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AI ideals are colliding with profit motives, startups are raising millions from farms to quantum labs, and Google just got its biggest U.S. antitrust smackdown since Microsoft. Meanwhile, OpenAI is playing subpoena chess with its critics; proof that the battle for AI’s future is as much about power as it is about technology.
🎙️ By the way, make sure to check out our new podcast: same news, deeper takes, and a lot more rants.
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Ten bullets of updates
🚀 To reduce emissions and speed up launches, on-site production aims to replace 100+ tanker deliveries per launch at the Starship site.
📱 Apple set to reveal next-gen iPhone with unveiling event kicking off September 9.
✍️ A writer’s hobby turns into a global platform connecting 750K+ users, proving passion can pay off.
🪙 PayPal and Venmo users can now grab exclusive Comet AI invites; 10,000 early access spots up for grabs through the new partnership.
🤖 AI now handles half of all service chats, leading to 4,000 support layoffs at Salesforce this year.
🤝 OpenAI snaps up Statsig for $1.1B in stock and reshuffles its top brass in a big leadership shakeup.
📣 Only 10% of startups make headlines. Learn how to get attention before obscurity kills your product.
🌋 Geothermal startups close multi-million dollar deals to bring 24/7 clean power closer to mainstream deployment.
🔌 Google courts cloud giants with new AI chips, touting up to 50% better training speeds to challenge Nvidia’s dominance.
💻 AI isn’t making developers obsolete: it’s helping them build MVPs faster than ever, but dev skills are still mission-critical.
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OpenAI Subpoenas AI Governance Nonprofits Amid For-Profit Tensions
OpenAI is subpoenaing nonprofit watchdogs and signaling that billionaire rivals may be bankrolling “responsible AI” activism—right as it pivots harder into profit mode.
Regulators, researchers, and billionaires are brawling over the soul (and business model) of AI, with moves like this increasing the arms race between idealists and capitalists. Nonprofit transparency is suddenly looking less like a virtue and more like a liability.
Anyone betting on AI ideals vs. commercial dominance should keep snacks handy; every boardroom and policy group just got a new episode of House of Cards.
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Reddit Was Worthless—Until ChatGPT
Reddit: from a scrappy startup to the backbone of modern AI and the last real "town square" on the internet. Learn how a company once on the brink of irrelevance became a cultural phenomenon and a critical piece of AI's evolution.
Dive into Reddit’s wild origin story, its unique community power, and how it's shaping the future of technology.
😎 More videos here 😎
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1-1 Tactic Teardown Sessions for The Startup Club
We’re opening a few free spots for The Startup Club readers. Bring your goals and numbers.
Our senior growth team will review them with you in a private session, highlight the highest-impact moves, and send you a simple plan to execute now. First come, first served.
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These companies just raised money
🦄 IQM hits unicorn status with fresh funding, as the Finnish quantum computing startup eyes expansion beyond Europe to challenge global rivals in the quantum race.
🌾 Orchard Robotics bags $22M to scale its AI “farm vision” cameras, helping fruit growers measure, track, and optimize crops with precision data.
👀 Twenty-somethings raise $5M from YC and General Catalyst for Alectro, a vision AI startup decoding online behavior patterns to help brands understand users in real time.
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AI Pitch Deck Reviewer
Slidebean has been helping startups craft pitch decks for over 10 years. We recently built an AI Pitch Deck Review tool, that processes the text and visuals on your presentation, and provides actionable feedback on the story, potential missing items, and recommendations on how to improve each slide.
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Judge Orders Antitrust Remedies for Google Search Business Practices
A U.S. judge has ruled that "search behemoth" won’t be split up, but it’ll have to nix its habit of locking in those exclusive deals that kept rivals gasping for air.
Rather than a breakup, regulators are reaching for the duct tape: think less sledgehammer, more "house arrest with a side of compliance". Antitrust hawks had wished for a bigger scalp, but this is still the most serious U.S. check on consumer tech’s gatekeepers since Microsoft’s browser tantrum years.
Real winners? Niche search upstarts and comparison engines, since some air might enter the market, but don’t expect a consumer revolution overnight.
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Startup Events and Deadlines
Crash Course on Startup Fundraising with Caya (Slidebean CEO)| 10 Sept | Webinar
Crash Course in Financial Modeling | 11 Sept | Webinar
New York Venture Summit | 9, 10 Sept | NYC
Techstars Foundercon 2025 | 15-17 Sept | USA, Colorado
Antler Canada | Deadline: Sept 29 | Canada
500 Startups Flagship Accelerator l Deadline: Oct 11 l USA
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