Trump Administration unveils AI Action Plan: Focuses on deregulation and removing “red tape” for Silicon Valley, with $1.5 trillion in private commitments
Global VC funding hits new heights: AI startups captured 53% of all global venture capital in H1 2025, with Q2 reaching $91 billion
OpenAI expands cloud infrastructure: Quietly adds Google Cloud as provider alongside Microsoft, signaling scaling challenges
Enterprise AI adoption accelerates: Amazon announces “agentic AI” capabilities at AWS Summit for automating complex business processes
Top Stories
1. Trump Administration Releases Comprehensive AI Action Plan
The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled its AI action plan, a package of initiatives and policy recommendations meant to cement the United States as a global leader in a technology that’s expected to be as influential as the internet itself. The White House largely seeks to achieve that lofty, Silicon Valley-friendly goal through scaling back AI regulation.
Making American hardware and software the global “standard”
The plan also recommends that large language models procured by the federal government are “objective and free from top-down ideological bias”
According to the latest guidelines, federal agencies are instructed to remove any regulatory barriers hindering AI development. Additionally, when allocating federal funding, they will consider whether state-level regulations are unfavorable to AI.
2. AI Dominates Venture Capital Landscape
Record-Breaking H1 2025:
AI startups received 53% of all global venture capital dollars invested in the first half of 2025, according to new data from PitchBook. That percentage jumps to 64% in the U.S.
H1 2025 posted the strongest half-year for venture capital since the first half of 2022. A total of $205 billion was raised through mid-year, up 32% from H1 2024
More than a third of H1 funding — $70 billion — went to just 11 companies that raised rounds of $1 billion or more
Biggest Deals:
OpenAI, with a massive $40 billion funding round that puts its valuation at $300 billion
Meta invested $14.3 billion in ScaleAI in June 2025, acquiring a 49% non-voting stake and increasing the firm’s valuation to $29 billion
Thinking Machines Lab, the artificial intelligence startup launched and led by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, reportedly raised $2 billion at a $10 billion valuation
OpenAI said Wednesday that it expects to use Google’s cloud infrastructure for its popular ChatGPT artificial intelligence assistant. The reach for additional capacity aligns with OpenAI’s desire for more computing power to meet heavy demand after initially relying exclusively on Microsoft for cloud capacity.
By partnering with Google Cloud, OpenAI gains access to some of the most advanced AI hardware and data center infrastructure on Earth. Google, like Amazon and Microsoft, runs massive server farms that rent out computing power to other companies.
Provider Network:
OpenAI has added Google to a list of suppliers, specifying that ChatGPT and its application programming interface will use the Google Cloud Platform, as well as Microsoft, CoreWeave and Oracle
The Google infrastructure will run in the U.S., Japan, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom
4. Enterprise AI Transformation Accelerates
Amazon’s Agentic AI Launch: At the AWS Summit, Amazon introduced new “agentic AI” capabilities designed to automate complex, multi-step business processes. These AI agents can perform tasks across apps, respond to changing conditions, and make decisions with minimal human input.
Corporate AI Integration:
Amazon and Walmart are racing to integrate AI across logistics, pricing, and customer personalization to gain a retail edge
EY is deploying Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Copilot for Sales for the Oceania region to enhance productivity and collaboration, streamline processes and provide faster access to meaningful insights
5. AI’s Impact on Employment Becomes Clearer
According to the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Future of Jobs report, 41% of employers worldwide intend to reduce their workforce in the next five years due to AI automation.
Notable Trends:
Many companies are cutting roles in content, operations, customer service, and HR — functions where generative AI and agentic tools are increasingly capable — while messaging the corporate decisions as “efficiency” moves despite healthy balance sheets
Companies avoiding explicit AI attribution in layoffs to manage public perception
IBM and Klarna are among companies that have been transparent about AI replacing some human employee roles
Funding & Deals
Major Rounds This Week:
xAI: reportedly raised $10 billion in fresh debt and equity financing consisting of $5 billion in strategic equity investment, with the remainder of the capital obtained through term loans and secured notes
Thinking Machines Lab: $2 billion Series B (Mira Murati’s new venture)
Harvey (AI Legal Tech): $300 million Series D at $3 billion valuation
Abridge (Medical AI): Major funding round (amount undisclosed)
Notable Investors Active in 2025:
SoftBank (leading multiple mega-rounds)
Salesforce Ventures ($3.5B in Anthropic)
Lightspeed Venture Partners
General Catalyst
Sequoia Capital
Corporate Developments
Tech Giants’ AI Strategies:
Microsoft:
The fight between Microsoft and OpenAI over what Microsoft should get for its $13 billion investment in the AI company has gone from nasty to downright toxic, with each of the companies considering strategies against the other that can only be described as their nuclear options
Expanding Azure AI capabilities for enterprise customers
Google has introduced Veo 3, its most advanced AI video model yet, capable of generating 1080p cinematic clips with improved motion tracking and editing control
United States: investors poured $145 billion into seed through growth-stage rounds for U.S. and Canadian companies in the first six months of the year, per Crunchbase data. That’s a 43% gain year over year
Europe: Germany surpassed UK as top venture market for first time in a decade
Asia: Investment hit multi-year low in H1 2025, with China seeing significant decline
Latin America: Mexico topped Brazil in venture funding for first time since 2012
Looking Ahead
Key Trends to Watch:
Infrastructure Scaling: Major cloud providers competing to support AI workloads
Agentic AI Adoption: Enterprises deploying autonomous AI agents for complex tasks
Regulatory Landscape: Trump administration’s deregulation vs. state-level AI laws
Talent Wars: Big Tech competing aggressively for AI researchers
Energy Demands: AI’s growing computational needs driving renewable energy investments
Upcoming Events:
OpenAI DevDay 2025 (announced for later this year)
Multiple AI safety and governance conferences planned for Q3
Market Impact
AI-related stocks continue to outperform broader market
The second quarter was also a fairly happening period for startup exits, including both IPOs and M&A deals
M&A activity picking up with Google’s $32B acquisition of Wiz
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
