Jul 17, 2025 4 min read Daily Rundown

⛵ Tesla’s Maharaja Mode

More Stories: Circle Goes Public, Silicon Valley Digs

Good Morning, Early Adopters!

Luxury rolls in, crypto suits up, and bulldozers get brains. Tech’s not moving fast—it’s moving weird.

LAUNCH

Tesla Enters India—But Only for the Rich Kids

👀 What’s the move: Tesla finally showed up in India—but it’s not here to sell cars to the masses. The Model Y launches at $70,000, which is luxury-car territory in a country where the bestselling car costs around $7,000. This isn’t a market entry; it’s a status symbol drop.

💡 Why it’s not boring: This is Tesla playing geopolitical chess. The Mumbai showroom isn’t about sales—it’s about soft power and future positioning. If India dangles lower tariffs for local manufacturing, Musk might bite. Until then, expect more flex than function.

⛵ Key takeaway: Tesla didn’t enter the Indian market—it entered India’s cocktail parties.

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STABLECOIN

Circle Played the Long Game—and Won

👀 What’s the move: Circle, the company behind USDC, just pulled off a $1B IPO—through a traditional listing, no SPAC gimmicks, no offshore shortcuts. Years of playing nice with regulators, publishing audited reserves, and lobbying in D.C. finally paid off. In a space allergic to rules, Circle bet on compliance—and rang the Wall Street bell.

💡 Why it’s not boring: This IPO wasn’t just a funding event—it was Circle finally collecting the dividends of a decade spent courting regulators, while the rest of the industry chased hype with reckless abandon. Tether may still own the market cap crown, but it’s Circle that now owns the institutional trust (and the ticker symbol).

⛵ Key takeaway: While Tether plays dodgeball with regulators, Circle just walked into the SEC’s house and walked out with a billion-dollar check.

STARTUP

Ex-Waymo Engineers Hit the Dirt

👀 What’s the move: The former Waymo trucking crew just raised $80M to give bulldozers a brain. Bedrock Robotics is retrofitting existing construction vehicles to run autonomously, day and night, no complaints, no breaks. Field tests are underway across four states with major contractors on board.

💡 Why it’s not boring: The self-driving dream may be dead on city streets, but it’s alive and well in the mud. No traffic laws, no pedestrians, no regulators—just machines doing repeatable tasks in chaos. Bedrock’s real play? Skipping custom hardware and upgrading the fleets that are already out there.

⛵ Key takeaway: Silicon Valley’s AV elite gave up on chauffeurs and bet big on ditch diggers—and investors love it.

STARTUP SPOT

🧠 Circle
“Building the digital dollar infrastructure.”
Issuer of USDC, a fully-reserved, 1:1 USD‑pegged stablecoin powering instant global payments → enterprise APIs, deep liquidity across 185+ countries, live on 16+ chains including XRP and World Chain.
→ Founded 2013 by Jeremy Allaire & Sean Neville, now NYSE‑listed (ticker CRCL); IPO on June 5 ’25 raised $1.1 B, stock surged ~6× before stabilizing.

🏗️ Bedrock Robotics
“Autonomy that builds 24/7.”
AI-powered retrofit kits turning standard excavators, loaders, bulldozers into precision, autonomous worksite robots → End‑to‑end ML/navigation from Waymo, real‑time adaptation via sensor/compute mesh for infrastructure tasks.
→ Founded 2024 by ex‑Waymo autonomy leads (Boris Sofman, Kevin Peterson et al.); backed by $80M Seed/Series A from Eclipse & 8VC (~Two Sigma, Nvidia VC).

🛰️ Exodigo
“Map the underground, no digging.”
AI‑fused multi‑sensor platform for centimeter‑accurate 3D subsurface mapping—scan pipes, cables, soil, water via drones/carts → replaces ton of exploratory digging.
→ Founded 2021 by Tel Aviv & Bay Area team (CEO Jeremy Suard, CTO Ido Gonen) from elite 8200 intelligence units; raised $105 M Series A early 2024 + $96 M Series B Jul 2025 (total ~$214 M).

BAY AREA MEMOS

GM and Redwood Materials are repurposing EV batteries to power energy-hungry AI data centers.
The GMC Hummer EV outsold the Tesla Cybertruck for the first time in the second quarter of 2025.
Underground intelligence startup Exodigo has raised $96 million to map what lies beneath the surface for construction and infrastructure projects.
Coinbase is transforming its wallet into the 'Base App,' an everything app centered on USDC for everyday payments and commerce.
UK retail giant Co-op has confirmed a data breach that exposed the personal records of all 6.5 million of its members.

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