Part 3: Weekly Download 49: AI Power, Funding, and Big Moves

Transcript

SPEAKER_1: The biggest utility merger in history just happened, and it's directly tied to AI companies needing more power than the grid was ever built to provide. And here's the tension: seventy-one percent of Americans oppose the infrastructure AI actually requires to function. So who wins here, the datacenters or the voters? SPEAKER_2: That's the core question, and it doesn't have an easy answer. The numbers are staggering. We're talking a sixty-seven billion dollar utility merger, a seventy-six percent power price spike, and nearly three quarters of the public pushing back. The scale of what AI demands from the grid is genuinely unprecedented. SPEAKER_1: Let's get into the startup funding news, because there was a lot of movement this week. Mind Robotics raised four hundred million dollars at a three point four billion dollar valuation. That's Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe's robotics spinoff, building AI-powered robots for manufacturing tasks. SPEAKER_2: Right, and then Decart pulled in three hundred million at a four billion dollar valuation. They're working on real-time generative video and GPU optimization tech. And Rapido, India's leading ride-hailing app, raised two hundred and forty million at a three billion dollar valuation, led by Prosus. SPEAKER_1: There were some interesting chip and hardware plays too. Fractile raised two hundred and twenty million in a Series B. They're a UK startup making specialized logic and memory chips specifically for AI inference. SPEAKER_2: And on the edtech side, Multiverse raised seventy million at a two point one billion dollar valuation. They're a London-based startup pushing into AI training, and they also acquired StackFuel back in January. WIRobotics out of Seoul raised sixty-eight million in a Series B. They develop wearable and humanoid robots and are collaborating with Nvidia and AWS. SPEAKER_1: Gridcare also caught my eye. Sixty-four million in a Series A for AI that detects underused capacity in electric grids. Given everything we just said about power demand, that feels very timely. SPEAKER_2: Extremely timely. Then there's NVision, a German quantum MRI imaging startup that raised fifty-five million in a Series B at a two hundred fifty to three hundred million dollar valuation. They're also planning a Series C of over one hundred million later in twenty twenty-six. SPEAKER_1: Monaco raised fifty million in a Series B led by Benchmark for AI sales automation, bringing their total funding to eighty-five million. And Dust raised forty million in a Series B led by Abstract and Sequoia for enterprise AI agent design and deployment. SPEAKER_2: Rounding out the startup raises, Nectar Social got thirty million in a Series A led by Menlo Ventures. They're building an agentic operating system for marketers. And Nord Quantique raised thirty million at a one point four billion dollar valuation. They're a quantum computing startup focused on hardware-level error correction. SPEAKER_1: Now let's talk investor moves. HSG, formerly Sequoia China, closed a three billion dollar continuation fund anchored by its ByteDance stake, offering exposure at roughly a three hundred and seventy billion dollar valuation. SPEAKER_2: And Thrive Capital invested around one hundred million in Shopify, framing it as a bet on how AI could transform commerce. Meanwhile, Bill Ackman's Pershing Square took a new Microsoft stake after the share price declined. Ackman's view is that investors are underestimating Microsoft three sixty-five. SPEAKER_1: Tencent also made news, announcing plans to spend significantly more on AI infrastructure in the second half of twenty twenty-six as more China-designed chips become available. SPEAKER_2: And Igor Babuschkin, a co-founder of xAI, is in talks to raise up to one billion dollars at a five billion dollar valuation for a new AI research startup. General Catalyst is possibly leading that round. SPEAKER_1: On the IPO and M&A side, SpaceX is targeting a June twelfth Nasdaq listing after a faster-than-expected SEC review. The IPO prospectus is expected to go public next week. SPEAKER_2: DayOne, which is a GDS spinoff and China's largest data center operator, is planning a five billion dollar dual IPO in Singapore and New York at roughly a twenty billion dollar valuation. And Kioxia is preparing a US listing after posting a record three point eight billion dollar operating profit in Q four. Their stock is up three hundred percent year to date on the memory chip boom. SPEAKER_1: There were some notable acquisitions too. Publicis is acquiring LiveRamp for two point two billion dollars in cash. LiveRamp's data-sharing technology powers agentic AI frameworks. SPEAKER_2: Hana Bank paid six hundred and seventy-two point five million dollars for a six point five-five percent stake in Dunamu, which runs South Korea's largest crypto exchange, Upbit. Akamai acquired Israeli browser-based AI security startup LayerX Security for around two hundred and five million in cash. And Shein is acquiring Everlane, the DTC sustainability-focused retailer, in a one hundred million dollar deal. SPEAKER_1: To close things out, the parting thought from this week's newsletter really sums it up. A nine hundred billion dollar valuation. A sixty-seven billion dollar utility merger. A seventy-six percent power price spike. Seventy-one percent public opposition. The numbers keep getting bigger, but the questions keep getting harder. SPEAKER_2: And it's not just the numbers. Anthropic is briefing the FSB and advising the Pope while most Americans don't want a data center near their house. Claude is reportedly trying to start revolutions on the radio, and Stanford students are, quote, fudging just about everything. Something has to give. SPEAKER_1: That's a wrap on Weekly Download forty-nine. The big themes: AI's power demands are colliding with public opposition at a massive scale. Startup funding is flowing heavily into robotics, chips, and quantum. Investors are making bold bets on AI-adjacent commerce and infrastructure. And the IPO and M&A market is moving fast. A lot to watch heading into the next week.