Venture Capital

💼 Robinhood opens VC fund to retail investors Robinhood is launching Robinhood Ventures Fund I (RVI), a closed-end, publicly traded venture capital fund designed to let everyday investors buy into private companies, a space long reserved for institutions and the wealthy. 🖱 Managed by new arm Robinhood Ventures, filed with the SEC 🖱Open to Robinhood’s 26.5M customers 🖱 Targets private firms as public listings keep shrinking 🖱 Offers long-term, illiquid stakes with higher potential upside (and risk) 🖱 Pitched as democratizing access to Silicon Valley-style investing

The fund pushes the “retail revolution” into venture capital, but raises the question: will broad access to risky, illiquid startups empower small investors, or expose them to hazards they can’t hedge?

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⚡ Musk buys $1B in Tesla shares to boost control Elon Musk just purchased about 2.57M Tesla shares in open-market trades, spending nearly $1B to slightly lift his stake from 12.7% to 12.8%. 🖱 Paid between $372–$397 per share in the transactions 🖱 Tesla stock jumped over 8% pre-market after the disclosure 🖱 Musk has said he wants ~25% voting power at Tesla for long-term influence 🖱 Even this billion-dollar buy moves him only a fraction closer 🖱 Comes as Tesla pivots beyond EVs into robotaxis, AI, and robotics

The purchase signals confidence, but highlights the steep cost of Musk’s quest for control — raising the question: can he realistically reach 25% without massive new funding or board maneuvers?

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💼 Tesla board chair defends Elon Musk’s $1T pay package Tesla shareholders will vote in November on a 10-year, $1 trillion compensation deal for Elon Musk - the largest in corporate history. Board Chair Robyn Denholm, who helped craft the plan, dismissed criticism. 🖱 Performance-based: Musk gets nothing unless he hits future goals 🖱 Power over pay: Denholm says the real issue is Musk’s voting control, not the dollar figure 🖱 Timing: Proposal arrives as Tesla’s vehicle sales and profits are slipping 🖱 Dismissive tone: Denholm called the debate “a little bit weird”

Tesla positions the package as a bet on Musk’s ability to drive long-term growth, but with financial headwinds, the shareholder vote may be anything but smooth.

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📊 Gemini pops 14% in $425M Nasdaq debut Crypto exchange Gemini surged on its first day of trading, closing at $32 per share - a 14% jump from its IPO price of $28. The debut raised $425M, marking another win in crypto’s streak of successful listings. 🖱 Fully diluted market cap opened at $3.3B, well below its $7.1B peak valuation in 2021 🖱 IPO demand forced Gemini to raise its price range twice before pricing above it 🖱 Nasdaq invested $50M in a private placement at the IPO price, boosting confidence 🖱 Recent crypto IPOs like Circle, Bullish, and Figure also saw strong first-day gains 🖱 Despite mounting losses, investors piled in, underscoring appetite for crypto-native firms

Gemini’s public debut is a clear signal: traditional markets are warming up to crypto exposure, and the Winklevoss twins just scored their biggest validation yet.

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⚠️ xAI fires 500 annotators, then announces 10x hiring spree Elon Musk’s xAI laid off 500 data annotators overnight — roughly one-third of its annotation division, the company’s largest unit. Hours later, xAI posted that it plans to grow its “AI trainer” team by 10x. 🖱 Laid off staff were “general-purpose” annotators handling basic labeling tasks 🖱 Departures were abrupt - same-day emails, revoked access, rising complaints 🖱 New hiring targets domain experts in STEM, finance, medicine, security, and more 🖱 Suggests routine annotation is being automated, with humans reserved for complex work 🖱 Messaging framed as building “AI that seeks the truth”

The move highlights a shift from broad, manual labeling toward specialized human input raising the question: is this AI taking jobs, or creating new ones?

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📊 Crypto Venture Weekly: September 8–12, 2025 $1.48B was raised across 24 projects this week, led by Figure’s $788M IPO and Rapyd’s $500M Series F. Forward Industries and Eightco Holdings added $1.94B in SOL and WLD reserves. Here’s what the top 7 are building 👇 🖱 Figure ($788M IPO, $5.29B valuation) Blockchain-native capital marketplace connecting origination, funding, and secondary markets. 🖱 Rapyd ($500M, General Catalyst, Spark, BlackRock, Dragoneer, Altimeter, Target Global) Global payments infrastructure platform bridging fintech and crypto rails. 🖱 Gemini ($50M, Nasdaq Ventures) Centralized exchange raising strategically ahead of its IPO. 🖱 Inversion ($26.5M, Dragonfly, HashKey, ParaFi, Mirana, MoonRock, Balaji Srinivasan) Private equity model applied to crypto, acquiring low-margin trad businesses and layering blockchain infra. 🖱 Tetra ($10M, Shopify, Purpose, Wealthsimple, National Bank Holdings) Canadian digital asset custodian building a regulated CAD-backed stablecoin. 🖱 Multipli ($5M, Pantera, Spartan, Sequoia, Avalanche Foundation) Yield platform for native, stable, and tokenized real-world assets. 🖱 Runesoul ($4M, Bitgo Capital, AccelByte, IGC Global) 3D card-based action RPG in Web3.

Investor focus this week was on stablecoin infra, regulated custody, tokenized yields, and gaming - while massive treasury moves and M&A reshaped the landscape.

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📈 Via ends first trading day just above IPO price Transit software company Via had a cautious market debut, with shares opening below the $46 IPO price before recovering to close slightly higher at just over $49, valuing the company at about $3.9B. 🖱 IPO raised nearly $493M, including ~$328M in new shares and ~$164M from existing holders 🖱 Via projects ~$429M revenue in 2025, with ~30% YoY growth, but remains unprofitable (H1 loss of $37.5M) 🖱 The company powers microtransit for 689 cities and transit agencies worldwide 🖱 Past acquisitions: Remix (2021) and Citymapper (2023); CEO hints at more deals ahead 🖱 Proceeds will go toward growth, sales, marketing and potentially strategic acquisitions

Via’s steady debut reflects tempered enthusiasm, but its government-focused transit tech model positions it as a unique public player in urban mobility.

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💻 Replit unveils Agent 3 and secures $250M at $3B valuation Developer platform Replit has raised $250M at a $3B valuation, in a round led by Prysm Capital with participation from American Express Ventures, AI Futures Fund, and others. Alongside the funding, the company introduced its most advanced AI agent yet. 🖱 Agent 3 can autonomously test applications, build social media bots, and even create new AI agents 🖱 The launch signals Replit’s move from coding assistance to fully autonomous software creation 🖱 Funding will fuel product expansion and scaling of its AI-driven development environment 🖱 Investors see Replit as a key player at the intersection of dev tools and AI automation

By combining fresh capital with a powerful new product, Replit positions itself at the frontier of AI-native software development.

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🤝 OpenAI settles terms with Microsoft, paves way for restructuring OpenAI has resolved its financial disputes with Microsoft and will transfer a $100B stake to the nonprofit that oversees it. The moves clear the path for transforming into a public benefit corporation, opening access to broader investment and a potential IPO. 🖱 Microsoft invested over $13B, initially securing rights to 49% of future profits 🖱 The new deal revises those terms, though details remain undisclosed 🖱 NYT reports the agreement also adjusts clauses around Microsoft’s access to top-tier tech if OpenAI reaches AGI 🖱 The nonprofit’s ownership strengthens its role in guiding OpenAI’s long-term mission

This shift signals OpenAI’s transition from research lab to market-facing giant, balancing investor power with governance safeguards.

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💰 Nebius lands $3B boost with Microsoft deal Amsterdam-based Nebius has secured $3 billion in fresh funding, just days after signing a landmark partnership with Microsoft. The raise combines $2B in convertible notes and $1B in new shares, aimed at expanding land and computing capacity. 🖱 Microsoft will receive dedicated capacity from a new Vineland, New Jersey, data center later this year 🖱 Convertible notes mature in 2030 and 2032, with coupons between 1.25%–3.25% and conversion premiums of 45%–50% 🖱 Nebius projects at least $17.4B in revenue through 2031 from the deal, a huge leap from $117.5M in 2023 sales 🖱 Microsoft becomes Nebius’ largest customer, signaling its move into top-tier AI infrastructure supply 🖱 The company spun out from Yandex last year, previously focused on smaller businesses and startups

This puts Nebius on the map as a serious challenger in the AI cloud race, with Microsoft’s backing giving it both scale and credibility.

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🚀 PsiQuantum raises $1B to build a million-qubit computer Quantum startup PsiQuantum secured a $1B Series E led by BlackRock, Temasek, and Baillie Gifford, doubling its valuation to $7B. 🖱 Goal: deliver a fault-tolerant, 1M-qubit machine by 2028 🖱 New investors include Macquarie, Ribbit, Nvidia’s NVentures, and Adage Capital 🖱 Tech: photonic chipsets with Barium Titanate for ultra-fast optical switching 🖱 Partnership with Nvidia to integrate GPUs for hybrid quantum-AI workloads Rivals aren’t standing still - Quantinuum just raised $600M at $10B, and Google unveiled its error-correcting Willow chip. IBM has its own roadmap.

The quantum arms race is now funded at billion-dollar scale.

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⛅OpenAI signs record $300B cloud deal with Oracle OpenAI has agreed to a five-year, $300 billion contract with Oracle for cloud services, starting in 2027 - the largest such deal in history. The scale of the infrastructure will demand 4.5 GW of power, comparable to four million households. 🖱 OpenAI reported ~$10B annual revenue in June, far below the ~$60B it must pay each year under the contract 🖱 Oracle will likely need financing to buy AI chips for its data centers 🖱 The agreement ties a huge portion of Oracle’s future revenue to a single client 🖱 Analysts call the deal a risky gamble for both sides, with execution hinging on long-term AI demand

This partnership underscores the extreme capital intensity of the AI race and how even tech giants must take outsized risks to secure capacity.

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The most topical piece of art has just been spotted in San Francisco. ✔️Powered by Trade Watcher

📹 Vimeo sold in $1.38B deal Vimeo will be acquired by European app giant Bending Spoons in an all-cash transaction worth $1.38B, with the deal set to close in Q4 2025. Once finalized, Vimeo will be delisted from public markets. 🖱 Bending Spoons says it will invest heavily in Vimeo’s U.S. and global offerings, focusing on enterprise, streaming, and creator tools 🖱 The company has a record of aggressive cost-cutting — after buying Evernote and WeTransfer, it slashed staff and restricted free features 🖱 Vimeo, spun out of IAC in 2021, has since lost nearly 90% of its market value

The acquisition could bring Vimeo fresh resources, but given Bending Spoons’ history, many creators will be watching closely to see if the platform thrives — or gets hollowed out.

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💰 Larry Ellison overtakes Musk as world’s richest man Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has claimed the top spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index for the first time, surpassing Elon Musk. 🖱 Ellison’s fortune jumped by $101B in a single day after Oracle reported better-than-expected earnings and strong cloud growth outlook 🖱 His net worth now stands at $393B, compared to Musk’s $385B 🖱 At 81, Ellison still holds most of his wealth in Oracle, the company he founded in 1977

From databases to the cloud, Oracle just made its founder richer than Tesla’s icon.

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🐎 Volkswagen puts horsepower behind a paywall VW is testing a subscription model in the UK that locks part of the ID.3’s power output unless drivers pay extra. 🖱 Base ID.3 Pro S shows 201 hp, with full 228 hp unlocked for £16.50/month, £165/year, or £649 lifetime 🖱 Comes with a one-month free trial for buyers 🖱 Move echoes Mercedes’ “Acceleration Increase” and BMW’s failed heated-seat subscription 🖱 Critics call it nickel-and-diming on a $50K car, while VW says it offers flexibility for lease customers

It’s another sign that when cars become software, ownership doesn’t mean what it used to.

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🚀 Dan Loeb: turning chaos into profit

“The only thing I do know is that from chaos comes opportunity.”

— Dan Loeb The founder of Third Point made his name as an activist investor by entering messy situations and forcing change. His playbook: use market noise, leadership failures, and strategic confusion as leverage for growth. 🖱 Yahoo! — pushed for leadership change and a new strategy 🖱 Sony — argued for spinning off divisions to unlock value 🖱 Nestlé — pressed for faster innovation and higher efficiency Opportunity often hides in turbulence — crises, pivots, and corporate dead ends. Those who stay calm and systematic can extract the upside. ✔️Powered by Trade Watcher

🤖 ASML bets $1.5B on Mistral ASML, Europe’s chipmaking giant, is set to invest €1.3B ($1.5B) into French AI startup Mistral, becoming its largest shareholder and securing a board seat. 🖱 Part of a €1.7B Series C valuing Mistral at €10B ($11.7B) pre-money — Europe’s top AI valuation 🖱 Marks a strategic push for European tech sovereignty in AI and semiconductors 🖱 ASML already uses AI to optimize its €180M EUV machines — Mistral’s expertise could sharpen that edge 🖱 Mistral, founded in 2023, has backing from Nvidia and previously raised at a $6B valuation

This tie-up unites Europe’s chip crown jewel with its hottest AI model maker - a symbolic step toward reducing reliance on US and Chinese tech.

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💵 Biggest Latin American rounds of 2025 This year’s largest funding rounds in LatAm were led by Klar and Ualá - both neobanks. Fintech once again proved to be the dominant sector across the region.

The takeaway: capital is still flowing most aggressively into financial services, confirming fintech’s position as the backbone of Latin America’s startup scene.

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🚕 Uber and Momenta to launch robotaxi trials in Germany Uber and Chinese AV startup Momenta will begin testing autonomous vehicles in Munich in 2026 - their first publicly announced city in continental Europe. 🖱 Cars will start with human safety operators onboard 🖱 Puts Uber in direct competition with Lyft–Baidu’s upcoming AV launches in Germany and the UK 🖱 Uber already partners with 20 AV firms globally, generating 1.5M trips annually 🖱 Momenta’s ADAS tech is installed in 400K+ vehicles, including models from Mercedes, BMW, and Audi

Munich’s automotive heritage made it Uber’s European launchpad. The next phase: convincing regulators that Level 4 robotaxis are safe for public roads.

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