The Dealflow by Founders Capital - Edition 23

Key News and Trends

Chrome Carted - Perplexity’s $35bn Power Play: Perplexity has lobbed a bold $34.5bn all-cash bid for Google Chrome, nearly double its own $18bn valuation, as it positions itself for a potential court-ordered divestment. The AI upstart, backed by SoftBank, Nvidia, and Jeff Bezos, claims top VCs will bankroll the deal, pledging to keep Chromium open-source, retain staff, and invest $3bn in upgrades. Google, appealing antitrust remedies after losing a landmark case, isn’t taking the bid seriously, but with 30mn users and its own AI-native browser, Perplexity is making sure Mountain View feels the heat. Read more here

Apple’s AI Glow-Up: Apple is plotting a high-stakes comeback with an ambitious AI hardware push, including a 2027 tabletop robot with a lifelike, conversational Siri, a smart display launching next year, and Face ID-powered home security cameras. The move aims to revive Apple’s innovation image after missing the generative AI wave, with CEO Tim Cook teasing an “amazing” product pipeline to rival Samsung, Meta, and Amazon. Read more here

Capitol Chips In? U.S. Weighs Intel Stake: The Trump administration is in early talks to take an equity stake in Intel to boost domestic semiconductor production and cut reliance on foreign suppliers. The move follows Trump’s public call for CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s resignation over China ties, yet Intel shares jumped up to 7.4% on the news. Any deal would mark a shift toward direct government ownership in strategic industries. Read more here

Mind Games: Altman Plots Neuralink Showdown: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is co-founding Merge Labs, a brain-computer interface start-up set to compete directly with Elon Musk’s Neuralink. Merge is seeking $250M in funding at an $850M valuation, with much of the capital expected from OpenAI’s ventures arm. The project, developed alongside Worldcoin’s Alex Blania, aims to deliver “high-bandwidth” human-machine links, bringing Altman’s long-theorised “merge” between humans and AI closer to reality. Read more here

Founder’s Take: Perplexity’s Chrome Gambit

This isn’t their first rodeo, they pulled the same stunt with TikTok not long ago. Now it’s Chrome in the crosshairs, and the question is whether Perplexity is playing a masterful long game of brand positioning, or just chasing headlines for the sake of relevance.

We’re all for keeping yourself in the conversation, and there’s strategic value in planting a flag in markets dominated by Big Tech. But Perplexity has shown a willingness to experiment widely, from launching a VC fund to building an AI-native browser, and now floating a $35bn offer for a business nearly twice their own valuation.

On one hand, this could be smart signalling, reminding the market, regulators, and potential users that they’re the bold alternative to Google, ready to step in if Chrome is forced to sell. On the other hand, if they spread themselves too thin, they risk losing the operational discipline that’s needed to go from “the upstart everyone’s talking about” to “the incumbent everyone relies on.”

Top Venture Deals

Cognition: $500M Series C at $9.8B Valuation (Founders Fund, Existing Investors)

• Cognition, the two-year-old San Francisco startup building AI tools to autonomously generate software code, has raised a $500M Series C at a $9.8B post-money valuation. Founders Fund led the round, joined by 8VC, Avenir Growth Capital, Conviction Partners, Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, and Pear VC. The raise cements Cognition as one of the fastest-growing players in AI-powered software development. Read more here

Lambda: Nvidia-Backed AI Cloud Firm Eyes $4-5B Valuation

• Lambda Inc., an AI cloud infrastructure provider with over 1M Nvidia GPUs, is in talks to raise hundreds of millions at a $4-5B valuation ahead of a possible IPO later this year. The financing would follow a $480M Series D in February at a $2.5B valuation, led by Andra Capital and SGW, with participation from Nvidia, ARK Invest, and OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy. The company operates data centres in major US cities and aims to expand its Lambda Cloud Platform. Read more here

Cohere: $500M Raise at $6.8B Valuation (Radical Ventures, Inovia Capital, AMD, Nvidia, Salesforce)

• Enterprise AI startup Cohere has closed an oversubscribed $500M round, boosting its valuation to $6.8B from $5.5B last year. Founded by “Attention Is All You Need” co-author Aidan Gomez, Cohere focuses on secure LLMs for enterprise use, with partnerships including Oracle, Dell, SAP, and RBC. New hires include Meta’s former AI research head Joelle Pineau as Chief AI Officer. The round was led by Radical Ventures and Inovia, with continued backing from AMD, Nvidia, and Salesforce Ventures. Read more here

Upcoming Public Offerings

Bending Spoons

• Italian app developer Bending Spoons has secured over €500 million in debt financing to fuel acquisitions and growth ahead of a planned IPO. Backed by high-profile investors like Baillie Gifford and Advent International, the Milan-based company, known for apps like Evernote and Remini, is targeting a public listing within the next 12–18 months. The fresh capital will help scale its subscription app empire as it eyes international expansion. Read more here

Bullish

• Crypto exchange Bullish surged in its New York Stock Exchange debut, opening at $90 and closing at $68, up 83% from its $37 IPO price, after raising $1.1 billion. Led by ex-NYSE President Tom Farley and backed by Peter Thiel, the Cayman Islands-based firm blends DeFi protocols with centralised security for institutional traders. The listing valued Bullish at $5.6B pre-trading, ballooning to $10.25B by the close. Read more here

See you in the next edition,
The Founders Capital Team