At $2.2T this should make Founders Fund’s investment at $200M valuation the best venture investment in history:

The vibes in SF feel pretty frenetic right now. The divide in outcomes is the worst I've ever seen. Over the last 5yrs, a group of ~10k people - employees at Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Nvidia, Meta TBD, founders - have hit retirement wealth of well above $20M (back of the envelope AI estimation). Everyone outside that group feels like they can work their well-paying (but <$500k) job for their whole life and never get there. Worse yet, layoffs are in full swing. Many software engineers feel like their life's skill is no longer useful. The day to day role of most jobs has changed overnight with AI. As a result, 1. The corporate ladder looks like the wrong building to climb. Everyone's trying to align with a new set of career "paths": should I be a founder? Is it too late to join Anthropic / OpenAI? should I get into AI? what company stock will 10x next? People are demanding higher salaries and switching jobs more and more. 2. There’s a deep malaise about work (and its future). Why even work at all for “peanuts”? Will my job even exist in a few years? Many feel helpless. You hear the “permanent underclass” conversation a lot, esp from young people. It's hard to focus on doing good work when you think "man, if I joined Anthropic 2yrs ago, I could retire" 3. The mid to late middle managers feel paralyzed. Many have families and don't feel like they have the energy or network to just "start a company". They don't particularly have any AI skills. They see the writing on the wall: middle management is being hollowed out in many companies. 4. The rich aren’t particularly happy either. No one is shedding tears for them (and rightfully so). But those who have "made it" experience a profound lack of purpose too. Some have gone from <$150k to >$50M in a few years with no ramp. It flips your life plans upside down. For some, comparison is the thief of joy. For some, they escape to NYC to "live life". For others still, they start companies "just cuz", often to win status points. They never imagined that by age 30, they'd be set. I once asked a post-economic founder friend why they didn't just sell the co and they said "and do what? right now, everyone wants to talk to me. if i sell, I will only have money." I understand that many reading this scoff at the champagne problems of the valley. Society is warped in this tech bubble. What is often well-off anywhere else in the world is bang average here. Unlike many other places, tenure, intelligence and hard work can be loosely correlated with outcomes in the Bay. Living through a societally transformative gold rush in that environment can be paralyzing. "Am I in the right place? Should I move? Is there time still left? Am I gonna make it?" It psychologically torments many who have moved here in search of "success". Ironically, a frequent side effect of this torment is to spin up the very products making everyone rich in hopes that you too can vibecode your path to economic enlightenment.

Our Stage 1 structure is now shipped, delivered, and ready for testing in Moses Lake, WA. Standing in its full vertical orientation, this flight hardware will be thoroughly vetted before returning to Kent for some final touches before the journey to Cape Canaveral, FL begins.

Just visited the @LongJourneyVC House! Wrapped Tefillin with their amazing and proudly Jewish founder @LeeJacobs. Their latest fund raised $181,818,181.80 to back what they call “magically weird” founders and support “life and creation.” And no, all the 18s aren’t random. In Jewish tradition and numerology, 18 represents “chai” meaning life. A beautiful way to build a fund centered around creation, optimism, and backing builders shaping the future.

We are honored to see our work with @googledeepmind's AlphaEvolve featured alongside major breakthroughs from @googleresearch and @googlecloud, as well as other impactful commercial applications.

Magrathea Metals (@magratheametals) just raised a $24M Series A. Total backing is now over $100M. The company is rebuilding American magnesium production, a hidden material layer underneath aircraft, aluminum alloys, defense systems, and the broader industrial base.

Stoked to announce our $16m Series A led by Healthier Capital. This team made it possible. I wrote some thoughts about what growth means to me. Read below.

Mankind has always been at the mercy of the weather. No longer. Rainmaker is the first company in history to routinely, unambiguously, modify the weather. Last quarter, we produced >143MM gallons of unambiguously man-made precipitation. Here’s how we do it 🧵

Shabbat in SF ! thanks @LeeJacobs & Becca for hosting us, and check out isravalley.com if you wanna join the next one :) שבת שלום 🫶

I have a personal update to share. I have taken a new role as head of research at @arcee_ai . I have been constantly so impressed with the talent density, determination, and drive of the Arcee team and I am delighted to join forces to help shape and deliver their vision for open source frontier models. The fastest progress in AI happens in the open. When models are accessible, iteration compounds, and entirely new categories of products become possible. The decision to leave @datologyai was a difficult one. I still believe in their vision and incredibly talented group of people that have pushing the frontier of what is possible in data curation. I was personally motivated by being back directly involved in releasing and deploying models that people and companies use everyday to solve problems. This is what I love to do. BTW we are hiring. If you want to be part of a cracked small team making fantastic open weight American models dm me!

Definitely come to this if you are curious about consciousness

We're excited to announce that Sierra has acquired Paris-based Fragment, which helps businesses scale their operations using AI. Fragment's cofounders are passionate about building better, more human customer experiences with AI, and bring valuable strength to our agent development efforts in France.

30B -> 300T tokens per month YoY @togethercompute