Aug 12, 2025 4 min read Daily Rundown

⛵ Datumo Fights Scale AI

More Stories: China love hate Nvidia, Tech Careers Dead End

Good Morning, Early Adopters!

The underdogs sharpen their teeth for a David-and-Goliath brawl.

DATA

Datumo Steps Into the Ring with Scale AI

👀 What’s the move: Seoul-based Datumo, fresh off a $15.5M raise led by Salesforce Ventures, is gunning for Scale AI’s turf — but with a twist. It’s pivoted from pure data labeling into full-stack AI evaluation, offering licensed high-quality datasets (including rare, structured reasoning from published books) and a no-code evaluation platform for non-engineers in policy, trust & safety.

💡 Why it’s not boring: Where Scale AI is the data factory, Datumo is positioning as the safety inspector — automating bias, safety, and accuracy checks before models go live. In a market where “explainability” is the new compliance, this flips procurement logic: you buy them to avoid lawsuits, not just to train better models.

⛵ Key takeaway: In the AI gold rush, Scale sells shovels — Datumo sells the metal detectors.

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CHIPS

Beijing Wants You Off Nvidia

👀 What’s the move: A state media–linked account blasted Nvidia’s export-compliant H20 GPU as “unsafe, outdated, and dirty” — a not-so-subtle nudge for Chinese tech firms to ditch it for domestic silicon like Huawei’s Ascend. The subtext: the central government is tightening the leash on foreign AI hardware under the cover of security, environmental, and performance concerns.

💡 Why it’s not boring: The irony is that the H20, a neutered workaround to U.S. export bans, still dominates China’s AI workloads because no homegrown chip matches its performance or software ecosystem. This “buy local” push is less about capability and more about sovereignty — even if it means hobbling the very AI boom Beijing wants to lead.

⛵ Key takeaway: In China’s AI race, Nvidia is the unwanted houseguest you can’t actually evict.

LABOR

AI Eats Junior Jobs, Leaving US Tech Grads on the Bench

👀 What’s the move: The US job market is in a structural rewrite — AI is erasing entry-level coding roles, Big Tech is still cutting staff, and fresh grads are hitting a hiring freeze masked as a “skills gap.” CS enrollment has jumped from about 80,000 in 2014 to over 170,000 in 2024, yet unemployment for new grads is 6.1%, and engineering tops 7.5% — more than twice that of biology or art history.

💡 Why it’s not boring: This isn’t just cyclical pain — it’s a permanent reshaping of the career ladder. Without low-level grunt work to cut their teeth on, an entire generation of tech grads risks never getting the experience needed to move up, while AI-trained veterans widen the moat. Universities are scrambling to bolt AI literacy onto degrees, but the market’s already moved.

⛵ Key takeaway: The entry-level isn’t shrinking — it’s being deleted from the org chart.

STARTUP SPOT

🧠 Datumo
“Safer AI starts with better data.”
From labeling to full-stack AI data services—LLM eval, red-teaming, dataset marketplace.
→ Seoul-based; raised $15.5M to scale; serving enterprises building trust-focused AI.

🧬 Tahoe Therapeutics
“GPT models for human cells.”
AI + gigascale single-cell data to simulate drug responses and speed discovery.
→ Founded 2022 (UCSF/ML team); raised $30M Aug ’25 at $120M; building 1B-cell dataset, eyeing clinical pipeline.

⚡ Revel
“Urban EV charging over ride-hail.”
Exited Tesla rideshare & mopeds to focus on high-utilization fast-charging hubs in US cities.
→ Founded 2018 in NYC; ~100 stations, 45% utilization; plans 400+ stalls by 2026, 2,000 by 2030.

BAY AREA MEMOS

Slow Ventures' $60 million creator fund makes its first investment, backing a woodworking influencer's tool business with $2 million.
Microsoft to integrate GitHub more closely with its CoreAI unit after key executive’s departure.
Nvidia is pushing further into robotics with the launch of new Cosmos world models and developer infrastructure at SIGGRAPH 2025.
Tahoe Therapeutics raises $30 million to build a massive dataset for developing AI models of human cells.
Revel is shutting down its rideshare service to go all-in on building out its EV fast-charging network.

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