TL;DR

OpenAI targets $500B valuation in $6B share sale; U.S. resumes AI chip exports to China; Ethereum ETFs hit record inflows.

Highlights

• OpenAI is arranging a $6B secondary share sale led by SoftBank, Thrive Capital, and Dragoneer, which would raise its valuation to $500B and provide liquidity for employees 12.
• OpenAI’s annualized revenue run-rate has doubled to $12B, with 700M weekly ChatGPT users following the GPT-5 launch 1.
• U.S. President Trump has authorized Nvidia and AMD to resume AI chip sales to China with a 15% revenue levy to the U.S. Treasury, reversing a prior export ban 4.
• China’s regulators are pressuring Tencent, ByteDance, and Baidu to reduce Nvidia H20 purchases and shift to domestic AI chips, mandating 50% local processor use in public AI data centers by 2025 4.
• Japan’s FSA is expected to approve JPYC, the first yen-denominated stablecoin, targeting ¥1T ($7B) issuance over three years 5.
• Ethereum ETFs saw record $2.9B weekly inflows, outpacing Bitcoin products, as the unstaking queue reached 900,000 ETH ($3.8B) 11.
• Norway’s $1.7T sovereign wealth fund increased Bitcoin holdings by 83% to 11,600 BTC, mainly via MicroStrategy , and doubled positions in Strategy and Metaplanet 10.
• Trump’s World Liberty Fund added $18.6M in Bitcoin and Ether during a digital asset market pullback 9.
• Chainlink’s LINK token rose 12% to $26, driven by whale accumulation and a new buy-back mechanism 15.
• xAI released a Grok app update improving image generation and animation; Grok is now #2 in Australia’s productivity App Store category 6.
• Apple is holding back Vision Pro content amid slow uptake, while Meta plans to launch $800 smart glasses in September, intensifying wearable competition 13.
• China hosted the first World Humanoid Robot Games, highlighting government-backed investment in robotics and embodied AI 12.

Commentary

OpenAI’s $6B secondary share sale at a $500B valuation—driven by rapid revenue growth and user expansion—signals continued investor demand for late-stage AI exposure and provides liquidity to early stakeholders 12. This valuation jump, supported by strong product uptake post-GPT-5, will likely drive up pricing expectations across the AI startup landscape and could accelerate secondary market activity for other high-growth private AI companies 1.

The U.S. policy shift allowing Nvidia and AMD to resume AI chip sales to China—albeit with a 15% revenue levy—offers short-term relief for U.S. chipmakers but introduces new regulatory complexity 4. China’s simultaneous push for domestic AI chip adoption and new procurement mandates for public data centers will likely accelerate local semiconductor innovation and open opportunities for startups in sovereign compute, chip design, and AI hardware within Asia and allied markets 4. VCs should expect ongoing supply chain bifurcation and increased policy risk in cross-border hardware deals 4.

Digital asset flows remain robust: Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and Trump’s World Liberty Fund are increasing crypto allocations, while Ethereum ETFs are seeing record inflows despite price volatility and a growing unstaking queue 91011. Japan’s move to approve a yen stablecoin signals continued regulatory progress in digital assets, which may benefit fintech and crypto infrastructure startups 5. However, the swelling ETH unstaking queue could pressure token prices and create tactical volatility for crypto-focused portfolios 11.

In consumer tech, Apple ’s slow Vision Pro content rollout and Meta’s aggressive $800 smart glasses launch highlight divergent go-to-market strategies in spatial computing 13. For VCs, this suggests near-term opportunity in software, content, and enabling tech for mixed reality, as well as in startups that can bridge gaps between premium and mass-market devices 13. Meanwhile, xAI’s Grok update and China’s humanoid robot games underscore increasing iteration speed and data generation in embodied AI and robotics, with government and consumer interest driving investment in automation 612.