Scott Kupor was the first employee at Andreessen Horowitz, hired back when it was just a couple tech vets hoping to raise a few hundred million dollars and never take board seats.

• He'd spend the next 16 years as managing partner, even taking portfolio board seats of his own, and serving as chair of the National Venture Capital Association.

Kupor now is in a very different role, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which is something akin to the federal government's HR department.

• We caught up via phone yesterday to discuss how he ended up in the Trump administration, his thoughts on DOGE, and if AI is replacing government workers. What follows is part of our conversation, edited for clarity and length:

Axios: How do you end up in D.C.?

Kupor: "In the summer of 2024, Marc [Andreessen] and Ben [Horowitz] were getting more involved in politics, and I dropped a Slack to say that if Trump happened to win and an interesting opportunity arose, I'd be happy to throw my hat in the ring.

• "I had assumed the Slack disappeared, but Marc called me after the Trump team did a general call for people in the tech community. He offered to give my name to Howard Lutnick, who was running the pre-election transition team ... I went to New York and saw Howard, who pulled out this thing with several jobs, and then I spent a bunch of time in West Palm Beach post-election, culminating in a meeting with the President in December."

What other jobs, and why OPM?

"Other stuff we talked about was maybe the SEC job, which was interesting but less directionally focused on what I was passionate about. OPM felt like it would be at the red-hot center of Trump's talk about reforming the cost side and federal workforce. But, to be blunt, I didn't really know much about OPM beforehand."

You're nominated in December but not confirmed until July. In the meantime, Elon Musk and DOGE make lots of major personnel decisions via OPM. Were you just sitting on your hands?

"The short answer is yes. That's the rules. I wasn't even allowed to go into the building, so I was just trying to interpret what was happening. The only time I got more insight was when I started prepping for the Senate confirmation hearing, because I got briefed so I wouldn't look like a complete idiot."

A16Z has invested with Elon. You didn't talk with him?

"Marc and Ben have a personal relationship with him but I don't. I talked to him one time.

• "But I wasn't worried. I thought Elon would come in with lots of energy and excitement ... With the benefit of hindsight, he maybe could have used some different tactics or messaging, but generally need someone with his personality when you're trying to turn around an oil tanker."

You've said that OPM needs to "recognize and respect the humanity of the workforce." Did Elon or DOGE?

"I'm not going to answer that question ... It's not an excuse, but a challenge that Elon and his team was federal employment laws that make it very difficult to do targeted reductions in workforce, which is why they had to come up with this [Deferred Resignation Program] program."

You've also talked about establishing more of a merit-based system for federal workers. But DOGE often fired probationary workers, not because of merit but because of where they were on the totem poll.

"It was only around 5,800 probationary employees out of 2.4 million across the entire government. Yes, I'm sure many of those were under 30, and the government has a real problem getting younger workers — only 7% under 30 compared to 24% in the normal workforce — but you still need to view it in context."

Of that 2.4 million, how many do you want still working for the government at year-end?

"Around 2.1 million, which is where we were when the first Trump admistration took office ... That doesn't include the military, which OPM isn't responsible for."

For those remaining, how do you maintain morale given all that's happened?

"It starts with being transparent, and acknowledging that this has been a challenging six months for them. People have fewer heads and need to reprioritize. Something I learned from Ben when we had to lay off a lot of people from Loudcloud was recognizing that we'd broken trust with people, both those who were gone and those who were staying."

A16z originally had everyone working from a Sand Hill Road office, but later changed course and now has a more distributed workforce. Why is the federal government moving in the opposite direction on remote work?

"At a16z we decided we needed to be where the entrepreneurs are, although one thing we did do was that we opened other offices so people would be in proximity to them and we asked them to show up unless they were traveling or doing other things."

That "other things" exception isn't currently available to some federal workers.

"The president was starting from a position where fewer than 10% of the federal workforce was showing up to an office. If you're trying to make a 180-degree turn, you sometimes start with something extremely onerous ... My guidance to my team has been if you have to do something like take care of family, go do it. But, otherwise, be in the office."

How will you recruit?

"Same as in the private sector — we need a compelling reason for why they should come work for the government.

• "In one of my first meetings, someone said we messed everything up because people take federal jobs because of stability. To me, that's a terrible way to attract people. We need to tell them they'll be surrounded by smart people working on hard problems and, if they're public-service minded, a real chance to help."

Marc has often insisted that tech doesn't replace jobs, it just changes what jobs are — harkening back to tractors. Will AI lead to fewer federal workers?

"I think it's too early to know. But I do think federal workers need to learn this technology and then decide when to and not to adopt it.

• "There are definitely some basic use cases where it would be an efficiency enhancer. For example, we do a ton of rulemaking but manually read 40,000 public comments. That's a total waste of time since one thing AI does very well is summarization. That could be our starting point and then have humans engage.
• "Again, though, we're nowhere near it today. We're still crawling, just getting ChatGPT on government laptops. "

Anthropic raised $13 billion in Series F funding led by Iconiq at a $183 billion post-money valuation.

Why it's the BFD: This makes Anthropic the world's fourth-most valuable startup, tripling its valuation from March.

• It also gives Anthropic more capital firepower to compete with OpenAI, as foundation model costs continue to skyrocket.

Speaking of OpenAI: The ChatGPT maker inked a $1.1 billion all-stock deal to acquire Statsig, a Bellevue, Washington-based product development platform whose CEO will become OpenAI's CTO.

• Statsig had raised over $150 million, including a Series C round earlier this year at a $1.1b valuation, from Iconiq, Sequoia Capital, and Madrona.
• Or, put another way, Iconiq now has an equity foot in both camps (as do several others).

Other investors in Anthropic's round include Fidelity, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Altimeter, Baillie Gifford, BlackRock, Blackstone, Coatue, D1 Capital Partners, General Atlantic, General Catalyst, GIC, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Insight Partners, Jane Street, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Qatar Investment Authority, TPG, T. Rowe Price, WCM Investment Management, and XN.

The bottom line: Anthropic and OpenAI have combined to raise more than $56 billion so far this year.

• Sierra, a provider of custom AI agents for enterprise customer service, is nearing a $350m fundraise at a $10b valuation. per Axios. axios.link/4m0M45Q

• IQM, a Finnish quantum computing company, raised $320m in Series B funding. Ten Eleven Ventures led, and was joined by Tesi, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance, Schwarz Group, Winbond Electronics, EIC, and Bayern Kapital. axios.link/4n6aiwq

• Treasury BV, a new Bitcoin treasury, raised €126m and said it plans to go public in Amsterdam via a reverse merger. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss led, joined by Nakamoto Holdings, UTXO Management, Off the Chain Capital, M1 Capital, and Mythos Venture Partners. axios.link/4g3kuU6

🚑 Charm Therapeutics, a London-based cancer drug developer, raised $80m in Series B funding. NEA and SR One led, joined by Nvidia, OrbiMed, F-Prime, and Khosla Ventures. axios.link/4mO1LP8

• Shift5, an Arlington, Va.-based observability platform, raised $75m in Series C funding, per Axios Pro. Hedosophia led, joined by Insight Partners, Center 15 Capital, 645 Ventures, Moore Strategic Ventures, Booz Allen Ventures, Squadra Ventures, AE Industrial, Disruptive, CSP Equity Partners, and Savano Capital Partners. axios.link/464q7wS

• ID.me, a McLean, Va.-based digital identity company, raised $65m in Series E funding at a valuation north of $2b led by Ribbit Capital, per Axios Pro. It also secured a $275m credit facility. axios.link/46quse7

• Cato Networks, an Israeli cloud security platform for remote workforces, raised $50m in Series G extension funding from Acrew Capital. It also acquired Aim Security, which had raised $30m from firms like Canaan Partners, Proofpoint, StoneMill Ventures, CCL, Operator Partners, Valley Capital Partners, Mercer Ventures, and YL Ventures. axios.link/467CcBn

🚑 Cyted Health, a U.K.-based gastrointestinal diagnostics startup, raised $44m in Series B funding from EQT Life Sciences, Advent Life Sciences, British Business Bank, Morningside, and BGF. axios.link/4gasZNu

• HappyRobot, an SF-based AI workforce management platform, raised $44m in Series B funding, per Axios Pro. Base10 Partners led, joined by Tokio Marine, WaVe-X, World Innovation Lab and insiders a16z and YC. axios.link/42bNOC2

• Allocate, an SF-based provider of private markets software, raised $30.5m in Series B funding. Portage Ventures led, joined by a16z, M13, and Fika Ventures. allocate.co

• Utila, a New York-based digital asset ops platform for stablecoins, raised $22m in Series A extension funding, per Axios Pro. Red Dot Capital Partners led, joined by Nyca, Wing VC, DCG, Cerca Partners, Funfair Ventures, and SilverCircle. axios.link/3I0Jxe1

• Kite, a crypto AI startup, raised $18m in Series A funding. PayPal Ventures and General Catalyst led, joined by 8VC, Samsung Next, Alumni Ventures, SBI US Gateway Fund, Vertex Ventures, Dispersion Capital, Avalanche Foundation, GSR Markets, LayerZero, Hashed, HashKey Capital, Animoca Brands, Essence VC, and Alchemy. axios.link/41yCIac

• LightYX, a construction tech startup focused on layout work, raised $11m in Series A funding. NOVA by Saint-Gobain led, joined by Yachad Capital Partners, Shibumi International, and Somersault Ventures. axios.link/3JJYotV

• Advisor.com, a marketplace connecting consumers with financial advisers, raised $9m in Series A funding led by Walkabout Ventures, per Axios Pro. axios.link/4m7IcAg

🚑 Meroka, a New York-based provider of software for independent physician practices, raised $6m in seed funding. Better Tomorrow Ventures and Slow Ventures led, joined by 8VC. meroka.com

• Artificial Societies, a London-based AI startup that "simulates human societies," raised $3.35m in seed funding led by Point72 Ventures. axios.link/47kImjS

• Advent International agreed to buy Australian share registry Automic. axios.link/4p6nGCv

• Ardurra Group, a Littlejohn & Co. portfolio company, acquired J.R. Wauford & Co., a Nashville, Tenn.-based water and wastewater engineering firm. axios.link/41uRoqP

• Bradford, a Gemspring Capital portfolio company, acquired SoloLabs, a Broadview, Ill.-based maker of liquid and aerosol personal care products. axios.link/4pabReM

• Corient, a Mubadala Capital portfolio company, agreed to buy U.K. wealth managers Stonehage Fleming and Stanhope Capital. axios.link/4n2q0JD

🚑 Gifthealth, an Eir Partners portfolio company, acquired Occam Health Services, a Plano, Texas-based drug manufacturing support company. gifthealth.com

• GovCIO, a WCAS portfolio company, acquired the SoldierPoint telehealth unit of Iron Bow, an H.I.G. Capital portfolio company. soldierpoint.net

• Hunter Point Capital and Temasek agreed to make minority investments in Nuveen Private Capital, the parent company of Churchill Asset Management and Arcmont Asset Management. nuveen.com

• Madison Dearborn Partners will pay $2.7b to acquire a majority of NFP's wealth business — consisting of Wealthspire Advisors, Fiducient Advisors, and Newport Private Wealth — from Aon (NYSE: AON). axios.link/4lXhZnS

• Metronet, an Evansville, Ind.-based fiber-to-the-home company owned by T-Mobile and KKR, acquired Minneapolis-based US Internet. axios.link/3HQz70z

• Quad-C invested in Accurate Meter & Supply, a Katy, Texas-based provider of water, sewer and drainage distribution and services. accuratemeter.com

🚑 Quasar Medical, a Boyu Capital portfolio company, acquired CDMO facilities in Ireland and Mexico from Nordson (Nasdaq: NDSN). quasarmedical.com

• STG completed its previously announced buyout of Yodlee, a Raleigh, N.C.-based finance data platform, from Bain Capital portfolio company Envestnet. axios.link/3TMZmqN

✈️ Sumitomo and SMBC Aviation Capital are leading a $7.4b takeover of aircraft leasor Air Lease (NYSE: AL), in a deal that also includes Apollo and Brookfield. axios.link/4lVXfww

• Transaction Network Services, a Reston, Va.-based portfolio company of Koch Equity Development, agreed to buy financial information network operator Radianz from BT Group (LSE: BT). axios.link/3JJte5K

⚡ VEMO, a developer of EV charging infrastructure in Mexico, secured a $250m equity commitment from Vision Ridge Partners. axios.link/42cN3J0

• Neptune Insurance, a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based flood insurer backed by Bregal Sagemount and FTV Capital, filed for an IPO. It reports $35m of net income on $119m in revenue for 2024, and plans to list on the NYSE (NP). axios.link/462NBSO

• Via Transportation, a New York-based provider of municipal transportation solutions, set IPO terms to 10.7m shares at $40-$44. It would have a $3.34b market cap, were it to price in the middle, and reports a $38m net loss on $206m in revenue for the first half of 2025. Via plans to list on the NYSE (VIA), and backers include Exor, 83North, and Pitango. axios.link/47kDivT

⚡GridX, a utility software startup that's raised over $60m from firms like Energy Impact Partners, acquired Innowatts, a Houston-based digital energy platform that raised over $20m from Energy Impact Partners and others. axios.link/4mDULnK

• Kong, an SF-based API platform valued by VCs at $2.1b, acquired OpenMeter, a provider of usage-based metering and billing SaaS that had been seeded by Haystack, Sunflower Capital, and YC. konghq.com

• Zopa, a British neobank unicorn whose backers include SoftBank, acquired payments platform Rvvup, a U.K. payments platform that raised a small amount of capital from firms like HV Capital. axios.link/424lrFW

• Marsh McLennan Agency, a subsidiary of Marsh McLennan (NYSE: MMC), acquired Robins Insurance, a Nashville, Tenn.-based insurance agency. marshmma.com

• Jim Forbes, most recently Morgan Stanley's vice chair of investment banking, joined Vessey Street Capital Partners as a senior adviser. axios.link/4plBtWf

• Brian Geraghty joined Trinity Capital as a Dublin-based managing director of equipment finance. He previously was with Claret Capital Partners. axios.link/4n9QrMR

• Anil Kuruganti joined GP Bullhound as a partner. He previously was a tech investment banker with Canaccord Genuity. axios.link/45K4QcR

• Daniel Rathauser joined Azimut Alternative Capital Partners as an executive director and head of development. He previously was with Moelis & Co. axios.link/3JJYVMr

• Adam Selipsky, former CEO of AWS and Tableau Software, joined KKR as a senior tech and AI strategy advisor. axios.link/4mgNidz

Kraft Heinz shares fell nearly 7% yesterday, as investors reacted poorly to the company's breakup plans.

• Among the dissenters was a "disappointed" Warren Buffett, who helped create the conglomerate and whose Berkshire Hathaway remains its largest outside shareholder.