Top stories today:

1. Manus AI said to seek $500M valuation, 5x from previous round
2. CoreWeave cuts IPO size to $1.5B at $23B valuation
3. Signal downloads spike following accidental chat leak

0. Data and calendar

1. Manus AI said to seek $500M valuation, 5x from previous round

• Butterfly Effect reportedly met with U.S. investors for the funding.

• Mar.: Manus AI agent gained popularity after its beta launch.

• Tencent and HongShan led Butterfly Effect’s last round in 2024.

• $1M burned on Claude in 2 weeks by the Beijing startup.

• 2.6M+ users are currently on its waiting list.

• Tokyo office is in the plans — first office outside China.

2. CoreWeave cuts IPO size to $1.5B at $23B valuation

• 37.5M shares at $40 apiece is said to be the new IPO plan, down from the 49M shares at $47-$55 each planned earlier.

• NVIDIA is said to anchor the share sale with a ~$250M order.

• Fri.: CoreWeave stock is expected to start trading.

4. Signal downloads spike following accidental chat leak

• Climbed to #9 social media app in Yemen on Mon. from #50 earlier.

• Separately, Trump admin told to keep Signal chats on the Yemen strike by a U.S. judge.

• Tue.: American Oversight sued federal agencies involved in the Signal chat leak.

5. Kling 1.6 (Pro) dominates Artificial Analysis’ Image-to-Video leaderboard

• OpenAI’s Sora has underperformed compared to its rank on the Text-to-Video Leaderboard.

6. Facebook returns to its roots by introducing Friends Tab

• Posts from friends and family will appear on a dedicated news feed.

• Replacing the tab showing new friend requests and suggested friends.

• Available to the U.S. and Canada users initially.

• Sharp departure from influencer-led content delivery — common across social media platforms.

• No plans to stop adding recommended content to users’ feed, though.

7. Digital media surpasses television industry for 1st time in 2024

• 40% of Indians use smartphones (562M people, more than in the U.S. or the EU).

• Avg. 5 hours/day on mobile screens.

8. AppLovin shares -20%, record 1-day drop, after Muddy Waters issues short report

• Feb.: Fuzzy Panda and Culper Research published similar reports against AppLovin.

• The Bear Cave also issued a cautious piece against the developer-focused marketing company.

• 700%+ gained in AppLovin stock in 2024.

9. New York metro-area startup funding -39% YoY to $3B in Q1

• On track to be the lowest total of the past 5 quarters.

• ElevenLabs ($180M), Chestnut Carbon ($160M), and Character Biosciences ($93M) were the 3 big rounds in Q1.

New York metro-area startup funding was +23% to $21.3B in 2024

10. Foldable smartphone shipments +2.9% YoY in 2024, -4% estimated in 2025

11. Interesting videos, posts, and memes

11. Other headlines

AI

• Anthropic researchers reveal more details on how LLMs think.

• OpenAI’s viral Studio Ghibli moment highlights AI copyright concerns.

• Perplexity partners with Firmly AI to boost shopping features.

Tech

• Elon Musk pressured Reddit CEO to take down posts.

• TikTok Shop continues to expand in EU with uncertain U.S. future.

Tech & Law

• EU to limit Apple, Meta fines to avoid Trump backlash.

• SMIC under Taiwan probe for allegedly poaching chip talent.

Biotech

• SIRT6 gene therapy trial in dogs kicked off by Genflow.

Business

• China’s Xi woos global business leaders as Trump intensifies trade war.

• Canada’s Carney says nothing off table on tariff retaliation plans.

Crypto

• Q1 hacks reach $1.6B, led by Bybit’s $1.4B hack linked on North Korea.

• South Carolina dismisses staking lawsuit against Coinbase, joining Vermont.

U.S. politics

• Automakers warned by Trump not to increase prices in face of tariffs.

• Signal chats on Houthi attacks to be preserved, judge orders U.S. agencies.

• Ukraine pressured by Trump for more economic concessions.

• Robert Mueller’s former law firm targeted in latest Trump legal attack.

• Canada’s Carney says Trump’s office reached out to schedule call on tariffs.

World

• Israel provided intel for U.S. strike on Yemen mentioned in Signal chat.

• Houthis still fire back at Israel after Trump airstrikes.

• Philippines still has “ironclad” commitment from U.S.: Hegseth.

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