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Some startups accrued value at lightning speed this week, and we got confirmation that defense tech is red hot.
Most interesting startup stories from the week
Image Credits:Kelly Sullivan / Getty Images
Many startup stories this week occurred in Y Combinator’s orbit in some way. Also, Israel once again lived up to its “Start-Up Nation” reputation.
That was fast: No-code website-building platform Wix acquired 6-month-old, bootstrapped vibe-coding startup Base44 — both Israeli companies — for $80 million in cash.
That was fast, too: In just three months, Ramp’s valuation jumped to $16 billion following its Series E, up from $13 billion when the spend management startup did a secondary sale earlier this year.
Friends and foes: New details emerged on Meta’s $14.3 billion deal to acquire 49% of startup Scale AI, including a potential dividend payout. We also learned that OpenAI was dropping Scale AI as a data provider following the deal.
Frenemies: The U.S. Department of Defense awarded a contract worth up to $200 million directly to OpenAI, which could further strain the startup’s relationship with Microsoft.
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