Monday, August 19, 2024

Happy Monday everyone! I'm your guest writer again today. We are looking at AMD's massive acquisition, Ikea's expanding drone inventory, and how two car CEOs are looking at the future of the EV market. Let's dive in! — Dom

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Getty Images

1. Acqui-hires are not as bad as you think: Acqui-hires have been in the news a lot lately, most recently after Google used that strategy to bring on board AI chatbot Character.AI's company's co-founders and researchers. The practice has caused some debates, so TechCrunch's Marina Temkin looked into what the big fuss was about — and the resulting payday for founders. Read More

2. AMD steps up its AI infra capabilities: Chipmaker AMD is acquiring infrastructure and computing company ZT systems for a whopping $4.9 billion. AMD, one of Nvidia's top competitors, says it hopes the deal will give it deeper expertise in silicon systems and software design. The deal is expected to close early next year. Read More

3. X faces more challenges: X is closing down its Brazil operations amid a legal battle with the country, which was investigating the platform for disinformation and "digital militias." Brazilians who stan Twitter can relax, as the platform will still be available in the country, but the news is just another woe added to X's life under Elon Musk. Read More

A Message from Radar

Stop overpaying for Google Maps

Radar is the all-in-one, cost-effective alternative to Google Maps Platform. Save up to 90% on geocoding, autocomplete, routing, and base maps. Thousands of companies use Radar's location tracking SDKs and maps APIs, including Panera, DICK'S Sporting Goods, T-Mobile, Zillow and more.

See the full comparison and get a demo

Learn More

Morning must-reads

Image Credits: OpenAI

OpenAI's getting things right: OpenAI recently launched its Advanced Voice Mode feature, and our reporter Maxwell Zeff can't get enough of it. The feature makes ChatGPT more conversational and friendlier. Zeff asked the chatbot fun questions, like 'How would Obama order Taco Bell' — and found it "surprisingly joyful" to talk with. Read More

The EV market remains hot: Thomas Ingenlath, the CEO of EV maker Polestar, sat down with TechCrunch to chat about the future of the company ahead of the launch of its Polestar 3 car. Ingenlath compared the Polestar 2 to a "European sedan," and said the new car will be much bigger to suit families. But that isn't all the company has in store. Read More

More EV news: Speaking of car CEOs, Timo Resch, the head of Porsche North America, also sat down with TechCrunch to talk about the car makers' big bets on the EV market and its new electric car, Macan. Read More

More text-to-speech apps: ElevenLabs has officially made its text-to-speech app, Reader, available across the globe, supporting 32 languages. The app lets users upload various texts — like articles and e-books — and listen to them in different languages and voices. Read More

Shake-ups at Amazon India: Amazon might make its Amazon Pay a separate, stand-alone app in India, sources tell TechCrunch. Currently, Amazon Pay is housed within the company's e-commerce app. The company has thought about decoupling the two services for some time now, as some Amazon executives believe that making Amazon Pay a separate app will help it get more attention. Read More

Funding updates from Africa: Waza, a payment platform backed by Y-combinator, has emerged from stealth with an $8 million seed round. The startup helps African businesses and traders better manage and pay suppliers. Read More

Funding updates from Europe: Speaking of funding rounds, Root, which helps businesses collect data on their agricultural supply chains, has raised an €8 million seed round. The company is only available in Germany right now, but it plans to expand across Europe this year. Read More

Some tech hiring hope: Tech layoffs have been brutal, but there are indeed some companies looking to hire — TechCrunch has compiled a list of the fintech companies looking to hire in this rough market. Read More

Ikea on the offense: Ikea is making more drones! Inventory drones, that is. The furniture giant operates massive warehouses that can be a lot for humans to manage, so the idea is that inventory drones can provide efficient updates and reach heights that even robots can't. Read More

Around the web

A slump for U.S. startups: It's still a tough time to be a startup. According to new Carta data, startup failures jumped 60% over the past year, with the company saying that more than 250 of its venture-backed clients have gone bust in H1'2024 alone. Bankruptcy rates are also up. The Financial Times has the story of what is happening and what it all means. Read More

Lime scoots into new territory: Lime is launching in Japan, where the e-scooter market is expanding fast, Bloomberg reports. Lime was in talks with the local government for years on regulations, which included modifying the e-scooters. Its main competition there is local company, Luup. Read More

Silicon Valley's crumbling DEI efforts: Organizations that promised to make tech more inclusive, like Girls in Tech and Women Who Code, have shuttered this year as donor money dried up, the Washington Post reported. Efforts to increase diversity have been under attack, becoming a political issue that has divided big names in America. Read More

Before you go

Are you watching HBO's latest hot show "Industry"? If not, now is the time to. This season sees the characters at fictional bank Pierpoint wrestle with trying to take an ESG company to IPO. It's full of founder meltdowns, shady valuations, and some real-life investor cameos. Read More