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Energy Transition

Energy Transition Momentum Persists Despite Headwinds

Despite political challenges, the energy transition remains strong, evidenced by significant investor commitments. Brookfield raised $20 billion for its second energy transition fund, surpassing its 2021 fund by 33%. Energy Impact Partners closed its third flagship fund with $1.36 billion, 40% larger than its previous one.

Since 2014, large LPs have committed nearly $1 trillion to the energy transition. Climate tech VCs are outpacing the broader venture world, securing a larger percentage of commitments, reaching 3.8% of all venture capital this year, nearly double their share in 2020. Renewable capacity worldwide is expected to double by 2030, with solar installations leading in China, India, the EU, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Renewables are projected to provide 65% of the world’s electricity by 2040 and nearly all by 2060.

Robotics and AI

Humanoid Robot Investment Bubble: Skepticism and Challenges Ahead

Famed roboticist Rodney Brooks and other experts are raising concerns about a potential investment bubble in humanoid robotics. Despite significant funding, challenges remain in achieving dexterity and ensuring safety.

Venture capitalists and AI scientists express skepticism about the near-term adoption of humanoids, citing issues such as safety in shared human-robot spaces and unclear timelines for technology development.

Startups like Figure face scrutiny regarding deployment claims, while companies like Tesla have experienced delays in humanoid development. Nevertheless, some startups like K-Scale Labs and Hugging Face are seeing positive responses for their humanoid robots.

Experts predict that future humanoids may not resemble the traditional human form and could incorporate wheels or other non-human features. Companies like Proception and Loomia are working on dexterity technology to address current limitations.

Finance

SEC Allows IPOs to Proceed Without Pricing Information During Shutdown

Due to the government shutdown and the furlough of 90% of SEC staff, companies can now proceed with IPOs using an automatic approval process. This allows firms to skip pricing information entirely.
Normally, companies prefer SEC reviewers to examine their disclosures before going public, but the SEC will not penalize companies for omitting pricing or price-dependent information during the shutdown.
This means that vetting will occur after retail investors have already bought shares. Companies remain legally liable for their disclosures, and the SEC can demand amendments later.

Fintech

Super.money Partners with Juspay to Expand D2C Checkout and Target $100M Revenue

Super.money, a financial service platform spun off from Flipkart, has partnered with Juspay to expand into direct-to-consumer (D2C) checkout, aiming for $100 million in annual revenue by 2026.

The new D2C checkout product, Super.money Breeze, promises merchants a one-click checkout experience. This partnership is significant for Juspay, which seeks to regain ground after payment gateways moved away from it.

Super.money aims to expand beyond Flipkart's user base and establish a standalone identity in e-commerce. The company has become a top issuer of secured credit cards in India and is focused on monetizing financial services beyond UPI payments.

Flipkart has invested $50 million in Super.money, which is now seeking an external funding round at a $1 billion valuation. Despite competition from established players, Super.money aims to triple its annual recurring revenue by 2026.

Artificial Intelligence

Reflection AI's $2B Funding: Aims to Pioneer Open Source Frontier AI in the US

Reflection AI, founded by ex-DeepMind researchers, has secured $2 billion in funding, valuing the company at $8 billion. The startup aims to be an open source alternative to labs like OpenAI and a Western counterpart to Chinese AI firms like DeepSeek. Led by Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou, Reflection AI focuses on building frontier models outside established tech giants, having recruited top talent from DeepMind and OpenAI.
The company plans to release a frontier language model next year, trained on tens of trillions of tokens, using a Mixture-of-Experts architecture. Reflection AI will release model weights for public use, while keeping datasets and training pipelines proprietary. Revenue will be generated from enterprises building on top of Reflection AI's models and governments developing sovereign AI systems.
Investors in this round include Nvidia, Disruptive, DST, and others. The funding will be used to acquire the necessary compute resources for training new models, with the first model expected to be released early next year.

Artificial Intelligence

Datacurve Secures $15M to Revolutionize AI Training Data Collection

Datacurve, a Y Combinator graduate, has raised a $15 million Series A round led by Chemistry to focus on high-quality data for software development. The company uses a "bounty hunter" system to attract skilled software engineers to complete datasets and has distributed over $1 million in bounties.

Datacurve emphasizes a positive user experience, treating data collection as a consumer product. This approach aims to attract talent, as the company believes that intrinsic motivation is more important than financial incentives. Datacurve is creating an infrastructure for post-training data collection to attract and retain experts in their domains, initially focusing on software engineering but with potential applications in finance, marketing, and medicine.

Social Media

YouTube Offers Second Chances to Terminated Creators

YouTube is piloting a program to allow creators whose channels were previously terminated to request new accounts. This initiative follows scrutiny regarding the removal of channels for violating COVID-19 and election integrity policies, which are no longer in effect.

The company will evaluate requests based on the severity and persistence of violations, as well as potential harm to the YouTube community. Creators terminated for copyright infringement are not eligible. After a one-year waiting period, creators can apply for a new channel but will start from scratch, with the opportunity to rejoin the YouTube Partner Program.

Cybersecurity

Clop Gang Exploits Oracle E-Business Suite to Steal Data from Numerous Organizations

Security researchers at Google report that the Clop extortion gang has exploited vulnerabilities in Oracle's E-Business Suite, leading to data theft from dozens of organizations. The campaign, which began around July 10, involved a zero-day bug allowing hackers to access systems without usernames or passwords. Oracle's software, used for managing customer data and HR files, was targeted. Google has provided technical details to help organizations detect potential compromises. The Clop gang, known for mass-hacking campaigns, has previously targeted file transfer tools like Cleo Software, MOVEit, and GoAnywhere.

Geopolitics & Trade

China Strengthens Export Controls on Rare-Earth Minerals Amid Semiconductor Race

China has increased export controls on rare-earth minerals and related technologies, adding five rare-earth elements to the export control list, bringing the total to 12. This action, according to the Commerce Ministry, aims to safeguard national security. Foreign producers must now apply for an export license if they intend to export products that use Chinese-origin rare-earth minerals or related technology. Defense organizations will not receive export licenses, but licenses for semiconductor manufacturing will be reviewed individually. Exports for humanitarian aid are exempt. This move mirrors U.S. restrictions on chipmaking equipment exports to China and follows previous actions in retaliation for tariffs, potentially impacting industries reliant on rare-earth minerals.

Technology & Law

Apple Adapts to Texas Age Verification Law, Highlights Privacy Concerns

Apple is adapting to Texas state law SB2420, which mandates age verification for app store users and developers. This law raises concerns about user privacy, especially the requirement of collecting sensitive, personally identifiable information for app downloads.

The law, set to take effect on January 1, 2026, will require Apple to verify if users in Texas are 18 or older. Users under 18 must join a Family Sharing group managed by parents or guardians, who must consent to all App Store downloads, purchases, and transactions.

Apple is providing tools and APIs to help developers comply with the law while preserving privacy. These include the Declared Age Range API, which will be updated to provide age categories for new account users in Texas, and new APIs for parental consent for significant app changes.

Apple cautions developers about similar laws coming into effect in Utah and Louisiana later in the year.