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Today’s Menu

• xAI Joins the $200B Valuation Club

• Silicon Valley Is Building the Post-Phone Era

Markets

TODAY IN AI

xAI Joins the $200B Valuation Club

xAI just announced the completion of a new $20 billion Series E funding round, valuing the company at over $200 billion, with Elon Musk's AI startup receiving backing from Nvidia, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, and others.

The reported $230 billion valuation puts xAI third among frontier AI labs, trailing Anthropic ($350 billion) and OpenAI ($500 billion) but far ahead of most competitors. The company is quickly scaling compute infrastructure in Memphis, with a third data center planned that would push total power capacity close to 2 gigawatts.

xAI also revealed that Grok 5 is currently in training, with plans to ship new products tying together the chatbot, X, and its Colossus supercomputer.

The AI funding wars show no signs of cooling, with xAI now joining OpenAI and Anthropic in the rarefied $200 billion-plus valuation club. Musk's unique advantage of owning both the AI and the distribution platform (X), alongside expanded Tesla and Optimus integrations, positions Grok for a potential major leap up the AI ladder.

When Nvidia backs your AI startup with billions, that's not just validation. That's the chip maker betting its customers' future on your success.

TODAY IN CRYPTO

Silicon Valley Is Building the Post-Phone Era

The average user touches their phone 2,617 times a day. For the top 10% of heavy users, that number doubles to 5,427 touches. We are walking around like zombies, necks bent at 45 degrees, developing what orthopedic surgeons call "text neck," a literal degeneration of the spine found in people under 30.

We are all slaves to the glowing rectangle and it is a massive business. Companies are projected to spend $835 billion in 2026 just to show you ads.

But in Silicon Valley, the smartest people in the room have decided that we are transitioning to a new era. They are building the cure, or are they?

The evidence is overwhelming. Meta shipped 4 million smart glasses in 2025. Google just dropped $150 million to build cool glasses with Warby Parker.

For 15 years, technology has demanded your eyes. Now, it wants to free your hands. We are entering the era of "ambient computing," where technology stops being a distraction you stare at and becomes a utility that floats in the air around you.

And Silicon Valley is fighting a blood sport to define what that looks like.

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Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

Damon James