Bob McGrew, OpenAI's former research chief and a longtime Palantir engineering lead, has raised $230 million for his manufacturing startup Arda at a $1.5 billion valuation. The round was led by Altimeter Capital, Accel and Khosla Ventures, and Arda's AI software is already deployed with defense tech company Anduril. McGrew describes the product as an AI assistant for manufacturing engineers, similar to coding tools like Claude or Cursor but aimed at speeding up assembly-line changes.
cnbc.com
· 2026-10-20
New Pew data hosted by the Association of Religion Data Archives shows how comfortable Americans feel discussing mental health with various people in their lives, revealing that many lack a trusted confidant such as a spouse, friend, or coworker. The analysis was prompted by a viral video of a stranger stopping to comfort a distressed man walking alone on a road. The findings highlight how isolated many people feel when facing personal struggles.
graphsaboutreligion.com
· 2026-09-10
Spanish entrepreneur Alvaro Gellings shared at the OOAK Mastermind conference in Italy how he built rapid-growth companies by partnering with online creators instead of relying solely on paid advertising. After selling a gaming company built on ad spend, a chance conversation with a Twitch streamer convinced him that audience reach itself had commercial value, leading him to co-found fashion label Ama Studios with German influencers Trymacs and Amar, which generated about $1.4 million in sales within its first launch hour in 2021. He later applied the same model to a 2024 sportswear venture, Day One, with athlete Arda Saatçi.
entrepreneur.com
· 2026-09-02
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