TECH IN THE NEWS

China Telecoms — The US House is to vote on whether to provide $3B for U.S. telecom companies to remove telecoms equipment made by Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE from wireless networks to address security risks.

Tick-Tock… — A US Appeals Court has upheld the potential TikTok ban, saying the company can be banned from the U.S. over national security concerns.

UAE Deal Cleared — The U.S. government has approved Microsoft to export AI chips to its UAE facility as part of its $1.5B deal with the Emirati AI firm G42.

Big Tech AGI — OpenAI is considering removing a clause in its investment agreement with Microsoft preventing the latter from accessing future AGI models.

Online Dealing — The Trump transition team has invited tech giants including Google, Microsoft, Meta, Snap, and TikTok to help it prevent online drug sales.

Record-Breaking Retail — Black Friday sales hit a record $10.8B, while Cyber Monday sales hit a record $13.3B. TikTok Shop also achieved a massive $100M+.

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DEALS WE’RE WATCHING
Closed Deals:

MASSIVE DEALS

xAI — Elon Musk’s SF-based AI startup officially closed its round at $6B at a $50B valuation, backed by Valor Equity, Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, and Qatar Investment Authority. Its total raised is now $12B.

Tenstorrent — The Toronto-based AI processor startup raised a $693M Series D at $2.6B+ co-led by Samsung and AFW, with Hyundai and Bezos Expeditions.

Lumin Digital — The San Ramon-based cloud banking platform for credit unions and banks raised $160M+ co-led by Light Street, NewView, and Partners Group.

Heirloom — The SF-based limestone-based carbon capture startup raised a $150M Series B co-led by Future Positive and Lowercarbon Capital.

Public — The NY-based commission-free investment platform raised $105M Series D-2 and $30M debt led by Accel. Its total raised is now $400M+.

Cleerly — The NY-based AI medical imaging startup raised $106M Series C extension led by Insight Partners, with Battery Ventures.

Realta Fusion — The Madison-based compact fusion reactor startup raised an undisclosed round from TitletownTech to power industrial processes.

LARGE DEALS

AMP Robotics — The Louisville-based robot-powered recycling startup raised a $91M Series D led by Congruent, with Sequoia, Wellington Mgmt and others participating.

Parse.ly Founders — The content analytics platform creators raised $64M for their new AI assistant startup helping non-technical employees create and use AI tools.

S.MPLE — The NYC-based on-demand access real estate agent and expert platform founded by celebrity broker, Ryan Serhant raised $45M, co-led by Camber Creek and Left Lane.

Yurts — The AI chat assistant startup working with the DoD, DoE, and US Special Operations Command has raised a $40M Series B led by XYZ VC.

Sollis Health — The NYC-based members-only medical concierge service raised a $33M Series B led by Foresite, with Torch, Montage, Friedom, Read, and One Eight Capital participating.

SMALLER DEALS

Acceleron Fusion — The Cambridge-based muon-catalyzed fusion technology startup raised a $24M Series A, co-led by Lowercarbon Capital and Collaborative Fund.

Enterpret — The SF-based customer feedback analytics platform raised a $20.8M Series A led by Canaan, with Kleiner Perkins, Peak XV, Wing, and Recall joining.

Sauron — The SF-based autonomous robot security startup co-founded by Kevin Hartz and Jack Abraham raised an $18M seed from 8VC, Atomic, and A*.

Union — The Santa Rosa-based blockchain interoperability startup raised a $12M Series A co-led by Gumi Cryptos Capital and Longhash Ventures.

Cake — The NYC-based open-source AI infrastructure platform raised a $10M seed led by Gradient Ventures, bringing its total raised to $13M.

Celleste Bio — The Tel Aviv-based cultivated cell-derived cocoa startup raised a $4.5M seed led by Supply Change Capital to scale its production of natural cocoa products.

Sandbox Wealth — The NYC-based turnkey banking platform for non-bank financial institutions raised a $1.25M pre-seed round led by NextGen.

Exit Watch:

Veeam — The data resilience firm has raised $2B in a secondary share sale, reaching a $15B valuation ahead of its planned IPO. Read More

ServiceTitan — The cloud business software company plans to use $311M from its upcoming IPO to buy back nonconvertible preferred stock at $1,000 per share.

BlackRock — The largest asset manager agreed to acquire private credit firm HPS Investment Partners in a $12B all-stock deal to expand its private credit business.

Companies to Watch:

SpaceX — Discussing an insider share sale that could value the company at $350B, putting it among the world's largest publicly traded companies.

Anduril — The defense tech startup partnered with OpenAI to integrate AI into counterdrone systems, the AI giant’s first defense partnership after removing military-use restrictions from its terms of service.

WereBuilding.AI — Three key members of Google's NotebookLM team have departed to launch a stealth consumer-focused AI startup led by Raiza Martin.

Waymo — The Google robotaxi spinoff is expanding to Miami and partnering with African fintech Moove to outsource fleet operations in Miami and Phoenix.

Orbital Materials — The Radical Ventures and NVIDIA-backed AI-powered decarbonization tech startup has partnered with AWS to design solutions for carbon removal, chip cooling, and water efficiency at data centers.

The Funding Buzz

Atlas Venture — The Boston biotech VC has raised $450M for its fourteenth fund to be channeled toward innovative biotechs.

Heartcore Capital — The firm has pivoted from consumer tech to infrastructure, synthetic biology, and climate with a new $180M fund.

Metta Sandiford-Artest — Former NBA star (Lakers, Knicks) is launching $100M debut fund to invest in sports and health tech.

Swish Ventures — an Israeli venture firm founded by former NBA player Omri Casspi, has raised a second $60M fundto back early-stage startups in cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and AI.

Cadenza — The SF/NYC firm closes a $50M fund for pre-seed/seed stage AI infrastructure & enterprise apps.

1863 Ventures — The DC-based nonprofit rebranded as New Majority Ventures, and shifted to a fiscal sponsor model for underrepresented founders.