In a moment, the results of that social media trial

Top News

• Meta and YouTube ruled negligent: A jury in California found that Meta and YouTube harmed a young user, by purposefully making their platforms addictive, leading to “mental health distress.” The landmark decision requires the companies to collectively pay $3 million in compensatory damages; Meta’s on the hook for 70% of that, while YouTube will cover the rest. The plaintiff — identified only as KGM — accused the companies of creating addictive products, which in turn fueled her anxiety and depression. The jury will next determine punitive damages the companies should pay for “malice or fraud.” This is one of many similar suits progressing across the nation regarding the impact of social media and streaming video apps on young Americans, and it establishes a worrying precedent for these platforms. Specifically, that they can cause personal injuries to individual users. A similar ruling was issued earlier this week by a jury in New Mexico, which found Meta liable for failing to safeguard users against child predators, in violation of state law. They’ll have to pay the state $375 million.

• Trump appoints science and tech council: The White House has created a new “President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology,” or PCAST, which will make recommendations on AI policy and related issues. The 13-member board features several names that will be familiar to Ticker readers, including not one but TWO of Jason’s podcast Besties! Former White House AI and crypto “czar” David Sacks serves as as a co-chairman (along with long-time WH advisor Michael Kratsios), and David Friedberg is also a member in good standing. The list also includes Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Dell Technologies founder and Austin legend Michael Dell, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Nvidia’s own Jensen Huang. There are reportedly plans to expand the 13-member council into a 24-member collective down the road.

• Data center moratorium bill: It’s a big day for politics here in the Ticker. Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT) and Democratic Sen. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) joined forces on a bill — the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act — that would pause all new data center construction across the US, until “strong national safeguards” are put in place. These safeguards would include protections for workers, consumers, the environment, and civil rights. Axios warns that, theoretically, the bill could delay new data center construction for years, depending on how the Senate interprets the concept of “strong” safeguards. In a speech on Tuesday, Sen. Sanders argued:" “A moratorium will give us the chance to figure out how to make sure that AI benefits the working families of this country, not just a handful of billionaires who want more and more wealth and more and more power.”

TWiST 500

Two TWiST 500 companies announced big-time funding rounds this week. That’s the kind of news we always appreciate… Confirmation that we were on to something.

First, legal AI startup Harvey, which raised $200 million at an $11 billion valuation, in a round led by GIC (Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund) and Sequoia. Recall that Harvey just raised $160 million at an $8 billion valuation in December. Sequoia has gone three-for-three in leading Harvey rounds; partner and superfan Pat Grady told CNBC that the company “wrote the playbook for what it means to be an AI-native application company.”

CEO Winston Weinberg suggests they’ll use the new funds to broaden their use of AI agents, while also expanding their “legal engineering teams” worldwide.

Next up: Granola, the AI-powered note-taking and productivity tool, raised $125 million at a $1.5 billion valuation. Index Ventures led the round, and partner Danny Rimer is also joining Granola’s board as an observer. Rimer tells Bloomberg that Index invested after observing that a number of their own staff members had independently signed up for Granola and started using it during meetings.

The company has been seeing rapid growth this year. Revenue is up 2.5x since January, according to CEO Chris Pedregal (though he declined to provide further specifics).

Folks, you’ll never guess what they’re going to put the money toward… AI AGENTS! Specifically, agents that put information and data gathered from Granola meeting notes to productive use. – Lon

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This Week in Startups

E2266: Jason’s exploring the controversy surrounding compliance startup Delve with special guests Elizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund and Ryan Mahdavi from Ceel (another compliance startup, and a Delve competitor). Is Silicon Valley’s “move fast and break things” culture to blame? And why did Ryan always have deep suspicions about the once promising Y Combinator-backed company? PLUS two more demos from data center energy savers Brick and Bittensor Subnet 71, lead generation service LeadPoet.

E2265: In our LaunchFest grand finale, Jason’s joined by Zipline founder Keller Cliffton, who shares his company’s journey from transporting life-saving blood donations to Rwandan hospitals through scaling up to 8 countries and deliveries of all kinds. Plus we’ve got Rahul Vohra from Superhuman sharing his own entrepreneurial backstory, from launching Rapportive while living in Cambridge through his latest startup’s merger with Grammarly.

E2264: This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at LaunchFest in San Francisco! Jason sits down with Robinhood co-founder, Chairman, and CEO Vlad Tenev. Together they reminisce about their first meeting — when Vlad pitched Jason on Robinhood in a dive bar — plus thoughts on the importance of doing multiple launches for a new product, how Robinhood identified its ideal customers, tips for navigating negative press and mistakes that feel existential, plus Vlad’s thoughts on working with AI and nurturing talent internally.

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• Luma AI: Luma builds accessible, professional-grade AI tools for creatives. Try Luma Agents for free at http://lumalabs.ai/twist

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