Good day. New artificial intelligence tools are tackling a growing list of complex tasks: coding, drug discovery, financial analysis, legal reviews. Now add one more: reading construction drawings.

The startup Primepoint Labs has closed a $10 million seed round to advance an AI platform that interprets and connects construction documents. The round closed in two parts, the most recent in December, and was co-led by Navitas Capital, Penny Jar Capital and NextView Ventures. AI pioneer Yann LeCun, executive chairman at Advanced Machine Intelligence and former chief AI scientist at Meta Platforms, was among the investors participating.

“Until recently, AI couldn’t really move the needle in construction,” said Lubomir Bourdev, co-founder and chief executive of Primepoint. “Problems that construction is impeded by are things that AI couldn’t understand until recently, but LLMs [large language models] and technology that we’re building will start to make a big difference.”

Bourdev and Hamid Palo co-founded the San Mateo-based company in 2024. Years earlier, Bourdev was a founding member of what is now known as Meta’s Fundamental AI Research, and LeCun was at one point his manager. Bourdev later co-founded WaveOne, a deep-learning video compression company that Apple acquired in 2023. Palo was an early employee at workflow-software company Trello.

Read the full story here.

And now on to the news ...

Altman attack. The suspect in a Molotov cocktail-style attack at OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman’s California home last week faces attempted murder and arson charges, according to a criminal complaint. At the time of his arrest, 20-year-old Daniel Moreno-Gama was carrying an “Anti-AI” document that included the names and addresses of apparent board members and chief executives of artificial-intelligence companies, as well as investors, according to a federal criminal complaint filed Monday.

• Authorities said Moreno-Gama threw a lit Molotov cocktail-style device at Altman’s San Francisco home at around 3:37 a.m. Friday morning before fleeing the scene.
   
• He then traveled to OpenAI’s headquarters in the city, where, according to the complaint, he retrieved a chair and used it to strike the building’s glass doors.
   
• Security guards on the scene said Moreno-Gama stated he’d come to the building to burn it down and kill anyone inside, the complaint said. He was arrested at the scene by the San Francisco Police Department.

Meta Platforms is expected to surpass Alphabet’s Google to become the world’s leading digital-advertising business, a first for the social-media company. Advertising research firm Emarketer projects that Meta will surpass Google in net ad revenue this year, reaching over $243.46 billion, edging past Google’s $239.54 billion. The research firm’s estimates account for revenue after deducting traffic and other content acquisition costs, such as the money Google shares with its creators. Meta’s ad business is seeing a lift, thanks to the success of new ad offerings, including the short-form video format Reels, and the broader boost that artificial intelligence has provided. 

U.S. utilities are planning a historic investment spree to patch up an aging power grid and meet rising electricity demand for the artificial-intelligence boom. Capital spending plans for 51 investor-owned utilities have reached an estimated $1.4 trillion for the next five years, according to a new report from PowerLines, a consumer education group. That is up more than 20% from a year ago, when the companies planned to spend about $1.1 trillion over a five-year period. Although many of the plans still require approval from state utility regulators, the news could be ominous for consumers. The plans could trigger additional requests for rate increases at a time when rising power costs and affordability concerns have become a bipartisan political concern.

Exits

High-speed connectivity provider Credo Technology Group Holding agreed to buy DustPhotonics, a developer of silicon photonics photonic integrated circuit technology, in a deal worth $750 million in cash and up to about 4.13 million shares of Credo stock.

Synera, a Germany-based agentic AI platform for engineers, landed $40 million in Series B funding. Revaia led the round, which included participation from UVC Partners, BMW iVentures, Cherry Ventures and Spark Capital.

pH7 Technologies, a Vancouver-based startup developing critical-mineral extraction technologies, held the final close of its Series B round at 55 million Canadian dollars (about $39 million). The round included roughly $32 million in equity, with new backing from Asahi Kasei and the Circular Innovation Fund. In December, pH7 said Fine Structure Ventures led the initial tranche of the round.

Critical Loop, a Long Beach, Calif.-headquartered industrial power technology startup, scored $26 million in Series A funding led by Conifer Infrastructure Partners and Hanover.

Citra, a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based space object identification startup, secured $15 million in Series A financing. Washington Harbour Partners led the investment, which included contributions from Industrious Ventures and others.

Prefix, a New York-based facility management platform for multi-site restaurant and retail operators, was seeded with a $7.5 million investment co-led by Collide Capital and Slow Ventures.

Yoga Joint, a fitness brand offering its signature vinyasa yoga and high-intensity strength training, snagged $5.5 million in growth funding from investors including Port Street Ventures.

Orbital, a Los Angeles-based startup planning to launch AI data centers in low Earth orbit, grabbed $1 million in funding led by a16z speedrun.

• We’re Using So Much AI That Computing Firepower Is Running Out
   
• Where Does Our Free Time Go in Retirement? Too Often, It’s Social Media
   
• How AI Is Reimagining the Game of Golf—for Both Players and Courses

• OpenAI is building a fully automated researcher (MIT Technology Review)
   
• The dumbest hack of the year exposed a very real problem (Wired)
   
• Mutually automated destruction: the escalating global AI arms race (New York Times)
   
• Humanoid robots show off their language and boxing skills in Hong Kong (Associated Press)

This newsletter was compiled by Matthew Strozier, Zachary Cole and Brian Gormley.

Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, and Brian Gormley.

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