The newest new Slack CEO, devoted chat bots, and "overemployed" -- and getting away with it

A witness in the Google antitrust trial today revealed that Google gives Apple a 36% cut of search ad revenue that comes from Safari.

Since its launch, Donald's Trump's Truth Social has generated $3.7 million in net sales and $73 million in losses, raising questions about whether it will be able to continue as a going concern.

Exxon will begin producing lithium in Arkansas in 2027, signaling a significant shift towards EVs for the oil giant.

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Divergent Technologies, a Los Angeles company whose digital manufacturing system uses AI, advanced materials, and automation to help industrial companies design and fabricate new products, raised a $230 million Series D round. Hexagon AB, which invested $100 million, was the deal lead. More here.

Fnality International, a four-year-old London startup that is developing a blockchain-based wholesale payment system, raised a $95.2 million round. Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas were the co-leads, while the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., Euroclear, Nomura Holdings, and Wisdom Tree also chipped in. Bloomberg has more here. 

VectorY Therapeutics, a Dutch biotech looking to advance its preclinical lead program in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, has raised $138 million in Series A funding co-led by EQT Life Sciences and Forbion Growth Opportunities Fund. FierceBiotech has more here.

Monument Bank, a six-year-old London startup that operates a digital bank, raised a $49.1 million Series B round. Dubai Investments led the transaction. The company has raised a total of $126+ million. Finextra Research has more here.

Otovo, a seven-year-old Oslo startup that helps homeowners in Europe transition to solar energy by providing solar panel installations and battery storage systems, raised a $42.8 million round from previous investors Å Energy, Axel Johnson Group, and Nysnø. EU-Startups has more here.

Diesta, a one-year-old London startup whose platform is designed to automate the reconciliation and distribution of insurance payments, raised a $2 million seed round from Restive, SixThirty, Antler, SystemaNova, and Westerly Ventures. FinTech Global has more here.

Galactic Holdings, a three-year-old Mexico City startup cryptocurrency platform that facilitates the conversion of fiat currencies, raised a $6.25 million Series A round. Galaxy Interactive and DragonFly were the co-leads, with SHK also participating. Contxto has more here.

InPlanet, a one-year-old Munich startup that helps to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by spreading rock powder on agricultural land, raised a $4.6 million seed round led by FoodLabs and Salvia, with Mudcake, Carbon Removal Partners, and Übermorgen Ventures also taking part. More here.

Nema Health, a startup based in New Haven, Ct., whose virtual platform provides support to trauma victims, raised a $4.1 million seed round co-led by Optum Ventures and .406 Ventures, with GreyMatter Capital also pitching in. More here.

Phantm, an Australian startup that is working with Starbucks Australia and MECCA to replace plastic with sustainable alternatives, raised a $1.3 million seed round co-led by Blacknova VC, Salus Ventures, and CoVentures VC. Forbes Australia has more here.

Raus, a two-year-old Berlin startup that specializes in renting cabins located in rustic settings near German cities, raised a $9.1 million round led by Roch Ventures, with additional participation from Rockaway Ventures and Dupuis Investment. The company has raised a total of $15+ million. PhocusWire has more here.

Shekel Mobility, a two-year-old startup based in Lagos, Nigeria, that helps African car dealers find, finance, and sell cars, raised a $3.2 million pre-seed round in addition to $4 million in debt. On the equity side, Ventures Platform and MaC Venture Capital were the co-leads, with Rebel Fund, Unpopular Ventures, Maiora Capital, PageOne Lab Inc., Phoenix Investment Club, Heirloom VC, Pioneer Ventures, and previous investor Y Combinator also contributing. TechCrunch has more here.

Solvimon, a one-year-old Utrecht startup that helps businesses implement different pricing methods such as usage-based pricing, raised a $9.6 million round. Northzone was the deal lead. EU-Startups has more here.

SpinDrive, an eight-year-old Finnish startup that provides active magnetic bearings for original equipment manufacturers, raised a $4.1 million Series A round. Rhapsody Venture Partners led the transaction, with previous investors Innovestor and Born2Grow also participating. Tech.eu has more here.

EyeTell, which uses artificial intelligence to generate short-form video scripts and content, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The five-month-old startup has raised a seed round led by Kevin Hartz’s A-Star Capital with an investment from Ron Conway’s SV Ange

EyeTell, a five-month-old startup by YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley that uses AI to generate short-form video scripts and content, has raised an unknown amount of seed funding led by Kevin Hartz’s A-Star Capital with an investment from Ron Conway’s SV Angel, reports The Information. More here.

This asset was bought for $19K . . .and sold for $110M. When the New York City developer sold the Jean-Michel Basquiat painting in 2017, he nabbed a 5,798x return on his investment. Now, everyday investors are unlocking access to the very same market, thanks to the blue-chip art investing platform Masterworks. When Masterworks sells a painting -- like the 16 it's already sold -- investors reap their portion of the profits. Offerings can sell out fast, but you can skip the waitlist to join with this link. See disclosures at masterworks.com/cd.

Interplay, a New York-based venture capital firm, says it has closed on its third fund with $45 million in capital commitments. The outfit, focused on investments at the Series A stage, deploys capital into software, including B2B marketplace and vertical software. TechCrunch has more here.

Cardeo, a three-year-old London startup that created a payments app to help users consolidate their credit card debt, is closing up shop. The company raised a total of approximately $4 million from investors such as JamJar Investments.

The charts that could predict the IPO market's comeback.

Sam Altman expects OpenAI "to raise a lot more over time” from Microsoft in order to build "superintelligence" and address OpenAI's massive compute costs. Its partnership is "working really well," he tells the FT.

Jeff Bezo's fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, claims she "blacked out" when Bezos proposed to her with a 30-carat diamond ring (aboard his $500 million yacht, no less).

Longtime Salesforce exec Denise Dresser has just been announced as Slack's third CEO in the past 17 months.

Melinda French Gates says it's "time to change the face of power in venture capital."

Amazon is restructuring its games division and axing 180 employees.

If OpenAI ever reaches what the six members of its nonprofit board of directors determine to be "attained AGI," the artificial general intelligence technology will be “excluded from IP licenses and other commercial terms with Microsoft, which only apply to pre-AGI technology.”

AIs may run out of training data as soon as 2026.

AI chatbots will never dump you. Is that a good thing?

The first drug discovered by AI is approaching late-stage trials.

Apparently, there is a whole community of "overemployed" tech folks. (One attempted to hold down jobs at Meta, Tinder, and IBM at the same time.) 

Is Malcolm Gladwell's podcast company in trouble? (Has it been in business for 10,000 hours yet?)

The ins and outs of space romance.

Doritos has worked with a partner to develop software that cancels out the crunching sound of chips during group gaming, voice chats, and video conferencing.

The Rockefeller Center Tree by the numbers.

For all of you speed freaks out there: a Lamborghini gaming laptop. 

Price chop alert! Frank Sinatra's LA "party house" has been marked down to $8.99 million from its original $21.5 million asking price. 

A toy DJ mixer - perfect for your young David Solomon wannabe.

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