Hi friends,

This week brought another wave of enormous AI funding rounds, new products and questions about who will earn a return on all that spending. Anthropic’s IPO preparations offered a glimpse into the economics of frontier AI, OpenAI reportedly moved closer to another $30 billion raise, and DeepSeek’s roughly $15 billion round underscored the global scale of the competition. Meanwhile, Claude Duet’s launch and OpenAI’s Google Cloud partnership showed how quickly the race is moving from model capabilities to customers and distribution.

For venture investors and founders, there’s a tension worth watching: It’s no longer just founders optimising for the next round. It’s VCs saying “will a Tier 1 want this at the A,” which is front-running a perceived mark, not partnering for business building, as Founders Fund's Micah Ronsenbloom noted.

In Israel, next week’s election is bringing thousands of citizens home from abroad to vote. Alongside that commitment to participation, this week’s #FIRGUN celebrates founders raising capital, completing acquisitions and continuing to build. I’m also launching IsraelVC Jobs, a new resource for discovering Israeli startups and exploring opportunities at their teams in Israel and internationally.

Let’s dive in!
Eze

Recent articles

Venture Capital in the Age of Consensus Capital is becoming more concentrated just as the ability to build is becoming more accessible. What does that mean for founders whose businesses don’t fit the mega-fund model? My take on why smaller funds and independent conviction still matter. Read article

Who Pays for the AI Boom? AI can change the world and still disappoint investors. Anthropic’s IPO preparations, enormous infrastructure commitments and concerns about neocloud debt raise a question: when does customer spending start carrying more of the weight? Read article

The Rise of the Inference Economy Some of the businesses emerging from the AI boom are focused on making models useful, reliable and economical to run. A look at the inference ecosystem, how it differs from renting GPUs, and where founders can build lasting value. Read article

Weekly #FIRGUN Newsletter This week’s roundup celebrates funding for Mave, Modelyo, High Lander and Two Delta, the acquisitions of Elementary Data and HexAI, and Vintage’s $920 million fundraise. Plus, Israel’s upcoming election and a packed week of global tech news. Read article

New: IsraelVC Jobs Looking for your next role, or know someone who is? I’ve launched a jobs page on IsraelVC that brings together recently funded Israeli companies and open roles where available, with links through to employers. Read article

Quote of the week

Chart of the week

​The inference ecosystem landscape - My updated map of the companies helping turn AI models into useful, deployable services.

Thanks for reading. If something here made you think of a founder, colleague or friend looking for their next opportunity, please forward it.

Shabbat shalom,
​Eze​
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