🚨 Windsurf Saga: AI's Most Expensive Non-Acquisition

In a whirlwind 72 hours, the fate of Windsurf—a four-year-old coding AI startup—rewrote the playbook for tech dealmaking.

Just days ago, OpenAI was deep in talks to acquire Windsurf for $3B. But internal concerns over how the startup’s coding assistant would fit into OpenAI’s agreement with Microsoft—requiring tech sharing—derailed the deal at the last minute.

Then came the pivot. On Friday, Windsurf revealed that instead of OpenAI, it had struck a $2.4B licensing and talent deal with Alphabet. Google took the founders, the top researchers, and nonexclusive rights to Windsurf’s IP. The rest of the 250-person team stayed behind.

The move echoed the 2014 Twitch-Amazon plot twist—where everyone expected a YouTube buyout, only to see a dramatic reversal.

Backlash quickly followed. Reports surfaced suggesting CEO Varun Mohan and Windsurf’s investors would cash out handsomely, leaving most employees with nothing.

But then came the Monday surprise. Cognition, the AI agent startup behind Devin (and backed by Founders Fund), stepped in to acquire the rest of Windsurf—including the staff and over $100M in cash still on the books. Employees will reportedly receive accelerated equity vesting.

This marks a turning point—not just in the AI talent wars—but in how deals themselves are structured. A single startup just executed:

• A licensing-based “reverse acquihire” to Big Tech
• A follow-on acqui-hire by a VC-backed peer
• And split equity and IP in real time

Two other AI companies reportedly passed on acquiring Windsurf over the weekend. But in the end, Cognition locked in the team—and a new kind of deal playbook was born.

🦅 The Pentagon Picks Its AI Stack — $800M in Contracts Spread Across Top Labs

In what might be the most consequential enterprise AI deployment in history, the U.S. Department of Defense has awarded $200M contracts to each of four leading AI labs: OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI.

These deals are aimed at developing “agentic AI workflows” to serve national security missions—though specifics remain classified. It’s a sign that the DoD is hedging its bets, spreading resources across all major players to avoid locking into any single ecosystem... at least for now.

⚙️ OpenAI's Agents Are Coming for the Enterprise Stack

OpenAI is expanding beyond the chatbot UI—and into your workflows. As part of its push into the application layer, the company is rolling out new ChatGPT “agents” that can:

• Create and edit spreadsheets and presentations
• Generate reports
• Automate browser-based tasks

Instead of simulating a human clicking through PowerPoint or Excel, these agents write code to generate the result—bypassing slow UI simulations and saving compute. It’s faster, more efficient, and data-rich.

Every time a user asks ChatGPT to “make a financial model” or “build a deck,” it generates code OpenAI can feed back into model training. It’s a loop that accelerates Claude Code-style capabilities—and gives OpenAI a pathway to better coding AI.

🛒 ChatGPT Goes Commerce: OpenAI to Add In-Chat Checkout and Shopping Commissions

OpenAI is gearing up to enter e-commerce directly, with plans to enable checkout inside ChatGPT and take a cut of transactions. Until now, ChatGPT has provided product recommendations but redirected users to external websites for purchasing. The new plan would let users browse, choose, and buy—all within the chat interface.

🛍️ How it works:

• Merchants using ChatGPT will share product data with OpenAI
• Buyers will complete purchases in-chat
• OpenAI earns a commission on each order, creating a new revenue stream

OpenAI is reportedly partnering with Shopify to present early versions of the tool to brands.

📈 Anthropic Valuation Buzz: Investors Circle $100B Round as Claude Code Surges

As Anthropic’s revenue soars, investors are lining up for what could be the company’s next major funding round—potentially valuing the AI firm at over $100 billion.

Just four months ago, Anthropic raised $3.5 billion at a $58B valuation, with plans to raise a total of $5.5B this year. Now, with interest heating up and profit-related metrics improving, the company has begun sharing pieces of its financial performance with select backers, according to sources close to the discussions.

💥 One standout stat: Anthropic is now attributing $200M+ in annualized revenue to its developer-focused product, Claude Code.
Even as the company continues to burn through large amounts of cash, its topline growth is accelerating, prompting speculation about another big raise—possibly at double its last mark.

Meanwhile, in a small but symbolic talent win: Anthropic has re-hired two former leaders of Claude Code who had recently left to join rival Anysphere, makers of the Cursor coding app.

💼 Claude Gets a Bloomberg Terminal Brain — Anthropic Targets Finance First

Anthropic is going vertical. The AI lab behind Claude is teaming up with top financial data providers to launch a new product: a unified Claude interface for analysts, drawing real-time intelligence from PitchBook, Morningstar, and Daloopa.
This marks Claude’s first industry-specific disruption—and it’s targeting Wall Street’s most data-hungry workflows. Anthropic is betting big that finance, with its appetite for speed, precision, and ROI, is the ideal proving ground for AI-powered co-pilots.

The tool allows financial analysts to query Claude, which will synthesize market data across all connected sources.

🚀 SpaceX Backs xAI, Setting the Stage for a $200B Valuation

Elon Musk continues to move capital within his empire: SpaceX is investing $2 billion into xAI, forming the core of a $5 billion equity round led by Morgan Stanley.

That equity raise follows a recently completed $5 billion debt raise, bringing xAI’s total mid-2025 fundraising to $10 billion—a massive war chest for a startup less than two years old.

Now, reports say xAI is preparing another round that could value the company at a staggering $170–200 billion. Musk has publicly denied that xAI is raising again “right now,” but sources say the conversations are ongoing.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s shareholders are reportedly preparing to vote on whether to support funding xAI.

🪙 Crypto’s Biggest Win Yet: Genius Act Legalizes Stablecoins

In a historic milestone for crypto, the Genius Act has passed both houses of Congress and is headed to President Trump’s desk for signature. The law creates the first clear federal framework for USD-backed stablecoins, legitimizing them as payment tools.

💥 What it means:

• Firms like Circle are surging amid renewed interest
• Stripe already enables merchants to accept stablecoins
• Even JPMorgan, BofA, and Citi acknowledged the competitive pressure in earnings calls

🧾 Fintech vs. the Banks: The API Fee Fight Hits Washington

The fintech industry is pushing back—and it’s going straight to the Trump administration to do it.
At the center of the clash is a new move by JPMorgan Chase and other major banks to charge fintech and crypto firms for API access to user banking data—data that’s currently free.

Under JPMorgan’s proposed pricing structure, fintech and crypto companies could be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars annually just to access customers’ bank account information.
This data is critical. It powers everything from:

• Venmo’s instant transfers
• Coinbase’s bank-linked deposits
• BNPL loan underwriting
• Budgeting tools, personal finance dashboards, and more

Without it, many consumer fintechs would be flying blind—or face major friction.
💼 Now fintechs are lobbying the Trump administration to step in, arguing that banks are gatekeeping consumer-owned data in a way that undermines innovation, competition, and user control.
This battle isn’t just about fees—it’s about who owns access to consumer finance infrastructure. And as open banking debates heat up, the outcome could shape U.S. fintech for years to come.

🇺🇸 Starling Eyes the U.S.

UK digital bank Starling is reportedly considering a U.S. listing, delivering yet another blow to the London Stock Exchange as British startups increasingly seek deeper capital pools and higher valuations across the Atlantic.
The move underscores the continued drain from UK public markets, which have struggled to retain high-growth tech names amid regulatory constraints and lower liquidity.

🔗 Figure Rides the Blockchain Tailwind

Meanwhile, Figure Technology Solutions—a blockchain-based home loan and crypto exchange startup—is preparing to go public this fall.

It’s a sharp reversal. Under the Biden administration, Figure’s IPO stalled after regulators pushed back on the company’s use of the term “blockchain” in filings.
“‘We don’t want to see the word ‘blockchain’ in this document. You need to replace it with ‘database,’” Cagney recalls being told.

Now, with a crypto-friendly White House, companies like Figure are seizing the moment. The new environment not only encourages blockchain language—it rewards it.

💸 Big Rounds, Bigger Signals: The Latest in Private Market Momentum

Revolut has entered late-stage talks to raise $2 billion in fresh capital, which could drive its valuation up to $75 billion, approximately 60% above its $45 billion mark from a secondary share round last year. This raise includes both primary funding and secondary share sales.

OpenEvidence, which offers an AI-powered search tool for clinicians, raised $210 million in a Series B round at a $3.5 billion valuation. It’s one of the largest rounds in the AI-for-health category to date—and a signal that investors are leaning heavily into specialized vertical tools.

Substack also announced a fresh $100 million raise at a $1.1 billion valuation ($1.0 billion pre-money). The deal marks a long-awaited markup for early backers of the newsletter platform—once considered a faltering bet amid shifting media trends. It now looks like Substack’s creator-first model still has strong investor appeal.

In Europe, Sweden’s Lovable became a unicorn just eight months after launch. The company closed a $200 million Series A round at a $1.8 billion valuation.

And finally, defense startup Castelion raised $350 million in a Series B on July 3rd. It’s one of the largest defense-tech deals of the year so far.