🚀 Top Deals You Can’t Miss

1. Blue Origin, $10 billion at a $130 billion valuation, the rocket maker's first outside round ever, reportedly led by Coatue with Jeff Bezos adding $2 billion of his own.

   

2. Paradigm, $1.2 billion, the crypto firm's third and largest fund, now aimed at AI and robotics alongside crypto.

3. SambaNova, $1 billion at an $11 billion valuation, an AI chip raise led by General Atlantic that roughly fivefolds the company in five months.

   

💡 Dopamine Dealflow

Series B+ & Growth

• SambaNova | $1 billion | Series F | Palo Alto, United States
  The AI chip maker builds systems that run models as an alternative to Nvidia, and just landed JPMorgan as an inference customer. General Atlantic led the first close and was joined by T. Rowe Price, Capital Group, BlackRock, Intel Capital, QIA, Vista Equity Partners, Battery Ventures, and Seligman Ventures, at an $11 billion valuation.
  

• Venus Aerospace | $91 million | Series B | Houston, United States
  The company is developing a rotating detonation rocket engine, a design it says is about 15 percent more efficient than a conventional engine and which it flew for the first time last year. Mercury Fund led the round and was joined by Lockheed Martin Ventures, PEAK6, Draper Associates, MESH, Starboard Star Venture Capital, and Green Sands Equity.
  

• Fleek | $25 million | Series B | London, United Kingdom
  The startup runs a B2B marketplace and computer-vision tools for the wholesale secondhand clothing trade, connecting about 2,000 suppliers with more than 50,000 retailers. Burda Principal Investments led the round and was joined by eBay, FJ Labs, H14, and existing backers Andreessen Horowitz, HV Capital, and Y Combinator.

Series A

• Oratomic | $300 million | Series A | Pasadena, United States
  The startup is building a fault-tolerant quantum computer from reconfigurable neutral atoms, drawing on research with Caltech suggesting that useful machines may need only about 10,000 qubits. ARCH Venture Partners, Spark Capital, and Khosla Ventures co-led the round and were joined by Bezos Expeditions, Index Ventures, General Catalyst, Lowercarbon Capital, and Bain Capital Ventures.
  

• Prime Intellect | $130 million | Series A | San Francisco, United States
  The company sells compute and software that let enterprises train their own AI agents instead of renting from frontier labs, and says it now runs at $100 million in annualized revenue. Radical Ventures led the round at a $1 billion valuation and was joined by Nvidia Ventures, Intel Capital, Dell Technologies Capital, and Iconiq.
  

• Bidbus | $15 million | Series A | Los Angeles, United States
  The marketplace hosts live auctions where more than 1,000 dealerships bid on used cars directly from consumers. Ibex Investors led the round and was joined by Mucker Capital, FJ Labs, Motley Fool Ventures, Data Point Capital, and Walter Ventures.

Seed & Early Rounds

• Arkenstone Defense | $35 million | Seed | Menlo Park, United States
  The company gives commercial startups a ready-made government-contracting back office, covering compliance, security clearances, payroll, and accreditation so they can sell to the Pentagon. J2 Ventures led the round and was joined by Susa Ventures, Granite Hill Capital Partners, and Artis Ventures.

Strategic, M&A & Undisclosed

• Chipotle | Undisclosed | Strategic | Newport Beach, United States
  The company's Cultivate Next fund took stakes in six food-system startups, betting that better weather data, soil microbes, and crop preservation will protect its supply chain as it pushes toward 7,000 restaurants.

IPOs / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• No new IPOs, direct listings, issuances, or block trades reported in this window.

VC Funds Raised & Raising

• Paradigm | $1.2 billion | Fund III | San Francisco, United States
  The crypto investor is broadening into AI, robotics, and other frontier tech with its third and largest vehicle, and has already backed drone company Zipline and space-defense startup True Anomaly.
  

• Omni Ventures | $33 million | Fund I | San Jose, United States
  Founded by former Apple manufacturing leaders, the firm will back startups building software for digital engineering, manufacturing, robotics, and supply-chain operations.

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🌌 Read of the Day

Bezos Is Finally Letting Outsiders Fund Blue Origin, at a $130 Billion Valuation

The rocket maker is seeking roughly $10 billion in its first external round, with Coatue reported to be leading at $4 billion.

For 25 years, Jeff Bezos funded Blue Origin almost entirely himself, selling around $1 billion of Amazon stock a year to keep it flying. According to Bloomberg and the New York Times, that era is ending, as the company is raising about $10 billion from outside investors at a $130 billion valuation, its first external round ever. Coatue Management is reported to be leading with $4 billion, and Bezos is said to be adding $2 billion of his own.

The Strategy
The timing tracks the market. SpaceX's record public debut reset investor appetite for space, and Blue Origin is moving to raise capital while capital is available and attention is close. The raise also follows a setback: its flagship New Glenn rocket exploded during a ground test in late May, making self-funding the entire program a heavier lift.

The Backstory
Blue Origin has trailed SpaceX for most of its existence, flying tourists on New Shepard while its rival won the launch and satellite markets. New Glenn, its heavy-lift answer to the Falcon and Starship line, is the vehicle the company needs to work on to compete for national-security launches and its Blue Origin and lunar contracts.

Why It Matters
A $130 billion private valuation would make Blue Origin one of the most valuable private companies in the world and hand it a war chest to chase SpaceX on heavy-lift launch and government work. Taking outside money for the first time also changes the pressure, because Bezos now answers to investors who will want New Glenn flying on a schedule, not someday.

**Read The Whole Story Here**

Other News You Don’t Want To Miss

• Apple Commits $30 Billion to Broadcom for US Chipmaking Push
  The multi-year deal is Apple's largest US manufacturing commitment to date and is expected to support more than 15 billion American-made chips, including a $1.5 billion expansion of Broadcom's Fort Collins, Colorado plant.
  

• SpaceXAI Releases Grok 4.5, Which Elon Describes as an 'Opus-Class Model'
  It is the company's first model release since going public, priced well below Anthropic's Opus 4.7 and launched inside the Cursor coding tool.
  

• Meta Wants Its AI Glasses to Seem Less Creepy. Its AI Strategy Says Otherwise.
  Meta added a safeguard against secret recording even as it expands how much personal data its AI products collect from glasses users.
  

• Lamborghini Launches an Apple Vision Pro App With Interactive Full-Size Cars
  The spatial-computing app lets users explore four models, including the Urus SE Performante before its physical debut at Goodwood.