🕶️ DC meets VC: inside DOGE’s tech takeover

Eight bullets of updates

1. 🚨 SpaceX faces scrutiny over alleged secret Chinese investments via offshore entities.

2. 🔗 OpenAI adopts Anthropic’s MCP standard, unlocking thousands of new AI data integrations.

3. 📉 TikTok ban support drops from 50% to 34% as political lines blur on the issue.

4. 🏫 Instagram partners with 60+ U.S. schools to fast-track moderation of student-generated content.

5. 🧠 Sez Us wants to curb rage-bait by scoring posts for civility—an idea sparked by a TikTok with 1.5M views.

6. ⚛️ Terrestrial Energy goes public via SPAC, raising $280M to scale its small modular nuclear reactors.

7. 🇮🇹 Italy halts Starlink talks amid Musk backlash; Tesla's European sales drop 58%.

8. 🧱 Forth & Collapse OS offer hope for post-collapse tech with ultra-minimalist 8-bit systems.

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DC—Tech bros are running the show now

Silicon Valley’s power no longer stops at the private sector — it's now deeply embedded in the U.S. government, largely through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Originally spotlighted for its close connections to Elon Musk and President Donald Trump, DOGE has quietly become a magnet for tech founders and venture capitalists eager to reshape federal operations. Figures like Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia and former startup exec Mike Gonzalez have traded entrepreneurship for public service, motivated by everything from political ideology to personal reinvention.

This movement also includes heavyweight VCs like Marc Andreessen, who calls himself an "unpaid intern" at DOGE, and other former Thiel Capital operatives now seated in powerful roles. TechCrunch’s investigation reveals a broader network of Silicon Valley players—founders, engineers, and investors—who are helping steer government decisions with a startup mentality. Whether celebrated or criticized, DOGE is a clear sign that the tech elite are no longer just influencing Washington from afar—they’re embedded in its core.

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AI looks EXACTLY like the Dot-Com bubble

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These companies just raised money

1. 💸 Mercury lands $300M at a $3.5B valuation, doubling since 2021 with 40% YoY customer growth and global expansion plans.

2. 💡 Daphni raises $215M for its third fund to back science-driven startups across Europe.

3. 🌽 Grão Direto secures $15.4M, joining Quill and Ziro in this week’s agtech and climate investment roundup.

4. 🤖 Emergence Capital closes a $1B fund, its first in 4 years, calling AI a “generational opportunity.”

5. 🎓 Brisk raises $15M to scale AI tools for teachers, now reaching 2,000 schools and 1 in 5 U.S. K-12 educators.

6. 🛡️ GetReal raises $17.5M to fight deepfakes with a forensic platform, backed by top investors and enterprise clients.

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Elon Dreams, Mode Mobile Delivers

As Elon Musk said, “Apple used to really bring out products that would blow people’s minds.”

Thankfully, a new smartphone company is stepping up to deliver the mind-blowing moments we've been missing.

Turning smartphones from an expense into an income stream, Mode has helped users earn an eye-popping $325M+ and seen an astonishing 32,481% revenue growth rate over three years.

They’ve just been granted the stock ticker $MODE by the Nasdaq, and you can still make an investment in their pre-IPO offering.

Invest at $0.26/share now

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Extropic’s chip could save the planet—or just wreck Nvidia’s day

Extropic is developing a radical new chip that turns a common engineering nuisance—thermodynamic fluctuations—into a feature. By using these natural electronic jitters to perform probabilistic calculations, Extropic’s “p-bit” hardware could massively reduce energy usage for AI and simulation workloads. The startup claims its chip could be 3–4 orders of magnitude more efficient than today’s silicon, with promising results already shown to WIRED.

Unlike traditional approaches that rely on supercooled systems, Extropic's chip works with conventional silicon, making it easier to scale. Ideal for Monte Carlo simulations—used in AI, finance, and biology—the technology arrives at a time when AI's power needs are exploding. With datacenters being built next to nuclear plants, Extropic’s wild idea might be just what the world needs to rethink computing from the ground up.

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Startup Events and Deadlines

1. TODAY! Crash Course in Financial Modeling | March 27 | Online

2. YC Rejection Party | March 29 | Gurugram

3. Techstars Columbus | Deadline: April 1 | USA

4. Startup Grind Conference 2025 | April 19-30 | USA

5. Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator | Deadline: April 28 | USA

6. Startup Battlefield 200 | Deadline: June 9 | Global

7. Entrepreneur First London - Summer | Deadline: July 1 | UK

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