🕶️ Amazon’s $2.5B ‘oops’ and TikTok’s 120-day timer

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Graduating students can now secure YC funding before even launching, Trump has given TikTok 120 days to finalize a deal, and Amazon agreed to a $2.5B settlement over deceptive Prime sign-ups. Meta brought in a former OpenAI leader to advance its AI research, while the FDA struggles to keep pace with AI-driven drug innovation.

🎥 Video pick: How Silicon Valley fell for their own trap
+🎙️ Plus, our classic podcast!

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Eight bullets of updates

🎓 Graduating students can now secure YC funding before launch, thanks to a new early-decision option for future founders.
📰 Trump approves TikTok deal via executive order, giving 120 days to finalize with ByteDance holding under 20%.
🛒 Amazon agrees to pay $2.5B to settle with the FTC over deceptive Prime sign-up tactics affecting 35M consumers.
🧑‍🔬 OpenAI’s former exploration lead joins Meta as research principal to shape the future of superintelligence labs after leading over 50 projects.
💊 AI could speed up creation of targeted drugs, but FDA rules need to catch up to help unleash its full $500B+ potential.
🪙 Retail investors can now buy memecoins like DOGE through major brokerages, with over $2B in volumes already trading.
🎵 A wave of AI tracks has Spotify rolling out tools to filter spam and label voice clones, after flagging tens of thousands of songs.
🤝 Databricks commits $100M+ to OpenAI in a deal guaranteeing enterprise adoption of advanced AI models, even if usage lags.

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Forget the $100B flex—Google’s busy backing tomorrow’s AI startups

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

The AI arms race is getting spicy. Nvidia and OpenAI just locked in a $100 billion deal—yes, billion with a “B”—anchored in chip buys and computing power that could light up millions of U.S. homes. It’s the latest in a wave of mega-partnerships reshaping AI infrastructure, joining Microsoft’s $14B ties with OpenAI, Amazon’s $8B in Anthropic, Oracle’s jaw-dropping $300B pledge, and even Meta’s $10B handshake with Google Cloud. If it feels like a game of musical chairs with trillion-dollar companies, that’s because it kind of is.

But while the giants are busy carving up today’s pie, Google Cloud is sneakily betting on tomorrow’s unicorns. COO Francis deSouza is signing up scrappy startups with generous credits, hands-on support, and Google’s full-stack AI tools, aiming to be the launchpad for the next breakout players. The strategy is equal parts clever and necessary—if you can’t outspend Nvidia and OpenAI’s bromance, why not make sure the next OpenAI is already building on your servers? It’s a play that paints Google as the “cool older sibling” in AI: still competitive, but with an open-door policy and an eye on the long game.

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How Silicon Valley Fell for Their Own Trap

Builder.ai raised $450M claiming to be AI-powered — turns out, it was mostly humans behind the curtain. Meanwhile, Duolingo got flamed for using too much AI. This video breaks down the absurd contradiction, the rise of “AI-washing,” and how fake it–till–you–make–it is still alive in startup land. Watch to see how investors keep falling for it 👀

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Musk undercuts AI rivals with 42-cent Grok deal

Source: shutterstock

Elon Musk’s xAI struck a deal with the U.S. General Services Administration to provide its chatbot Grok to federal agencies for 42 cents over 18 months—cheaper than OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s $1 offerings. The package includes engineering support, and the “42” price point nods to Musk’s jokes and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

The deal comes after earlier setbacks when Grok’s offensive outputs derailed approval, but the White House later pushed it through. xAI also secured a spot in a $200 million Pentagon AI contract, extending Musk’s long-standing influence on federal agencies.

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