Two hot mics revealed more about the geopolitics of technology than any official speech. In Washington, the White House staged its theatre of alignment: CEOs of Meta, Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI pledging vast sums, with Zuckerberg blurting out a $600B US commitment through 2028 and Altman thanking Trump for a “pro-business, pro-innovation” agenda. It was a reminder that capital itself is now a tool of statecraft, deployed to signal sovereignty in the AI race. Meanwhile in Astana, Putin and Xi were overheard musing about organ transplants and immortality - an unsettling glimpse into how biotech breakthroughs are reframing power, longevity, and societal futures. The lesson is clear: venture funding is more than private capital - it is the strategic lifeblood shaping which societies thrive in the next era.
IPOs / Publics
Robinhood + AppLovin shares jumped after news they would join the S&P500. Robinhood +14%, AppLovin +11%.
StubHub and Netskope are gearing up to launch IPO roadshows that could raise ~$1B each.
Stripe is spinning up a blockchain outfit (Tempo) for high-volume stablecoin payments like remittances & business transactions. Paradigm’s Matt Huang at the helm, partners include OpenAI & Visa.
Google €3.5B fine from EU for steering ad sales to its own exchange. News of EU fine led Trump to threaten a trade probe to “nullify” “discriminatory penalties” on US tech giants
Judge blocks Google from exclusive search distribution deals; must share some data with rivals.
No breakup of Chrome/Android, no mandated choice screens.
Google can keep paying Apple ~$20B annually for default iPhone search.
Apple
Apple exploring full-scale AI model with web knowledge, potentially search-like.
May use Google Gemini as backend.
Ongoing $20B revenue-share deal with Google discourages Apple from launching full competitor.
Tesla
Tesla board proposes up to $900B pay package for Musk if market cap hits $8.5T.
Musk focusing on robots/futurism while Tesla faces EV competition from China.
Big Dogs
Mistral set to close €2B funding round at €12B valuation, doubling its €5.8B valuation last year when it raised €600M Series B.
OpenAI expanding secondary sale letting insiders sell $10.3B stock at ~$500B valuation. Also placed $10B order with Broadcom for custom AI chips for 2026, challenging Nvidia dominance. Fidji Simo (ex-Instacart) appointed head of product. First vertical product is AI recruiting tool - “OpenAI Jobs Platform”, expected to launch mid-2026 and compete with LinkedIn.
Kraken raising $750M at $15B pre-money in a “pre-IPO” round.
Anthropic $13B Ser F led by ICONIQ at $183B post, with Fidelity and others. Also agreed to pay $1.5B to settle a copyright lawsuit from 500k authors over pirated books. Announced will no longer sell tech to companies majority-owned by Chinese entities or other US adversaries. Anthropic has also backed California SB 53, favouring national AI rules over state-level patchwork.
ElevenLabs (AI voice generator) is eyeing a $6B+ valuation in employee share sale.
Sierra (AI agents for enterprise customer service) close to $350M round led by Greenoaks at $10B valuation – more than double previous – as ARR nears $100M.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems (Fusion Energy) raised $863M Series B2, bringing total close to $3B.
ID.me (identity verification) raised $340M at $2B valuation. Platform used by >20 US federal and 45 state agencies, plus hospitals and retailers. Led by Ribbit.
Quantinuum (integrated quantum) raised $600M at $10B pre. Backed by Honeywell, Cambridge Quantum, JPMorgan. Funding will support launch of Helios quantum computer.
Revolut hired ex-Société Générale boss as it expands in France.
Venture Capital
Europe’s global VC share fell to 13% (from 19% YoY). Funding down 11% YoY
Dealroom – Europe’s VC-backed startups now worth $3.5T. Share of new enterprise value (~17% for startups founded in last 5yrs) rising, but capital needs outstrip domestic supply. For $100M+ rounds, 58% funding comes from outside Europe. Pension funds invest almost nothing in VC – a strategic vulnerability. Allocating 2% of AuM to VC would transform the ecosystem.
Venture Geopolitics
AI Act deadlines – first bans began Feb 2025; obligations for general-purpose AI models arrive Aug 2025; full rollout by Aug 2026. Fines up to €35M/7% global turnover.
Vanguard states how AI could offset demographic pressures from the “silver tsunami.” More Americans will turn 65 in 2025 than ever before; ~16M expected to retire by 2035. Worker-to-retiree ratio is falling, threatening growth while raising fiscal strain.
Wikipedia is relying on volunteers to fend off attacks from Musk, India, Russia, the UK and Trump’s DOJ.
Switzerland launched Apertus, an open-source LLM with training data, documentation, and datasets fully published. Aims to position public models as a utility.
Tech leaders at White House – CEOs from Meta, Microsoft, Google, OpenAI attended. Zuckerberg pledged $600B US investment through 2028, though later admitted he “wasn’t ready” for the number on a hot mic. Sam Altman thanked Trump for a “pro-business, pro-innovation” agenda. Sergey Brin thanked him for pressure on Venezuela.
Putin & Xi caught on hot mic discussing organ transplants and immortality. Reflects biotech advances making radical longevity more plausible.
Warner Bros joined Disney and Universal in suing Midjourney for profiting from unlicensed film IP. Could set copyright precedent.
SEC & CFTC issued joint statement on spot crypto assets, signalling shift toward trading tokens on established exchanges.
North Korea hackers using fake recruiter pitches to steal digital wallets.
UK - Darktrace founder Poppy Gustafsson quit as UK investment minister.
Strategic Sectors
Defence
Anduril & Meta awarded US govt contract for combat goggle prototypes. Rival Rivet won $195M contract. For Meta, deal ties VR/metaverse to defence.
TurbineOne won $98.9M US Army contract for battlefield software that runs locally without steady cloud connection. Part of Trump administration push to work with startups.
Autonomous Vehicles
Trump is easing self-driving regulations – DoT to propose rules allowing exceptions to outdated safety standards (e.g. wipers, defrosters) for driverless vehicles.