A new Christmas in July savings event is going live today to mark down some of our favorite electric tools. Greenworks is now offering a collection of electric mowers, string trimmers, and other gear to get your lawn in order without having gas or oil in the picture. The savings today also continue over to the latest Eve Aqua HomeKit faucet for helping grow out a gorgeous lawn in the first place, with other deals landing on Jackery power stations and more. Just don’t forget about all of the other best e-bike discounts around.
Christmas in July sale goes live on Greenworks tools
Greenworks is helping you save some green this week by launching a new Christmas in July sale. Offering some all-time lows across its collection of popular outdoor electric tools, shipping is free in orders over $100. While you’ll want to peruse all of the listings on this landing page first, our favorite price cut of the batch has the flagship Greenworks 60V 25-inch Electric Lawn Mower marked down to its lowest price of the year. Dropping from the usual $750 going rate, now you can score this electric tool for $599.99. That’s $150 off the going rate and the second-best price ever, coming within $1 of the all-time low.
Centered around a 25-inch deck size and powered by a pair of 60V batteries, this self-propelled electric lawn mower from Greenworks is the perfect upgrade ahead of spring to finally ditch gas and oil from the equation. It can handle cutting the grass for 80 minutes on a single charge, covering 2/3 of an acre in the process. Each of the batteries are interchangeable with Greenworks’ other tools, and you’re also getting a charger in the box that rounds out the package.
Eve’s latest Aqua HomeKit faucet with Thread automates your lawn care
After first launching back last August, the new Eve Aqua Smart Water Controller is now on sale for one of the very first times. Courtesy of Amazon, the new Thread-enabled model is sitting at $119.96 shippedwhen clipping the on-page coupon. Down from the usual $150 price tag, you’re looking at $30 in savings as well as one of the first discounts of the year. It’s $10 under our previous mention, a match of the all-time low, and a well-timed discount with getting your lawn in order on the mind this summer.
Packed into a refreshed design, Eve Aqua seeks to automate your sprinkler or outdoor faucet with the help of Siri this summer and beyond. On top of the usual HomeKit integration we see from the brand, there’s also Thread connectivity to complement its Bluetooth capacities. This time around the upgraded build has a brass faucet connector and magnetic valve to improve durability and protect against leaks, all while helping you automate your lawn maintenance system. Go dive into our launch coverage for a closer look at what to expect.
Jackery’s Explorer 1000 Pro has never sold of less
One of the first chances to save on one of Jackery’s latest portable power stations is now live. Courtesy of Amazon, the new Explorer 1000 Pro is now down to $769 shipped. Normally fetching $1,099, this $330 discount is fittingly a new all-time low. This is well below our previous $899 mention, bringing an extra $130 in savings into the mix.
As one of the more recent additions to the Jackery power station stable, the new Explorer 1000 Pro takes a more balanced approach compared to some of the flagship offerings we’ve seen arrive over the past few months. Everything comes centered around a 1,002Wh internal battery which comes backed by a wide array of ports for powering all of the gear in your camping or tailgating setup. Three full sized AC outlets are perfect for more demanding appliances, but there’s also a pair of 100W USB-C ports alongside some other slots for topping off smartphones and other gadgets. All of that comes packed into a refreshed design that you can read all about in our launch coverage.
e-bikes, a summer favorite!
Other new Green Deals landing this week
The Independence Day savings this week are also continuing to a collection of other markdowns. To the same tune as the offers above, these all help you take a more energy-conscious approach to your routine.
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Enbridge is going big on solar again in Texas, and Meta is snapping up all the solar power it can get.
Last month, Electrek reported that the Canadian oil and gas pipeline giant just launched its first solar farm in Texas. Now it’s given the green light to Clear Fork, a 600 megawatt (MW) utility-scale solar farm already under construction near San Antonio. The project is expected to come online in summer 2027.
Once it’s up and running, every bit of Clear Fork’s electricity will go to Meta Platforms under a long-term contract. Meta will use the solar power to help run its energy-hungry data centers entirely on clean energy.
The solar farm project’s cost is around $900 million. Enbridge says it expects Clear Fork to boost the company’s cash flow and earnings starting in 2027.
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Enbridge EVP Matthew Akman said the project reflects “growing demand for renewable power across North America from blue-chip companies involved in technology and data center operations.”
Meta’s head of global energy, Urvi Parekh, added that the company is “thrilled to partner with Enbridge to bring new renewable energy to Texas and help support our operations with 100% clean energy.”
Meta’s first multi-gigawatt data center, Prometheus, is expected to come online in 2026.
Clear Fork is part of a growing trend: tech giants like Meta, Amazon, and Google are racing to lock down renewable energy contracts as they expand their fleets of AI-ready data centers, which use massive amounts of electricity.
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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
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A fully electric Japanese electric pickup truck? It’s not a Toyota or Honda, but Isuzu’s new electric pickup packs a punch. The D-MAX EV can tow over 7,770 lbs (3,500 kg), plow through nearly 24″ (600 mm) of water, and it even has a dedicated Terrain Mode for extreme off-roading. However, it comes at a cost.
Meet Isuzu’s first electric pickup: The D-MAX EV
After announcing that it had begun building left-hand drive D-MAX EV models at the end of April, Isuzu said that it would start shipping them to Europe in the third quarter.
By the end of the year, Isuzu will begin production of right-hand drive models for the UK. Sales will follow in early 2026.
Isuzu announced prices this week, boasting the D-MAX EV features the same “no compromise durability” of the current diesel version.
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The D-MAX EV pickup features a full-time 4WD system, a towing capacity of up to 3.5 tons (7,700 lbs), and an added Terrain Mode, which Isuzu says is designed for “extreme off-road capability.” With 210 mm (8.3″) of ground clearance, Isuzu’s electric pickup can wade through up to 600 mm (24″) of water.
Powered by a 66.9 kWh battery, Isuzu’s electric pickup offers a WLTP range of 163 miles. With charging speeds of up to 50 kW, the D-MAX EV can recharge from 20% to 80% in about an hour.
The electric version is nearly identical to the current diesel-powered D-Max, both inside and out, but prices will be significantly higher.
Isuzu D-Max EV specs and prices
Drive System
Full-time 4×4
Battery Type
Lithium-ion
Battery Capacity
66.9 kWh
WLTP driving range
163 miles
Max Output
130 kW (174 hp)
Max Torque
325 Nm
Max Speed
Over 130 km/h (+80 mph)
Max Payload
1,000 kg (+2,200 lbs)
Max Towing Capacity
3.5t (+7,700 lbs)
Ground Clearance
210 mm
Wading Depth
600 mm
Starting Price (*Ex. VAT)
£59,995 ($81,000)
Isuzu D-Max EV electric pickup prices and specs
Isuzu’s electric pickup will be priced from £59,995 ($81,000), not including VAT. The double cab variant starts at £60,995 ($82,500). In comparison, the diesel model starts at £36,755 ($50,000).
The EV pickup will launch in extended and double cab variants with two premium trims: the eDL40 and V-Cross. Pre-sales will begin later this year with the first UK arrivals scheduled for February 2026. Customer deliveries are set to follow in March.
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In this photo illustration, Claude AI logo is seen on a smartphone and Anthropic logo on a pc screen. (Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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OpenAI and Anthropic continue to lead a fundraising bonanza in artificial intelligence, raising historic rounds and stratospheric valuations.
But when it comes to finding AI exits for venture firms, the market looks a lot different.
AI startups raised $104.3 billion in the U.S. in the first half of this year, nearly matching the $104.4 billion total for 2024, according to PitchBook. Almost two-thirds of all U.S. venture funding went to AI, up from 49% last year, PitchBook said.
The biggest deals follow a familiar theme. OpenAI raised a record $40 billion in March in a round led by SoftBank. Meta poured $14.3 billion into Scale AI in June as part of a way to hire away CEO Alexandr Wang and a few other top staffers. OpenAI rival Anthropic raised $3.5 billion, while Safe Superintelligence, a nascent startup started by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, raised $2 billion.
While Meta’s massive investment into Scale AI amounted to a lucrative exit of sorts for early investors, the overarching trend has been a lot more money going in than coming out.
In the first half, there were 281 VC-backed exits totaling $36 billion, according to PitchBook. That includes the roughly $700 million acquisition of EvolutionIQ, an AI platform for disability and injury claims management, by CCC Intelligent Solutions, and the public listing of Slide Insurance, which builds AI-powered insurance offerings for homeowners. Slide is valued at about $2.3 billion.
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“The dominant exit trend right now is frequent but lower-value acquisitions and fewer IPOs with significantly higher value,” said Dimitri Zabelin, PitchBook’s senior research analyst for AI and cybersecurity.
CoreWeave’s IPO, which took place at the very end of the first quarter, was the exception on the infrastructure side. The stock shot up 340% in the second quarter, and the company is now valued at over $63 billion.
Zabelin said the pattern of more investments in applications with smaller deals has been in place for the past year.
“Vertical solutions tend to plug more easily into existing enterprise gaps,” Zabelin said.
The acquisitions wave is being driven, in part, by what Zabelin calls bolt-on deals where larger companies buy smaller startups to enhance their own future valuations, hoping to enhance their value ahead of a future sale or IPO.
“That also has to do with the current liquidity conditions in the macro environment,” Zabelin said.
Outside of AI, activity is slow. U.S. fintech funding dropped 42% in the first half of the year to $10.5 billion, according to Tracxn. Cloud software and crypto have also seen sharp pullbacks.
Zabelin said IPO activity could pick up if economic conditions improve and if interest rates come down. Investors clearly want opportunities to back promising AI companies, he said.
“The appetite for AI, specifically vertical applications, will continue to remain robust,” Zabelin said.
— CNBC’s Kevin Schmidt contributed to this report.