Jul 29, 2025 4 min read Daily Rundown

⛵ Silicon Valley on Fire

More Stories: Cognition’s Hail Mary, Tesla Acquires AI Sovereignty

Good Morning, Early Adopters!

The Valley is burning— a new wave of tech warfare is unfolding. These aren’t just stories of innovation—they're stories of bets, brinkmanship, and the billion-dollar pursuit of control over the future. Welcome to the frontline of Silicon Valley's next great gamble.

MANUFACTURING

Daniel Liss’s AI Furnace Just Set Silicon Valley on Fire

👀 What’s the move: Daniel Liss—yes, the guy behind Dispo and Teaser AI—is now building AI-powered pig iron furnaces. His new startup Nemo Industries doesn’t just slap dashboards on steel plants; it’s going full-stack, from software to smelting. Why? Because the U.S. can’t build ships without steel, and Liss doesn’t trust Excel to defend democracy.

💡 Why it’s not boring: Nemo is dragging steel out of the clipboard era with vertically integrated AI ops, claiming a 20–30% margin edge over legacy plants. It’s not just software-as-a-service—it’s furnace-as-a-platform. Throw in carbon capture, natural gas playbooks, and $1B in state incentives, and you’ve got a moonshot disguised as industrial policy.

⛵ Key takeaway: When AI entrepreneurs start building blast furnaces, it’s not a pivot—it’s the end of software eating the world and the start of AI forging it.

TOGETHER WITH MURF

AI Voice Infrastructure that Powers Enterprises

Build audio experiences at scale with Murf's AI voice generator. Our ethically developed text-to-speech model delivers ultra realistic voices through studio, API, and localization tools - streamlining voiceovers for enterprises.

With Murf, the only limit is your imagination. Get ready to make your audience listen, laugh, and lean in.

Try now👉

M&A

Cognition’s Hail Mary

👀 What’s the move: While the Valley was still rubbernecking Windsurf’s implosion, Cognition CEO Scott Wu cold-dialed their founders and closed the deal before Monday’s coffee hit the pot. No diligence. No bankers. Just a weekend, a hunch, and a shared Google Doc. The result? A last-minute alliance between the AI introvert building muscle (Devin) and the growth-native who knew how to make it dance.

💡 Why it’s not boring: This wasn’t just a “we’re stronger together” kumbaya. It was a bet that AI agents aren’t a demo—they're the next OS layer of dev work. Devin had the brains but no stage presence. Windsurf had the charisma but lost its brain trust. Together, they just might ship the first actually usable AI teammate. Or flame out trying.

⛵ Key takeaway: Cognition didn’t buy a startup—they bought a second chance to make AI agents real. And they only had 48 hours to bet the house.

CHIPS

Tesla Commits $16.5B to Achieve AI Sovereignty

👀 What’s the move: Tesla just handed Samsung a $16.5B deal to build its next-gen AI6 chips—designed to power everything from FSD to the Optimus robot to Tesla’s AI training clusters. Musk says he’ll personally oversee the Texas fab’s progress and hints this spend is “just the beginning.”

💡 Why it’s not boring: This isn’t just a chip order—it’s a supply chain power play. Tesla’s AI5 is still with TSMC, but AI4 already tested waters with Samsung. Now AI6 goes all-in, making Samsung a strategic co-pilot instead of a fallback. Musk isn’t just designing custom silicon; he’s syncing the chip factory clock to Tesla’s product roadmap.

⛵ Key takeaway: Tesla isn’t buying chips—it’s buying sovereignty over the pace and future of AI hardware.

STARTUP SPOT

📸 Dispo
“Shoot now, see it tomorrow.”
Retro camera app where photos “develop” at 9 AM—no filters, no edits, just nostalgia. Private or shared Rolls, AI-lite.
→ Founded by Daniel Liss & David Dobrik in 2019; $20M Series A (Seven Seven Six, Spark); 5M+ downloads; rebounded post-scandal with new team.

⛏️ Nemo Industries
“AI‑forged pig‑iron rebirth.”
Modernizing pig‑iron production with AI-optimized furnaces and new-built plants. AI controls process, targets 20–30% margin boost over legacy mills.
→ Founded in stealth by Daniel Liss (formerly of army logistics modeling), partnering with ex‑Cheniere Energy investor Michael DuBose → raised ~$28M seed; pursuing $100M Series A; poised to build three pig‑iron plants via over $1B in state incentives.

🧠 Julius
“Data insights by talking.”
AI data‑analyst platform: chat with your datasets, auto-generate charts, forecasts, predictive models—no code. Tailors to analysis use cases, remembers context.
→ Founded 2022 by YC alum Rahul Sonwalkar; from YC batch to 2M+ users, 10M+ visualizations. Used in HBS curriculum. Just closed $10M seed led by Bessemer, with Horizon VC, 8VC, AI Grant & angels (Perplexity CEO, Vercel CEO, Twilio co-founder); product momentum driving adoption across enterprises.

BAY AREA MEMOS

Waymo is partnering with Avis Budget Group to manage its robotaxi fleet for its launch in Dallas next year.
PayPal expands its crypto payment service to US merchants to lower cross-border transaction fees.
Amazon is disputing a report that it raised prices on essential items by 5% since President Trump took office
Figma has raised its IPO target to $1.2 billion, with shares now priced between $30 and $32.
AI data analyst startup Julius raises a $10 million seed round led by Bessemer Venture Partners.

TOGETHER WITH US

AI Secret Media Group is the world’s #1 AI & Tech Newsletter Group, boasting over 1 million readers from leading companies such as OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. Our Newsletter Brands: