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When Will Today's AI Become Plain-Old Technology?
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By Matthew Strozier, WSJ Pro
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Good day. Where would venture capital be without AI startups?
In the second quarter, there were five artificial intelligence deals over $1 billion in the U.S., according to the latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor First Look. For the first half of 2025, AI accounted for nearly 36% of the venture deal count and almost two-thirds of the total deal value in the U.S.
Andy McLoughlin, managing partner at Uncork Capital, has pointed out that AI is becoming “a fabric of how everything gets built,” making it more of an infrastructure layer than a standalone category. In a few years, he said, we likely won’t talk about “AI startups” at all.
This got me thinking about a perspective Sequoia Capital Partner Konstantine Buhler published in July 2023 about AI and the frontier paradox. It was a moment when large language models were dazzling users and setting off a tidal wave of investment and entrepreneurial activity.
Buhler wrote that the frontier paradox means AI will “perpetually refer to aspirational approaches, while technology will refer to what can be put to work today.” For example, once LLMs reach 99% accuracy, “they will no longer be AI, they will be ‘language interfaces’ or simply LLMs.” This cycle has repeated throughout the history of AI, he added.
Buhler reiterated that point in an email to me last week.
“Soon after any type of artificial intelligence becomes reliable and mainstream, people simply refer to it as technology—not AI,” he said. “We once considered spam filters, handwriting detection, speech recognition, chess engines, and autocorrect as AI—now that we're used to those systems, they're just software.”
So the advancements we now consider AI might dominate venture capital for years to come. But we might call them something else.
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And now on to the news...
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Electroflow says its electrochemical cell can, in a single step, get a battery-grade lithium chemical from brine. With two more steps, it can turn that into a cathode material, the startup says. PHOTO: ELECTROFLOW TECHNOLOGIES
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Battery tech. The next big thing in the production of battery minerals? Batteries. That is the hope of Eric McShane and Evan Gardner, co-founders of Electroflow Technologies, a Burlingame, Calif.-based startup that wants to use battery cathodes to capture lithium ions directly from salty water, WSJ Pro reports.
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Electroflow raised $2.8 million in a pre-seed round last September, backed by Fifty Years, Harpoon Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Fellows and angel investor Leonardo Banchik. The fledgling company is preparing to add to that initial funding, readying a seed round for mid-July in which it aims to raise roughly $8 million.
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Fifty Years—which led the pre-seed—backed the startup after seeing how its cell handled brines with low concentrations of lithium, said partner Alex Teng. He said Fifty Years plans to support the next raise.
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75
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The number of EV models on sale in the U.S. this year, up from fewer than 20 on offer in 2020.
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Meta Offers to Buy Stake in Venture Funds Started by AI Hires Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross
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Meta Platforms is offering to buy a minority stake in funds of the venture firm founded by two of its key artificial intelligence recruits, giving limited partners in the funds a chance for a quick payday, WSJ Pro reports. Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross helmed NFDG, a venture firm they created a few years ago, before agreeing to join Meta. As they step back from NFDG, Meta is proposing to buy out a minority stake in its funds from limited partners via a tender offer, according to people familiar with the situation. A Meta representative declined to comment on the fund details.
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The Companies Betting They Can Profit From Google Search’s Demise
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A new crop of startups are betting on the rapid demise of traditional Google search. At least a dozen new companies are pouring millions of dollars into software meant to help brands prepare for a world in which customers no longer browse the web and instead rely on ChatGPT, Perplexity and other artificial-intelligence chatbots to do it for them, The Wall Street Journal reports. The startups are developing tools to help businesses understand how AI chatbots gather information and learn how to steer them toward brands so that they appear in AI searches. Call it the search-engine optimization of the next chapter of the internet.
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Funds
Japan-focused biotech investor AN Venture Partners held the final close of its inaugural fund, achieving its $200 million target.
Nordic venture firm Alliance VC held the first €40 million close of its Alliance Nordic III fund, which has a target of €100 million.
People
BBG Ventures promoted Claire Biernacki to partner. She joined the firm in 2020.
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Talon.One, a Berlin-based provider of enterprise loyalty and promotion software, scored a $135 million investment. Silversmith Capital Partners and Meritech Capital co-led the financing, which included participation from CRV.
Savvy Wealth, a New York-based digital-first platform for financial advisors, closed a $72 million Series B round led by Industry Ventures. Vestigo Ventures also participated in the funding, with Mark Casady joining Savvy’s board.
Hived, a London-based AI-powered parcel delivery startup, raised $42 million in Series B funding led by NordicNinja.
Syntis Bio, a Boston-based startup developing oral therapies for obesity, diabetes and rare diseases, completed a $33 million Series A round. Cerberus Ventures led the investment, with Chenny Zhang joining the board.
Feliqs, a Japan-based startup developing treatments for rare pediatric retinal diseases, secured $9 million in Series A financing from investors including Beyond Next Ventures.
Nordic Air Defence, Stockholm-headquartered defence technology startup, added $3 million in new funding led by Inflection.
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Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, which presents the Grammy Awards. PHOTO: JENNELLE FONG
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