OpenAI is reportedly in the market to raise another round at a $100 billion+ valuation

Happy Holidays, dear readers! We're pulling the plug on the newsletter for a couple of weeks as happens every year, but we're wishing you and yours every happiness as we sail into 2024. 

We'll be back up and running on Monday, January 8. In the meantime, we're sincerely looking forward to seeing many of you at our January 24 event in San Francisco. (Reminder if you're missing this one to join us and our co-host Lightspeed Venture Partners the night of February 29 in L.A.) 

Major thanks to our anchor partner in the SF event, Felicis, the Bay Area-based, global early-stage firm, for its ongoing support.

More in a couple of weeks.🌲🎁 💖

Tencent lost $46 billion in market value and the stocks of video game companies sagged in response to a proposal by a Chinese regulator to sharply limit the amount of time and money consumers spend on computer and smartphone games. 

Apple is looking to strike $50 million partnership arrangements with CNBC and other media organizations that will permit Apple to train its generative AI on these publishers' articles. 

More on Apple: apparently, antitrust regulators are investigating the $3 trillion company's attempts to block startup Beeper Mini from offering iPhone messaging on Apple phones as another possible example of anti-competitive behavior.

What a rollercoaster! OpenAI, which flirted with disaster last month when it briefly fired CEO Sam Altman, is reportedly in the market to raise another round at a $100 billion+ valuation, making it the second most valuable startup after SpaceX.

What can a partnership with TechCrunch do for your company? Plenty. At TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 — in Boston on April 25 — you’ll gain access to an engaged, targeted audience of more than 1,000 founders and investors. Get in touch to discover exceptional opportunities to make connections with impact. Generate new leads, meet with founders in person, issue an announcement, launch a product and present your brand in a big way. Get in touch.

It was pure coincidence, but months before the pandemic took hold around the world, IndieBio — a startup accelerator devoted to startups using biology to solve large problems — expanded its remit, adding a New York arm to the operations it was already running out of San Francisco. Of course, it’s because of what the world endured that more attention than ever is being paid to life sciences startups, which is why we thought readers might want a sneak peek at the newest batch of startups that IndieBio NY is preparing to introduce to investors in roughly one month.

More here.

Arkon Energy, a two-year-old Sydney startup that builds and manages a network of data centers for clients involved in bitcoin mining and machine learning, raised a $110 million round led by Bluesky Capital Management, with Kestrel 0x1, Nural Capital, and Florence Capital also investing. TechCrunch has more here.

Bizay, an eight-year-old Lisbon startup that says it has developed a global operating and supply chain system for product customization, raised a $19.8 million Series C2 round led by Indico Capital Partners, with Iberis and Lince also pitching in. Tech.eu has more here.

Link11, an 18-year-old Frankfurt company whose platform offers companies protection against DDoS attacks, raised a $29.2 million round from Pride Capital Partners. Tech.eu has more here.

Labrys Technologies, a four-year-old London startup that has developed a communication platform that combines messaging, location tracking, and digital payments primarily aimed at enhancing coordination and efficiency in military and humanitarian operations​, raised a $5.5 million seed round led by Project A Ventures, with MD One Ventures, Marque VC, Offset Ventures, and Expeditions Fund also contributing. TechCrunch has more here.

Magic Feedback, a Copenhagen startup founded this year that uses machine learning to unify, categorize, and analyze user feedback, raised a $1.3 million round led by Maki VC. EU-Startups has more here.

UltiHash, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that is developing software to increase the efficiency and capacity of existing storage drives, raised a $2.5 million pre-seed round led by Inventure, with PreSeedVentures, Tiny VC, and Futuristic VC also anteing up. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Chain Reaction is your weekly connection to the world of web3. Each week, TechCrunch+ reporter Jacquelyn Melinek interviews a leader in crypto to break down the latest web3 news block-by-block for the crypto-curious. Jacquelyn recently interviewed Johann Kerbrat, the general manager of crypto at Robinhood. They discussed Robinhood’s expansion outside of the U.S., how the platform restricted holding and trading of certain crypto assets in June and where it stands today. Listen here

Baird Capital, a Milwaukee-based venture firm, said this week that it has closed its sixth and largest fund with $218 million in committed capital. More here.

The bi-coastal venture firm Spark Capital is seeking to raise $2.1 billion for a pair of new funds, according to filings with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission first flagged by Axios. More here.

Ola Electric, a six-year-old Bengalaru-based startup that manufactures electric scooters and operates charging networks in India, has filed to go public. The company has raised almost $1 billion from firms such as SoftBank, Temasek, Tiger Global, and Matrix Partners and was valued at $5.4 billion in an October financing. TechCrunch has more here.

Details are emerging from the fraud trial of HeadSpin CEO Manish Lachwani that paint a picture of a company that raised money when there were few controls and little oversight by investors. The former unicorn raised a total of $117 million from investors such as GV and Iconiq Capital. 

SoftBank's bad bet on Better, the online mortgage marketplace. 

The self-checkout even the haters will love.

Hyperloop's loss is high-speed rail's gain.

How Hollywood makes an AI body double. 

From the Diary of Santa’s Grandson ...

If you were on this cruise ship and did not throw up, you deserve a medal.

Why most dogs have brown eyes. 

The fifteen best late-night TV moments of 2023.

Tiny cows.

Tip-top turntable.

More gifts for people you dislike.