Punched In the Face
As Mike Tyson said: Everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the face.
Good morning,
The Middle East erupted over the weekend when Israel struck Beirut, violating its ceasefire. Iran decided it wanted to punish Israel and launched a bunch of missiles and a few drones—most of which had little impact. Iran’s proxy, the Yemeni Houthis, got in on the action launching a couple of missiles too. Israel responded with some strategic strikes against Iran before Trump called Netenyahu to try and get Pandora’s monsters back in the box.
It’s a military truism that ‘no plan survives first contact’, or more completely as Prussian Chief of the General Staff Helmuth von Moltke Sr. actually said:
One cannot be at all sure that any operational plan will survive the first encounter with the main body of the enemy.
If you prefer a more modern and perhaps more reductionist version, Mike Tyson famously said:
Everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the face.
It seems that the President is learning this truism this week. Fortunately, it appears that he’s succeeded in getting both sides to simmer back down—at least for now. Tehran announced that it had concluded its operation and did not plan to retaliate against Israel’s retaliation to Iran’s retaliation to Israel’s attack… That’s good, because pretty soon, we’d get tired of writing ‘retaliation’.
Regardless, this exchange serves to highlight the fragility of the situation as we attempt to secure a peace deal. We’ve said it before that we are skeptical (yet hopeful) of the success of negotiations. Right now it still seems that the parties have irreconcilable differences, largely over Iran’s nuclear and enrichment programs.
And, now intelligence officers, policy makers, and experts are growing increasingly concerned that Iran’s nuclear ambitions and capabilities are greater today than they were before the war began.
Operation Epic Fury
Trump says Netanyahu will have ‘no choice’ but to accept Iran deal (FT)
Iran says it has ended military operations against Israel following Israeli attack on Beirut that led to Israeli-Iranian missile exchanges (WSJ)
U.S. struck Iranian sites after Iran launches drones this weekend (DN)
Pentagon must divulge cost of Iran war under House proposal (MT)
Oil prices jump after Iran and Israel exchange strikes (WSJ)
Trump says he was ‘not happy’ about Israel’s Beirut strikes (TOI)
U.S. draft resolution at IAEA demands Iran open up on sites, uranium stocks (RT)
Iran nuclear risk seen as higher than before U.S. attacks began (BBG)
News Headlines
Air Force, Space Force seek 6,000 civilian hires in wake of DOGE cuts (ASF)
Philippines rocked by powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake (AlJ)
SecDef Hegseth ruffles feathers with politicized speech at D-Day ceremony in Normandy (TH)
Turkish Interior Minister prays for control of Israel, seemingly wanting to recreate the Ottoman Empire (JP)
Trump reportedly considers offering bid to buy Chagos Islands from Mauritius to secure Diego Garcia base (RT)
Quantum Tech
U.S. Army researchers develops quantum sensor that measures full 3D direction of RF electromagnetic signals (ARMY)
Quantum circuits help AI overcome memory limitations with minimal new parameters (PHYS)
Optical cavities allow researchers to generate wide variety of quantum states without complicated hardware (SD)
China unveils world’s first superfast quantum memory, paving way for practical computing (MP)
Predictive surrogates could cut QC measurement overhead by more than 99% (PHYS)
AI / ML
New bill aims to regulate military uses of AI (DO)
Trump signs executive order on AI that would give government early access to tech (BD)
Pentagon CTO: AI companies have responsibility to safeguard models against exploitation (MT)
Backlash against AI takes an extremist turn (TG)
Anxiety over AI is leading towards political backlash (FT)
Anthropic calls for a global slowdown in AI development (WSJ)
France to test its own AI-powered battlefield command in June NATO exercise (DN)
School shooting survivor sues AI gun detection firm for failing to spot weapon (AT)
AI fears spur 70% plunge in private equity tech deal value (BBG)
Anthropic held cyberthreat briefings with agency CIOs last month (NG)
OpenAI‘s ChatGPT hit 1B monthly active users in record time (RT)
Semiconductors / Chips
SpaceX signed a $30B computing power deal with Google (BBG)
Study: new 3D chips could extend Moore’s Law (SA)
Chip stocks rebound pulling Wall Street higher from last week’s rout (RT)
China approved the world’s first invasive brain-computer chip (MTR)
Zinc oxide-tellurium semiconductor reduces chip complexity by 75% (IE)
Huang says new Nvidia Vera chip will use SK Hynix‘s memory chips (BBG)
XR / AR / VR
Meta secretly integrated facial recognition software with its smart glasses (WI)
Deal Flow
Funds
German VC Merantix Capital raised $118M for a Europe AI fund (PU)
VC
Chinese OpenAI rival DeepSeek is set to raise a debut $7B+ funding round at a $55B valuation from investors including Tencent (RT)
Data center developer Switch is in talks with Brookfield, KKR, and others to raise billions at an over $50B valuation in a pre-IPO round (RT)
Flourish, a neuroscience-focused AI startup, raised a $500M funding round at a $2.5B valuation led by Jeff Bezos and others (SA)
Robotics startup Generalist AI raised a $400M round at a $2B post-money valuation led by Radical Ventures (BBG)
Oxford Quantum Circuits, an Oxford University spinout developing quantum computing hardware and software, raised a $350M Series C led by Bullhound Capital (QI)
ZutaCore, a two-phase liquid cooling specialist, raised a $100M Series C from Mitsubishi Electric, Carrier Ventures, and Samsung Ventures (PU)
Alitheon, an advanced optical-AI company, raised an $8M Series A1 led by Emerald Technology Ventures (PU)
Scispot, an AI-native operating layer for modern labs, raised an $8M Series A led by Avenue Growth Partners (PU)
PE / M&A / Exits
Trump admin in talks with OpenAI about a potential government stake (CNBC)
Exciting Opportunities
The Air Force has updated its BAA for Quantum Information Sciences with awards up to $99.9M (SAM)
The Air Force is also looking for a VR simulator for its KC-46A (aerial refueler) crews (SAM)
Editor’s Picks
ICYMI: We broke down the HASC mark-up of the FY27 NDAA and what it means for defense technology.
University of Virginia Comp Sci professor Sebastian Elbaum warns about how the Pentagon’s AI edge is eroding.
TechCrunch‘s Equity Pod team wonders if we’re at the dawn of the ‘Tokenpocalypse‘ in AI.
Lighter Side
Keep Building,
BOF
Israel did not violate the cease fire. Hizbulla targeted the towns in Israel despite the warnings that it will result in attacks on its assets in Beirut. Check your facts and your sources of information