Elon Musk has created a new AI company called X.AI Corp after cofounding, then leaving, then flaming OpenAI

Happy Friday.:) We're on semi-vacation this week and are especially short on time today so publishing an ever-so-slightly condensed issue. If you are Orthodox (special shoutout to our Greek peeps), we're wishing you a Happy Easter. 🥚🐇

A Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused in the leak of highly classified military documents appeared in court today as prosecutors unsealed charges and revealed how billing records and interviews with social media comrades helped pinpoint the suspect. Specifically, reports the Associated Press, the popular gaming platform and social network Discord provided information that helped lead the FBI to him. More here.

While speaking virtually to an audience gathered at MIT yesterday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to respond to that letter of two weeks ago which asked for a six-month pause in AI development. Altman called it "sort of silly" in that it claims OpenAI is right now training an even more powerful large language model, GPT-5 (he insists it is not and won't be "for some time"); he also added that OpenAI is "doing other things on top of GPT-4 that I think have all sorts of safety issues that are important to address and that were totally left out of the letter." Not last, Altman said that he thinks we're "at the end of the era where it's gonna be these giant models, and we'll make them better in other ways." TechCrunch has more here.

Elon Musk has created a new AI company called X.AI Corp. that is incorporated in Nevada, according to a state filing. Musk is the only listed director of the company, and Jared Birchall, the director of Musk’s family office, is its secretary, according to the filing made last month. X.AI has authorized the sale of 100 million shares for the privately held company. The WSJ has more here.

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Astranis Space Technologies has raised $200 million to build more geostationary satellites. The growth fund of Andreessen Horowitz led the round, which included both equity and debt (we're not sure how much of each). Bloomberg has more here.

Distyl AI, a San Francisco-based analytics firm that helps large companies use generative AI and language models, has raised $7 million in seed funding and formed an alliance with OpenAI. Coatue and Dell Technologies Capital led the round, joined by former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, Altimeter founder and CEO Brad Gerstner, and Jim Cash, a professor at Harvard Business School. The company was founed by two former employees of the data-mining company Palantir. VentureBeat has more here.

Grand-Attic, a year-old, London-based mobile games distribution company, raised $5.3 million in funding led by the Makers Fund. The company had separately raised $5.2 million last year. Games Industry Biz has more here.

Little Journey, a London-based hospital procedure preparation platform for pediatric patients, raised £3.1 million ($3.88 million) in funding led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from Calm/Storm Ventures and Mercia Assets. Axios has more here.

Myxt, a five-year-old San Francisco-based collaborative audio workplace app, raised $2 million in seed funding led by Accel and Quiet Capital. Digital Music News has more here.

Reef.ai, a two-year-old, Honalulu, Hawaii-based net revenue retention A.I. platform for B2B businesses that was founded by a longtime SVP of Mulesoft, just raised $5.2 million in funding led by Struck Capital. More here.

Taylor & Hart, a 13-year-old London- and New York-based bespoke jewelry business, raised £3.5 million ($4.39 million) in funding. Virgin Money, Active Partners, and Seedrs invested in the round. More here.

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Venture capital firm Lux Capital has raised $1.15 billion to invest in startups focused on science, artificial intelligence, robotics and biotechnology. Lux, which has offices in New York city and Menlo Park, Ca., said Lux Ventures VIII, or Lux 8, is its largest fund to date. The firm’s total assets under management now exceed $5 billion. Bloomberg has more here.

MassMutual has launched its second MM Catalyst Fund with $100 million in capital commitments from the insurance compamy. The money will be used to continue investing in Ma.-based diverse-led companies. It’s close to finishing the deployment of its first MM Catalyst Fund of $50 million, which launched two years ago and has so far invested in 16 businesses throughout the state. TechCrunch has more here.

Zoom today announced plans to acquire Workvivo, a six-year-old, Cork, Ireland-based startup focused on improving companies’ internal communications and culture. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed; Workvivo had raised roughly $40 million, including from Tiger Global and Zoom founder Eric Yuan. TechCrunch has more here.

Parler, a social network that was popularized by supporters of former President Donald Trump, has been sold to a buyer that has temporarily shut it down. Parent company Parlement Technologies said it has sold Parler to digital-media company Starboard, months after an acquisition agreement with rapper Kanye West fell apart. The platform went offline Friday while Starboard, which recently changed its name from Olympic Media, develops a plan to launch a revamped version of the site. The WSJ has more here.

Sega Sammy Holdings is reportedly nearing a deal to acquire Rovio Entertainment, the company behind the “Angry Birds” mobile game for about $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Sega Sammy was created in 2004 through the merger of Japanese slot-machine company Sammy Corp. and Sega Corp., the videogame maker behind the character Sonic the Hedgehog. The WSJ has more here.

Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund has hired Joey Krug, the former co-chief investment officer of crypto venture firm Pantera Capital, according to Bloomberg. More here.

The fatal stabbing of Silicon Valley executive Bob Lee with a kitchen knife on a downtown San Francisco street last week followed a night of socializing with friends, including the sister of the IT entrepreneur accused of murdering him, say local prosecutors. Relatedly, that man, Nima Momeni, may have written on his LinkedIn page that he attended UC Berkeley, but university spokesperson Dan Mogulof told the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday that there’s no record of his attendance or graduation.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai talks with "60 Minutes" this coming Sunday, saying of the current AI race: "It will be possible with AI to create-- you know, a video easily. Where it could be Scott saying something, or me saying something, and we never said that. And it could look accurate. But you know, on a societal scale, you know, it can cause a lot of harm. There are deeper risks people worry about-- you know, which is, at some point does humanity lose control of the technology its developing? So those are some of the far out use cases which we need to think about as early as possible and get it right."

Tesla's Model Y can now be purchased for less than the average new vehicle in the U.S.

A quick look at the most active U.S. venture investors right now.

They're over being real.

This should be interesting: Montana lawmakers today approved a first-of-its-kind bill to ban TikTok across the state, setting the stage for future court battles that could determine the fate of the popular, Chinese-owned social-media app in the U.S. More here.

What are transformer models and how do they work?

Lucinda Williams tells her secrets.

How to fly to the Hamptons this summer for $1.

The best podcasts to listen to in 2023.

230 classic cars, including a Mercedes-Benz 300S Roadster and Alfa Romeo 2600 SZ, that are headed for the auction block. Robb Report has more here.

Out now: Affinity’s 2023 investment benchmark report: Global unicorn edition! Get an in-depth look at the current unicorn landscape and what top private capital firms are doing to source the highest quality deals before their competition.