WHAT’S INSIDE

• Tech News: Debt Limit, Trump's G7, Palantir v Dems, Cyberwar On Iran

• Company Watch: Applied Intuition, Whatnot, Texas Instruments, Regencell

• Feature: How Surge’s Premium Labeling Wins in the Token Era

• Buzzy Tools: Latest Buzzy tech, AI and financial tools

• Deep Tech: The latest in deep tech, biotech, futurism and more

• Space Tech: Latest news in the space race and aerospace tech

• Crypto: Blockchain and crypto policy and startups or protocols to watch

TECH IN THE NEWS

Debt Limit Drama — Republicans propose a $5T debt limit increase while pushing tax cuts, raising concerns about fiscal responsibility as national debt approaches $37T.

Trump's G7 Proposal — Trump suggested reinstating Russia and possibly China at the G7 summit, arguing that their inclusion could have prevented the Ukraine war and emphasized the need for dialogue among world leaders.

Palantir Under Scrutiny — Ten Democratic lawmakers demand Palantir disclose details of its federal contracts, amid concerns about the Trump administration's use of its tech for data consolidation, potentially violating federal law.

Cyberwar On Iran — Iran faces a near-total internet blackout amid escalating conflict with Israel, with traffic down by 97% after major cyber-attacks by Israel, including $90M hacked from its largest crypto exchange.

AI Job Shake-Up — The Amazon CEO warns employees about potential job reductions due to AI advancements and urges them to enhance their skills.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH INBOUND

🚀 The Future of Innovation Happens at INBOUND 2025

The full INBOUND 2025 agenda is here!

Connect with AI pioneer Dario Amodei, tech reviewer Marques Brownlee, and creative powerhouse Amy Poehler at San Francisco's epicenter of tech advancement this September.

INBOUND 2025 brings you directly into the global headquarters of AI innovation for one time only, where you'll discover actionable frameworks for building authentic brands and scaling operations. Through exciting keynotes, breakout sessions, and strategic networking, you'll gain immediate access to the technologies reshaping marketing, sales, and business operations.

Explore the lineup and secure your spot.

Tokens Are the New Gold — And Surge AI Is Minting

Data Labeling startup Surge AI just quietly beat market leader Scale AI in the most important AI metric — token economics. Here's what investors need to know.

Tokens × Truth: Surge’s Premium Labeling Wins in the Token Era Era

If 2024 was the year of GPU stock frenzies, 2025 is all about token math. From OpenAI and Google to Microsoft and Coatue, the most important signal of AI demand is no longer compute spend — it’s tokens processed.

Token usage has become the atomic unit of AI economics, and in this new metric-driven market, Surge AI is winning by treating each token as a product, not a byproduct.

Surge Is Built for Precision Token Quality, Not Volume

Founded in 2020 by former Facebook researcher Edwin Chen, Surge AI has taken the road less traveled. Its platform is optimized for human-level nuance—not throughput. Rather than flood contracts with crowd labor, Surge uses curated experts to train models on RLHF, content moderation, and fine-grained NLP.

Every token they annotate carries weight. And margin.

While Scale AI processes over 13 billion annotations using a workforce of 240,000+ contractors across Kenya, Venezuela, and the Philippines, Surge has done more with less:

• 116 employees

• $25 million raised

• Over $1 billion in revenue

• Cash flow positive since 2022

Scale’s Meta-Crisis Moment

On paper, Scale AI is still the market leader. With a $29Bn valuation, $870 million revenue in 2024, and an anticipated $2Bn run rate in 2025, it’s a juggernaut. But its growth model is built on enterprise token throughput, not per-token precision.

The $14.3Bn Meta deal changed the dynamics. Founder Alexandr Wang joined Meta to lead a new AI division. In doing so, Scale lost both its CEO and its most valuable currency: vendor neutrality.

Google, once Scale’s largest customer, is walking away. So are Microsoft and as of yesterday, OpenAI. Together, they accounted for hundreds of millions in ARR.

The Token Economy Is Exploding

This isn’t just about data labeling. Token metrics are the new oil:

• Microsoft: over 100 trillion tokens in Q1 2025

• Google: over 480 trillion tokens in April alone

• Together AI: processing 24 trillion tokens annually, up 6× in nine months

• Coatue: declares “Tokens >> Tariffs” in its investor memo

• Humane (Saudi-backed): pitching “energy exports via AI tokens” as its next oil play

Tokens are revenue. Tokens are valuation logic. Tokens are the new atomic unit of adoption.

Two Models, One Future

Scale vs Surge by the Numbers

• Projected industry size: up to $30 billion by 2030

• Surge AI 2027 target: $50–100 million revenue

• Scale AI 2027 target: $3–5 billion, but may lose $200M from Google’s exit

Investor Takeaway

In a token-first world, value isn’t just about volume—it’s about relevance, accuracy, and trust.

• Scale AI still dominates in scale.

• Surge AI excels in margin and focus.

As the largest buyers of labeled data—Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI—retool their supply chains, expect capital to flow toward leaner, token-aligned providers like Surge.

The labeling wars are far from over. But the real winner? The token.

COMPANIES TO WATCH

[Open Deal] xAI — Elon Musk's AI venture is seeking $4.3B in equity funding after efforts to borrow $5B from debt investors as it faces funding shortages to sustain its operations and growth initiatives.

OpenAI — Secured a $200M contract with the DoD to develop AI for administrative and national security tasks. May strain its relationship with Microsoft, which holds significant government contracts

Meta — Meta is in advanced talks to hire Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, aiming to acquire a minority stake in their $1B venture fund to enhance Meta's AI capabilities.

Applied Intuition — The CA-based AI vehicle tech startup raised $600M, at a valuation of $15B from BlackRock and Kleiner Perkins, as it gears up for an IPO following robust growth and industry impact.

Whatnot — The livestream shopping app is projected to sell $6B by 2025 via the booming live-streamed commerce trend. Still unprofitable, but has secured substantial vc and ranks among the top U.S. shopping apps.

Texas Instruments — Plans to invest over $60B to expand U.S. manufacturing by building seven chip plants in Texas and Utah, creating 60,000 jobs. following Trump admin pressure.

Regencell Bioscience — The Hong Kong-based bioscience firm’s stock surged 60,000% YTD without generating revenue driven by a stock split and retail interest.

TerraPower — Bill Gates' nuclear energy startup raised $650M from various investors, bringing its total to $1.4B. It plans to construct a nuclear power plant in Wyoming to meet AI energy demands.

 SignalPulse — Read the Top signals, Startups + Deals From Last Week

TECH BUZZ DIRECTORY
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BUZZY TOOLS

Buzzy Tech Tools To Watch & Use

Adobe — LLM Optimizer boosts brand visibility, performance in AI searches.

OpenAI — "Record Mode" for ChatGPT Pro on iOS for transcription, summary.

Google — Search Live gets Gemini AI for voice-driven, real-time search.

MiniMax M1 — 1M-token context window LLM tops GPT-4o, DeepSeek R1.

Meta & Luxottica — Oakley, Prada AI smart glasses for athletes & high-fashion.

TikTok Symphony — Gen AI tools for creative video ads - Adobe, WPP integrations.

BUZZY TECH

The Latest Deep Technology & Trends To Watch

AI Writing Impact — LLMs reduce cognitive engagement, memory retention.

AI Government — World's first AI-led government on tiny island.

Sand Battery — World's largest sand battery stores 1,000 MWh heat.

Maven Clinic & Oura — Oura Rings for personalized women's health.

Yeztugo — FDA approves twice-yearly HIV prevention shot.

Photonic Chip — China achieves 2,560 TOPS at 50 GHz for AI + medical imaging.

CRYPTO WATCH

GENIUS Act Advances — The Senate passed the GENIUS Act with a 68-30 vote, setting consumer protections for stablecoins and enhancing U.S. crypto regulation. The bill faces a House battle over amendments.

Stablecoin Surge — Circle and Coinbase shares jumped 33% and 16% respectively, following the Senate's passing of the GENIUS Act. The act aims to provide regulatory clarity, potentially boosting the stablecoin market and attracting more investments.

Nobitex Hack — Iran's largest crypto exchange, lost at least $90M in a hack attributed to pro-Israel group Predatory Sparrow amid Israel-Iran military engagement.

Eyenovia HYPE — Eyenovia raised $50M to create the first US public company Hyperliquid “HYPE” treasury, purchasing over 1M tokens with HYPE at an all-time high of $44.86.

Hyperliquid Move — Lion Group Holding unveiled a $600M facility aimed at creating the largest Hyperliquid treasury, following Eyenovia's $50M investment.

Eigen Labs' EigenCloud — Launched with a $70M boost from a16z, it aims to enhance blockchain trust for Web2 and Web3 by offering tools for data, compute, and dispute resolution,.

SPACE_RACE

Mars Terraforming_SpaceX: Mars could support plants in 40 years.

Asteroid 2024 YR4_4.3% moon impact risk; potential satellite threat.

SpaceX Starship Explosion_Upper stage exploded during static fire test.

Shijian Satellites_Successful on-orbit refueling demo by China.

FOR INVESTORS
Open Deals
Investors– request an intro to startups - [email protected].

Before we restart our placements of raising startups, we’re sharing an open call to send in your own company. Just shoot us an email with a deck and we may feature you in this bulletin.

For detailed pitch materials, please email [email protected] with your deck.
🔥 — hot deal!
⏰ — leaving soon.

FOR EMPLOYERS
Job Candidates

Employers– request an intro to candidates - jobs@techbuzz.ai