging trade-secret theft through planted employees amid escalating HR tech rivalry. (CNBC)

  • OM Malik on Chinese EVs: Volvo’s ES90 highlights China’s lead as BYD, and Geely shape global auto tech standards. (CST)

  • Oracle is reported to be leading the deal to secure TikTok’s U.S. operations, whilst China hopes to maintain control of its proprietary algorithms. (The Verge)

  • Watch: Lightspeed Ventures partner Arif Janmohamed speaks about volatility and its effects on the IPO market. (WSJ)

  • Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan is planning major AI and manufacturing overhaul, middle management cuts, and foundry expansion. (Reuters)

  • Frontier Airlines is offering free checked bags to attract Southwest customers after its rival ended its "bags fly free" policy. (CBS)

AI M&A and Fundraising news (Mar 14 — Mar 20)

  • Arcade.dev: AI system automation for applications, raised a $12M Seed.

  • Augment: AI logistics assistant for freight operators, raised a $25M Seed.

  • Capalo AI: Bidding optimization for energy assets, raised a $4.1M Seed.

  • ClearGrid: AI to improve debt collection in the Middle East and North Africa, raised a $10M Series A.

  • Cognition AI: AI-powered coding assistant, raised hundreds of millions at a $4B valuation.

  • Dataminr: AI to discover signals in public data, raised $85M.

  • Distributed Spectrum: the world’s first AI signals Expert, raised a $25M Series A.

  • Featherless AI: Serverless AI inference platform, raised a $5M Seed.

  • Gradial: Agentic AI platform for marketing automation, raised a $13M Series A.

  • Graphite: AI code review and collaboration tool, raised a $52M Series B.

  • Halliday: AI agents for blockchain networks, raised a $20M Series A.

  • Nimblemind: AI-powered data infrastructure for healthcare, raised a $2.5M Seed.

  • NXAI: AI research firm focused on economic applications, raised $21.18M.

  • OptimHire: AI-driven recruitment automation platform, raised $5M.

  • Orion Security: AI-powered data security and breach prevention, raised a $6M Seed.

  • Pluralis Research: Open-source training & model ownership, raised a $7.6M Seed.

  • Prezent AI: AI to build slide decks, raised $20M

  • ResiQuant: AI-powered property intelligence for real estate underwriting, raised a $4M Seed.

  • Spangle.ai: Agentic AI platform for shopping optimization, raised a $6M Seed.

  • Spangle: Custom landing pages for real-time shopping, raised a $6M Seed.

  • Tera AI: Spatial reasoning for robots, raised a $7.8M Seed.

  • Town: AI-powered tax compliance and advisory platform, raised an $18M Seed.

  • TurinTech AI: AI to analyze and optimize codebases, raised a $15M Series A.