Thursday, November 21, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we're looking at Wiz's latest acquisition, OpenAI's whoopsie-daisy, and Nvidia's defense of its moat. We also have more funds for the nuclear and travel sectors, another cloud-based acquisition, fun new ways for the government to spy on you, and more. Let's jump in! — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Ben Hakim under a license.

1. Shoot for the moon: After turning down Google's $23 billion offer earlier this year, cybersecurity startup Wiz is now making some buys of its own. It is buying Dazz to expand its reach in cloud security, and sources tell TechCrunch the deal was worth $450 million. Read More

2. What does this button do? Lawyers representing The New York Times and The Daily News, which are suing OpenAI alleging copyright infringement, are saying that OpenAI engineers accidentally deleted potentially crucial evidence that they spent weeks collecting. Read More

3. Is Nvidia's moat at risk? A new trend for improving LLMs involves giving them more time to "think" through questions so they can provide better answers. Some investors are wondering if Nvidia's older chips will be up to the task. Read More

A Message from Silicon Valley Bank

Series A: 4 Ways to Build a Strong Relationship with Your Lead Investor

Get practical advice on how to get the most out of your Series A investor and venture capital firm to drive your startup's success.

Image Credits: Nitat Termmee / Getty Images

✈️ Have money, will travel: Travel B2B startup Lighthouse has just raised a ton of money in the latest signal that the travel industry is on the up and up. The startup provides data analytics for hotels and others in the hospitality industry, and it just raised $370 million at a valuation of $1 billion. Read More

💵 The downside of digital lending: DC's attorney general is suing instant payday loan fintech Earnin, alleging the company had deceptive marketing and provided illegal high interest loans. Read More

🍩 Nuclear doughnut: Tokamak Energy is the latest startup to get a slice of the nuclear funding pie. The company has raised $125 million to continue refining its squeezed-doughnut approach to fusion power. Read More

☁️ In the cloud, we all fam: Cloud giant Snowflake is acquiring Datavolo, a startup that manages data pipelines. Datavolo's tech might help Snowflake replace single-use data connectors with flexible pipelines so they can move data from cloud and on-premise sources to Snowflake's cloud. Read More

🎬 And… scene! Tubi, the free ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox, has unveiled a new feature that lets people see and browse short clips from over 250,000 TV shows and movies. It's called "Scene" and the feature puts Tubi somewhere between rivals like Roku and short-form video platforms like TikTok. Read More

A Message from Asahi Group Holdings

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Join "The Challenge" by Asahi Group Holdings and collaborate on seven sustainability themes, from sustainable packaging to renewable energy. Successful scaleups and startups will gain access to Asahi's network, insights, and tools, with potential to form long-term commercial relationships. Apply on F6S by Nov. 29 to help shape a sustainable future.

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Around the web

👀 Prepare to be spied on: The New Yorker has a piece detailing the tech the Trump administration might use to spy on Americans. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement department has a $2 million contract with Paragon, which makes the Graphite spyware that's designed to breach encrypted-messaging apps like Telegram and Signal. Read More

🪑 X loses another executive: Nick Pickles (no relation to Tommy Pickles) has now become part of the X-odus. Pickles used to head global affairs at X, and now he's jumping over to serve as chief policy officer at Sam Altman's Tools for Humanity, reports Reuters. Read More

💸 All in or all out: The Financial Times has a profile of Thrive Capital, the venture firm founded by Josh Kushner that's invested over $1 billion in OpenAI. Kushner's strategy appears to be simple: "Get close to founders, remain loyal through crises and concentrate funds in a small number of companies." Read More

Before you go

Image Credits: Minecraft

🫣 Is Gen Z okay? Get a load of this TikTok trend called "PDF to Brainrot": Students are uploading texts they need to study and automating a voice to read it to them over "oddly satisfying" videos, like ASMR clips or gameplay footage of Minecraft. Read More