First Republic's succession drama, Twitter Blue's woes, and a harder look at why Elon Musk and OpenAI split up

China’s Foreign Ministry today criticized the U.S. for targeting TikTok and said Beijing would never require companies to illegally gather data and intelligence from overseas, escalating the debate over the popular app a day after its CEO appeared before Congress. “The Chinese government has never asked and will never ask any company or individual to collect or provide data, information or intelligence located in other countries through means that are in violation of local laws,” said Mao Ning, a ministry spokeswoman. The WSJ has more here.

Big-data analytics firm Databricks has emerged as an unlikely player in the generative artificial intelligence space, open-sourcing a new AI model that it claims is “as magical as ChatGPT,” despite being trained on far less data in less than three hours using a single machine. It's one of a growing number of comparatively low-budget efforts to spring up lately, though not all are going as planned. That Stanford ChatGPT clone that required just $600 to build has been taken down owing to "hosting costs" and the "inadequacies" of its content filters. SiliconAngle has more on Databricks's news here. 

Investment in generative AI startups has ballooned to $5.9 billion since the beginning of 2022, up from $1.5 billion in 2020, according to data from PitchBook. Reuters has more here.

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Apprentice.io, a nearly nine-year-old, Jersey City, N.J.-based provider of a platform for life science manufacturers to "turn molecules into medicine," has raised $65 million led by ICONIQ Growth, with participation from existing investors, Alkeon Capital Management and Insight Partners. The outfit has now raised $207 million altogether. More here.

1X, a nine-year-old Oslo startup whose goal is to produce androids capable of human-like movements and behaviors, raised a $23.5 million Series A2 round led by the OpenAI Startup Fund, with Tiger Global also contributing. More here.

Axios HQ, an enterprise communications SaaS that recently spun out of Axios Media, has raised $20 million in Series A funding at nearly a $100 million post-money valuation led by Glade Brook Capital Partners, with participation from Greycroft. Both were prior investors in Axios Media, which was acquired late last year by Cox Enterprises for $525 million. The WSJ has more here.

Bend Health, a two-year-old startup based in Madison, Wi., that provides virtual pediatric behavioral care, raised a $32 million round. The investment syndicate included Maveron, SteelSky Ventures, and WVV Capital. More here.

Hex, a four-year-old San Francisco startup whose data analytics platform counts Brex, Notion, Toast, and Chegg as customers, raised a $28 million round led by Sequoia Capital, with Andreessen Horowitz, Amplify Partners, and Snowflake also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $101.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Lunaphore, a nine-year-old startup based in Lausanne, Switzerland, whose technology aids drug discovery by enabling the identification of biomarker “signatures,” raised a $22 million Series D-1 round led by Ernst-Göhner Stiftung Beteiligungen, with additional participation from PHC Holdings, Swiss Entrepreneurs Fund, OCCIDENT, and Redalpine. Norgine Ventures also provided $10.8 million in venture debt. The company has raised a total of $94.5 million. More here.

Vital, a startup based in Claymont, De., whose app educates patients during their emergency department and inpatient visits, raised a $24.7 million Series B round led by Transformation Capital and including Threshold Ventures. Pymnts has more here.

CollectiveCrunch, a seven-year-old Finnish startup that helps owners manage forest inventories, raised a $1.5 million round. Nidoco led the transaction. The company has raised a total of $5.8 million. Silicon Canals has more here.

Dylibso, a startup based in Boulder, Co., that has developed an open source plug-in system that allows developers to run any code that can be compiled to WebAssembly inside of any program that was written in a different language, raised a $6.6 million seed round led by Felicis, with Boldstart Ventures, Pebblebed, and Crew Capital also pitching in. TechCrunch has more here.

MOGL, a four-year-old startup based in West Palm Beach, Fl., that has created a marketplace connecting brands with athletes for the purpose of promotions and endorsements, raised a $2.6 million seed round. Magarac Venture Partners was the deal lead. Sports Business Journal has more here.

OneThird, a five-year-old Dutch startup whose scanning technology helps growers, food distributors, retailers, and consumers predict the shelf life of fresh produce, raised a $3 million seed round led by Pymwymic, with additional investors including Halma Ventures Limited, SHIFT Invest, and Oost NL. The company has raised a total of $4.8 million. Tech.eu has more here.

Pragma Bio, a San Francisco startup that is evaluating microbes in the human biome for use in drug discovery, raised a $10 million round led by The Venture Collective, with Viking Global Investors, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, and CJ Investments also taking part. The company has now raised $15 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

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Turo, the nearly 14-year-old, San Francisco-based peer-to-peer car-sharing company, filed an update to its IPO paperwork today, detailing its full 2022 financial performance. The upshot, says TechCrunch: Turo has "continued to grind away and even make revenue gains as it awaits for better IPO conditions." More here.

Enes Kanter Freedom, a former NBA player known for his outspoken political activism against China, was banned from TikTok for 12 days before being reinstated Thursday, when lawmakers were grilling its CEO, the company confirmed today. Freedom’s account was banned following several warnings that his past videos had broken the app’s “community guidelines,” he told The Washington Post

First Republic Bank paid family members of its founder, James Herbert, millions of dollars for work at the lender in recent years. Most notably, Herbert -- who kicked off a succession drama when he stepped into the role of executive chairman last year --  was paid $17.8 million in 2021, which represented a far bigger percentage of the bank's profits than is standard at most banks. The WSJ has more here.

In 2018, Elon Musk stepped down from the board of OpenAI, which he'd cofounded, citing conflicts of interest. Now, Semafor says the real story is that Musk "believed the venture had fallen fatally behind Google" and that he proposed taking control of OpenAI and running it himself. According to Semafor, after others of OpenAi's cofounders, including Sam Altman*, rejected Musk’s proposal, Musk "walked away from the company — and reneged on a massive planned donation." More here.

* Altman decided not to take any equity in the company when it became for-profit, Semafor also reported. This is a Big Deal and something we thought was out in the world already but maybe not. Like ChatGPT, we sometimes have hallucinations.

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan* have made a lab building in Chicago's Fulton Market neighborhood the launch point for a planned $250 million investment in biotech research. The Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub is leasing about 26,000 square feet in the building, and according to Crain's Chicago Business, the new venture will employ anywhere from 30 to 50 researchers and staff at the 300,000-square-foot structure. More here.

* They also made another beautiful baby girl (Zuckerberg and Chan). Zuckerberg posted a picture on Instagram today, announcing their third daughter's arrival.

Since relaunching three months ago as a big push into non-advertising-based revenue, Twitter Blue has only picked up $11 million in mobile subscriptions, according to data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

An estimated 7,000 households — the wealthiest in the state of Washington — are estimated to be affected by a new capital gains tax law, according to Invest in Washington Now. Roughly two-thirds of those households are in King County.

Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, who helped define the tech industry, has passed away at the age of 94.

The younger brother caught in the middle of the FTX investigation.

Microsoft has reportedly threatened to cut off access to its internet-search data, which it licenses to rival search engines, if they don’t stop using it as the basis for their own AI chat products. 

Interesting facts about the making of "The Godfather." (H/T: Jason Hirschorn)

Twenty-five coffee shops favored by VCs.

I went on a package trip for millennials traveling alone. Help me.

Rolex has begun hinting that colorful new watch faces will arrive later this year. (And then not sell "to anyone without inside contacts,” writes one Instagram commenter.)

Musha Cay at Copperfield Bay.