Friday, November 22, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we've got details of Amazon's big bet on Anthropic, investigations into advertiser boycotts, and another huge raise by India's Zepto. We also have notes on the U.K.'s new crypto rules, the future of advertising, a hacktivist attack, AI avatars that can take your place at meetings, a new chip company going public, and more. Let's dive in! — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Richard Bord/WireImage / Getty Images

1. Welcome to the jungle, Claude: Amazon is pumping another $4 billion into Anthropic, bringing its total investment in the AI company to $8 billion over the last year. As part of the deal, Anthropic will make AWS the primary partner for training its genAI models. Read More

2. Friends in high places: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating a group of advertisers to determine whether they conspired to boycott "certain social media platforms" — read Elon Musk's X. Several advertisers left or significantly reduced their spending on X after Musk's takeover over concerns that the platform might fail to remove illegal or hateful content. Read More

3. Quick commerce's on fire: Indian quick-commerce startup Zepto has raised $350 million, its third round in six months. While such aggressive growth certainly signals investor confidence, it could also signal excessive cash burn. Read More

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Image Credits: IgorIgorevich / Getty Images

🔮 Crypto and chips: The U.K. is gearing up to release a regulatory framework to govern the cryptocurrency sector in early 2025, and an official confirmed yesterday that the regulations would include stablecoins and "staking" services. Read More

👾 What goes around… Hackers have breached an online course founded by self-described misogynist Andrew Tate, who is awaiting trial for allegations of human trafficking and rape. The hackers leaked data on close to 800,000 users and flooded the platform's chat with pride emojis. Read More

🛍️ More data = better ads? Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer predicts that advertisers will turn over more data than ever before to search engines, particularly AI chatbots, to give consumers more precise and detailed answers about their wares. Read More

🔋 Nuclear power's coming online: Kairos Power has gotten the go-ahead to start building two test reactors in Tennessee. The startup inked a deal with Google last month to provide 500 MW for its data centers. Read More

🧑‍⚖️ The point of anticompetition laws is to stop monopolies from hogging the entire market so that other companies can compete, leading to more innovation. And the U.K. has provisionally found that Apple's policies relating to mobile browsers on its devices, and its revenue-share agreement with Google, are holding back innovation in web browsers. Read More

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Around the web

🤖 Another way to skive off meetings: AI transcription startup Otter.ai is working on personalized AI avatars that will one day be able to attend online meetings on their owner's behalf. The Financial Times details the company's goals in a Q&A with CEO Sam Liang. Read More

💹 Chips in demand: Bain Capital-backed Kioxia Holdings plans to raise more than $740 million in its Tokyo IPO as demand for chips to power AI applications increases, reports the Wall Street Journal. The startup makes flash-memory chips used in smartphones and computer servers. Read More

🧍 Are you a sitter or a stander? This interactive data visualization story from The Pudding explores people who sit for a living and those who stand, crouch, crawl and lift. It's an interesting lens from which to explore the class divide in America. Read More

Before you go

Image Credits: Kazuhito Suwa

🚿 Wash the mind, wash the body: Some of the most fun, niche gadgets come out of Japan. Like this human washing machine contraption that can be best described as space shuttle meets sensory deprivation tank meets smart wearable. Read More