Hey friends, welcome to What’s the Deal? Your weekly roundup of those “need to know” stories in tech, startups, and capital markets. With the latest deals front and center, of course.

This week, we’re featuring some crazy startups, such as Reliable Robotics, where they’re making self-flying planes, and Neurable, who’s building everyday mind-reading technology.

We also have huge deals this week, including a military drone startup, a blocked Big Tech acquisition, and a mega pharma move by Eli Lilly.

Whether you’re on your lunch break or just need a news break, dive in below!

Speed Drones - Defense startup Firestorm Labs has raised $82M to scale their cargo box-sized factories that can produce customizable drones near military front lines in under 24 hours

Blocked Deal - China blocked Meta’s acquisition of Manus—a Singapore-based AI startup building autonomous “agent” software—escalating U.S.-China AI tensions

Hollywood Merge - Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery have approved a $110B merger with Paramount Skydance —which is still pending regulatory approval

Pharma - Eli Lilly is spending up to $2.3B to acquire Ajax Therapeutics—betting big on an experimental blood cancer drug that’s still early

Air Autonomy - Reliable Robotics, a startup building software to fully automate aircrafts, has raised $160M to scale its system and aims to launch autonomous cargo flights by 2026

Vision Tech - Ray Therapeutics, a biotech developing vision-restoring gene therapies, just raised $125M Series B to advance their late-stage clinical trials for blindness treatments

Musk’s Lawsuit - Elon Musk is suing OpenAI, arguing that their shift from a nonprofit to a for-profit model betrays their original mission

Military AI - Google has given the U.S. Department of Defense broad access to its AI for classified use

Vine Reboot - Divine, a Vine reboot backed by Jack Dorsey, has launched on app stores with limited access, along with a full-access website featuring hundreds of thousands of restored Vines

AI Homescreen - Signull Labs is developing Skye, an AI-powered iPhone homescreen that delivers personalized assistance and, despite private testing, has over 300,000 users on their waitlist

AI Messaging - Shapes, a fast-growing startup building AI group chats, is turning text conversations into AI-powered hangouts, where bots jump in unprompted

Mind Reading AI - Neurable, a Boston-based startup building non-invasive brain-computer tech, is pushing “mind-reading” into everyday devices by licensing its AI-powered brain-sensing platform to wearables

AI Hype vs Reality - AI startups are pouring money into flashy NYC offices to signal growth and attract talent—but many of those spaces are sitting empty

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