Jensen Huang on AI & Jobs🤖, 12 VCs Took Half the Money in H1🏦, Murati’s $12B AI Lab Has No Product Yet🧬

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Jul 19, 2025

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In-Depth Insights 🔍

How Shopify Actually Did AI Right 🧠
Shopify didn’t stop at strategy docs. They went full-stack - legal, infra, open access to top models, unlimited tokens. Execution > hype. [First Round]

AI Researchers Want to Read the Model’s Mind 🔍
OpenAI, DeepMind, Anthropic. All calling for chain-of-thought transparency as a safety layer for agentic AI. Think cognitive debugging. [TechCrunch]
Cognition, maker of the AI coding agent Devin, acquires Windsurf 📈
Fresh off Google’s reverse-acquihire, Cognition picks up Windsurf’s team and IP. Devin just got meaner in the AI coding arms race. [TechCrunch]

SaaS 2.0 Is a Specialist With a Spreadsheet 🤖
The future isn’t dashboards. It’s AI agents delivering expert output in plain rows and cells. SaaS is morphing - again.
Mid-Funnel Marketing Still Sucks 🎯
Great top. Strong close. But most brands lose the plot in the middle. This breakdown shows how to fix the leakiest part of your funnel.

How Real Leaders Scale Empathy and Purpose 🛠️
600+ execs. One core insight: resilience and curiosity are teachable. McKinsey’s Ramesh Srinivasan lays out the emotional mechanics of leadership. [Foundation Capital]
Build, Sell, Understand: Your Startup Career Lens 🏗️
Three jobs in startups. Pick your lane: builder, seller, or analyst. Then watch how AI’s tilting the playing field. [Dan Hockenmaier]

Still Debating SF? Read This 🌉
Jason Lemkin breaks it down: SF is still the B2B + AI gravity well. Talent density, capital flow, and compounding opportunity make it hard to beat. [SaaStr]

Social Media Gems 💎

Is WeWork About to Pull a Comeback? 🏠
New CEO speaks. Sharp insight on remote work, office culture, and actually building something real.
CB Insights’ AI Picks Are Already Exiting 📈
3 of 52 startups flagged by CB Insights’ AI have already been acquired. CentML (NVIDIA), Context.ai (OpenAI), FarmWise (Taylor Farms). Data > vibes.

Jensen Huang on AI & Jobs 🤖
It’s not AI taking your job. It’s someone using AI 10x better than you. Huang said it. You feel it.

12 VCs Took Half the Money in H1 🏦
Elite firms dominated 2025 fundraising. Founders Fund alone bagged $4.6B - more than 44 first-timers combined. The gap’s getting wider.

Anthropic’s $4B ARR Breaks the Chart 🚀
From $1B to $4B in 6 months. This isn’t just hypergrowth - it’s a blueprint for AI-era scale.

Best Monologue on Winning 🏆
Raw, unfiltered, emotional. The Open delivered a masterclass on what winning really feels like. Goosebumps guaranteed.

New Funds 💰

Mantis VC closed Fund III at $100M to double down on early-stage consumer tech and entertainment startups.
GPx brian Singerman and Lee Linden are raising a massive $500M for their debut GPx fund.
Evantic Capital launched its inaugural $355M fund focused on growth-stage software and infrastructure startups.
Norrsken VC committed €300M to support AI startups tackling global challenges through responsible innovation.
Haveli Investments closed its debut software-focused fund with a whopping $4.5B. One of the year’s largest.
VIE Ventures new biotech fund launched to target autoimmune disease therapies, backed by big pharma and health VCs.
Kettleborough VC launches Fund II with an ₹80 Cr ($9.6M) target to back Indian SaaS and fintech startups.

That’s a wrap for this week.

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