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SpaceX attempted to buy Cognition, a leading AI coding startup, only for the CEO to deny any acquisition talks shortly after reports surfaced. This move comes as SpaceX tries to catch up with competitors like Anthropic and Google in the AI race. If successful, adding Cognition's Devin agent would have bolstered SpaceX’s push into enterprise AI coding solutions. The deal is now off but discussions on collaboration continue.
Travis Kalanick's robotics startup, Atoms, just raised a whopping $1.7 billion in venture capital, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). This comes after Kalanick was ousted from Uber over boardroom battles with key investors like Bill Gurley. The funding marks a significant comeback for Kalanick and underscores the ongoing complexities of founder-VC relationships. Kalanick warns that only 10% of VCs meet a 'do no harm' standard, while just 1% are truly helpful to founders. His advice? Have a pitch so sharp it creates bidding wars among firms. Founders should aim for a balance: too little detail won't attract funding, but overloading investors with specifics can be off-putting. The funding round includes $2 billion raised by a16z across two new funds in June. Ben Horowitz has joined Atoms' board, adding weight to the company's ambitions. This move highlights the delicate dance between founders and VCs as they navigate the tech landscape. Let's dive deeper…
In today's ContentBuffer update:
Rillet Soars to $1B Valuation with $100M Series C Round
Gwyneth Paltrow Hosts Private Dinner for Tech Mogul in the Hamptons
BetOnline Sports & Casino Defies U.S. Laws, Offers LLWS Bets
AI Industry Faces Growing Trust Issues and Political Backlash
5 new AI tools & 5 new AI jobs
More tech news
Latest Development
Image source: techcrunch.com
Summary: SpaceX tried to buy Cognition for its AI coding tech. Deal fell through, but talks continue. Why it matters: AI-assisted coding is a big market.
Key Points:
SpaceX acquired Cursor in a $60 billion deal last week
xAI went public with a peak market cap of nearly $2.3 trillion
Cognition raised $1B at a $25B valuation in May, now eyeing $40B
Grok 4.6, released by Cursor and SpaceX, scores high on coding benchmarks
AI is expected to make up 99% of SpaceX's value within four years
Why it matters: If you're an enterprise looking for cutting-edge AI coding solutions, SpaceX’s failed acquisition attempt signals the competitive landscape. Cognition’s Devin agent could have given SpaceX a significant edge over rivals like Anthropic and Google in the AI-assisted coding market.
Image source: techcrunch.com
Summary: Travis Kalanick's robotics startup Atoms raised $1.7 billion from a16z, with Ben Horowitz joining the board. Founders should hone their pitch to attract funding without overwhelming investors.
Key Points:
Atoms secures $1.7B in venture capital led by Andreessen Horowitz
Ben Horowitz joins Atoms' board as Kalanick returns to prominence
Only 10% of VCs meet a 'do no harm' standard, says Kalanick
Just 1% of VCs are truly helpful to founders, according to Kalanick's insights
$2B raised by a16z across two new funds in June
Why it matters: Travis Kalanick's $1.7 billion funding round for Atoms highlights the ongoing complexities between founders and VCs. Founders should refine their pitches to attract investment without overwhelming potential backers, as only a small percentage of VCs truly support startups effectively.
Image source: techcrunch.com
Summary: Rillet just closed a $100M Series C led by Iconiq, valuing it at $1B. Finance teams should pay attention to this AI-driven accounting software's rapid rise.
Key Points:
AI startup Rillet raised $100 million in its Series C round, pushing valuation to $1 billion
Iconiq Capital led the latest funding round, with Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia returning as investors
Rillet emerged from stealth mode in 2024, already boasting over 600 customers across various industries
The company's ARR doubled in just three months, showcasing rapid adoption of its AI-driven financial management software
Since its Series A round in 2021, Rillet has raised a total of $200 million to fuel growth and innovation
Why it matters: If you're managing company finances with outdated tools, Rillet's AI accounting software might be the game-changer you've been waiting for. With its ability to automatically pull data from sources like Salesforce or Brex, finance teams can streamline their workflows significantly. However, at $1 billion valuation and growing fast, it may not be an affordable option for startups just yet.
Image source: techcrunch.com
Summary: Gwyneth Paltrow hosts a dinner for a tech mogul at her Hamptons home tonight. This intersection of Hollywood and Silicon Valley could lead to new investments and collaborations.
Key Points:
Kinship Ventures raised $75 million in 2023 but has not yet closed the fund.
OpenAI, an investor in Kinship Ventures, hired Charles Porch earlier this year.
Charles Porch is known as 'the celebrity whisperer' by Vanity Fair for his work with influencers and tech companies.
Goop Kitchen uses AI tools to manage its operations, reflecting a trend of integrating technology into business models.
Gwyneth Paltrow's company Goop has signed a lease for the ground floor of Anthropic's San Francisco HQ.
Why it matters: This dinner highlights how tech moguls and celebrities are increasingly intersecting. Kinship Ventures' investment in OpenAI shows that entertainment figures can influence technology investments, potentially steering future AI developments.
Image source: techcrunch.com
Summary: BetOnline Sports & Casino defies U.S. laws to offer LLWS odds, catering to a surge in demand from bettors who wagered twice as much this year compared to last.
Key Points:
BetOnline Sports & Casino offers odds on the Little League World Series despite state and federal restrictions due to its offshore status.
Bettors placed twice as many bets on LLWS matchups in 2025 compared to 12 months prior, reflecting a growing interest in youth sports betting.
More users wagered on an LLWS matchup between South Korea and Canada than on certain Major League Baseball games, highlighting the tournament's popularity among bettors.
State-regulated sportsbooks like Kalshi and Polymarket do not allow bets on the LLWS due to legal restrictions within U.S. jurisdictions.
BetOnline Sports & Casino takes more bets on LLWS over two weeks than established markets like WNBA, Major League Soccer, pro tennis, or golf.
Why it matters: Bettors are placing twice as many wagers on the Little League World Series in 2025 compared to 2024. BetOnline Sports & Casino is capitalizing on this trend by offering odds despite legal restrictions within U.S. jurisdictions, catering to a growing demand from bettors who see LLWS matchups drawing more interest than established sports leagues like WNBA and MLS.
Image source: techcrunch.com
Summary: Tech firms face a PR crisis over AI data centers as they struggle with growing consumer unease and political backlash, especially ahead of key elections like Ohio's.
Key Points:
National Republican Senatorial Committee warns top AI companies about U.S. data center impact on election in Ohio
Pew Research: 52% of Americans are more concerned than excited about increased use of AI in daily life (up from 37%)
CNBC poll shows majority of 18- to 34-year-olds don't trust top AI leaders to act responsibly
Over 70% of Americans believe AI is advancing too quickly, according to a May Economist/YouGov poll
AI-free classic iPods are selling for top dollar on eBay as young people show interest in retro tech
Why it matters: Tech companies must address the growing public distrust and political opposition around AI. If you're planning an AI project, be prepared to justify its benefits beyond just technical advancements.
New Tools & Job
MachineTranslation.com - MachineTranslation.com is an AI-powered translation platform that translates text and documents by comparing outputs from multiple leading AI translation models. Its consensus technology helps users choose the most accurate translation, reducing errors and improving quality across more than 330 languages. What it does Translates text and documents using AI. Compares translations from multiple AI models. Provides a consensus translation to improve accuracy. Supports 330+ languages. Helps users evaluate and refine translations. What makes it good Higher accuracy: Compares multiple AI translations instead of relying on a single model. Better quality: Consensus technology helps identify the strongest translation. Fast and easy: Delivers results in seconds with a simple interface. Broad language support: Covers over 330 languages. Useful for professionals and travelers: Suitable for business, marketing, legal, technical, and everyday communication.
Format Factory - Format Factory is a browser-based workbench for common audio and video conversion jobs. It supports batch processing for video and audio conversion, compression, merging, audio extraction, and audio removal, with transparent credits and temporary results. Try Format Factory for practical media conversion without installer bundles or per-file setup.
HappyHorse.AI - HappyHorse.AI is a multimodal AI video generator for creators, marketers, and social media teams. Users can create videos from text prompts, animate images, or generate videos from reference characters. The platform focuses on browser-based video creation and native audio support.
NeatScribe - NeatScribe is designed for anyone who needs to reuse information from recorded speech. It creates timestamped transcripts, supports translation, and exports results as text files, documents, subtitles, captions, or timed lyrics.
Sakana Marlin - Sakana Marlin is Sakana AI's first commercial product: an autonomous 'Ultra Deep Research' agent positioned as a Virtual Chief Strategy Officer. Given a research topic, Marlin works autonomously for up to roughly eight hours, forming hypotheses, gathering and reconciling information from online sources, and synthesizing a detailed strategy report up to ~100 pages plus executive-summary slides. It builds on Sakana AI research including AB-MCTS (NeurIPS 2025 Spotlight) and The AI Scientist (published in Nature). A closed beta ran from April 2026 with ~300 professionals across finance and consulting.
Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Trust & Safety - Senior MLE building trust & safety models for Hinge — detection, abuse signals, and user-protection systems at scale.
Research Engineer - AI safety Research Engineer at FAR.AI working on red-teaming and adversarial evaluation of frontier models.
Cloud Machine Learning Engineer - US-remote MLE building cloud inference and training infrastructure for Hugging Face's open AI platform.
Research Engineer, Applied AI Engineering - Research Engineer translating OpenAI research into production-grade Applied AI systems at scale.
Forward Deployed Engineer, Applied AI - Founding FDE embedding with enterprise customers to ship Claude-powered agents, MCP servers, and production AI deployments.
QUICK HITS
Google Launches AI Study Tools in Search and Gemini - Google has launched AI-driven study tools in Search and the Gemini app for students, including interactive visuals, 3D simulations, and customizable quizzes. Why it matters: Enhances learning experiences with tailored educational resources.
OpenAI Revokes Access for Five TAC Researchers - OpenAI revoked access for five TAC researchers due to technical issues, affecting cybersecurity work in certain regions. Why it matters: This impacts how trusted defenders can report and fix vulnerabilities.
Silicon Data Secures $30M for AI Compute Futures Trading - Silicon Data secured $30M to create a reference price for GPU rental and futures contracts in AI compute markets. This could help companies better manage their compute costs as the AI buildout continues to grow.
T-Mobile Thwarts Chinese Hackers in Major Cyber Battle - T-Mobile's security team caught Salt Typhoon hackers early, preventing a major breach. Why you should care: proactive measures save lives and data.
Nuclear Startups Pitch Power for AI Data Centers - TerraPower is pitching its Natrium reactors as a solution to AI data center power issues. The tech could be a game-changer due to its flexibility and efficiency.
Also Raises $150M for Autonomous Driving Tech - Self-driving tech startup Also just raised $150M to fast-track their autonomous vehicle development. Why you care: They're backed by Rivian and have deals with Amazon, making them a serious contender in the space.
THAT'S A WRAP
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Distributed quantum processing units can now tolerate individual device failures, ensuring continuous operation and data integrity. This breakthrough is akin to using RAID for traditional storage systems.
Travis Kalanick, former Uber founder, has secured $1.7 billion for his robotics company Atoms. Andreessen Horowitz leads the funding and Ben Horowitz joins the board. The move highlights the ongoing tension between founders and VCs.
TikTok is developing a feature to allow users to send money via direct messages using TikTok Pay, competing with services like Venmo and Zelle. The feature could disrupt social media's financial landscape.