Hard Tech Headlines: - @mazamaenergy has secured $135M in new capital to commercialize superhot rock geothermal. Centaurus Capital and Doerr Capital led the Series B. - The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation has approved more than $8B in new investments, including Ukrainian 5G infrastructure, grid-scale battery storage, a seawater desalination project in Jordan, and African subsea cables, fiber networks, and data centers. - The DOE is looking for companies to develop the world’s first fault-tolerant quantum computers, targeting systems with at least 100 logical qubits and offering up to $215M in funding. - @laki_power has secured a €6M Series A. The Icelandic startup develops hardware for grid monitoring, including technology that could enable autonomous drone charging along power corridors. The NATO Innovation Fund led the round, marking its first investment in an Icelandic startup. - General Atomics and Hanwha Aerospace have completed the first simulated battlefield operations with a medium-altitude, long-endurance drone, landing and taking off the Mojave STOL from a rough trail used by tanks and artillery. - EXA Infrastructure is now developing a 4,000+ mile transatlantic subsea cable connecting New Jersey to the United Kingdom. - @watneyrobotics has secured an $80M Series A. The startup develops and deploys autonomous robots for data center construction. - The British Ministry of Defence is investing up to £400M in Tekever’s AR5, alongside £16M for more than 1,000 small drones, including Evolve Dynamics’ FOXE-NATO, @SkydioHQ X10 INTL, and SONORA drones from Brigantes Consulting and Harmattan AI. - @poseidonaero, the autonomous air cargo startup, has opened a new 110,000-square-foot headquarters at the former Alameda Naval Air Station, where it plans to scale aircraft manufacturing.

Introducing FLY FUND I I gave a fruit fly $1m to trade stocks and crypto. Its neurons decide what to buy and sell. You can watch them fire. Welcome to the future of AI, Biology, and Capital. Take a Flyer: million-dollar-fly.vercel.ap…

🚨BASS Speaker Announcement🚨 @IsTheBaron CTO & Partner of @hack_vc

We invested in @mathematics_inc, and i think it might be one of the most important bets we've ever made we are living through the moment where generation becomes free and where trust & correctness become everything. I write about this a lot. For most of history, the bottleneck was "can we make it?" now it's "can we trust it?" That inversion is one of the most important things happening in tech right now

The US government, citing national security authorities, has issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees. The net effect of this order is that we must abruptly disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all our customers to ensure compliance. Access to all other Claude models is not affected. We apologize for this disruption to our customers. We believe this is a misunderstanding and are working to restore access as soon as possible. Read our full statement: anthropic.com/news/fable-myt…

1/ Trump wants the US government to take equity in OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI. Bernie Sanders wants 50 percent. It is not every day those two reach for the same lever. A year ago a forecast called AI 2027 said this was coming. Worth asking why it was right.

This is an email I sent earlier today to all employees at Coinbase: Team, Today I’ve made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%. I want to walk you through why we're doing this now, what it means for those affected, and how this positions us for the future. Why now Two forces are converging at the same time. We need to be front footed to respond to both. First, the market. Coinbase is well-capitalized, has diversified revenue streams, and is well-positioned to weather any storm. Crypto is also on the verge of the next wave of adoption, with stablecoins, prediction markets, tokenization, and more taking off. However, our business is still volatile from quarter to quarter. While we've managed through that cyclicality many times before and come out stronger on the other side, we’re currently in a down market and need to adjust our cost structure now so that we emerge from this period leaner, faster, and more efficient for our next phase of growth. Second, AI is changing how we work. Over the past year, I’ve watched engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks. Non-technical teams are now shipping production code and many of our workflows are being automated. The pace of what's possible with a small, focused team has changed dramatically, and it's accelerating every day. All of this has led us to an inflection point, not just for Coinbase, but for every company. The biggest risk now is not taking action. We are adjusting early and deliberately to rebuild Coinbase to be lean, fast, and AI-native. We need to return to the speed and focus of our startup founding, with AI at our core. What this means To get there, we are not just reducing headcount and cutting costs, we’re fundamentally changing how we operate: rebuilding Coinbase as an intelligence, with humans around the edge aligning it. What does this mean in practice? - Fewer layers, faster decisions: We are flattening our org structure to 5 layers max below CEO/COO. Layers slow things down and create coordination tax. The future is small, high context teams that can move quickly. Leaders will own much more, with as many as 15+ direct reports. Fewer layers also means a leaner cost structure that is built to perform through all market cycles. - No pure managers: Every leader at Coinbase must also be a strong and active individual contributor. Managers should be like player-coaches, getting their hands dirty alongside their teams. - AI-native pods: We’ll be concentrating around AI-native talent who can manage fleets of agents to drive outsized impact. We’ll also be experimenting with reduced pod sizes, including “one person teams” with engineers, designers, and product managers all in one role. In short: AI is bringing a profound shift in how companies operate, and we’re reshaping Coinbase to lead in this new era. This is a new way of working, and we need to leverage AI across every facet of our jobs. To those who are affected I know there are real people behind these decisions — talented colleagues who have poured themselves into this company and our mission. To those of you who will be leaving: thank you. You’ve helped build Coinbase into what it is today, and I am sincerely grateful for everything you've done. All impacted team members will receive an email to their personal account in the next hour with more information, and an invitation to meet with an HRBP and a senior leader in your organization. Coinbase system access has been removed today. I know this feels sudden and harsh, but it is the only responsible choice given our duty to protect customer information. To those affected, we will be providing a comprehensive package to support you through this transition. US employees will receive a minimum of 16 weeks base pay (plus 2 weeks per year worked), their next equity vest, and 6 months of COBRA. Employees on a work visa will get extra transition support. Those outside of the US will receive similar support, based on local factors and subject to any consultation requirements. Coinbase prides itself on talent density. Our employees are among the most talented people in the world, and I have no doubt that your skills and experience will be highly sought after as you pursue your next chapters. How we move forward To the team that is staying, I know this is a difficult day. We’re saying goodbye to colleagues and friends you've been in the trenches with. But here’s what I want you to know as we move forward together: Over the past 13 years, we have weathered four crypto winters, gone public, and built the most trusted platform in our industry. We’ve made it this far by making hard decisions and by always staying focused on our mission. This time will be no different – nothing has changed about the long term outlook of our company or industry. And most importantly, our mission has never been more important for the world. Increasing economic freedom requires a new financial system, and we’re building it. The Coinbase that emerges from this will be more capable than ever to achieve our mission. Brian

El Segundo was always inevitable @PalmerLuckey @DiscipulusVent