💼 Cohere hits $6.8B valuation with $500M raise

Cohere, the enterprise-focused LLM developer, has closed a $500M round, boosting its valuation from $5.5B last year to $6.8B. The 2019-founded company focuses on corporate clients, not mass consumers.

🔸 Partnerships include Oracle, Dell, SAP, RBC, Fujitsu, and LG
🔸 New investor: Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan
🔸 Backers in the round: Radical Ventures, Inovia Capital, AMD, Nvidia, Salesforce
🔸 New hires: ex-Meta research head Joelle Pineau, ex-Uber and Shield AI exec François Chadwick as CFO
🔸 Subtle jab at rivals: “Repackaged consumer models” can’t match AI built for enterprise security from the ground up

Cohere is doubling down on the corporate AI race.

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💻 15 hottest coding topics for your next side project

A massive open-source library of coding project ideas is making the rounds - perfect for brushing up on skills and building a killer portfolio.

🔸 Covers everything from Python, Java, JS, Kotlin, R, HTML/CSS, C/C++ to advanced algorithms, data structures, VR, and graphics apps
🔸 Clearly structured by topic and difficulty so you can progress step-by-step
🔸 Includes creative picks like VR games you can build for headsets

👉 Dive in here 👈

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🤖 Robot wins race… after knocking over a human

At the first-ever World Robot Games, a Unitree runner made headlines for more than just speed - it accidentally knocked a person down mid-race.

🔸 The robot still crossed the finish line first.
🔸 Distance: 1.5 km in 6 minutes 34 seconds.
🔸 Event: part of the competition’s endurance category.

Good thing there’s no robot biathlon yet - we’d rather keep the rifles away.

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🤖 China unveils plan for pregnancy humanoid robot

Kaiwa Technology in Guangzhou is working on the world’s first humanoid robot with an artificial womb.

The machine is designed to carry a fetus through full gestation using artificial amniotic fluid and nutrient delivery, a prototype is expected by 2026, priced under $14K.

🔸 The concept was presented at the 2025 World Robot Conference in Beijing
🔸 Founder Zhang Qifeng says discussions with regulators in Guangdong are already underway
🔸 Artificial womb tech has been tested before - premature lambs were successfully grown in “biobags” in 2017
🔸 This leap aims to move from partial incubation toward full-term artificial gestation
🔸 The announcement has sparked both ethical concerns and interest as a potential solution for infertility

The project sits at the intersection of biotech and robotics, and raises a bigger question:

how far should we go in outsourcing the most human processes to machines?

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🚀 Two paths to a seed round

Hot founders in hot markets can skip straight to $4M seeds.

Everyone else takes the long road - bootstrap, grants, accelerators, angels - before VCs write the $2M check.

Same label, very different journeys.

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🫂 AI brings back in-person job interviews

Companies are shifting away from Zoom and back to face-to-face meetings. Reason: too many candidates lean on AI to cheat during online interviews — especially in technical roles.

🔸 Google, Cisco, and McKinsey have reinstated live stages
🔸 At Google, even coding interviews are back in person
🔸 McKinsey says it’s about seeing how candidates connect in real life
🔸 FBI warns of bigger risks - deepfakes, fake profiles, and workers posing as others with AI help

The return to old-school interviews shows that sometimes the best filter is still human presence.

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🔗 Neuralink faces a rival with ultrasound and gene therapy

Merge Labs, linked to Sam Altman and OpenAI, is exploring sonogenetics, using gene therapy to make brain cells responsive to ultrasound.

Instead of electrodes, a tiny implanted emitter would read and modulate neural activity through modified cells.

🔸 Plans to raise $250M at $850M valuation, with OpenAI’s venture arm as a key backer
🔸 Altman is co-founder but not an investor; Musk’s Neuralink remains focused on electrical implants
🔸 Altman hinted at a broader vision: “think — and instantly get an answer from ChatGPT”
🔸 Other players in ultrasound neuromodulation include Nudge ($100M, Fred Ehrsam) and a Reid Hoffman–backed startup ($12M)
🔸 Merge’s approach could unlock a new class of brain–computer interfaces, though clinical use is likely years away

The bet isn’t just medical - it’s about enhancing cognition itself.

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🤖 The ultimate collection on optimizing agent systems

A powerhouse roundup from 2023–2025, covering self-evolving agents, efficiency hacks, and everything you need to make your AI agents not just “alive” but actually effective.

👉 Full collection here 👈

Free up your own time by letting agents do the work.

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⚡️ The only mega-prompt you need for ChatGPT

A Redditor claims to have solved the biggest issue with LLMs - human imprecision.

Since 92% of the quality of an answer depends on how well you frame the question, this prompt flips the process: ChatGPT does the clarifying, you just confirm.

The structure is simple:

You are to act as my prompt engineer. I would like to accomplish: [insert your task].

Please repeat this back to me in your own words, and ask any clarifying questions. 
I will answer those. 

This process will repeat until we both confirm you have an exact understanding, 
and only then will you generate the final prompt.

Instead of struggling with wording, you let the AI drill down, refine, and finally output the sharpest possible version.

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❗️ Vlad Tenev admits remote-first was a mistake

Robinhood’s founder says declaring the company remote-first in 2022 was “the wrong decision”, and one he regretted almost immediately.

Now the firm runs on an office-heavy model:
🔸 Executives in-office 5 days a week
🔸 Managers 4 days
🔸 Individual contributors 3 days

Tenev’s logic: leaders should take on more pain than their teams.

If you want people to move fast, you start by setting the example at the top.

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💻 Bending Spoons: the brand resuscitator

Based in Milan, Bending Spoons isn’t a VC fund or a quick flipper, it buys mature digital products, puts in its own operators, and revives them with new growth.

Recent €500M debt raise (≈€1B total so far) fuels even more acquisitions, backed by JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and HSBC. Their playbook: pick strong brands with PMF, then optimize from code to unit economics.

Chances are you’ve already used something in their portfolio:

🔸 Remini: boosted revenue, added video generation
🔸 Evernote: redesign + stabilized sync
🔸 StreamYard: better UX and integrations
🔸 WeTransfer: stronger team, API upgrades
🔸 Komoot: new markets + offline mode

Named after the Matrix spoon-bending scene - the idea is that reality itself can bend if you know how. And they seem to be proving it by reanimating products most others would have written off.

So which “dead” product would you send to their rehab ward?

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🔎 New UAE startup offers $20M for smartphone zero-days

Advanced Security Solutions, a newly launched firm in the UAE, is offering up to $20 million for tools that can hack any smartphone via text message - one of the highest publicly known bounties in the zero-day market.

🔸 $20M for universal smartphone exploits; $15M for iOS or Android zero-days
🔸 $10M for Windows, $5M for Chrome, $1M for Safari/Edge
🔸 Claims cooperation with 25+ governments and intelligence agencies
🔸Staffed by veterans of elite intelligence units and private military contractors
🔸 Refuses to disclose owners, funding, or customer list

The zero-day market has ballooned in the last decade - from $1M iPhone exploits in 2015 to today’s $20M offers.

But with anonymous buyers and state-level stakes, the ethical questions are growing just as fast as the payouts.

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🔥 Free Rizz Generator: AI wingman for any situation

An AI trained on 200 books and courses from dating coaches and pickup pros promises to turn you into the ultimate smooth talker.

🔸 Drop in a message from your crush - get a ready-made pickup line and follow-up script
🔸 Built to work in real-time, even mid-date
🔸 Marketed as the tool to escape the friend zone and boost confidence

Your personal AI pickup coach here

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⏳ Brian Armstrong on building Coinbase after hours

While working full-time at Airbnb, Brian Armstrong spent nights and weekends coding what would become Coinbase.

He avoided using company time or laptops - “if you build it on company hardware, they probably own the IP.”

🔸 Workdays: Airbnb until 7pm, Coinbase from 8pm to midnight, 3–4 nights a week
🔸 Weekends: Sunday afternoons, 7–8 hours straight
🔸 This grind lasted ~18 months until Y Combinator funded him
🔸 He admits friendships took a hit, but says urgency and mortality pushed him forward

His advice:

Go hard at it. Launch your thing.
Just start - even if you don’t know what to do, action produces information.

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🧽 Scrub Daddy: the billion-dollar sponge

Scrub Daddy started as a simple idea on Shark Tank in 2012, a sponge that changes texture with water temperature. Firm in cold, soft in hot, odor-free and long-lasting, it quickly became a household hit.

🔸 Sold 42,000 units in 7 minutes on QVC after the show
🔸 Viral on TikTok with 3.3B+ views of #scrubdaddy
🔸 $340M revenue in 2024
🔸 Lifetime sales passed $1B in 2025
🔸 Products now in 257K stores with 160 SKUs

From a $100K TV investment to a billion-dollar brand - Scrub Daddy proves even the simplest product can turn into a global startup phenomenon.

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🤖 Food delivery goes robotic in Zurich

Just Eat Takeaway.com has rolled out robot dogs from Swiss startup RIVR in Zurich - Europe’s first pilot of autonomous ground robots designed for real city environments.

The bots move at up to 15 km/h, climb stairs, carry 40 litres of food, and last 30 km per charge.

🔸 Customers order via JET app, unlock delivery with a QR code
🔸 12 robots will cover 5 km² across three neighbourhoods
🔸 Target: 90% on-time rate and lower costs vs. human couriers
🔸 Expansion plans include Amsterdam, Berlin, and Paris
🔸 Operating cost: ~€0.40 per km, with 18-month payback

For Europe’s foodtech, this marks a shift from lab tests to real urban streets, a preview of how automation could reshape delivery at scale.

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📣 Elon Musk’s go-to interview question

Musk doesn’t start with brainteasers or case studies. He simply asks candidates to tell the story of their career, the hardest problems they faced, how they solved them, and how they made key decisions.

🔸 He’s looking for evidence of exceptional ability, proven by overcoming tough challenges
🔸 To test credibility, he asks for details — real problem-solvers don’t forget the struggle
🔸 Degrees don’t matter: Gates, Jobs, Ellison are proof talent can trump credentials

Musk’s rule of thumb: past exceptional achievement is the best predictor of future impact.

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