Weekly Download #25

This week in Silicon Valley, Startups & Tech:

• Big Short 2.0 Targets AI: Michael Burry shorts NVIDIA & Palantir with $1B+ exposure, betting the AI bubble pops like subprime mortgages did in 2008

• Thiel Dumps Nvidia Entirely: Peter Thiel's fund unloads all 537,742 shares worth $100M in Q3, quietly exiting before telling anyone the party's over

• Big Tech's Climate Hypocrisy: Microsoft, Amazon, Meta & Google's AI energy demands obliterate their 2040 carbon net-zero promises

• AI IPO Boom Falls Flat: 51 US tech IPOs raised $16.8B in 2025, driven by AI & crypto hype, but still 77% below 2021's 127 IPOs raising $74.4B

• Space Data Centers Announced: Musk, Bezos & Pichai discuss lunar and orbital AI facilities because it’s hard to build on Earth

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🚪 The Great AI Exit: Smart Money's Quiet Escape

🎬 The Big Short 2.0: When Legendary Investors Dump AI

Michael Burry, the investor who called the 2008 housing crash, has placed over $1.1B in put options against Nvidia and Palantir:

• $912M against Palantir: Trading at 280x forward earnings

• $187.6M against Nvidia: Despite "only" a 20x P/E multiple

• $9.3B in Insider Sales: Nvidia and Palantir execs cashing out over two years

Burry's timing is characteristically provocative as he’s betting that today's AI darlings are tomorrow's cautionary tales. His Q3 2025 disclosure sent the Nasdaq down 3% and reignited the "is AI a bubble?" debate.

Meanwhile, Peter Thiel's hedge fund just dumped its entire Nvidia position, all 537,742 shares worth $100M, during Q3 2025. Thiel's Founders Fund turned early Facebook shares into a legendary win, and his Palantir bet on government AI was prescient years before ChatGPT made AI cool.

Additionally, at this week's Cerebral Valley AI Conference, 300+ founders and investors were asked which billion-dollar startup they'd short. The winner? Perplexity, the AI search startup that is positioning itself as Google's replacement. OpenAI came in second.

Reality Check: When company insiders are selling $9.3B worth of stock while retail investors pile in, and legendary contrarians like Burry and Thiel are exiting completely, someone may be getting the trade wrong. However, Nvidia seems to be the "safer" play than betting on AI companies themselves.

💸 AI's IPO Victory Lap (Down 77% From Peak)

AI and crypto companies dominated 2025's IPO winners, with 51 US tech IPOs raising $16.8B. Wall Street popped champagne because that's above the 3-year average, but let’s add context:

• 51 IPOs in 2025 vs. 127 IPOs in 2021: that's a 60% decline in volume

• $16.8B raised vs. $74.4B in 2021: down 77% in actual capital

• Above the 3-year Average: we're finally less bad than the post-2021 crash years

Yes, AI enthusiasm brought companies public but the venture ecosystem is still operating at a fraction of bubble-era capacity.

Reality Check: When the hottest sector in tech, with literally every major corporation throwing billions at it, can only generate IPO activity 77% below recent peaks, that's not a bull signal. The "Big Short" thesis isn't that AI fails; it's that current valuations assume 2021-level exits are coming back. These numbers say otherwise.

🏆 When AI Insiders Call BS on Their Own Industry

Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun is reportedly leaving after being sidelined, and he's not going quietly. The Turing Award winner, essentially the Nobel Prize of computing, says large language models are a "dead end" for achieving AGI.

LeCun's exit follows Meta's $14B pivot to hire Alexandr Wang from Scale AI to lead a new "superintelligence" division focused on product-driven AI. Thus, Zuck is choosing to ship features over foundational research, sidelining LeCun's decade-long work on AI "world models” that actually understand cause and effect rather than just predict words.

The Bottom Line: When a Turing Award winner walks away saying your entire technical approach is fundamentally broken, and your peers are literally betting against you, that's the AI equivalent of your own family shorting you in poker.

🚀 When You Can't Build on Earth, Try Space

⚡ The 80 GW Fantasy: When AI Dreams Collide With Physics

The WSJ just charted AI's collision with physics, revealing that US AI data center capacity has topped 80 GW in 2025:

• $371B: What Big Tech will spend on data centers in 2025 alone (up 44% YoY)

• 1 GW per Facility: Single AI data centers consume enough power for 800K US homes

• 92 GW by 2027: Global demand projection, if the grid can deliver it

The industry is trying to build twice as much data center capacity as has been built since 2000, compressed into just five years. Power generation exists, but building transmission lines takes over a decade. Meanwhile, ROI concerns are mounting as Goldman Sachs notes analysts are "on heightened alert" for signs that monetization can't keep pace with buildout.

Meanwhile, Big Tech's climate strategists are having a very bad year. Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Google pledged to be net-zero carbon by 2040 or sooner. Then came the AI arms race:

• 10-30x More Power: Generative AI vs. traditional AI workloads

• 10% of US Electricity: Data centers' projected share by 2030

• 50% Emissions Increase: Google's inconvenient truth since 2019

• Three-Mile Island: Microsoft is literally restarting this nuclear reactor.

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski just went on record saying he's "nervous about the size of these investments in these data centers." However, he personally owns stakes in OpenAI, Perplexity, and xAI, three companies that desperately need those massive data centers to exist.

Reality Check: You can plan 80 GW of capacity, but you can't plan around physics. When your AI ambitions require 2% of global electricity and you're breaking your own climate pledges, the race isn't just about who builds the most compute, it's about who can actually turn it on.

🎢 The Great Resistance: Even AI Bulls Are Getting Cold Feet

Meanwhile, locals are saying hell no. Local opposition blocked or delayed 17 US data center projects worth $98B in Q2 2025 alone, according to Data Center Watch, nearly double the previous ten months combined:

• $98B blocked in 3 months vs. $64B in the prior 10 months

• 17 projects stalled in Q2 2025, matching nearly a year's worth of resistance

• Two-thirds of targeted projects now face opposition or delays

The resistance playbook is remarkably consistent: communities cite noise pollution, water consumption (AI training gulps it), power grid strain, and environmental impact. Tech giants assumed they could plant football-field-sized compute farms anywhere zoning allowed, and locals said, "not here, you won't."

Reality Check: The infrastructure land grab has gotten so massive that even its beneficiaries are publicly questioning the math. Every day of delay costs millions while AI companies print billion-dollar valuations on the promise of infinite compute.

🚀 When Earth Runs Out of Real Estate, Launch GPUs Into Orbit

When you've exhausted every desert, every fjord, and every nuclear plant parking lot, there's only one place left to build: space itself. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Sundar Pichai have each discussed building lunar and orbital AI data centers, apparently because the great AI Infra Land Grab has gone interplanetary.

Translation: When you're burning through data center capacity faster than you can build it, and every available power grid is tapped out, suddenly launching TPUs into orbit doesn't sound so crazy.

⚡ Startup Quick Hits: When Billions Flow to Atoms & Bits

🚀 Bezos Returns to Build AI for the Physical World: Project Prometheus launched with $6.2B in funding (partly from Bezos) to apply AI to manufacturing, aerospace, and automotive. This is his first major role since 2021 and pairs him with Google X vet Vik Bajaj as co-CEO.

💻 Cursor's $29.3B Valuation After Three Years: Anysphere raised $2.3B Series D, led by Accel and Coatue, with Nvidia and Google, at a $29.3B valuation (up from $9.9B in June). The AI coding tool hit $1B in ARR, minting four MIT founders into billionaires before age 30.

💳 Ramp Hits $32B for Finance AI Agents: The corporate spend platform raised $300M led by Lightspeed at a $32B valuation (up 42% from $22.5B in July). That's four raises in 2025 alone, with revenue doubled to ~$700M for autonomous finance agents that handle expenses.

🔍 Genspark Joins the Unicorn Club with AI Search: The AI search startup raised $200M+ Series B led by LG Technology and SBI Investment at a $1B+ valuation. Founded in 2024, claims $50M in annualized revenue five months after launch.

⚛️ Nuclear Startup Raises $130M to Power “Future” Data Centers: Valar Atomics secured $130M Series A led by Snowpoint with Palmer Luckey and Palantir CTO. Building helium-cooled reactors to power AI data centers at "gigasites" with hundreds of small modular reactors.

💰 Investor Quick Hits: Everyone's Raising a Fund Now

🎯 Elad Gil Doubles His Fund to $3B Because Why Not: The early backer of Perplexity, Stripe, and Airbnb doubled his new fund target to nearly $3B.

💊 Sofinnova's €650M for Life Sciences (Fund Number Eleven): The Paris-based firm closed its 11th flagship life sciences fund, proving that biotech VCs just keep grinding.

🧬 Medicxi Closes €500M Fifth Fund for European Life Sciences: Similarly, the European biotech VC secured half a billion for its latest fund, continuing the pattern.

🇬🇧 Backed Raises $100M to Keep Backing Things: The London-based VC closed its third fund despite crypto winters, interest rate hikes, and AI uncertainty.

🇮🇱 Reimagine Ventures' $25M Bet on Israeli AI at Pre-Seed: A new fund targeting Israeli AI startups at the preseed, as Israel's already punching above its weight in exits.

💸 IPO & M&A Quick Hits: Oracle of Omaha Gets Big Tech

🔮 Buffett's Late Tech Conversion: Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a $4.3B stake in Alphabet in Q3, acquiring 17.9M Class A shares that instantly became the conglomerate's 10th largest holding. The Oracle of Omaha finally embraced big tech.

🔪 Synopsys's $35B Synergy Tax: Synopsys is cutting ~10% of its workforce (roughly 2,000-2,800 employees) after closing its $35B acquisition of Ansys, with restructuring charges hitting $350M through fiscal 2027.

📈 Groww's YC-Backed Indian Homecoming: The Indian investment app raised $748M in its IPO, popping 29% on debut to a $9B market cap (India’s largest fintech in 2025). YC’s first Indian portco to go public proves returns when building for 1.4B.

⚖️ Grayscale's DCG Divorce: The crypto asset manager filed for an IPO with $203.3M in net income on $318.7M revenue (Jan-Sept 2025), managing ~$35B across 40+ products. Turns out charging management fees on crypto ETFs is very profitable.

🚛 Einride's Driverless SPAC Journey: Stockholm-based driverless truck startup Einride is going public via SPAC merger with Legato Merger Corp in H1 2026 at a $1.8B valuation with $43.3M in 2024 revenue (trading at 41x).

💸 In Other Bay Area Funding News

Here's a roundup of notable recent funding rounds across the Bay Area:

🤖 Artificial Intelligence

• d-Matrix: Raised $275M Series C led by Bullhound Capital, Temasek Holdings & Triatomic Capital for to enable data centers to handle large-scale gen AI.

• Parallel: Raised $100M Series A led by Index Ventures & Kleiner Perkins for developing systems enabling AIs to interact with the web efficiently.

• General Counsel AI: Raised $60M Series B led by Northzone & Scale Venture Partners for web-based legal AI workspaces.

• Wisdom AI: Raised $50M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins for an AI data analyst answering questions to get enterprise business insights.

• Tavus: Raised $40M Series B led by CRV for AI humans that remember and empathize, enabling seamless transitions across chat, voice, and video.

• Netic: Raised $23M Series B led by Founders Fund for an AI platform to improve revenue generation through AI automation.

• Deductive: Raised $7.5M Seed led by CRV for an applied AI research lab developing AGI to make software systems self-healing.

• Sim: Raised $7M Series A led by Standard Capital for AI platform automating workflow and syncing data.

• Magic Patterns: Raised $6M Series A led by Standard Capital for AI prototyping design tools that export from React and Figma.

• CoRun.ai: Raised $3.5M Seed led by Access Capital Management for AI platform to help fleets lower costs and manage risk.

• Theo Ai: Raised $3.4M Seed led by Run Ventures for AI prediction platform forecasting legal dispute outcomes.

• Relixir: Raised $2M Seed led by YC for AI Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to improve AI search rankings.

🧬 Biotech & Healthcare

• Gate Bioscience: Raised $65M Series B led by Forbion Capital Partners for small molecule modality treating biology's intractable diseases.

• House Rx: Raised $55M Series B led by New Enterprise Associates & Town Hall Ventures to improve affordability and medicine access.

• NextSense: Raised $16.3M Series A led by Ascension Ventures for wearable brain-sensing technology focused on sleep and cognitive health.

• Bindwell: Raised $6M Seed led by ACapital Ventures and General Catalyst for AI development of safer pesticides.

💼 SaaS & Marketing

• Alembic: Raised $145M Series B led by Accenture & Prysm Capital for digital marketing tools to help marketing teams.

• BoomPop: Raised $25M Round led by Wing Venture Capital for AI event services.

• Anzen: Raised $16M Series A led by Madrona for a digital marketplace and AI tools for insurance.

• Great Question: Raised $13M Series A led by Inovia Capital for a customer research platform.

• Obello: Raised $8.5M Seed led by Obvious Ventures to help brands create high-quality content at speed.

🤖 Robotics & Hardware

• Carbon: Raised $60M Round led by Sequoia for high-tech, waste-reducing 3D printing services.

• Foxglove: Raised $40M Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners for an observability stack for Physical AI.

💰 Other

• Joy: Raised $14M Series A led by Forerunner and Raga Partners for a young family parenting platform.

• Known: Raised $9.5M Round for an online dating app.

• Rift: Raised $8M Seed led by Paradigm for a trustless crypto exchange allowing peer-to-peer trading of any two assets without knowledge proof.

• Scorbit: Raised $5M Seed led by Detroit Venture Partners for a pinball platform.

🌟 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.

💭 Parting Thoughts

So there you have it: a week where Michael Burry and Peter Thiel are shorting AI's golden children while the industry burns $371B annually and pitches lunar data centers.

Remember: when your bull case requires ignoring investors, breaking climate pledges, and launching GPUs into orbit, you're not disrupting the future, you're in the final act of a very expensive bubble.

Forward to a friend or hit reply to let me know what you're seeing in your world.

Till next time!

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.

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