Top News | Rush of $1B+ startup exits in Q2: Crunchbase reports that startup exits valued at $1 billion or above were more consistent in Q2 2026 than any quarter since 2021. SpaceX, of course, enjoyed an opening day market cap in excess of $2.1 trillion with a T, raising around $75 billion and offering up “an enormous liquidity event” for founder Elon Musk. Not ALL the Q2 exits were on THAT LEVEL, of course, but the data also includes Cursor’s $60 billion (post-IPO) sale to SpaceX, Cerebras Systems’ public debut in May, quantum computing firm Quantinuum’s arrival on Nasdaq earlier this month, and others. We’re still seeing less overall M&A activity than during the peak frothiness of ‘21, but the deals coming through are significantly larger. And the industry is looking ahead to IPOs from Anthropic and OpenAI that could, at least in theory, also come close to that $1 trillion valuation milestone. Rocket Lab picks up Iridium network: The publicly traded aerospace company designed the Electron orbital rocket, used to launch and deploy small satellites, mostly into low Earth orbit. As of early 2026, they’d completed an impressive 75 total missions. This week, Rocket announced plans to acquire Iridium — which offers a satellite-based communications network to over 2.5 million global subscribers — for $8 billion. It’s a quick and easy way to slide into the same lucrative satellite communications market currently dominated by SpaceX’s Starlink (and providing that company with the bulk of its current revenue). As Rocket Lab CEO Sir Peter Beck notes, in addition to offering a consumer-facing product, Iridium is already “a trusted government provider.” Quantifind raises $200M round: The startup develops AI-powered software to help banks detect and combat financial crimes, particularly money laundering, using a combination of public and private data. WSJ describes it as “agentic middleware” that understands the nuances of money laundering-related laws and Know Your Customer regulations, helping banks and other institutions filter out the legit customers and enterprises from bad actors more effectively. (As CEO Ari Tuchman explains, “false positives” are a real problem for the industry, as “criminal activity within the financial markets looks very similar to good activity.”) Summit Partners led the new round, bringing Quantifind’s total funding to $300 million to date.
| TWiST 500 | Are our robot helpers destined to look like us, designed from the ground up to co-exist with humans and perform tasks capably in the world we’ve built for ourselves? Or are humanoids a distraction from more practical applications, stemming more from the tech industry’s fascination with sci-fi and pop culture rather than a practical understanding of the modern workspace? | Bloomberg once again wades into this seemingly endless debate in a profile of T500 mainstay Apptronik, the humanoid robotics firm operating right here in Austin, Texas (and spun out of UT’s Human-Centered Robotics Lab). | CEO Jeff Cardenas explains that, since his student days, he’s always been aiming to build a general purpose humanoid, even when he was working on the component level. He concedes, however, that the humanoid robotics industry is unlikely to have a “ChatGPT”-style breakout moment, when suddenly we’re engaging with clankers everywhere we go. It will more likely be a gradual ramp-up, allowing us to adjust to the presence of humanoid machines in our lives over time. | Bloomberg writer Joshua Brustein also got a chance to check out Robot Park, Apptronik’s testing and training ground, where bots monitor human workers in simulated workspace environments to glean physical training data. (He notes that the robots not only learn how to do a variety of basic jobs — like loading objects onto conveyor belts or packing boxes — but also pick up human mannerisms, like cocking their heads.) | In related news this week, two Chinese robotics startups — AI² Robotics and X Square — closed significant new funding rounds, valuing each of them at around $2.9 billion (20 billion yuan). AI² designs and produces autonomous robots trained entirely via simulation, using a proprietary Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model called GOVLA. They’ve also developed the AlphaBot 2 general purpose robot. | X Square as well built their own in-house VLA models, named Wall-A and Wall-B, and has a humanoid design of their very own. Quanta X2 stands around 5 feet 7 inches tall, and can carry a payload of around 13.2 pounds. It’s hands are also capable of detecting subtle changes in pressure, which the company hopes will give it more lifelike functionality and reactions. – Lon | A message from Agree | Stop chasing invoices and automate your entire contract-to-cash stack. Go to https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life! | This Week in Startups | E2305: Jason calls in from Hawaii for a new Friday TWiST, joined by co-host Lon and SKN Systems CEO Lyall Davenport. He’s designed a new kind of sensor tape that gathers aerodynamic data from cars in motion, at an incredible rate of 420M data points per hour. Find out how he hopes this tech can replace the old-fashioned wind tunnel simulators employed by racing companies like F1, along with future applications in defense, transportation, and beyond. Plus Jason’s thoughts on the government blocking OpenAI’s new models, why Apple’s Vision Pro chief defected, the growing data center backlash, and more. | E2304: Jason sits down with Brynn Putnam, CEO and founder of Board, to learn more about her company’s tabletop gaming console. The pair talks about how to raise capital for yet-to-launch hardware projects, the screen-time debate, and how Board is approaching building or buying IP for its family-friendly games. Next, Alex got Heremus’s AJ Piplica on the horn to chat hypersonic, autonomous jets. The startup’s technology bridges the gap between rockets and airplanes, and may represent the future of warfare, yes, but also fast freight! | E2303: Two fascinating new interviews with great founders on this Monday special. First up, Jason and Lon chat with Louis Phillips, the creator of Australia’s white-hot fitness app INTVL. The app gamifies your daily run, turning neighborhoods into “turf wars” that you win just by jogging around the block… until someone else doesn’t retrace your steps. Find out how Louis grew the project to over 1M users with zero paid ads. Then, Alice Zhang of Verge Labs stops by to discuss the startup’s recent name change and pivot, and how they managed to assemble one of the world’s largest proprietary brain tissue data sets. | TWiST Partner Offers | Shopify: Turn those What If’s into sales with the ecommerce platform powering millions of businesses. Sign up for your $1-per-month trial today at http://shopify.com/twist LinkedIn Jobs: Post your job for free at linkedIn.com/twist then promote it to get access to LinkedIn Jobs’ new AI assistant. Northwest Registered Agent: Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist.
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