Jessica Mathews here, filling in for Allie to give you a quick update on some recent reporting that looks at the pushback that Elon Musk\u2019s companies are getting around the country.<\/p>\n
Last week, I wrote about the lawsuit<\/a> that Baltimore\u2019s mayor and city council had filed against xAI, Elon Musk\u2019s artificial intelligence company. The lawsuit accuses Grok of exposing residents to the risk that any photograph they uploaded\u2014of themselves or of their children\u2014could be ingested by Grok and transformed into sexually degrading deepfakes without their knowledge or consent.<\/p>\n Not long after that lawsuit was filed, the Baltimore Ravens\u2019 football team announced it was walking away from a tunnel proposal it had pitched to Boring Company, for a free tunnel project around its Ravens stadium. And the Baltimore Mayor, a Democrat,\u00a0said publicly\u00a0that he wouldn\u2019t have approved it anyway.<\/p>\n The sentiment shift in Baltimore, in particular, was notable, as the city had a decade ago welcomed Elon Musk\u2019s business with open arms.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s more, from the story:<\/p>\n Maryland and Baltimore have historically welcomed Musk\u2019s companies through incentives and partnerships. Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, was one of the first politicians to publicly get behind a major Boring Company project in 2017, when Boring Company announced it planned to build a high-speed tunnel for autonomous vehicles between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The Maryland Department of Transportation sponsored the project, and Baltimore\u2019s then-Mayor, a Democrat, had said<\/a> the project would have \u201ctremendous potential.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That posture has shifted since Musk donated $300 million to President Trump\u2019s campaign and took a hands-on role in government through DOGE. Governor Wes Moore, a Democrat, was an early critic of Musk\u2019s work at DOGE, characterizing<\/a> the firing of thousands of federal workers in 2025 as \u201carbitrary\u201d and \u201cdraconian\u201d during a working session in March 2025 and saying it was cruel. Boring Company president Steve Davis, one of Musk\u2019s longtime trusted fixers, helped Musk run<\/a> the government department.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in Las Vegas\u2014where Boring has had repeated safety and environmental problems\u2014two legislators recently sent a demand letter<\/a> to Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, requesting he address \u201cstructural failures\u201d in the state\u2019s oversight of Elon Musk\u2019s tunneling startup, which has been digging tunnels below Las Vegas. The two state legislators, Assemblymember Howard Watts and Senator Rochelle Nguyen, sent a letter to the Governor, describing \u201csignificant concerns about record integrity, administrative accountability, and structural failures\u201d in Nevada\u2019s workplace safety system and saying that they \u201crequire clear action from the Executive Branch.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The pushback is largely coming from Democrats and illustrates the challenges Musk\u2019s collection of companies are receiving as the famously impulsive and truculent multi-billionaire has turned himself into a political lightning rod.<\/p>\n See you tomorrow,<\/p>\n Jessica Mathews Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Joey Abrams curated the deals section of today\u2019s newsletter. Subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n VENTURE CAPITAL<\/p>\n – WHOOP<\/a>, a Boston, Mass.-based watch designed for health insights, raised $575 million in Series G funding. Collaborative Fund led the round and was joined by 2PointZero Group, Qatar Investment Authority, Mubadala Investment Company, Abbott, and others.<\/p>\n – TENEX.AI<\/a>, a Sarasota, Fla.-based AI-native security operations control platform, raised $250 million in Series B funding. Crosspoint Capital Partners led the round.<\/p>\n – 9fin<\/a>, a London, U.K.-based AI-powered platform for global debt markets, raised $170 million in Series C funding. HarbourVest Partners led the round and was joined by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and existing investors Redalpine, Highland Europe, Spark Capital, and Seedcamp.<\/p>\n – OpenFX<\/a>, a New York City-based foreign exchange infrastructure company, raised $94 million in Series A funding from Accel, Atomico, Lightspeed Faction, M13, Northzone, and Pantera.<\/p>\n – Censys<\/a>, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based internet intelligence and insights platform, raised $70 million in Series D funding. Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital led the round and was joined by Decibel Partners, Greylock Partners, GV, Intel Capital and others.<\/p>\n – Kestra<\/a>, a Paris, France-based open-source orchestration platform designed to unify data, AI, infrastructure and business workflows, raised $25 million in Series A funding. RTP Global led the round and was joined by Alven, ISAI, and Axeleo.<\/p>\n – Treeline<\/a>, a San Francisco-based IT infrastructure company, raised $25 million in Series A funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round,<\/p>\n – Variance<\/a>, a San Francisco-based developer of AI agents designed for compliance investigation, raised $21.5 million in Series A funding. Ten Eleven Ventures led the round and was joined by 645 Ventures, Y Combinator, Urban Innovation Fund, and Okta Ventures.<\/p>\n – Scala Biodesign<\/a>, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based protein development biotech, raised $16 million in Series A funding. Grove Ventures led the round and was joined by TLV Partners, Deep Insight, the Israel Innovation Authority, and others.<\/p>\n – memQ<\/a>, a Chicago, Ill.-based quantum networking company, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Quantonation and Ocean Azul Partners led the round and were joined by others.<\/p>\n – Nomadic<\/a>, a San Francisco-based developer of a spatial intelligence layer for physical AI, raised $8.4 million in funding. TQ Ventures led the round and was joined by Pear VC, Jeff Dean, and others.<\/p>\n – Riplo<\/a>, a London, U.K.-based developer of an agentic operating system for consulting, raised \u00a32.3 million ($3 million) in pre-seed funding. Cherry Ventures led the round and was joined by Blue Lion Capital and others.<\/p>\n PRIVATE EQUITY<\/p>\n – Allshares, a portfolio company of Bregal Milestone, acquired Amalia<\/a>, a Lille, France-based sales commission and performance management software company. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n – FormativGroup, backed by Rockbridge Growth Equity, acquired Flok<\/a>, a White Plains, N.Y.-based Salesforce consulting firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n – KJA, a subsidiary of Thompson Street Capital Partners portfolio company ATIS, acquired Vinspec<\/a>, an Edmonton, Alberta-based elevator and escalator consulting and inspection services company. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n – Resultant, backed by Investcorp, acquired Liberty Advisor Group<\/a>, a Chicago, Ill.-based business and technology consulting firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n – Tiger Infrastructure Partners acquired Orbis Protect<\/a>, a London, U.K.-based security infrastructure company. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n EXITS<\/p>\n – Carlyle agreed to acquire a majority stake in MAI Capital Management<\/a>, a Cleveland, Ohio-based investment advisor, in a deal that values the company at $2.8 billion, from Galway Holdings, Harvest Partners, and Oak Hill Capital.<\/p>\n – Flynn Group acquired Grand Fitness Partners<\/a>, a Coral Springs, Fla.-based franchisee of Planet Fitness gyms, from HGGC. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n – Oak Hill Capital acquired Hunter Communications<\/a>, a Central Point, Ore.-based fiber optic internet provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n PEOPLE<\/p>\n
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Email:\u00a0jessica.mathews@fortune.com<\/a><\/p>\n