🕶️ Silicon Valley’s new vibe

Ten bullets of updates

1. 🧠 OpenAI launched a ChatGPT agent that can handle complex tasks and doubled its exam score to 41.6%.

2. 🔬 Denmark is building the world’s most powerful quantum computer, with 50 logical qubits and €80M backing.

3. 🛑 The UAE’s $1B chip deal with Nvidia is paused due to US concerns over potential smuggling to China.

4. 🗣️ Most company updates get ignored—turn them into engaging stories by focusing on what the audience cares about.

5. 🔒 Anthropic surprised users by tightening Claude’s usage limits—even on the $200/month Max plan—without prior notice.

6. 📊 ChatGPT can now craft slides, spreadsheets, and shop online via prompts, serving 500M weekly users.

7. 🎯 North Korean hackers reportedly stole a record $2.17B in crypto in 2025, setting a new heist benchmark.

8. ❄️ Aker is launching an AI "factory" in the Arctic, using 230MW of green energy for data centers in Norway.

9. 👾 Elon Musk’s xAI is hiring engineers to build anime AI companions—offering up to $440K salaries.

10. 📉 Silicon Valley’s status symbols are shifting—from VC funding to revenue, influence, execution speed, and small teams.

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Netflix let AI handle the drama

Netflix used AI-generated visuals for the first time in its Argentine sci-fi series El Eternauta, completing a building collapse scene 10 times faster than traditional methods, according to co-CEO Ted Sarandos. Released on April 30, the show’s AI-driven sequence resonated with both creators and viewers, contributing to Netflix’s strong Q2 earnings of $11.08 billion—a 16% year-over-year increase. Sarandos emphasized AI’s potential to enhance creativity and efficiency, calling it “real people doing real work with better tools.” Beyond content production, Netflix is also deploying AI in personalization, search, and advertising, reflecting a broader integration of the technology across its platform.

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How this Company (Accidentally) F*cked Us All

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These companies just raised money

1. 🏭 Hadrian lands $260M to expand automated factories and reindustrialize the U.S. with next-gen manufacturing tech.

2. 🦄 Swedish AI startup Lovable hits unicorn status with a $200M Series A, reaching $75M ARR in just eight months.

3. ✍️ Substack scores $100M Series C, now valued at $1.1B with 5M+ paid subscriptions fueling growth.

4. 💆 Boulevard raises $80M Series D to expand its self-care scheduling platform—now powering 15% of U.S. medspas.

5. 💄 Ami Colé, the beauty brand by Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye, is shutting down despite $3M in VC backing, amid market and investor tensions.

6. 🔐 Confident Security emerges from stealth with $4.2M to protect AI data privacy through end-to-end encryption.

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Meta: ‘thanks, but no thanks’ to EU’s AI buzzkill

Meta has publicly refused to sign the European Union’s voluntary Code of Practice for general-purpose AI (GPAI), just weeks before the EU’s AI Act begins enforcement. In a LinkedIn post, Meta’s global affairs chief Joel Kaplan slammed the code as legally ambiguous and overly restrictive, warning it could stifle innovation and harm European businesses relying on frontier AI. The EU's code outlines documentation requirements, bans training on pirated content, and honors content owners’ opt-outs. While the EU maintains that its risk-based AI regulation—which bans harmful use cases like social scoring and mandates safeguards for high-risk applications—remains on schedule, major tech players like Meta, Alphabet, and Microsoft continue to push back. Full compliance for systemic-risk models (like those from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta) is expected by August 2, 2027, though the initial guidelines drop into effect August 2, 2025.

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Startup Events and Deadlines

1. Crash Course on Startup Fundraising with Caya (Slidebean CEO) l Jul 23 l Online

2. Slidebean’s Crash Course in Financial Modeling l Jul 24 l Online

3. Startupbootcamp | Energy & Sustainability | Deadline: Aug 10 | South Africa

4. Startupbootcamp | Health & LifeScience | Deadline: Aug 10 | Netherlands

5. New York Venture Summit | 9, 10 Sept | NYC

6. Antler Canada | Deadline: Sept 29 | Canada

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