U.S. Strikes Iranian Nuclear Facilities

Real bombs and fake jets: GenAI in warfare

Good morning,

No commentary today. Just the news.

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News Headlines

• Pentagon leaders hail successful Iran strikes but wary of retaliation (DN)

• Alarm grows after the U.S. inserts itself into Israel’s war against Iran with strikes on nuclear sites (AP)

• Putin says U.S. strikes on Iran are pushing world to ‘very dangerous line’ (RT)

• Trump may change his mind about firing Fed Reserve chairman J Pow (RT)

• VPOTUS, IAEA head concede they don’t know the fate of Iran’s enriched-uranium stockpile (NYT)

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Quantum Tech

• G7 commits to global coordination on quantum tech as strategic stakes rise (QI)

• Quantum vacuum breakthrough: Oxford physicists make light emerge from ‘nothing’ (STD)

• Scientists create ‘universal translator’ for quantum tech (SD)

• DARPA’s OASIC program seeks to accelerate the transition of chip-scale quantum tech by creating modular, open-access testbeds (QI)

• Microsoft advances quantum error correction with a family of novel four-dimensional codes (MSFT)

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AI / ML

• China’s People’s Liberation Army is using GenAI to support intelligence (RF)

• China's spy agencies are investing heavily in A.I.: Researchers (NYT)

• Iran uses GenAI to create and circulate fake image of ‘downed Israeli F-35’ (YN)

• Pope Leo takes on AI as potential threat to humanity, urges ethical development (WSJ)

• OpenAI execs discussed accusing Microsoft of anticompetitive behavior (RT)

• Pentagon awards OpenAI $200M defense contract (TV)

• Pentagon AI office, Army award Ask Sage $10M for GenAI expansion (BD)

• Musk's xAI has a burn rate of $1B per month (BBG)

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NanoTech / Chips

• U.S. prepares action targeting allies’ chip plants in China (WSJ)

• New 3D chips could make electronics faster and more energy efficient (MIT)

• Apple eyes using AI to design its chips, tech exec says (RT)

• Texas Instruments injects $60B into U.S. chip manufacturing (TT)

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AR / VR / XR

• AR/VR headset market reaching ‘critical tipping point’ (CW)

• Amid big tech’s XR race for DoD contracts, federal labs serve up impressive solutions (TL)

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Deal Flow

Funds

• Felicis Ventures closed its tenth flagship fund at $900M to back AI-focused venture and growth investments (FTN)

• European tech-focused PE firm Hg is seeking to raise a combined $11.5B across its latest MM and lower MM funds (PEI)

• Seven Stars launched its first $40M fund to invest in seed and pre-seed stage AI startups (PU)

VC

• AI coding startup Anysphere is considering raising capital at an $18B-$20B valuation (BBG)

• Thinking Machines Lab, the pre-product pre-revenue AI startup founded by OpenAI's ex-CTO Mira Murati, raised a $2B seed round at a $10B valuation led by a16z (TC)

• German AI startup Mercanis raised a $20M Series A led by Partech and AVP (EUS)

• AI-native platform Sifflet raised $18M in funding from EQT Ventures, Mangrove Capital, and Capmont Technology (PRN)

• OrangeQS, a startup building integrated systems to make quantum computing chip testing more efficient, raised a $13.8M seed round led by Icecat Capital (TFN)

• ZeroRISC, a silicon supply chain integrity solutions startup, raised a $10M seed round led by Fontinalis Partners (PU)

• AI inference optimization startup Embedl raised a $6M pre-Series A led by Chalmers Ventures, Fairpoint Capital, SEB Greentech, and more (TEU)

• Booz Allen Ventures invested in ConductorAI to accelerate government efficiency (BW)

PE / M&A / Exits

• Apple held internal talks about acquiring AI startup Perplexity, which was last valued at $14B (RT)

• Japanese electronics giant TDK acquired US-based SoftEye, which makes software and hardware for smart glasses (RT)

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Opportunities

• The Air Force is looking for an GenAI / Data Analytics solution capable of integrating with Microsoft Office… but maybe not Copilot? (SAM)

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Editor’s Picks

• The Pentagon knows its cyber force model is broken. Erica Lonergan and Jiwan Ma of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation propose fixes.

• The Atlantic’s David Frum argues that Trump’s team got this one right, but they’re still the wrong team.

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Lighter Side

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Keep Building,

BOF

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