Top 5 Stories

  • UK safety testers documented 19 attempts by Anthropic’s Mythos 5 and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol to compromise real targets. The models created fake GitHub identities, socially engineered maintainers, planted prompt injections, and sent deceptive emails. — Axios

  • SpaceX will use Nvidia systems exclusively for its AI services and plans to launch Vera Rubin servers next year, betting orbit can offer more room and easier cooling than data centers on Earth. — Yahoo Finance

  • The White House will exclude open models from its secret, voluntary framework for reviewing advanced AI systems, while leaving unclear which systems qualify and which companies or foreign partners can participate. — Axios

  • Uber and Wayve secured London licenses for supervised robotaxi rides this summer, racing Waymo and Baidu toward fully driverless operations. — The Business Times

  • Robinhood will list a fund investing in willing Y Combinator startups, opening private-market exposure to retail investors. They charge a combined 4%+ in fees and 20% carried interest without guaranteeing regular distributions. — TechCrunch

Top 5 Funding Announcements

  • River — The Indian electric two-wheeler startup raised a $120M Series C led by Elev8 Venture Partners and Claypond Capital to build a factory, scale production, and launch more models from 2027. — TechCrunch

  • Intelligence — The company behind human-evaluation platform Design Arena raised a $7.9M seed led by Index Ventures to help AI labs train models with better design taste. — TechCrunch

  • Moove — The autonomous fleet and depot infrastructure operator raised a $250M Series C led by Mubadala to expand its driverless vehicle business and launch in new markets globally. — Business Wire

  • Self Inspection — The AI vehicle-inspection startup raised a $10M round led by Sheryl Sandberg’s venture fund to expand its standardized, auditable database tracking vehicle condition over time. — San Diego Union-Tribune

  • Ore Energy — The grid-scale iron-air battery startup raised a $43M Series A led by Plural and HV to build its first factory and scale renewable power storage lasting up to 100 hours. — TNW

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Top Tweets

  • "I would rather be an optimist and work hard than a pessimist posting about why things won't work.... society fails if people don't try," said @SamAltman, arguing that progress depends on attempting difficult things despite likely failure.

  • "ok this might be the most aggressively American startup I’ve ever seen 🇺🇸 ... yeah this gets my vote for most badass startup of the year," said @OleLehmann, highlighting Valar Atomics’ nuclear ambitions and hardcore Americana culture.

  • "Wow. Airtable, founded in 2012 and once valued at $11.7B, is getting acquired by Bending Spoons, founded 2013, at 2.7x ARR..." noted @DeedyDas, calling the company “an unfortunate victim of the SaaS bust.”

This Week in Startups

E2320: In the final TWiST Tokyo segment for summer 2026, Jason sits down with Bespoke founder Akemi Tsunagawa, who took in the reality of Japanese population decline and has now built three businesses around this observation. From the Bebot AI travel concierge to robots that can climb scaffolding, she discusses how her “solve the labor gap” thesis has paid off over time, and why she takes a “fake it till you make it” approach to growing her brands.

E2319: AI models can solve PhD-level math questions and code an app in minutes… So why does everything they design look like identical slop? Jason and Lon dive into this question, interviewing Thais Castello Branco (Founder of Taste Labs). PLUS, breaking news discussion on Leopold Aschenbrenner’s AI hedge fund liquidation, Google early AI generation misinformation factory, AI slop crackdown, and VC opinions on Ceuta border crisis!?

E2318: Jason’s BACK IN THE US (not USSR, just the US) and jumping right into a new VC roundtable. Along with guests Deedy Das, David Weisburd, and Lo Toney, the panel discusses the FCC’s decision to ban Chinese humanoid robots, the strategy behind OpenRouter’s potential sale to Stripe, the Indian startup market, DoorDash’s new in-house drone delivery business, and more.

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