November 21st Newsletter

Author

Da Yu
November 21, 2025

As of close on November 20, 2025

Generated by Google Gemini’s Nano Banana Pro

Top 5 AI Highlights

[1] 🤖 Google launches Gemini 3, its most advanced AI yet, featuring the Antigravity coding tool, led by Varun Moahn, co-founder of Windsurf. It scores a record 37.4 on Humanity’s Last Exam and currently serves 650M+ users, 13M developers. Catch Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis in conversation with Rowan Cheng here. More from TechCrunch. 

[2] 🚀Jeff Bezos launches Project Prometheus as co-CEO, a $6.2B AI startup targeting engineering for computers, autos, and space. It’s one of the best-funded entrants, with 100+ hires from top AI labs. Details on NYTimes.

[3] 💰 Anthropic hits a $350B valuation after securing up to $15B in funding from Microsoft and Nvidia. The deal includes $30B in Azure compute commitments and deep tech collaborations to accelerate Claude’s growth. More from CNBC and Microsoft.

[4] 🦾 China’s robotics surge continues as MindOne’s Unitree G1 stuns with autonomous home tasks and UBTech’s Walker S2 secures $112M in factory orders, driving a 150% share price gain in 2025. See the video on YouTube and read more about UBTech.

[5]⚡Leaked docs revealed OpenAI paid Microsoft $865.8M in revenue share in 2025, hinting at over $4.3B in revenue. But soaring inference costs, at $8.65B YTD, raise profitability concerns. Details from TechCrunch.

✨New Addition: Open Source AI Development

[1] 🧠 Hugging Face released its latest list of the top 10 open-source LLMs, highlighting Qwen3, Llama 4, Mixtral, and DeepSeek for strengths in reasoning, coding, and multilingual tasks. See more on Hugging Face.

[2] 🤖 Ai2 launches Olmo 3, a fully open AI model suite from 7B to 32B parameters offering unmatched transparency, reduced compute costs, and state-of-the-art reasoning performance for scalable, sustainable, and reproducible AI development. See more on HPCWire

[3] 🔍 The Wired published that the US is falling behind China in open-weight AI, warning reliance on foreign models risks innovation and security, prompting calls for a national push toward fully open, transparent frontier models. Details on The Wired.

[4] 🔗 Deep Cogito releases Cogito v2.1, a 671B parameter model that, as of release, is the best open-weight LLM by a U.S. company, excelling in reasoning, creativity, and efficient token usage. See more Deep Cognito.

[5] 👨‍💻 PyTorch cofounder Soumith Chintala, who helped build Meta’s core AI infrastructure, joined Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab as the startup accelerates top-tier hiring and pursues a major funding round. Read more on Business Insider.

Founder’s Corner

Source: X

What We Read This Week

  • Adobe to acquire SEO and marketing software provider Semrush for $1.9 billion in an all-cash deal to boost AI capabilities. (WSJ)

  • As part of a broader 13,000-employee workforce reduction, Verizon launches a $20M Reskilling and Career Transition Fund to support departing employees with digital training and job placement. (Verizon)

  • As AI's energy demands surge, tech leaders like Bezos, Musk, and Pichai envision space-based data centers powered by solar energy. Though costly today, they see lunar and orbital compute hubs as future infrastructure. (WSJ)

  • Oracle’s $300B OpenAI deal sparked a $315B market-cap drop as investors worry about soaring capex, rising debt, negative cash flow, and heavy reliance on OpenAI for future cloud revenue. (FT)

  • OpenAI and Intuit formed a multiyear partnership integrating TurboTax and QuickBooks into ChatGPT, expected to generate over $100 million for OpenAI while expanding Intuit’s product reach and AI capabilities. (WSJ)

AI Fundraising News (Nov 14 — Nov 20)

  • Agentio: Uses AI to automate YouTube creator campaigns, raised a $40M Series B

  • AlertD: AI-driven cloud system monitoring tools, raised a $3M Preseed

  • AlphaXiv: AI research hub for engineers, raised $7M Seed

  • Annie: AI co-worker for dental practices, raised $4M Seed

  • Arbiter: AI care-coordination and scheduling platform, raised $52M Seed

  • Archetype AI: Real-time sensor analysis with AI, raised a $35M Series A

  • Bedrock Data: Data-centric security for enterprise AI/cloud, raised a $25M Series A

  • Bone AI: Autonomous air, ground, and marine vehicles, raised a $12M Seed

  • Celero: Chip enabling long-distance AI data connections, raised a $140M Series B

  • Cellbyte: AI software for pharmaceutical launches, raised a $2.75M Seed

  • Chronosphere: Large-scale observability for AI/cloud workloads, acquired by Palo Alto Networks

  • Clairity: AI platform predicting breast cancer risk, raised a $43M Series B

  • CloudX: AI-native ad system for mobile publishers, raised a $30M Series A

  • Coverbase: AI for procurement and risk reviews, raised a $16.5M Series A

  • Datum: Distributed infrastructure tools for AI/cloud builders, raised a $13.6M Seed

  • Ember: AI for preventing claim denials in health systems, raised $4.3M Seed

  • Endolith: Microbial AI for critical mineral extraction, raised a $13.5M Seed

  • Federato: AI-native insurance software platform, raised a $100M Series D

  • Ferroelectric Memory: Low-power memory chips for AI computing, raised a $116.1M

  • Firmus Technologies: Renewable energy data centers for AI, raised a $326.8M

  • Genspark: AI workplace agents for office automation, raised a $275M Series B

  • GetVocal: AI agents for business customer support, raised a $26M Series A

  • Guardio: Detects AI-driven phishing and malicious code, raised an $80M round

  • Hammerhead AI: AI agents optimizing GPU energy use, raised a $10M Seed

  • Kaaj: AI for small business credit risk analysis, raised $3.8M Seed

  • Keychain: AI-powered manufacturing for private label goods, raised $9.9M

  • KoBold Metals: Uses AI to find critical mineral deposits, raised $163M

  • Lambda: Rents access to AI chips, raised a $1.5B Series E

  • Logistica OS: AI agents for supply-chain workflows, raised $1.7M Preseed

  • Lovable: Vibe coding startup based in Stockholm, raised a $200M Series A

  • Luma AI: Multimodal world models for generative AI, raised a $900M round

  • Maxima: AI platform automating accounting tasks, raised $41M

  • Modern Life: AI tools for life insurance advisers, raised a $20M Series A

  • NestAI: Physical AI for autonomous and defense systems, raised $115.2M

  • Numeric: AI accounting automation platform, raised a $51M Series B

  • Orion: AI-driven risk intelligence for enterprises, raised $3.5M Seed

  • Peec AI: Helps brands with AI search visibility, raised a $21M Series A

  • Physical Intelligence: AI software for robotic general tasks, raised $600M

  • Pibit.AI: AI risk data system for underwriters, raised a $7M Series A

  • Pipedream: Integration platform for AI agents and apps, acquired by Workday

  • Poly: AI file tagging and content generation, raised $8M Seed

  • Profluent: AI models for protein design, raised $106M

  • Project Prometheus: AI startup co-led by Jeff Bezos, raised $6.2B

  • Replicate: AI model hosting and fine-tuning platform, acquired by Cloudflare

  • Revenium: AI ROI tracking for enterprises, raised $13.5M Seed

  • Runlayer: Provides security tools for AI agent access, raised an $11M Seed

  • Sakana AI: Builds biologically inspired AI systems, raised a $135M Series B

  • Sortera Technologies: AI scrap sorting for high-value aluminum, raised $45M

  • Span: AI-assisted coding value measurement, raised a $25M Seed and Series A

  • Sphere: Developing AI tax compliance software, raised a $21M Series A

  • Stuut Technologies: AI-powered accounts receivable automation, raised a $29.5M Series A

  • Suno: AI-generated music creation platform, raised a $250M Series C

  • Synthio Labs: Voice AI for life sciences engagement, raised $5M Seed

  • TandemAI: AI and lab tech for drug discovery, raised a $22M Series A

  • Turing: AI model for self-driving vehicles, raised a $99M Series A

  • Vend Park: AI-powered parking management for real estate, raised a $17.5M Series A

  • Voize: Ambient AI voice tool for nursing facilities, raised a $50M Series A