Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: How the startup behind Cursor became the hottest, vibiest thing in AI• The Top 5: The lobbyists Silicon Valley loves to hire • Plus, our Recommendations: The indentured servants who excel at scams; an Anxious Generation villain; and the existential link between Mel Brooks and Leonard BernsteinSee the image atop this newsletter? OpenAI’s ChaptGPT created it with this prompt: “Make a Ghibli-style... Read more ›
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In the second Donald Trump era, the separation between tech and politics appears vanishingly small. “Eight years ago, you’d never see a Tim Cook or Elon Musk in Mar-a-Lago. Now, you see them all the time,” said Brian Ballard, founder of Ballard Partners and one of the top lobbyists recommended to us by industry insiders. Federal lobbying spending hit a record high in 2024, with companies, nonprofits and other interest... Read more ›
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President Donald Trump pardoned Nikola founder Trevor Milton, who was appealing a four-year sentence for defrauding investors by exaggerating the capabilities of the company’s electric truck. Milton himself announced the pardon in a video taken on his phone Thursday as he drove his car. He said ... Read more ›
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Sesame, a startup developing artificial intelligence voice assistants and wearable devices, is in talks to raise a new funding round, according to a person familiar with the discussions. Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Northstar.vc, a four-year-old investment firm that has backed messaging app Discord, recently discussed investing in the startup, this person said. Sesame recently discussed raising at least $200 million, said two people familiar with the talks, though the... Read more ›
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We have one less company called X to worry about. Elon Musk took a break from cutting costs in the federal government to reveal late Friday that he had merged his X social media platform into his xAI startup. It was a surprising but not completely unexpected move, one that removes any impediments to the two firms sharing resources—and should reduce pressure on Musk to show a turnaround at X.This... Read more ›
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OpenAI’s ongoing $40 billion megaround is dependent on a key condition: the ChatGPT maker being able to complete its conversion to a for-profit structure by the end of the year, according to a person briefed on the round’s terms. If OpenAI isn’t able to do so, the round’s lead investor, ... Read more ›
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Elon Musk combined his xAI startup with his X social media service, he revealed in a post on X, stating that the combination valued xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, excluding X’s debt of $12 billion. The announcement came as a surprise, although Musk had already connected the two ... Read more ›
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On this week’s More or Less: Special guests Ben Smith and Nicholas Carlson help Brit and Jess break down the Signal scandal and fresh DOGE drama. Apple Spotify YouTube Read more ›
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CoreWeave’s initial public offering, which started trading today, had a rocky path to the market but delivered a windfall to Magnetar Capital. The investor bet big on the AI data center startup but presciently protected itself from the risk of big losses. Magnetar invested in CoreWeave when others wouldn’t touch it, and that helped it get the favorable terms that turned about $850 million in equity into $4.3 billion, based... Read more ›
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Nike is partnering with Togethxr, a startup co-founded by a group of women’s sports stars, to distribute Togethxr’s “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports” apparel, underscoring the demand for women’s sports merchandise as well as Nike’s efforts to jumpstart sales through collaborations with emerging ... Read more ›
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San Francisco-based startup Anysphere, the maker of popular coding assistant Cursor, is generating $200 million in annual recurring revenue for the subscriptions it expects over the next 12 months. That’s up from $50 million in annual recurring revenue it was generating in November. The revenue ... Read more ›
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Every so often, a flashy startup hurtles to the white-hot center of the Silicon Valley zeitgeist, presenting an extraordinary encapsulation of a moment in time. For the past few years, it has been OpenAI. Now, arguably, it’s Anysphere, an AI startup run by four founders, all under age 30, that remained little known until quite recently. In quick order, Anysphere’s AI code-editing software, Cursor, has become the central part of... Read more ›
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AI cloud provider CoreWeave said it raised $1.5 billion in its IPO Thursday, a smaller amount than it had expected after investor enthusiasm for the offering waned. It will be begin trading on Nasdaq Friday. The deal, at $40 a share, would value the company at $23.3 billion, on a fully diluted ... Read more ›
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CoreWeave is the first company trying to test Wall Street’s appetite for a new, tasty artificial intelligence offering. And investors don’t seem to like what they’re being served.The company priced its initial public offering tonight at $40 a share, putting a roughly $23 billion valuation on CoreWeave, according to CNBC. That’s way down from the $32 billion price bankers had been floating in recent weeks. The real test will come... Read more ›
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Amazon MGM Studios boss Jennifer Salke is leaving and won’t be replaced, according to an internal memo sent by Amazon Prime Video boss Mike Hopkins to staff. Hopkins said Amazon will “flatten” its structure and operate as two distinct film and TV studios. Courtenay Valenti will oversee ... Read more ›
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Traditional media outlets are dealing with the rise of AI summaries on sites like Google and the popularity of chatbots, which threaten to siphon away traffic coming from search. At the same time, young people are increasingly getting their news from creators and social media. With these factors in mind, 30-year-old Fast Company launched a creator network on Thursday to publish weekly articles from independent newsletter writers on the business... Read more ›
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Enterprise software firm Databricks and artificial intelligence developer Anthropic said they signed a five-year agreement to sell each other’s AI products. The deal confirmed The Information’s report earlier this month on the partnership talks. As part of the agreement, Databricks customers ... Read more ›
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Amazon has laid off some support staffers who work with the merchants who use its Fulfillment by Amazon warehousing and delivery service, a company spokesperson confirmed. Around 200 people in the division had their jobs cut this week, according to a person with direct knowledge. “Following a ... Read more ›
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The Chinese startup that operates Manus, the artificial intelligence agent that became a viral hit in the U.S. earlier this month, is in talks with potential investors including U.S. venture capital firms to raise a new funding round at a valuation of at least $500 million, up around fivefold from its previous valuation, according to three people with knowledge of the talks. Manus, a computer-using AI agent that browses many... Read more ›
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Crusoe, an Nvidia-backed cloud provider and data center developer, said it raised $225 million in debt backed by Nvidia artificial intelligence servers, which it plans to rent out to cloud customers. The deal underscores continued interest by investment firms to finance the purchase of Nvidia ... Read more ›
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23.03.2026 12:28
Last update: 12:20 EDT.
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