The Daily Digest for Busy Executives 📰

Good evening, here's what you missed while you were building the future...

🔥 Mira Murati's $2B Moonshot Takes Center Stage

Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati's new venture, Thinking Machines Lab, secured a staggering $2 billion seed round at a $10 billion valuation with Andreessen Horowitz leading. The San Francisco-based AI startup is focused on building advanced agentic systems, making this one of the largest startup financings ever. Talk about making an exit statement from OpenAI—Murati's betting big on the next wave of AI agents.

📈 Markets Play Musical Chairs While S&P Hits New Highs

The S&P 500 scored a fresh all-time intraday high and closed at a record, gaining 0.47% to close at 6,227.42. However, Wall Street closed mixed after a choppy session as market participants shifted preference from growth-oriented technology stocks to more cyclical stocks. The rotation continues as investors hedge their bets between tech darlings and value plays for the second half of 2025.

🤖 AI Funding Frenzy Reaches Fever Pitch

AI startups secured a 57.9% share of global venture capital investments in Q1 of 2025, a significant increase from the 28% they gained in the same period last year. The FOMO is real, folks. Meanwhile, Deeto, an NYC startup using AI to capture authentic customer feedback, raised $12.5 million in Series A led by Jump Capital. Even customer testimonials are getting the AI treatment now.

💼 Job Market Jitters Shake Investor Confidence

A new report showing private payrolls surprisingly decreased in June raised concerns over the state of the U.S. economy. The ADP data showed a concerning softening in hiring, setting up all eyes on Thursday's official nonfarm payrolls report. Economic data whiplash continues to keep traders on their toes.

🏛️ Trump's AI Executive Orders Target China Competition

The Trump administration is readying a package of executive actions aimed at boosting energy supply to power AI growth in the race with China. The move signals the administration's focus on maintaining America's AI leadership through infrastructure and policy support. Energy policy meets tech policy in the ultimate power play.

💡 Robotics Gets a $75M Reality Check

Tacta Systems announced $75 million in funding to accelerate the development of robotic solutions from their Palo Alto headquarters. As AI agents dominate headlines, physical robotics is quietly securing serious capital to bring intelligence into the real world. Sometimes the future needs actual hands, not just brains.

🎯 Bonus: AI Summer School Stats

Here's a wild stat to close: The summer of 2025 saw AI research pushing into new domains like genomics and robotics while refining the robustness of generative AI techniques. We're officially in the "AI goes everywhere" phase. Next up: AI-powered weather predictions for your morning coffee temperature preferences (probably).

That's a wrap! Forward this to someone who needs to know what happened while they were in back-to-back meetings.