Driverless Tesla's in Austin, Nvidia Scales H200 Production, AI Infrastructure Booms While Public Infrastructure Lags.
This Week in Startups Newsletter: 12/15/2025
Tesla Model Y Robotaxis are now operating on public roads in Austin, Texas with no human safety drivers onboard. This follows roughly six months of real-world testing with human safety monitors. More here.
Nvidia is ramping up H200 GPU production after receiving approval to resume sales to China. The move could help Nvidia capture significant pent-up demand, though Chinese regulators are still deciding whether to permit imports. Nvidia says it’s carefully managing supply to ensure U.S. customers aren’t impacted. More here.
Wonder Studios announced the 30 shortlisted films for its AI Film Festival. Wonder Studios is an AI-native creative studio building tools and workflows to help filmmakers produce high-quality video faster and more affordably. The entries span five categories: Animation, Drama, Experimental, Horror, Narrative. More here.
Berlin startup Mirelo raised a $41M seed from Index Ventures and a16z to fix a common issue in AI video: missing (or bad) audio. It makes sound effects that sync to what’s happening on screen, and plans to expand into music later. More here.
The AI data-center construction boom could take workers and resources away from roads, bridges, and other public infrastructure projects. With private data-center spend now rivaling government transportation construction, Bloomberg strategists warn timelines and costs for non–data-center projects may get worse. More here.
Speech-to-speech translation is coming to Google Translate, powered by Gemini 3. This lets you hear someone speak another language and get a real-time translation back in your own language. The feature is rolling out in beta now, with a developer API planned for next year. More here.
Gemini just added an option where you can “Sketch” a photo right in the Gemini App. This allows you to add text or draw on a photo, and Nano Banana will use that added context to edit the photo. More here.
First Voyage raised a $2.5M seed round led by a16z Speedrun, with participation from SignalFire and True Global. First Voyage’s AI companion app, Momo Self Care, uses a digital pet and gamified nudges to help users build habits. Users have created 2M+ tasks so far, and the new funding will go toward improving Momo’s intelligence and safety guardrails. More here.
After shipping new features to NotebookLM over the past few months, Google has now given you the ability to add notebooks directly into the Gemini Chat. This feature allows you to talk with the notebook in your chat interface, like the Chat feature in NotebookLM. More here.
According to the New York Times, Lightspeed Venture Partners announced its largest-ever fundraise of more than $9B as it reorganizes the firm around AI and builds bigger war chests to back capital-hungry AI startups. The capital is spread across six funds, with $3.3B earmarked for doubling down on winners like Anthropic, xAI, and Mistral, underscoring how AI is capturing an outsized share of VC dollars even as overall fundraising declines. More here.