TL;DR

Amazon eyes deeper Anthropic AI stake; xAI Grok 4 tops benchmarks; Varda Space raises $187M Series C.

Highlights

• Amazon is considering a new multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, expanding on its existing $8B stake and securing AI licensing deals with Condé Nast and Hearst 1.
• xAI launched Grok 4, outperforming OpenAI and Google on key AI benchmarks and debuting a premium subscription tier 3.
• Meta offered over $200M (triple Apple CEO pay) to recruit Apple’s AI chief Ruoming Pang, underscoring the AI talent bidding war 4.
• Google expanded Veo 3’s global access to Gemini AI Pro subscribers and added image-to-video generation features 10.
• California’s SB 53 would require major AI firms to disclose safety protocols and significant incidents, reviving regulatory scrutiny of frontier AI 7.
• Varda Space raised $187M Series C led by Natural Capital and Shrug Capital to scale robotic drug manufacturing in orbit; Spacelift raised $51M for data center automation 2.
• Ant Group is integrating USDC via a partnership with Circle, expanding stablecoin payment options for global merchants 5.
• The U.S. Treasury repealed Form 1099-DA crypto broker reporting rules, easing tax compliance for DeFi platforms 6.
• Coinbase partnered with Perplexity AI to provide real-time crypto market data and AI-driven analytics 11.
• Tesla is expanding its Austin robotaxi pilot and plans to launch in the Bay Area within two months 12.
• AWS unveiled an in-house liquid cooling solution for data centers, pressuring supplier Vertiv’s shares 9.
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is visiting China to promote a new AI chip at the China Supply Chain Expo; Huawei is seeking to export AI chips to the Middle East and Southeast Asia amid U.S. controls 13.
• Nasdaq-listed K Wave Media raised $1B to build a 10,000-bitcoin treasury, reflecting increased corporate crypto adoption 14.
• Ferrero agreed to acquire WK Kellogg for $3.1B in cash, continuing North American M&A in consumer staples 15.

Commentary

AI investment and competition remain at the forefront, with Amazon weighing a deeper stake in Anthropic and securing content deals to strengthen its AI offerings 1. The rapid deployment of Grok 4 by xAI, along with Meta ’s aggressive compensation to lure Apple ’s AI chief, highlights both the pace of model advancement and the escalating cost of top-tier AI talent 34. Google ’s broader rollout of Veo 3 and new generative features further intensify the race for AI-enabled content creation 10. For VCs, the concentration of capital and expertise at the top end of the AI stack may raise entry barriers for new startups, but also signals continued demand for differentiated infrastructure and application plays.

Regulatory developments are mixed. California’s SB 53 could impose new transparency and compliance burdens on AI companies, particularly those building large-scale models, while also funding public compute resources for startups and researchers 7. In crypto, the U.S. Treasury’s rollback of broker reporting rules 6 and Ant Group’s USDC integration 5 point to a more permissive environment for digital assets, which may accelerate product development and deal flow in fintech and DeFi. Coinbase ’s partnership with Perplexity AI reflects the trend of integrating AI for real-time analytics in trading platforms 11.

Vertical integration by cloud providers is a growing risk for infrastructure startups and suppliers. AWS ’s move to in-house liquid cooling underscores the pressure on vendors like Vertiv and signals that hyperscalers may increasingly build rather than buy critical components 9. Meanwhile, Varda Space’s large Series C and Spacelift’s funding round show that deeptech and automation remain attractive to VCs, particularly where startups address new market opportunities or operational bottlenecks 2.

Corporate crypto adoption is accelerating, as seen with K Wave Media’s $1B bitcoin treasury strategy 14 and similar moves by other Nasdaq-listed firms. This trend, alongside regulatory easing 6 and stablecoin integration 5, could drive further institutionalization and support for crypto infrastructure startups. M&A activity remains robust, with Ferrero’s acquisition of WK Kellogg indicating continued appetite for consolidation in consumer sectors 15.