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In a twist that shocks completely nobody and thrills pyromaniacs who love seeing cash burn, Elon Musk’s latest enterprise, xAI, has snagged an informal $6 billion in funding. Valor, a16z, and Sequoia are stacking the cash on the xAI-shaped roulette desk, with Musk spinning the wheel.
Ivan ponders whether or not Musk’s newest market stab will lastly convey us an AI so superior, our puny human brains will likely be much more out of date than they already are because of his different wild tasks.
I feel it’s utterly bonkers. These buyers appear to overflow with money and are contemporary out of skepticism. I can solely think about the pitch: “Picture an AI so powerful, it makes HAL 9000 look like a Roomba.” And, naturally, they threw cash at it. As a result of, properly … Truthfully, I can’t see the logic.
What makes this notably nuts is that the $6 billion bonanza is simply the newest chapter in Musk’s epic saga of “how to get the world to fund my sci-fi fantasies.” The extra tales that come out about Musk, the extra you’d suppose folks would begin to hesitate earlier than investing. However apparently, that is why I’m a e-newsletter author and podcast host (we talked about this on Fairness as we speak as properly) and never a VC. I’d suppose twice earlier than betting on the man who gave us self-driving automobiles that miss out on fireplace vans and spacecraft that generally land but additionally generally explode in a fiery spectacle.
Right this moment is your final day to avoid wasting as much as $800 in your Disrupt go. Guide your early-bird go by 11:59 p.m. PT tonight!
Most attention-grabbing startup tales from the week
Welcome to the Wild, Wild West of fintech! Do not forget that shiny shiny star referred to as Synapse? Yeah, it supernova’d. The banking-as-a-service startup was a phase that appeared to be careening towards the stratosphere, and Synapse itself was backed by a16z — however that didn’t assist any. The corporate collapsed quicker than my New 12 months’s resolutions. With 10 million customers now left within the lurch and plenty of fintechs scrambling to choose up the items, it’s a full-blown disaster on the market. It’s like “Game of Thrones” however with extra spreadsheets and fewer dragons. Should you thought your week was tough, spare a thought for these caught attempting to entry their funds or save their jobs because of this mess. Buckle up — it will likely be a bumpy journey forward for fintech!
- Drama rides a motorbike: James Khatiblou, the 37-year-old proprietor and CEO of Onyx Motorbikes, handed away simply as his firm was circling the drain. With unpaid payments, an AWOL COO, indignant clients demanding refunds for delayed e-bikes from China, and two former shareholders battling for management over Onyx’s remaining belongings … It is a hell of a journey.
- Job cuts in automotive land: Lucid Motors is trimming the fats but once more, shedding 400 staff (6% of its workforce) simply in time for the launch of their first SUV. Apparently, they should “optimize resources.” CEO Peter Rawlinson believes a decrease headcount will assist ship the world’s greatest SUV … In the meantime, Fisker has laid off a whole bunch in a determined bid for survival. Staff bought the trace after they have been out of the blue informed to make money working from home — presumably so nobody may hear the collective sighs of despair throughout the all-hands assembly.
- Elevating money to avoid wasting money: Relay simply pulled off a $32.2 million Collection B funding spherical to assist small companies do extra than simply nervously refresh their financial institution balances. Their secret sauce? Specializing in the mom-and-pop outlets fairly than tech startups — take that, Silicon Valley!
Most attention-grabbing fundraises this week
Firefly, the cloud asset administration startup that’s all about simplifying your digital chaos with “infrastructure as code,” has snagged $23 million in funding. This comes after an unimaginable tragedy — co-founder CTO Joseph “Sefi” Genis was killed by Hamas at a music competition. Regardless of this, Firefly’s staff selected resilience over retreat and continued to develop their income fourfold in 2023. So principally, Firefly is now untangling cloud complexities and navigating by real-world turmoil like absolute champs.
- That’s flippin’ nice: Google simply dropped an informal $350 million into Flipkart, making it the newest VIP to again the Indian e-commerce powerhouse, which now has a valuation of $36 billion.
- You get a dinero! You get a dinero!: Sending a reimbursement residence simply bought an entire lot chattier! Félix Pago, the fintech darling that’s making remittances as simple as sending a WhatsApp, simply snagged $15.5 million in funding. Neglect downloading apps or navigating advanced interfaces; this startup is utilizing WhatsApp’s chatbot.
- A dictionary with a unicorn horn: Extra funding is being poured into startups targeted on AI. DeepL, which builds automated textual content translation and writing instruments that compete in opposition to the likes of Google Translate and Grammarly raised a further $300 million. It’s now valued at $2 billion.
Different unmissable TechCrunch tales…
Dreaming of tech IPO bonanzas in 2024? Nicely, get up and odor the elevated rates of interest! Regardless of Reddit, Astera Labs, Ibotta, and Rubrik managing to squeeze by the IPO door earlier this 12 months, it appears to be like like most startups are nonetheless caught at residence of their PJs. Plaid’s CEO declared they’re staying non-public for now, and Figma and Stripe are busy with tender affords like they’re internet hosting a bake sale as a substitute of prepping for an IPO. Databricks raised $500 million however isn’t feeling the general public market vibes both; perhaps subsequent 12 months they’ll really feel extra extroverted. And Canva? They could take so lengthy to go public that we’ll be designing newsletters straight from our mind implants by then. Keep tuned as TechCrunch continues to trace which startups will courageous the inventory market runway or keep hidden behind their enterprise capital curtains!
Extra prime tales:
- What’s occurring in messenger land: Meredith Whittaker, the president of Sign, has had it as much as right here with tech trade “frat boys” and their “dorm room high jinks.” At VivaTech in Paris, she didn’t maintain again on her considerations about all the pieces from AI energy grabs by U.S. corporations to the EU’s misguided makes an attempt at regulation.
- AI in your ears: Welcome to the battle of generative AI devices, now that includes Iyo’s GenAI earbuds! Humane and Rabbit R1 flopped more durable than a fish out of water, however Iyo thinks it will probably succeed the place they stumbled. Not like its predecessors’ weird lapel pins and overpriced handhelds that critics mentioned ought to’ve simply been apps, Iyo is betting on an already beloved type issue: Bluetooth earbuds.
- Dude, the place’s my pockets?: Is it a chook? Is it a airplane? No, it’s the Ledger Stax, lastly descending from the crypto heavens 18 months after its grand announcement. This new high-end {hardware} pockets options an E Ink show designed by iPod guru Tony Fadell — sure, they’re bringing again e-reader vibes on your crypto wants.
- Wait, Foursquare had 105 workers to put off?: Foursquare simply gave 105 staff the boot in a bid to “streamline” operations and put itself on firmer monetary footing. CEO Gary Little, who may as properly have hit ship after which vanished into skinny air, didn’t shed a lot gentle on what comes subsequent.
- Let me summarize that for you: It appears to be like like Apple is again to its previous tips, able to “sherlock” one other revolutionary app function. This time, it’s The Browser Firm’s Arc that’s within the crosshairs with its snazzy AI summarization instruments like “browse for me” and “pinch to summarize.” Apple’s rumored “smart recaps” in iOS 18 sound suspiciously related, doubtlessly turning Safari right into a one-stop store for AI-powered summaries of all the pieces from internet pages to missed notifications.