Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
America’s Top Venture Capital Firms | TIME
To spotlight the names molding the business landscape, TIME and Statista ranked 350 VC firms at the forefront of catalyzing innovation, supporting emerging startups, and driving the next generation of economic growth. These firms provide direct venture capital funding to companies and startups in various venture stages and sectors as a core part of their business model, and have been ranked based on their fundraising strength in the last five years, their investment capacity, as well as the volume and efficiency of their exits through IPOs and acquisitions.
Lutnick: Intel must give government equity in return for CHIPS funds
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday that Intel must give the U.S. government an equity stake in the company in return for CHIPS Act funds.
Oregon Man Charged in ‘Rapper Bot’ DDoS Service – Krebs on Security
A 22-year-old Oregon man has been arrested on suspicion of operating “Rapper Bot,” a massive botnet used to power a service for launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against targets — including a March 2025 DDoS that knocked Twitter/X offline. The Justice Department asserts the suspect and an unidentified co-conspirator rented out the botnet to online extortionists, and tried to stay off the radar of law enforcement by ensuring that their botnet was never pointed at KrebsOnSecurity.
Intel Foundry Demonstrates First Arm-Based Chip On 18A Node
Why is Intel manufacturing an Arm SoC as a reference platform? Probably because it’s trying to attract external customers, and there’s a whole lot more companies building Arm SoCs than there are firms pitching x86-64 processors. That’s by design, of course, but regardless, it is the case. By making such a chip, Intel is effectively saying “Hey, we can make Arm chips!”
Flow-battery maker ESS shows signs of life – Portland Business Journal
With ESS shares still severely depressed, it’s dilutive fund-raising. But along with deep cost-cutting, including extensive layoffs, it’s helping ESS stay afloat as it focuses on the new Energy Base.
Making it easier than ever – Graze
We’ve rolled out an enormous improvement to helping people get started with custom feeds. Introducing our Simple Editor!
AI could save firms nearly $1 trillion a year, per Morgan Stanley
Fully adopting artificial intelligence could save corporate America $920 billion annually, new Morgan Stanley data finds, cost savings that could come from employing a lot fewer people.
Not all schools teach about AI. This camp wants to close the gap : NPR
“In Oregon, I had to evacuate my home in 2020 due to the Beachie Creek fires that happened, and I’m really interested in seeing how AI can be used to solve problems like that,” he says.
The World Is Burning, But Want to Meet Up for Thirty-Four-Dollar Cocktails? – McSweeney’s Internet Tendency
Did I mention it’s a rooftop? It looks directly into several beige office buildings, but we’ll still feel like we’re on top of the world. Plus, it’ll give us some peace from the street-level chaos and dumpster fires, you know? Nothing makes me want to drink a fancy aesthetic cocktail more than what’s happening right now.
Coffee prices were already soaring. Here comes Trump’s tariffs – oregonlive.com
“I think if coffee prices keep going up, there’ll be a point where I switch to tea and have coffee as a treat,” said Rich, one of more than a dozen coffee drinkers The Oregonian/OregonLive interviewed in recent days.
More Oregon — and Vancouver, Washington — startup stories
