Blue Origin successfully lands New Glenn, the 320 foot tall reusable rocket. Blue Origin is the second company after SpaceX to demonstrate a successful landing of an orbital-class reusable booster. On the same day, Amazon announced a rebrand of its low earth orbit satellite network, "Project Kuiper", to Amazon Leo.
Waymo Expands to the Freeway
Waymo expands to the freeway in SF, LA, and Houston for the first time. Waymo also widened its territory in the Bay Area, now operating from San Francisco to San Jose. You can monitor the growth in coverage of Waymo, Tesla, and Zoox on Robo Tracker.
Neros Series B, Department of War Revamps Acquisition Strategy
Neros, a defense technology startup focused on building American-made FPV drones, announced a $75m Series B round led by Sequoia. This comes just days after the Department of War unveiled a new defense acquisition strategy focused on speed, flexibility, and execution.
YC Backs Brainrot IDE
Y Combinator shared a launch announcement from Clad Labs who recently released a "brainrot" IDE. The Chad IDE allows software engineers to gamble, watch TikTok, and use dating apps directly from their code editors while they wait for AI agents to respond to prompts. This announcement complements broader discourse about "rage bait" marketing tactics utilized by startups like Cluely and the theme of funding good quests rather than slop.
2wai Consumer AI App for Digital Clones
2wai, cofounded by former Disney star Calum Worthy, allows users to create digital clones that others can chat with via voice in any language. The company's promotional video shows a woman creating a clone of her mother before she passes away, and her children years later are conversing with their late grandmother. This mirrors the plot of the Black Mirror episode Be Right Back, which aired in 2013 as a cautionary tale. Delphi AI operates in the same space and raised a $16m Series A from Sequoia in June.
Anthropic Compute Buildout
Anthropic announced a $50b investment in compute infrastructure. Partnered with Fluidstack, Anthropic will initially bring data centers online in Texas and New York.
Debating the Durability of the AI Application Layer
Yishan Wong, CEO of Terraformation, shares his take that the AI companies at the application layer will get engulfed by advancements in foundation models. These comments sparked debate about the long term durability of startups building at the AI application layer, with many taking the other side that vertical applied AI applications will accrue value in the long run.