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Startups & Venture·August 15, 2026·1 min read

PayPal is no longer refusing to sell. Now the question is whether regulators allow it

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If a Stripe–Advent bid for PayPal at $60.50 a share advances, payments consolidation will run straight into antitrust questions around Venmo, Braintree, and merchant lock-in. Operators in fintech should assume more regulatory friction in any scale M&A and plan for slower, more conditional deal closes.

Startups & Venture

Effective Altruism, hit by the SBF turmoil, is drawing record funding as Anthropic and OpenAI IPOs are set to mint new millionaires wedded to "effective giving"

A new wave of EA-aligned capital from Anthropic and OpenAI IPO wealth will shape which AI safety, policy, and research agendas get durable funding. If you're building in or around AI risk, governance, or long-horizon causes, assume more grant and program money — but also tighter ideological expectations on impact framing.

Startups & Venture

Sources: China plans to soon lift a travel ban on Manus founders as the company unwinds its $2B acquisition by Meta; CEO Xiao Hong plans to return to Singapore

Unwinding a $2B Meta acquisition under Chinese scrutiny and lifting a founder travel ban is another data point on how cross-border AI deals are now entangled with state interests. For founders and acquirers operating between China and the U.S./Singapore, deal structure and governance risk belong in the same conversation as valuation.