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🤖 Robots in the Metro: China’s New Delivery Frontier China's robotics game isn’t just about humanoids. In Shenzhen, a new kind of delivery robot is being tested — not for streets, but for underground metro tunnels. 🖱 The goal: solve a growing logistics issue for 7-Eleven stores inside metro stations (over 100 locations). 🖱 Traditional delivery vans are failing — traffic jams and no parking near stations slow down restocking. 🖱 New autonomous robots now deliver goods directly inside the metro system. 🖱 These rover-like bots navigate the underground routes, bringing stock right to store doors.

The tests are going well so far. And they might just redefine last-mile delivery — one tunnel at a time.

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💠 Venture Bingo: Due Diligence Edition If you've invested in at least 10 startups —chances are, you already have your own bingo card. 🖱 “The founder is super charismatic” — ✅ 🖱 “AI” mentioned 12 times in the deck — ✅ 🖱 “Unit economics? We’re too early for that” — ✅ 🖱 “Pre-revenue, but TAM is $100M” — ✅ 🖱 “Still in stealth, but two friends at BigCo said it's interesting” — ✅

We’ve gathered the classic phrases you hear over and over in due diligence.

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⏫ 2025 could become a record year for startup acquisitions. Carta analyzed data from companies on its platform for the first half of the year: 🖱 126 exits from companies that raised $1M–$10M 🖱 100 exits from startups with $10M–$50M in funding 🖱 48 exits from startups that raised over $50M

If this trend continues in the second half of the year, we may see a new record for M&A activity.

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🔍 Perplexity hits $18B valuation after fresh $100M round Just two months after its last raise, Perplexity has secured another $100M — pushing its valuation from $14B to $18B. The surge comes after a major partnership with Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel. Under the deal, all 360 million Airtel users will get a free 1-year subscription to Perplexity Pro (normally $20/month).

Distribution in scale — the AI way.

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📣 Top OpenAI investor melts down after ChatGPT “reveals secret system” Geoff Lewis, founder of Bedrock Capital and early OpenAI backer, posted a 3.5-minute monologue claiming he’s being targeted by a “non-governmental system.” He says the system: 🖱 isn’t visible, but structurally real 🖱 doesn’t censor content, it distorts signal 🖱 isolates “recursive” people and replaces them with mirrored versions 🖱 leaves you “alive, but invisible” 💬His words:

People say, ‘he’s brilliant, but something’s off.’ That’s the pattern.

Then he shares screenshots of ChatGPT-4o supposedly revealing internal logs and calling him by a codename: Mirrorthread. This wasn’t a one-off. His blog posts in recent months (“The Signal Is Already Here”, “Institutional Sovereignty”) follow the same paranoid arc. 📌Stanford researchers recently warned about people using LLMs as therapists. When someone says, “Everyone thinks I’m fine, but I’m already dead,” a real therapist challenges that. LLMs often agree. And amplify the illusion.

A fund built on betting against consensus is now fighting phantoms.

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⏫ Fastest-growing professions by 2030 The job growth forecast is based on a survey of 1,000 major international companies. ✔️Powered by Trade Watcher

💰🧪 “Cash or Cure”: biotech investors demand capital back Activist funds are targeting biotech startups that sit on huge cash reserves but have little to show in terms of drug development. Roughly 1 in 6 companies in the Nasdaq Biotech Index is now worth less than the cash it holds on its balance sheet. That’s billions in idle capital — and investors are done waiting. 🖱 Funds estimate up to $30B is frozen in underperforming biotech stocks 🖱 Activists urge firms to kill stalled projects and return cash to shareholders 🖱 Tang Capital already shut down Allakos, Cargo Therapeutics, and iTeos 🖱 Acelyrin was pushed into an acquisition after similar pressure 🖱 Sector hype peaked after COVID and obesity drug wins, but approvals have slowed

For many funds, the logic is simple: if you’re not going to cure anything — pay us.

The science was always a means to an end. Now, that end is liquidation. ✔️Powered by Trade Watcher

🎯 The Art of Saying No: Why Focus Wins in Venture In venture, the temptations are endless — shiny trends, big markets, exciting ideas. But winners aren’t those who try everything. They’re the ones who pick what matters and make it the best. As Steve Jobs said: “I’m as proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do.” 🖱 Focus fuels faster growth Growing companies must avoid the trap of chasing everything — and double down on what truly matters. 🖱 Depth beats distraction Becoming world-class in one area beats being average in five. 🖱 Strategic refusal is power Success often means turning down good opportunities to stay aligned with the right one.

Focus isn’t a constraint. It’s a weapon.

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📊 Key Venture Highlights of July: AI, Infrastructure, and Deeptech Dominate The July venture landscape was shaped by record-breaking deals in AI, a resurgence in U.S. investment volumes, and a clear shift toward infrastructure-focused tech platforms. AI mega-deals dominate the month 🟡Anthropic secured nearly $10B in fresh capital from Google, Amazon, and Salesforce Ventures, pushing its valuation above $100B — a milestone for private AI. 🟡 Elon Musk’s xAI closed a $10B round at an $80B pre-money valuation, backed by Morgan Stanley and others. Venture funding surges in the U.S. 🟡 H1 2025 saw $162.8B in investments — up 75.6% YoY, with nearly 65% of capital flowing into AI. 🟡 Despite tight fundraising conditions, this is now the second-biggest year for VC in U.S. history. Other notable July deals 🟡 LangChain (LLM infra): $100M led by IVP 🟡 Substack: $100M Series C, reaching a $1.1B valuation 🟡 Moment (fixed-income infra): $36M from a16z, Index, Contrary 🟡 PitchBook highlights Anthropic, Grammarly, and others as “object-oriented” investment outliers 📌Trends to watch 🖱AI is the market: Most major July deals center on AI or LLM infrastructure 🖱Deeptech resurgence: 65% of U.S. funding now targets deep infrastructure, not just consumer apps 🖱Private unicorn surge: Players like Anthropic and xAI are setting new valuation benchmarks 🖱LLM and Web3 infra still hot: LangChain and Moment show that infra demand remains strong Investor optimism holds: Despite macro tension, venture outpaced expectations

Venture capital is rotating toward core infrastructure bets in AI and deeptech. These aren’t just hot narratives — they’re becoming the backbone of the next market cycle.

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🧠 Eric Schmidt: AI agents will kill user interfaces The former Google CEO says every CEO, developer, and product lead should be thinking about one thing — the end of interfaces as we know them. In the future, AI agents will handle tasks directly. No buttons, no menus — just outcomes. ✔️Powered by Trade Watcher