On Me raises $6M to shake up the gift card industry; plus, Port raises $100M at $800M valuation to take on Spotify’s Backstage

AI startup Tavus founder says users talk to its AI Santa ‘for hours’ per day; Oboe raises $16 million from a16z for its AI-powered course generation platform

Boom Supersonic raises $300M to build natural gas turbines for Crusoe data centers

Empromptu raises $2M pre-seed to help enterprises build AI apps; Pebble’s founder introduces a $75 AI smart ring for recording brief notes

Tiger Global plans cautious venture future with a new $2.2B fund; plus, SoftBank and Nvidia reportedly in talks to fund SkildAI at $14B, nearly tripling its value

Heat pump startup Quilt raises $20M Series B to expand sales ; plus, OpenAI says it’s turned off app suggestions that look like ads

Meta acquires AI device startup Limitless; and Is it time to ‘refound’ your startup?

New streaming channel launches to give viewers a peek into city council meetings

Nexus isn’t going all in on AI, keeping half of its new $700M fund for India startups; plus, Amazon hopes to jump-start its AI coding tool Kiro by giving it away to startups

VCs deploy ‘kingmaking’ strategy to crown AI winners in their infancy

Microreactor startup Antares raises $96M for land, sea, and space-based nuclear power; plus Kalshi raises $1B at $11B valuation

Titan OS raises $58 million from Highland Europe for its smart TV OS; also, Paris-based AI voice startup Gradium nabs $70M seed

Black Forest Labs raises $300M at $3.25B valuation; plus, OpenAI’s investment into Thrive Holdings is its latest circular deal

How AI PR startup Clipbook won Mark Cuban’s investment from a cold email

Are you balding? There’s an AI for that; plus, JustiGuide wants to use AI to help people navigate the US immigration system

Why ‘hold forever’ investors are snapping up venture capital ‘zombies’

Google teams up with Accel to hunt for India’s next AI breakouts

Find Your Grind raises $5M to grow platform empowering students to explore unique career paths; plus Fleet Space finds massive lithium deposit using AI and satellites

X-energy rides nuclear wave, raises $700M Series D

This startup wants to build a fusion reactor — on a boat; plus, Momentic raises $15M to automate software testing