32 VC Jobs & The Startup Capital of The World?

And just like that, the music stops, Daniel Ek, Founder and CEO of Spotify has decided to step down, and will become the Executive chairman the by end of the year. Replacing Daniel as co-CEOs are current co-Presidents Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström. The why is still unclear, but mentioning that he has two children might suggest it was time for him to spend some quality time. As sweet as that is, investors did NOT like the news with the stock dropping almost 7% on the news. Read More → TechCrunch

Electronic Arts has agreed to go private in what is the largest ever LBO, a record-breaking $55 billion with backers including Silver Lake, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners. Taking EA off the public markets as it doubles down on hit franchises like FC 26, Battlefield 6, and The SIMS franchise. For investors, the move signals confidence in gaming’s long-term cash flows; for players, it could reshape how one of the industry’s biggest publishers builds, markets, and bets on the future of interactive entertainment.

Read More → CNBC

Donald Trump has publicly demanded that Microsoft fire Lisa Monaco, its President of Global Affairs, claiming her past roles under Obama and Biden make her “unacceptable” in a position with access to sensitive information. Microsoft has stayed silent, and Monaco has not responded, leaving observers watching whether the company will resist political pressure or cave to demands that could set a precedent for corporate governance and free speech.

Legal and national security experts note that while Monaco’s security clearance was revoked earlier this year, forcing a private company to terminate a former government official raises thorny questions about politicization, talent flow between government and tech, and national security norms. Read More → TechCrunch

Anthropic is tripling its international workforce and expanding its applied AI team fivefold, driven by surging demand for its Claude models outside the U.S. Its revenue jumped from $1B to $5B in eight months, and the company now serves over 300,000 business customers. New offices in Tokyo, Dublin, London, and Zurich, plus a Microsoft Copilot partnership, signal a major global push. Read More → CNBC

🇦🇪 The UAE launched “The Emirates: The Startup Capital of the World” campaign to cement its position as a global entrepreneurship hub, aiming to train 10,000 Emirati entrepreneurs, support hundreds of startups across real estate, tax, and content creation, and create 30,000 jobs by 2030 — reinforcing SMEs’ role in driving over 60% of the nation’s non-oil GDP. Read More → Wamda

🇺🇸 Cerebras Systems raised $1.1B Series G co-led by Fidelity and Atreides at an $8.1B valuation to scale its AI inference services and U.S. data centers, a year after filing for IPO but remaining private.
Read More → Cerebras

🇬🇧 Notion Capital raised $130M Growth III fund to plug Europe’s growth-stage funding gap, nearly doubling its prior follow-on vehicle. The London-based VC will back both its existing portfolio and new startups with a focus on AI-infused application layers, defense, supply chain, fintech, SaaS, and healthcare tech. It aims to make ~12 growth investments, including recent bets in Upvest, Kraken Technology, and Nelly. Read More → Notion Capital

🇺🇸 AI recruiter Alex raised $17M Series A led by Peak XV (with backing from Y Combinator, CHROs at Fortune 500s, etc.) to automate early-stage candidate screening via autonomous voice & video interviews. The startup says its AI conducts thousands of interviews daily for big enterprises, freeing recruiters to focus on higher-value hiring tasks.

Alex plans to build richer professional profiles from conversational data—arguing 10 minutes of dialogue trumps static resumes or LinkedIn signals.. Read More → Techcrunch

🇰🇷 🇸🇦 Rebellions closed a $250M Series C at a $1.4B valuation, backed by Arm, Samsung Ventures, and others, to accelerate deployment of its AI inference chips across Saudi Arabia, Japan, and the U.S., while preparing to launch its next-gen REBEL-Quad chiplet accelerator for hyperscale data centers. Read More → Wamda