Tesla Faces New Federal Crash Probe

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Federal auto-safety regulators have opened a special crash investigation into a fatal Tesla Model 3 wreck near Houston after a driver allegedly using an automated driver-assistance system crashed into a home and killed a woman inside. The Wall Street Journal has more here. [Tesla is pushing back on the Tesla autopilot narrative. TechCrunch has more here.]

President Trump signed two executive orders aimed at accelerating U.S. quantum-computing development, including a 2028 target for a quantum computer powerful enough to conduct scientific research, while also moving up the government’s deadline for quantum-resistant security systems to 2031. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Ethan Thornton Is Trying to Do Everything All at Once

Image Credits: TechCrunch / StrictlyVC

By Connie Loizos

Ethan Thornton dropped out of MIT at 19 to build weapons. The first one, a hydrogen-powered system he prototyped with parts from Home Depot and Amazon, didn’t work out — “hydrogen was just a bad bet in general,” he told me this past week at TechCrunch’s StrictlyVC event in Los Angeles. Three years later, his company, Mach Industries, is running six weapons programs and earlier this month closed a $300 million Series C round at a $1.8 billion valuation. The startup has now raised roughly $485 million altogether.

Thornton grew up in Boerne, Texas, a town with roughly 25,000 residents, in a family with deep military ties. Around 2017 or 2018 — when he was still in his early teens — he started becoming, by his own account, “really, really concerned” about the rise of China and what he saw as an impending great-power conflict. That concern eventually sharpened into a conviction that unmanned systems were about to redefine warfare, and that the U.S. was moving too slowly to meet the moment.

What that looks like in practice, midway through 2026, is those six simultaneous weapons programs and a company that has a lot to prove instead of focusing on one thing, getting that right, and then expanding. Thornton is aware that Mach’s diffuse focus creates some lingering questions for outsiders. “It’s very hard,” he volunteered Thursday night. But he doesn’t think defense rewards the kind of single-minded focus that rocket launch, say, demands. “It is a chess game you’re playing with an adversary,” he said, “with hundreds of different products that need to be shipped if we want security.” Pick just one, he suggested, and you’ve already lost the game.

These aren’t simple products. Mach is working on a vertical-takeoff strike aircraft, a long-range anti-ship missile, two stratospheric systems, a cheap surface-to-air interceptor built to kill drones, and — announced earlier this week — a 40-foot, roughly 4,000-pound Navy logistics-and-strike aircraft that takes off near-vertically and flies over a thousand miles with a thousand-pound payload.

That last one is a real jump for a company whose biggest aircraft to date has been about 13 feet long. And none of the six is in full-rate production yet. Thornton says Mach has won around 13 government contracts, most sitting in the middle stage of defense procurement — past initial design, into testing on a government range, but short of the rate-manufacturing tier that fewer than 10 programs industrywide have ever reached.

Massive Fundings

A24, the 14-year-old New York indie film studio behind Everything Everywhere All At Once and Backrooms, received a $75 million investment from Google DeepMind as part of a partnership to develop AI tools for filmmaking. TechCrunch has more here.

AppsFlyer, a 15-year-old San Francisco company that provides marketing analytics software for tracking which digital ads drive app downloads and purchases, secured a $1+ billion Series E round at a $2.7 billion post-money valuation, according to Axios. Investors reportedly include Moloco, Google, Meta, and Unity. The company has raised a total of $1.3 billion. Crunchbase News has more here.

Bionyra Pharma, a one-year-old Paris startup that develops monoclonal and bispecific antibodies targeting immune pathways to treat inflammatory diseases such as atopic dermatitis and inflammatory bowel disease, raised a $165 million Series A round co-led by Jeito Capital and Sofinnova Partners, with Arkin Bio, Sanofi Ventures, Sixty Degree Capital, Vives Partners, and Apollo Health Ventures also participating. More here.

Castelion, a three-year-old startup based in Torrance, CA, that makes hypersonic missiles, is reportedly in the market to raise a round at a $12+ billion valuation. The Information has more here.

CRED, an eight-year-old Indian startup that provides credit-card payments, rewards, lending, insurance, and wealth products, secured a $900 million Meta-led financing through a mix of primary and secondary share purchases at a $4.5 billion post-money valuation. Founder Kunal Shah will step down as CEO to lead WhatsApp, with Miten Sampat taking over as interim CEO. TechCrunch has more here.

Fomo, a one-year-old New York startup that provides a mobile app for retail users to trade cryptocurrencies and manage digital asset portfolios, raised a $75 million Series B round at a $550 million valuation. The deal was led by Index Ventures, with Union Square Ventures as well as previous investor Benchmark also investing. The company has raised a total of approximately $94 million. The Block has more here.

Groq, a decade-old company based in San Jose, CA, that provides cloud infrastructure for running AI inference, raised a $650 million round co-led by Disruptive and Infinitum at an undisclosed valuation. The company was last valued at $6.9 billion and has recently pivoted toward its neocloud business after Nvidia licensed its language processing technology and hired away several senior leaders. TechCrunch has more here.

Nearfield Instruments, a 10-year-old Rotterdam company that makes chip inspection equipment that helps semiconductor manufacturers measure tiny 3D structures on wafers, find defects during production, and improve yields for advanced AI chips, raised a $380 million Series D round at a $1.6 billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by Fidelity, with Temasek, Walden Catalyst Ventures, Innovation Industries, M&G, Invest-NL, QIA, TNO Ventures, and ING also engaging. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Nura Bio, an eight-year-old startup based in South San Francisco, CA, that is developing neuroprotective small-molecule drugs for neurological diseases, including SARM1 inhibitors being tested in ALS patients, raised a $73.8 million Series B round led by The Column Group and including Euclidean Capital, Samsara BioCapital, and Sanofi Ventures. The Pharma Letter has more here.

Upscale AI, a one-year-old startup based in Santa Clara, CA, that builds networking infrastructure that connects accelerators, memory, and storage across large AI clusters to reduce latency and improve hardware utilization for cloud providers, raised a $190 million Series A round at a $2 billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by Premji Invest, with Nvidia, Salesforce Ventures, Seligman Ventures, and Temasek as well as previous investors Maverick Silicon, Mayfield, Prosperity7 Ventures, StepStone Group, and Tiger Global also piling on. The company has raised a total of $500 million. More here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

American Perpetuals Exchange, a recently founded New York startup that plans to operate a regulated U.S. exchange for perpetual futures, raised a $30 million round. Lux Capital was the deal lead at a $300 million valuation, according to Fortune. The Block has more here.

Cuprum Metals, a three-year-old startup based in Boulder City, NV, that is developing water-based chemical leaching processes to recover copper from sulfide and oxide ores and mine tailings for mining operations, raised a $19.4 million Series A round led by Lundin Family Office, with Woodline Partners and BHP Ventures also taking part. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Isometric, a four-year-old London startup that verifies carbon removal and other industrial certifications by using AI to check sensor data, satellite images, supply-chain records, and lab results, reducing review times from months to hours, raised a $40 million Series A round. AVP was the deal lead, with John Doerr and Walter Kortschak as well as previous investors Plural and Lowercarbon Capital also stepping up. Tech Funding News has more here.

Prosper AI, a three-year-old New York startup that deploys voice-based AI agents to handle patient scheduling, insurance verification, billing, and intake workflows for healthcare providers and health systems, raised a $30 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Base10 as well as previous investors Emergence Capital, Y Combinator, and Company Ventures also stepping up. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Superlight, a 10-year-old UK company that develops purpose-built electric trucks for middle-mile logistics operators to transport goods between distribution centers more efficiently and at lower operating cost, raised a $21 million Series A round co-led by Engine Ventures and 2150. The company has raised a total of $33 million. More here.

Smaller Fundings

Channel Robotics, a three-year-old startup based in Del Mar, CA, that is building a handheld robotic system that adds dexterity to flexible endoscopes, enabling physicians to perform advanced minimally invasive procedures without large robotic systems, raised a $2.5 million "seed+" round led by True Ventures. The company has raised a total of $4.6 million. Pulse 2.0 has more here.