In partnership with
Hi {{first_name}}!
This week, a federal judge basically told Google "ChatGPT will destroy you faster than we ever could," Meta admitted its AI sucks so bad it needs to license from competitors, and China just broke up with American chips in the messiest divorce since Elon and OpenAI.
As we continue to build at Context Ventures, we've launched Startup Intros with a simple mission: to help early-stage founders find the right investors, faster and smarter.
🔥 Context VC & Startup Intros Events Coming Up
Check it out, stay plugged in, and don’t miss these hot upcoming events:
Sep 29: Fintech Pitch Night: Applications to pitch are open! Join us in SF for an exciting pitch night featuring the hottest startups in Fintech. Sign to pitch here!
Oct 6: Startup Intros Product Launch Party: Celebrate our platform launch with founder tools demo and SF's best startup networking. Apply on Luma!
Oct 9: Early-Stage Matchmaking: Curated founder-investor matching during SF Tech Week. High-signal connections for serious builders at DG. Apply on Luma!
Oct 22: Live Podcast w/ Meka Asonye: First Round Capital's Partner talks about GTM strategy, founder support, and building startups from Day 0. Sign up on Luma!
🎯 BLUF: Bottom Line Upfront
Google's Get-Out-of-Jail Card: Judge says no Chrome breakup needed because "AI will discipline Google better than courts can"
DeepSeek Goes Full China Mode: Dumps Nvidia for Huawei chips while Beijing orders 700K chip cancellations
Meta's $14B Humiliation: After Scale AI investment flops, now begging Google and OpenAI for model licenses
The Coding Data Wars: OpenAI, xAI, Anthropic all desperate for Cursor's developer behavior data
Microsoft's Solo Debut: Finally builds own AI models with fraction of compute, declares independence from OpenAI
⚖️ Google's Antitrust Victory: "Let AI Do the Punishing"
Photo by Rubaitul Azad on Unsplash
Judge Bets on Market Forces Over Government Breakup
In the most Silicon Valley ruling ever, Judge Amit Mehta just gave Google a pass on divesting Chrome, arguing that ChatGPT and friends will destroy Google's monopoly better than any court order could.
The Verdict Details:
Chrome stays: No forced sale of the $50-172B browser
Apple deal survives: Can still pay for Safari placement (just not exclusively)
Stock celebration: Google up 6%, Apple popped too
Data sharing required: Must share search data with rivals
The AI Exception: Judge cited OpenAI, Microsoft as evidence competition already exists
Judge Mehta's Logic: "Rather than structural remedies like divestiture, the court chose targeted constraints to prevent Google's dominance in search from bleeding into the AI space."
Why It Matters: This sets a precedent that tech monopolies might get lighter treatment if AI disruption is on the horizon. It's basically saying "why break up the company when startups will eat their lunch anyway?" The DOJ wanted to create competition through regulation; the judge is betting AI will do it naturally.
🇨🇳 The Great Chip Divorce: China Builds Its Own Silicon Future
DeepSeek Chooses Huawei Over Nvidia
DeepSeek just made the breakup official, switching to Huawei's Ascend chips for training its next-gen AI models - a move that signals China's tech independence is real.
The Switch Details:
Testing Huawei, Baidu, and Cambricon chips - Huawei won
Using Ascend chips for smaller R2 models
Still needs Nvidia for the biggest models (old habits die hard)
Working directly with Huawei engineers on optimization
The Timing: Just weeks after China's internet regulator ordered ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent to suspend 700K Nvidia H20 chip orders over "security concerns" and backdoor fears.
Alibaba's Third Option: Trust No One
While DeepSeek picks sides, Alibaba is building its own chips because it trusts neither America nor China's national champion.
The Independent Play:
Stock surged 19% on AI transformation news
New inference chip made domestically
Maintains Nvidia software compatibility (smart hedging)
Cloud revenue up 26%, AI revenue triple-digit growth for 8 quarters
Why It Matters: Alibaba sees Huawei as a cloud competitor and won't subsidize a rival. This creates a three-way split: US chips (restricted), Chinese champion (competitor), and DIY (expensive but independent).
TSMC and Samsung Get Squeezed
The Trump administration just revoked TSMC's authorization to ship chipmaking tools to China, while Samsung and SK Hynix lose their waivers December 31.
The New Reality:
Every shipment needs individual Commerce Department approval
China consolidation dreams dead - 8 semiconductor deals collapsed in 2025
Even shoe manufacturers tried buying chip companies (seriously)
🔥 Meta's $14B Meltdown: When Pride Meets Reality
The Superintelligence Team That Can't
Meta's AI reorganization is turning into a masterclass in how not to build an AI lab.
The Drama So Far:
ChatGPT co-creator nearly quit: Shengjia Zhao almost walked, got panic-promoted to chief scientist
Scale AI relationship crumbling: Despite $14.3B investment, Meta now using competitors Surge and Mercor
Researchers hate Scale's data: Some call it "low quality" while OpenAI and Google dropped them entirely
The Desperation Move: Now discussing licensing Google's Gemini and OpenAI models for Meta AI
The Usage Problem: Meta AI has 1B monthly users, but only 10% use it daily - that ratio hasn't improved in a year.
The Strategic Admission: Meta spokesperson: "We are taking an all-of-the-above approach to building the best AI products; and that includes building world-leading models ourselves, partnering with companies, as well as open sourcing technology."
Translation: Our stuff isn't working, please help.
💻 The AI Independence Movement
Microsoft Finally Builds Its Own Stuff
After years of riding OpenAI's coattails, Microsoft unveiled its own AI models that prove you don't need infinite money to compete.
The Efficient Revolution:
MAI-Voice-1: Runs on ONE GPU, generates speech in under a second
MAI-1-preview: Trained with just 15,000 H100s (vs 150,000+ for others)
The Message: Mustafa Suleyman says they need to "own the full AI stack"
Why It Matters: Microsoft just showed the industry that throwing compute at problems isn't the only way. While everyone else burns cash on GPU farms, they're winning with optimization.
Apple's Siri Shopping Spree
Apple is testing Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude for its "World Knowledge Answers" Siri overhaul, targeting March 2026.
The Negotiations:
Anthropic wants $1.5B annually (bold ask)
Google playing nicer on pricing with custom Gemini model
Apple's talent exodus continues - Foundation Models team bleeding to competitors
Still collecting $20B/year from Google for search defaults
🔍 The Coding Data Gold Rush
Everyone Wants Cursor's Secret Sauce
OpenAI, xAI, and Anthropic are all circling Cursor, but not for acquisition - they want the data showing how developers actually code.
The Awkward Dance:
These companies power Cursor while competing with it
Running coding assistants is expensive - data deals could offset costs
Privacy policies block most data sharing (for now)
Anthropic now training on individual user data (with consent)
The Bigger Picture: We've hit peak internet scraping. The next AI breakthrough needs to understand how humans solve complex problems, and nothing beats watching developers debug at 2 AM.
Replit's Hot Take: CEO argues targeted, high-quality datasets beat "dumpster diving through millions of coding sessions."
💸 What Other Startups are Popping Off
Here's a roundup of this week's trending startup activity:
🤖 AI Agents & Automation
Marblism: AI Employees to scale your business (100 upvotes - hiring just got automated)
A01: Your personal news agent (finally, someone who reads the news for you)
Sidekick: Build Zapier-style automations using only a chat interface (automation for people who hate automation setup)
CatDoes: Team of AI agents build mobile apps for you & your business (cats are finally useful)
Ada: Your own AI data analyst (spreadsheets fear her)
AgentSea: A unified, private and safe chat to access latest AI models (one chat to rule them all)
🛠️ Developer Tools & Infrastructure
Codex by OpenAI: Your new software engineering teammate (pair programming just got AI-powered)
KushoAI: KushoAI transforms your inputs into a comprehensive, ready-to-run test suite.
gpt-realtime: For reliable, production-ready voice agents (voice agents that actually work)
apiJuice: Create a hosted API for anything in seconds (APIs as fast as your coffee order)
Byterover 2.0: Central Memory Layer For Dev Teams with Git-like System (because Git wasn't confusing enough)
xpander.ai: Backend and Frontend for your AI Agents (full-stack for AI, not humans)
GitHub Copilot for Raycast: Delegate tasks and track progress from Raycast
fileAI MCP: Give AI agents secure, real-time access to your files (trust issues solved)
Astra API Security Platform: Discover, Scan, and Secure every API at scale (APIs need bodyguards too)
Rork App: Idea to App Store, fast. The app that makes mobile apps
🎨 Creative & Content Tools
KomikoAI Video to Video: Make your videos pop with anime, cyborg, fire styles & more (your boring videos just got an anime glow-up)
JoggAI AvatarX: AI avatars that truly act like humans (uncanny valley, but make it professional)
Genspark AI Designer: Your AI employee that designs anything with one prompt (*designers everywhere nervously laughing*)
Bhava: Create and edit diagrams instantly with AI (flowcharts that actually flow)
Copilot Audio Expressions: The new voice of your stories (storytelling gets a voice upgrade)
Macrowave: Turn Your Mac into a private radio station (be your own DJ, finally)
Lindy Build: The new State Of The Art in vibe coding (vibes so strong they code themselves)
🏢 Sales & Marketing Tools
Contact Finder by Jeeva AI: Verified emails and direct dials in seconds (prospecting at light speed)
Dhisana AI: Cursor for Sales Teams (sales reps finally get their coding superpowers)
Technical SEO MCP: Run technical SEO in Claude, Claude Code, Amp, LM Studio (SEO nerds rejoice)
UseArticle: Turn any product url into profitable affiliate website (monetize everything, even your grocery list)
💼 Business & Productivity
HyNote AI: Full stack AI note taker with Google, Notion + more support (notes that take themselves)
Motion Software: Beautiful screen recordings for Windows, made simple (finally, Windows gets the good stuff)
Nuraform: Stunning AI forms with built-in tracking and summaries (forms that don't make people rage quit)
Receiptor AI 2.0: Bookkeeping on Autopilot with AI (receipts finally organized)
Lumi.new: Create apps & websites by chatting with AI.
HiveMind: Skill-based hiring on autopilot. Hiring that actually finds talent, so you can hire the best, every time
💰 Fintech & Trading
Surf: AI-powered crypto insights and trading in one platform (ride the waves, but with AI)
Google Finance Beta: Dive into the world of finance with AI-powered insights (Google does money now)
🗺️ Maps & Discovery
Wanderboat 2.0: Social + Local + AI map search from ex-Bing team (maps that actually know what you want)
How 433 Investors Unlocked 400X Return Potential
Institutional investors back startups to unlock outsized returns. Regular investors have to wait. But not anymore. Thanks to regulatory updates, some companies are doing things differently.
Take Revolut. In 2016, 433 regular people invested an average of $2,730. Today? They got a 400X buyout offer from the company, as Revolut’s valuation increased 89,900% in the same timeframe.
Founded by a former Zillow exec, Pacaso’s co-ownership tech reshapes the $1.3T vacation home market. They’ve earned $110M+ in gross profit to date, including 41% YoY growth in 2024 alone. They even reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.
The same institutional investors behind Uber, Venmo, and eBay backed Pacaso. And you can join them. But not for long. Pacaso’s investment opportunity ends September 18.
Paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving a ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals.
🌟 Editor's Note
At Startup Intros, our mission is to bring the latest founder-investor news straight to your inbox, keeping you ahead in the fast-paced world of Silicon Valley. Our free weekly newsletter delivers curated insights, deals, and trends to help you navigate the startup ecosystem.
Stay tuned for our upcoming paid daily newsletter and fundraising app to help you close your next round!
💭 Parting Thoughts
This week showed us the ultimate Silicon Valley paradox: a judge refusing to break up Google because AI will do it naturally, while the supposed AI leaders are desperately licensing each other's models because nobody's stuff actually works. Forward to a friend or hit reply to let me know what you're seeing in your world.
Forward to a friend and hit reply to let me know what you're seeing in your world.
Till next time!
Dev Chandra
CEO @ Startup Intros
Associate @ Context VC
LinkedIn: /in/devchandra
Tim Hsia
Investor @ Context VC
Co-Founder @ Startup Intros
LinkedIn: /in/timhsia
P.S. Raised this week, and we missed you? Want to be featured? Have tips or funding questions? Reply or DM us as we’re here to help.
Startup Intros Trending Thursday: Your trusted source for founder-investor insights, delivered with clarity and focus.
