The European Union has fined Apple $2 billion for stifling the growth of competing music services -- one of the largest anti-trust penalties to date. “The fine we impose today reflects both Apple’s financial power and the harm that Apple’s conduct inflicted on millions of European users,” EU's competition chief said.

Anthropic is claiming that its new chatbot beats OpenAI's ChatGPT. TechCrunch has more here. 

Twitter's former CEO, CFO, and Chief Legal Officer are suing Elon Musk and X over unpaid severance. “This is the Musk playbook: to keep the money he owes other people, and force them to sue him,” they allege.

Data can help firms identify promising opportunities faster, execute deals more efficiently, and optimize internal operations. But, teams need the right technologies in place to achieve these outcomes. Download Affinity's playbook to find out why data is critical to the success of the modern GP and find out how you can provide your team with more time and deeper insights.

Mews, a 12-year-old Amsterdam startup that has designed a cloud-based management software platform for hotels and hostels that is designed to streamline operations, bookings, and guest experiences, raised a $110 million round at a $1.2 billion valuation. The deal lead was Kinnevik, with Revaia, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Notion Capital, and new investor LGVP also contributing. TechCrunch has more here.

Razor Group, a four-year-old Berlin startup that acquires and scales online businesses, particularly those selling on platforms like Amazon, acquired competitor Perch and raised a $100+ million led by Presight Capital at a $1.7 billion valuation. Razor and Perch share common investors with Thrasio, which went bankrupt last week. TechCrunch has more here.

Anthro Energy, a four-year-old startup based in San Jose, Ca., that is focused on developing safer and more flexible lithium-ion batteries, particularly for use in wearable electronics and portable devices, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Collaborative Fund, with additional participation from previous investors Union Square Ventures, Emerson Collective, Voyager Ventures, Energy Revolution Ventures, Ultratech Capital Partners, Nor’easter Ventures, and Overlap Holdings. More here.

Baseten, a five-year-old San Francisco startup whose platform enables developers to build and deploy AI applications, raised a $40 million Series B round. IVP and Spark Capital were the co-leads, with previous investors Greylock, South Park Commons, Lachy Groom, and Base Case also taking part. Forbes has more here.

Healthee, a six-year-old New York startup that has built a platform to help employees to understand and utilize their health benefits more effectively, raised a $32 million Series A round. Fin Capital, Glilot Capital Partners, and Group11 co-led the deal, with TriNet also joining in. MobiHealthNews has more here.

MoeGo, a five-year-old Los Angeles startup whose software helps pet grooming businesses with appointment scheduling, customer management, and service tracking, raised a $24 million Series A round. Base10 Partners was the lead, with Digitalis Ventures, Conductive Ventures, and Uphonest Capital also stepping up. More here.

Phagenesis, a 17-year-old company based in Manchester, England, that has developed a non-invasive device designed to rehabilitate swallowing functions for patients with dysphagia, raised a $42 million Series D round. EQT Life Sciences and Sectoral co-led the investment, with British Patient Capital, Northern Gritstone, and Aphelion also participating. Sifted has more here.

Synctera, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that connects fintechs with banks to streamline the offering of financial services through apps, raised a $18.6 million Series A extension. The deal was co-led by Lightspeed and Fin Capital, with Banco Popular and Mana Ventures as well as previous investors NAventures and Diagram also pitching in. FinTech Global has more here.

Topsort, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that offers auction-based advertising services for e-commerce platforms, allowing these platforms to monetize their site traffic by letting advertisers bid for ad placements, raised a $20 million Series A round at a $150 million valuation. Upload Ventures led the transaction, while previous investors Quiet Capital and Pear Ventures also opted in. TechCrunch has more here.

Esper, an Australian startup that is launching a satellite to provide hyperspectral imaging of Earth for applications in agriculture, mining, and environmental monitoring, raised $1 million from Stellar Ventures, Day One Ventures, and Dolby Family Ventures and secured grants from Alexis Ohanian’s 776 Foundation and the Australian Federal Government. TechCrunch has more here. 

Kismet, a two-year-old Melbourne startup that connects caregivers with health insurance companies and health care professionals in order to improve the coordination of healthcare, raised an $8.2 million seed round. Prosus Ventures and Airtree Ventures co-led the transaction. The company has raised a total of $10.8 million. Tech Funding News has more here.

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Commerce Ventures, a San Francisco-based firm that focuses on investing in seed and Series A startups in areas like fintech, payments, insurance, and retail technology, has closed its fifth fund, raising more than $150 million. Fortune has more here. 

A seven-year-old specialist investor, Cibus Capital, has announced the close of its second mid-market private equity fund, Cibus Fund II, with more than $510 million in commitments. The firm says it also closed its second venture fund, Cibus Enterprise Fund II, with over $135 million in commitments. Ag Funder News has more here.

Just days after the bankruptcy of Thrasio, two other significant players in the world of e-commerce aggregators are merging and raising some extra money to shore up their business, reports TechCrunch. Berlin’s Razor Group has acquired U.S.-based Perch, and on top of this, it has raised just over $100 million led by Presight Capital with other undisclosed investors participating.

Signal's president, Meredith Whittaker, spoke at StrictlyVC's Los Angeles event last week about how Signal "turned [its] architecture inside out" in order to allow users to communicate without sharing their phone numbers. She also criticized government efforts to water down encryption as "parochial, magical thinking." TechCrunch has more here and here.

Sam Blond, formerly a partner at Founders Fund, is returning to his roots as an operator after just 18 months at the firm. Founders Fund just recently parted ways with Keith Rabois, who is now back at Khosla Ventures. 

Google cofounder and Gemini "core contributor" Sergey Brin said Google "definitely messed up on [Gemini's] image generation." 

Marc Andreessen says OpenAI is the "security equivalent of swiss cheese" and a tempting target for Chinese espionage

Is Sam Altman trolling Elon Musk?

Jeff Bezos is once again the world's richest person.

Melio, an Israeli fintech that raised a $250 million round at a $4 billion valuation in September of 2021, is laying off 7% of its workforce or approximately 40 employees. CTech has more here. 

A patchwork of local regulations are challenging Apple's control over its own App Store. 

China is offering AI computing "vouchers" to its startups, as the country’s tech giants hog AI-training computing resources already squeezed by US chip restrictions.

Airbnb has a new label for its top (and its worst) listings.

Dune: Part Two is Silicon Valley's latest obsession. 

Clippy is making a comeback.

A car thief was arrested this weekend for trying to steal a self-driving Waymo taxi.

Behind the scenes of Netflix's hit F1 reality show Drive to Survive. 

And speaking of Formula One, don't know which driver you should you root for? Take this quiz.

Apparently almost 3,000 people have pre-ordered this $300,000 flying car, making it "the best-selling aircraft in history, more than Boeing, Airbus, Joby Aviation, and most of the eVTOLs [electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles] combined," insists the company's CEO.