Jul 25, 2025 5 min read Daily Rundown

⛵ Front-Page Shame

More Stories: Lyten’s $250M Gamble, Nokia Bets on AI

Good Morning, Early Adopters!

Backend’s loud, batteries are full, and AI is everybody’s alibi. Tech’s still hungry. Just not sure for what.

CRISIS

The Concert That Fired Two

👀 What’s the move: Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot were caught mid-embrace on a Coldplay concert kiss-cam, triggering viral chaos after Chris Martin quipped, “They’re either cheating or just shy.” The clip lit up TikTok and X; the board promptly suspended both execs, and days later, they resigned.

💡 Why it’s not boring: Byron wasn’t just a figurehead—he led Astronomer’s $93M Series D in mid-2025, scaled its global footprint, and helped make Airflow a mission-critical platform powering billions of data workflows. Under his leadership, FY2025 ARR surged 150%, with revenue hitting $39.5M—a 61% jump from 2024. But when a private lapse spills into the public sphere, it stops being personal. This PR implosion didn’t just shake confidence in a founder—it compromised trust in a company’s values.

⛵ Key takeaway: In the infrastructure world, quiet competence is currency. Suddenly, Astronomer had neither.

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M&A

Lyten’s $250M Gamble: When Hype Buys a Factory

👀 What’s the move: Lyten—the California startup betting on lithium-sulfur and 3D graphene—just made a double play: scooping up two former Northvolt plants, one in California ($50M) and one in Poland ($200M). The narrative? A scrappy innovator salvaging fallen legacy assets. But just three weeks after the Poland deal, Lyten laid off 15% of its team and quietly ousted its Chief Battery Strategist.

💡 Why it’s not boring: This should’ve been a poster child for clean tech resilience: new tech, old factories, and global ambition. But instead of scaling, Lyten may be sinking. Its core battery technology isn’t ready, and now it’s saddled with $250M+ in acquisitions across two continents. Expansion became exposure.

⛵ Key takeaway: Buying a bankrupt unicorn’s factories might earn you headlines—but if your tech’s still in the lab, it might also write your cautionary tale.

Nokia Bets on AI Pipes

👀 What’s the move: Nokia’s new CEO Justin Hotard is betting the farm on AI-era connectivity after a soggy Mobile Networks quarter (-13% YoY). The plan? Rebrand as the connective tissue of the AI supercycle — spanning mobile, fiber, data centers, and maybe even defense. Strategy reveal comes in November, but the smoke signals are already rising.

💡 Why it’s not boring: This isn’t just an earnings distraction—it’s a survival pivot. Nokia’s handset era is long gone, and its telecom cash cow is wobbling. If AI is the new oil, Nokia wants to sell the pipelines — but hyperscalers already build their own. Unless Hotard has something wild cooking, this could be legacy vendor cosplay.

⛵ Key takeaway: Nokia’s hoping the AI boom needs roads — but the bulldozers may already belong to someone else.

STARTUP SPOT

🪐 Lyten
“One-step battery Revolution with 3D Graphene.”
Next-gen lithium‑sulfur batteries — 2× energy density, 50% lighter, no graphite/nickel/cobalt → built on its proprietary Lyten 3D Graphene platform for ultralight energy, composites & sensors.
→ Founded 2015 in San Jose; raised $200 M Series B led by Prime Movers Lab with Stellantis, FedEx, Honeywell participation (total equity > $425 M); secured $650 M LOI from U.S. Export‑Import Bank for Reno + San Leandro facilities expansion.

🧠 Astronomer
“AI-ready DataOps on Airflow.”
Enterprise data orchestration platform built on Apache Airflow—automates pipeline build/run/observe for AI‑scale workflows → Astro handles orchestration, observability, quality & cost control for data/AI ops.
→ Founded 2015 by Ry Walker, Greg Neiheisel, Pete DeJoy & co; unicorn since 2022; $93M Series D led by Bain Capital Ventures in May 2025 (~$1.3B value) with Salesforce, Insight, Venrock & Bosch VC backing; ~150% YoY ARR growth, high NRR, path to profitability on track.

🧠 Northvolt
“Europe’s giga‑battery ambition crashes.”
Swedish EV battery maker aiming to rival CATL; built gigafactories in Skellefteå & Poland, sodium‑ion breakthroughs—folded under expansion pressure → Filed Chapter 11 in U.S. Nov 21 2024, Swedish bankruptcy Mar 12 2025, owing $5.8B with $30M cash.
→ Founded 2016 by former Tesla execs Peter Carlsson & Paolo Cerruti; backed by Volkswagen, BMW, Goldman Sachs; raised $14–15B including €5B green loan for Northvolt Ett expansion in January 2024.Restructuring ongoing, some assets sold. (e.g. Poland and US sites acquired by Lyten)

BAY AREA MEMOS

Intel's revenue beats expectations on better-than-feared PC sales, but the company posts a loss amid major restructuring efforts.
Alphabet faces a new EU antitrust complaint over allegations of restricting the uninstallation of pre-installed apps on Android.
HeroDevs has raised $12.5 million to provide commercial long-term support for open-source projects that have reached their end-of-life.
Malware-as-a-service platforms are making it easier and cheaper than ever to rent sophisticated Android malware.
SoftBank-backed LegalOn Technologies has raised $50 million in a Series E round to advance its AI tools for in-house legal teams.

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