A UK AI data center startup raised $2 billion at a $14.6 billion valuation in March. Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg and former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg joined the board on the same day. The Guardian subsequently reported that major investment claims lacked substance, the promised UK supercomputer site was a scaffolding yard, and no contracts had been signed.

The hard truth: high-profile board appointments at pre-revenue companies are not governance. They are distribution.

The name on the board answers one question about who is being used to reach whom. It answers nothing about whether the business exists.

Angels who treat a famous name as diligence have replaced diligence with a press release.