TikTok earlier this year rallied users to oppose a bill that would require it to be divested by its Chinese parent company, Bytedance, or else risk a nationwide ban.

• But it didn't work, with Congress passing the legislation and President Biden signing it into law.
• Today, TikTok will make its case in a Washington, D.C. courtroom.

Why it matters: Bytedance is the world's most valuable startup, and TikTok is one of America's largest social media platforms.

• There have been many contingency plans proposed, including by some of Bytedance's venture capital backers, but none known to have been adopted.
• And all of it might be academic, since the Chinese government seems unlikely to permit any divestment being forced by the U.S. government.

Zoom in: TikTok will argue that the law violates Americans' free speech rights, and that the divestiture requirements aren't "viable" due to timing and complexity.

• It also will claim that the legislation was sparked by national security concerns that the company was sufficiently addressing via its work with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS), but that the process got bogged down by politics.
• DOJ lawyers, on the other hand, will argue that the law is about national security, not free speech, and that divestment is the only reasonable resolution.

The intrigue: Lots of information in the DOJ's filings are redacted classified material, available to the judicial panel but not to TikTok. In other words, TikTok's lawyers are flying more than a bit blind.

• Also worth emphasizing that the judicial panel consists of three judges, with an average age of 62. Not exactly that "jury of your users" that TikTok might have preferred.

Political impact: The case isn't expected to be decided until after November's election.

• Former President Trump has said he opposes the divest-or-ban bill, even though it was supported by Republicans in Congress and Trump himself tried to ban TikTok via an executive order while in office.
• Vice President Harris is part of the administration that signed the bill into law, but her campaign didn't respond to an Axios question on if she still supports it.
• Both campaigns have TikTok accounts.

Look ahead: Don't be surprised if the loser appeals to the Supreme Court.

World Labs, a Silicon Valley startup led by "modmother of AI" Fei-Fei Li, raised $230 million from backers like Andreessen Horowitz and Nvidia's venture arm.

Why it's the BFD: Li's goal is to help base the next generation of AI models on 3D spatial intelligence (i.e., real-world interactions), as opposed to only on language.

• It's ambitious, uncertain, and likely needed to successfully converge AI with robotics.

Other investors include NEA, Radical Ventures, Marc Benioff, Adobe Ventures, Databricks Ventures, Reid Hoffman, and Ashton Kutcher.

The bottom line: "Human spatial intelligence evolved over millennia; but in this time of extraordinary progress, we see the opportunity to imbue AI with this ability in the near term." — World Labs website

• Akur8, a French insurance pricing engine, raised $120m in Series C funding. One Peak led, and was joined by Partners Group and insider Guidewire Software. axios.link/3XLXQIg

• SafetyCulture, an Australian enterprise ops company, raised US$112m at a $1.7b valuation. Airtree Ventures led, and was joined by insiders Blackbird and Morpheus Ventures. safetyculture.com

• Second Front Systems, a provider of national security software, raised $70m in Series C funding. Salesforce Ventures led, and was joined by Battery Ventures and insiders NEA, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Artis Ventures. secondfront.com

• TeamBridge, a provider of HR software for hourly workers, raised $28m in Series B funding. Mayfield led, and was joined by General Catalyst and Abstract Ventures. axios.link/4e4ydbE

• 11x, an SF-based developer of autonomous digital workers, raised $24m in Series A funding. Benchmark led, and was joined by Quiet Capital, SV Angel, Abstract Ventures, Lux Capital, Operator Partners, Visionaries, Activant, HubSpot Ventures, Project A, 20VC, 20Growth, and 20Sales. 11x.ai

• AceUp, a Boston-based leadership coaching startup, raised $22.5m in Series A funding from PJC, Techstars Ventures, Gaingels Ventures, Water Bear Ventures, and Launchpad Venture Group. aceup.com

• Howabout, a calendar sharing startup, raised $8m in Series A funding led by Goodwater Capital, with participation from FJ Labs, Sequel, Harry Maguire, Boost Capital, and Angel Invest. axios.link/4eFxbmr

🚑 PathPresenter, a Montvale, N.J.-based image-sharing platform for pathology, raised $7.5m in Series A funding. Avant Bio led, and was joined by Barco and Modi Ventures. pathpresenter.com

• Patchstack, an Estonian cybersecurity startup, raised $5m in Series A funding. Karma Ventures led, and was joined by G+D Ventures and Emilia Capital. axios.link/3Zso5VA

• Apax Partners is the frontrunner to buy SoftwareOne (Swiss: SWON), although the Swiss cloud software firm also is weighing a merger with Oslo-listed rival Crayon Holdings, per Bloomberg. axios.link/47uQlbW

• LawnPRO Partners, backed by HCI Equity Partners, acquired Highest Quality, a Manchester, N.H.-based provider of residential lawn care and pest control services. lawncaremanchesternh.com

⚡ MidOcean Energy, an LNG company formed by EIG, agreed to buy another 15% stake in Peru LNG from Hunt Oil Co. huntoil.com

⚡ SCF Partners completed its $127.5m acquisition of the fluids systems business of Newpark Resources (NYSE NR). newpark.com

• SmartSights, an Austin, Texas-based portfolio company of Capstreet, acquired Sage Clarity, a Chicago provider of manufacturing data software. smartsights.com

• Temasek is in advanced talks to buy a "significant minority stake" in VFS Global, a visa outsourcing and tech services firm, from Blackstone at around a $7b valuation, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4erYCjt

• Traffic & Mobility Consultants, a portfolio company of Grovecourt Capital Partners, acquired Propel Engineering, a West Palm Beach, Fla., civil engineering firm. trafficmobility.com

Correction: Last Wednesday's issue incorrectly identified Silver Lake Waterman as a selling shareholder of Axcient, which was bought by Thoma Bravo portfolio company ConnectWise. K1 Investment Management was the only institutional seller.

• BingEx, a Chinese courier service, filed for a $100m IPO and plans to list on the Nasdaq (FLX). axios.link/4epoZX3

⚡ BKV Corp., a Denver-based natural gas producer operating in the Barnett and Marcellus Shales, set IPO terms to 15m shares at $19-$21. It would have a $1.7b market cap, were it to price in the middle, and is controlled by Thai energy firm Banpu. It plans to list on the NYSE (BKV). axios.link/3XrgvrF

⚡Peak Resources, an oil and gas E&P operating in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, filed for an $86m IPO. The Yorktown Partners-owned company plans to list on the NYSE American (PRB). axios.link/4d9D5e4

• LG Electronics of South Korea picked banks for an IPO of its India business, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3ZJbqOn

• Swiggy, an Indian food delivery company valued by VCs at $10.7b, could file for its IPO as early as this week. axios.link/3Bf7omk

• Bain Capital is seeking to sell Esure, a British auto ad home insurer that could fetch at least £1b, per Reuters. axios.link/3TvlRBc

• Alcoa (NYSE: AA) agreed to sell a 25.1% stake in its joint venture with Saudi miner Ma'aden to Ma'aden for $1.1b. axios.link/4erP5IT

• Citigroup (NYSE: N) agreed to sell its global fiduciary and trust administration services business for $80m to JTC (LSE: JTC). axios.link/47v6GxF

⚡ Eni (Milan: ENI), the Italian energy group, is in talks to sell a minority stake in its Plentitude renewable and retail business at a valuation north of €10b, per Reuters. axios.link/4d5kgZz

• KPMG is considering a sale of an advisory unit focused on French SMEs, which could be valued at around €500m, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3MLrMOr

• Phoenix Group (LSE: PHNX), a British insurer, withdrew its SunLife business from the auction block due to regulatory scrutiny. axios.link/3XuzIZC

• Platform Science, a San Diego-based enterprise fleet management company that's raised over $200m from VCs, agreed to buy the global transportation telematics business of Trimble (Nasdaq: TRMB). axios.link/47xl2xw

• Rexel (Paris: RXL), a French building products group, rejected a $9.4b takeover offer from QXO (Nasdaq: QXO). axios.link/3Xsy22P

• United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) completed its sale of Coyote Logistics to RXO (NYSE: RXO) for just over $1b. UPS paid $1.8b to buy Chicago-based Coyote in 2015 from Warburg Pincus. axios.link/4ctVna2

• Kohlberg & Co. raised $4.3b for its 10th midmarket PE fund. kohlberg.com

• Noteus, a European VC firm launched by ex-Eurazeo investors, is targeting €600m for its debut fund, per the FT. axios.link/47AOC55

• Silver Point Capital raised $4.6b for its latest opportunistic private credit fund. silverpointcapital.com

• Gregory Baecher joined Arctos as a partner. He previously was with Warburg Pincus. arctospartners.com

• Rede Partners promoted James Varela and Charles Wan to partner. It also hired: Mark Ager (ex-Livingbridge) as head of technology, Adele Gilmore (Aviditi Advisors) as principal of advisory, and Ben Plant (Lazard) as principal of capital solutions. rede-partners.com

An economic era will end on Wednesday at 2pm, in a windowless ground-floor room in Washington's Foggy Bottom neighborhood, when dozens of journalists hit "send" on reports that the Fed decided to cut interest rates, Axios' Neil Irwin and Courtenay Brown write.

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