OpenAI  stepping into a Pentagon contract that Anthropic  refused has ignited a fierce backlash  app uninstalls spiked, staff defections followed, and users flocked to rival Claude as the debate  over AI  and the military  turned into a consumer revolt . In markets, Seoul  suffered a historic rout as the Iran war shock sent the Kospi tumbling and the won to multi-year lows, proving geopolitical risk can wipe half a trillion in days. Back home, would-be buyers are getting dupe

Mergers & Acquisitions News (M&A)    Musk’s X, xAI to Repay $17.5 Billion Debt as SpaceX IPO Nears Bloomberg   BlackRock to sell its 11.4% stake in Spanish energy firm Naturgy Reuters   Zurich Insurance to acquire UK's Beazley for $11 billion Reuters    CapitaLand Said to Be in Talks With Mindspace REIT on Sale of Chennai Tech Park Bloomberg   Magellan Shares Jump Most Since 2006 on Deal to Buy Barrenjoey Bloomberg   Paramount to Combine HBO Max and Paramount+ to Challenge Ne

Venture Capital (VC) News   Vero Networks raised a  $500M growth equity investment led by  Hamilton Lane, Braemont Capital, and Delta-v Capital   VC Daily   Honest Health raised a $140M funding round led by  NewSpring   VC Daily   VITURE raised a  $100M funding round led by Legend Capital   VC Daily   Ease Health raised a  $41M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz   VC Daily   Smack Technologies raised a $32M Series A led by Geodesic Capital and Costanoa Ventures   VC Daily  

The world’s most important oil chokepoint  isn’t technically closed but Iran’s threats  in the Strait of Hormuz  are already shaking shipping, energy markets, and global risk sentiment. At the same time, Nvidia  is pouring $4 billion  into photonics  suppliers to keep AI chips moving faster, while Apple  just unveiled the iPhone 17e  with its new A19 chip  and upgraded modem. And as geopolitical tensions escalate, investors are sprinting to safety pushing gold  past  $5,400 a

Venture Capital (VC) News   TBD  (Prediction Market Protocol) raised a $3M seed round  co-led by CMT Digital  and  ParaFi   MEXC   OpenAI  announced a $110B funding round from Amazon, NVIDIA, and Softbank   VC Daily   Zetrix AI  secured a $40M investment from the International Finance Corporation  (IFC)   MEXC   Flux  raised a $37M Series A and B led by 8VC, Outsiders Fund, and Bain Capital Ventures   VC Daily   STS Digital  raised a $30M funding round  led by CMT Digital   M

Mergers & Acquisitions News (M&A)    FCC approves Charter Communications’ $34.5 billion deal to buy Cox Reuters    Brookfield's new AI unit Radiant valued at $1.3 billion after merger with UK startup, sources say Reuters   CP Group to Sell 10% Stake in True Corp. With UBS as Main Buyer Bloomberg   Banking upstart Barrenjoey merges to make a mini-Macquarie Financial Times    Blue Moon Metals To Acquire Apex Germanium And Gallium Mine From Teck Resources For 7.03M Shares Benzin

The Strait of Hormuz  just went from geopolitical talking point to market-moving choke point spiking oil  and insurance costs  as traders price the risk of a serious supply shock. U.S.   futures  were sour in premarket trade ( S&P futures off, Dow and Nasdaq weaker ), Europe opened lower ( FTSE about 1% down ) and travel names were hit hard ahead of Monday’s open. At the same time, the White House  ordered agencies off Anthropic’s tech , a Guardian report ties Claude  to US m

Mergers & Acquisitions News (M&A)     BlueScope  Says Takeover Bid Too Low, Open to Better Offer   Bloomberg     Asia’s Biggest Banks  Line Up Bids for HSBC Indonesia Assets   Bloomberg     Dubai Aerospace  to Buy Macquarie AirFinance  for $7 Billion Bloomberg     KKR  Sells Stake in $3.1 Billion Post-Trade Firm  OSTTRA to Banks   Bloomberg     Indra Soars to Record After Orders Swell to €16 Billion Bloomberg   Cristiano Ronaldo  Buys Stake in Spanish Football Club Almería  

Venture Capital (VC) News   OpenAI  raised $1B at a  $285B valuation from Thrive Capital amid talks to raise funds at an $850B valuation Wall Street Journal      Whop , a marketplace for digital creator services, raised a $200M strategic investment from Tether   TechinAsia     Profound , a marketing platform for AI Search, raised a  $96M Series C led by Lightspeed   Ventureburn     Rowspace , an AI platform for institutional financial data, raised a  $ 50M  seed and Series A

Nvidia  just delivered another blockbuster earnings report, beating expectations across the board and sending its stock higher as demand for AI compute  continues to explode. At the same time, Anthropic  is backing away from a key AI safety pledge after pressure tied to U.S. government contracts a sign that the AI arms race is beginning to reshape even the industry’s ethical guardrails. Meanwhile China’s DeepSeek is preparing to release a new model that could rattle AI stocks

Netflix  abandoned its bid for  Warner Bros. Discovery , clearing the way for Paramount’s higher offer  and signaling a disciplined approach to dealmaking. Block  is making an even bolder statement, cutting nearly half its workforce as CEO Jack Dorsey  argues that AI allows smaller teams to do more , a move investors rewarded. Nvidia  delivered another earnings beat but saw its stock fall  as markets debate how much longer the AI boom can sustain hyperscale spending. And Burg

Venture Capital (VC) News   Heron Power raised a $140M Series B  co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Breakthrough Energy Ventures   GlobeNewswire   Braintrust  raised an $80M Series B led by  ICONIQ Capital   The SaaS News   Chariot  Defense raised a $34M Series A  led by Andreessen Horowitz   VC News Daily   Portkey  raised a  $15M Series A  led by Elevation Capital   The SaaS News   Profitmind  raised a  $9M Series A led by Accenture Ventures   VC News Daily   Elly  raised an

Mergers & Acquisitions News (M&A)    Johnson Matthey Lowers Price of Unit Being Sold to Honeywell to $1.8 Billion Wall Street Journal   Spirit seals deal with lenders to emerge from bankruptcy as smaller airline Reuters   Zurich Insurance to buy Australia's ClearView Wealth for $288 million Reuters     Gilead to buy cancer drug developer Arcellx for up to $7.8bn Financial Times   Climb Global Solutions Completes Acquisition Of interworks.cloud For $9.4M Benzinga   Accenture

Mergers & Acquisitions News (M&A)   Johnson Matthey Lowers Price of Unit Being Sold to Honeywell to $1.8 Billion Wall Street Journal   Spirit seals deal with lenders to emerge from bankruptcy as smaller airline Reuters   Zurich Insurance to buy Australia's ClearView Wealth for $288 million Reuters     Gilead to buy cancer drug developer Arcellx for up to $7.8bn Financial Times   Mr Price moving ahead with controversial deal to buy European retailer for R9.6 billion Businesste

Venture Capital (VC) News   Handl Health  Raises $14.2M Series A Round  was led by Ahmed Marmoush   VC Daily   Slate Medicines  Launches With $130M Series A  was led by RA Capital Management, Forbion and Foresite Capital VC Daily   Beam Therapeutics  secured a $500M strategic financing facility  led by Sixth Street   BusinessWire   TYTAN raised a €30M Series A  led by Armira and the NATO Innovation Fund   Scroll Media   Turbine  raised a $25M Series B  led by Interactive Vent

Tesla’s European registrations  plunged 17% in January as cheaper, well-packaged models from BYD sprint ahead  a blunt reminder that premium EV dominance is no longer guaranteed. In chips and cloud, Advanced Micro Devices  landed a blockbuster supply deal worth up to $60 billion  with Meta Platforms , while legal overhang eased when OpenAI  scored a win in its trade-secrets fight  with xAI . And markets? South Korea’s benchmark , the Kospi , just cracked 6,000 up over 40% thi

Venture Capital (VC) News   Pepper , a food-distribution software platform, raised a $50M Series C round led by Lead Edge Capital FinSMEs   Rare-earth metals producer Phoenix Tailings  raised a $40.2M  Series B-3 led by Olive Tree Capital Venture Radar   InScope , an AI financial-reporting startup, raised a  $14.5M  Series A round led by Norwest TechCrunch   Hook , an AI-powered fan remix platform, raised a $10M  Series A led by Khosla Ventures BillBoard   Altesa BioSciences

Mergers & Acquisitions News (M&A)   Estée Lauder  Eyes M&A Opportunities to Help Turnaround, CEO Says Bloomberg     Turkey M&A  Volume Surges as Mega Deals Rebound , Deloitte Says Bloomberg     Abbott  Sells $20 Billion of Bonds for Exact Sciences Buy Bloomberg     Citigroup  Strikes  Banamex Stake Sales With Blackstone, BTG   Bloomberg     KDP  Gets Another $1.5 Billion of Capital in Bid to Trim Leverage Bloomberg     Anthropic Kicks Off Share Sale for  Staffers  of Up to $6

The global AI race is escalating into open confrontation after U.S. startup Anthropic  accused Chinese rivals  of industrial-scale intellectual property theft , alleging millions of exchanges were used to extract capabilities from its Claude chatbot . At the same time, OpenAI  is deepening its enterprise push with multiyear partnerships  with top consulting firms, aiming to embed AI agents into corporate workflows. Meanwhile, shares of IBM  tumbled after Anthropic signaled it

Mergers & Acquisitions News (M&A)   France Clears Sale of EDF Data Center Unit  to Bitcoin Miner  MARA   Bloomberg   France’s SNCF  Weighs Stake Sale for Rail Logistics Europe   Bloomberg   JPMorgan  to Test Appetite for Software Debt With $5 Billion Deal Bloomberg   ConocoPhillips Considers Selling Permian Assets Worth $2 Billion Bloomberg   Boaz Weinstein’s Saba, Cox Launch  Tender Offer for Blue Owl BDCs   Bloomberg   Goldman  Weighs Sweeter Terms on Loan Tied to  DuPont