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Top Signals: SpaceX revenue doubles on AI compute, Palantir +150% US commercial growth, & SoftBank $8.2B Intel windfall

Big Movers: Anthropic-Volta $10B AI cloud deal, SK Hynix $38B HBM fab push, Palantir +29%, & Amazon UK drone hub

Open Deals: Startups raising capital across AI cloud, defence-tech, home batteries, robotaxi infra, EVs, AI science, weather AI & underwriting

Mega Rounds: Hadrian $1.37B Series D at $7.87B, Base Power $1B at $13B, Valar Atomics $1B at $6B, Volta $300M, & Moove $250M

Exit Watching: OpenAI acquires NextSlide, Bending Spoons buys Airtable for $1.28B, SpaceX AI bet spooks investors, & Nscale US IPO watch

The Funding Buzz: Lightspeed targets Gen Z founders with creator-led seed strategy, plus AI infra, defense, energy & venture dealflow signals

— Shreman Shrestha, Head of Business

Granola’s revenue motion runs on Attio. Here’s what that adds up to:

The hottest Signals & News To Watch This Week

SpaceX — First post-IPO earnings show revenue doubling YoY driven by AI compute deals with Anthropic/Google leveraging Starlink. AI division revenue up 3x to $2.6B Q2 despite $1.5B loss. Plans competing with AT&T/Verizon/T-Mobile.

Palantir — Stock rose 12% post-earnings driven by 150% YoY surge in US commercial revenue with upgraded full-year revenue outlook.

Tesla — Elon Musk dedicated ~50% of earnings call to AI topics including FSD and robotics rather than vehicle updates underscoring AI’s increasing significance.

AMD — California semiconductor company posted 50% revenue increase signaling strong growth yet investor skepticism persists with stock yet to gain significantly.

SoftBank — Surpassed Q1 profit expectations with $8.2B gain from Intel showcasing robust portfolio performance highlighting strength in chip industry.

Big tech moves, movers and trends to watch this week

Anthropic — Announced $10B six-year cloud partnership with startup Volta using Norway data center powered by Nvidia Vera Rubin AI chips enhancing compute capacity alongside SpaceX/Amazon deals.

Hadrian — US defence-tech startup secured $1.37B Series D at $7.87B valuation co-led JPMorgan Strategic Investment enhancing Opus factory-as-a-service platform serving US Army/Lockheed.

Base Power — Texas/Illinois home-battery company raised $1B valuing $13B installing 100 batteries daily planning double installations by year-end supporting grid stability.

SK Hynix — South Korean memory chip manufacturer investing $38B in new memory fabs increasing HBM production capacity to tackle supply chain issues amid growing AI chip crisis.

Palantir — Shares surged 29% after CEO Alex Karp announced aggressive AI strategy targeting rival “AI vassal states” positioning the company as a bold AI player.

Amazon — Opened first international drone delivery hub in UK expanding Prime Air operations enhancing last-mile deliveries across Europe streamlining e-commerce fulfillment.

Open Funding Rounds or VC Fund Raises to watch this week

The Boring Company — Elon Musk’s tunnel transportation startup is seeking $4B funding at $20B valuation, operating in Las Vegas with major city expansion plans.

Anduril — Costa Mesa autonomous drones/defense startup reportedly in talks securing funding at $100B valuation up from $61B in May signaling rapid growth.

Moonshot — Beijing LLM/AI chat startup closing funding at $31.5B valuation backed Meituan, Tencent targeting follow-on at $50B signaling rapid growth.

Whatnot — LA livestream shopping startup in fashion/sneakers/sports cards reportedly seeking new funding at ~$20B valuation underscoring rapid growth.

Companies that raised money in the past week and why they matter

Hadrian — US defence-tech startup secured a $1.37B Series D at $7.87B valuation co-led JPMorgan Strategic Investment enhancing Opus factory-as-a-service platform serving US Army/Lockheed.

Base Power — Texas/Illinois home-battery company raised $1B valuing $13B installing 100 batteries daily planning double installations by year-end.

Valar Atomics — Nuclear technology company secured $1B elevating valuation to $6B advancing nuclear energy solutions to address global energy demands.

Volta — AI cloud startup raised $300M at $2.4B valuation backed by a16z, Nvidia, Michael Dell announcing $10B Norway compute deal and Anthropic cloud contract.

Moove — Robotaxi infrastructure startup raised $250M enhancing core provider role for autonomous transportation services bolstering infrastructure capabilities.

River Lands — Indian electric two-wheel scooter company raised $120M Series C boosting production/distribution/tech to capture growing EV two-wheeler market.

Mirendil — Self-improving AI for scientific discovery secured $100M Google Cloud partnership leveraging GPU clusters/TPUs accelerating AI capabilities/innovation.

Discovery Loop — Jeff Dean’s new AI startup automating scientific discovery raised $100M seed co-led Radical Ventures, Khosla marking shift from Google AI research to entrepreneurship.

Rocket Lab — US Space Force awarded $397M contract developing/launching “Flatellites” for threat tracking as part of $615M package using Neutron rocket amid $8B Iridium acquisition pursuit.

Convex — SF backend infrastructure company raised $57M Series B led Insight Partners totaling $110.5M with a16z, Spark Capital powering OpenAI, Tripadvisor, Solana applications.

Faye — AI-driven travel protection company raised $50M Series C totaling $100M accelerating global expansion with AI autonomously resolving 50%+ of claims.

WindBorne Systems — US AI weather forecasting company raised $37M Series B led Khosla Ventures, Galvanize enhancing autonomous atmospheric balloon network advancing WeatherMesh platform.

Sapiom — AI infrastructure startup raised $35M Series A led Dragonfly totaling $50M facilitating cost-effective AI deployment with 270M+ transactions/75% inference cost savings.

InRisk Labs — India AI-driven underwriting/reinsurance company raised $27M Series A co-led Bessemer, Northpoint Capital targeting $10B reinsurance market via GIFT City IFSC license.

Epitel — Salt Lake City wireless EEG home/clinic seizure monitoring startup raised $26M Series B co-led Catalyst Health Ventures, Genoa Ventures.

Mate — Tel Aviv AI enterprise security/alert investigation startup raised $25M Series A led Canaan Partners with M12, Insight Partners totaling $50M+.

Ex-Spotify Team — Former Spotify team raised $10M developing AI-driven music personalization for e-commerce backed Bessemer Venture Partners, Gradient Ventures enhancing retail recommendation engines.

DesignArena — AI startup replicating human taste preferences raised $7.9M enhancing personalized experience models furthering development of taste-aware AI systems.

Mergers & Acquisitions and IPOs

OpenAI — Acquired NextSlide integrating team into ChatGPT fortifying AI market position boosting capabilities and expanding influence in AI sector.

Bending Spoons — Acquiring Airtable for $1.28B cash leveraging AI-driven Superagent platform/enterprise customer base aligning with strategy of enhancing operations/profitability.

Nscale — UK cloud provider is acquiring Anyscale AI model training/deployment startup for $1.6B integrating capabilities with existing data centers.

Open or upcoming IPOs to watch:

SpaceX — Faced investor skepticism¹ during first post-IPO earnings call with heavy AI infrastructure investment raising questions balancing core launch business with costly AI projects.

Nscale — UK AI infrastructure company is gearing up for US IPO by September 2026 backed Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan with $51B contracted revenue and Q2 revenue $100M+ after $2B Series C.

VC & PE Activity To Watch

Thrive Holdings — The OpenAI-backed AI holding company is raising $2B from Altimeter/D1 Capital/SoftBank to acquire traditional service businesses transforming with AI tools partnering Accenture on ChatGPT Enterprise.

Khosla Ventures — Menlo Park VC raising $5.5B across new funds in largest yet effort with $1B early-stage, $2B venture, $2.5B mature startup allocations.

Lightspeed Venture Partners — Menlo Park VC hired an Instagram creator engaging Gen Z founders utilizing creator-economy content, enhancing dealflow bolstering seed-investing/marketing strategies.

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