Tuesday, April 8, 2025

Welcome to TC PM! Today we look at an EV startup Jeff Bezos is backing; we dig into Donald Trump's executive order regarding data centers and coal-produced power; and we learn of a new development at Waymo. Let's go!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Sean O'Kane / TechCrunch

🤫 Secret slate: Slate Auto is an EV company looking to build an affordable two-seat electric pickup truck for around $25,000. The company might start production next year and has quietly amassed a sizable amount of capital from people like Jeff Bezos.

👋 Hello, hardware: IBM announced the next iteration of its mainframe hardware today. IBM z17 can run more than 250 AI use cases and can run more inferences a day, while using less energy than its predecessor, z16.

⚡️ Throwback! Donald Trump plans to make it easier for data centers to turn to coal for their energy demands. Seems a bit ironic to power AI data centers — AI has been dubbed the greatest tech revolution since the Industrial Revolution — with the same power source as the actual Industrial Revolution.

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Zoox

🎥 Bright lights, big city: Amazon's autonomous vehicle division Zoox is heading to Hollywood, with a small fleet of vehicles for testing. The company hopes to be able to offer public rides in Las Vegas and San Francisco later this year.

🤑 Funds for fintech: Earned wage access facilitators can sometimes take advantage of the population they are trying to serve through predatory terms or conditions. Rain looks to do things differently by giving people access to their wages early, through their employer, for just a small fee.

🪳 Squashing a bug: Google released an update for Android yesterday that is meant to fix two zero-day flaws that were actively being compromised by hackers. The company plans to push the source code needed to fix these vulnerabilities within 48 hours.

🐺 Dire wolf decacorn: Colossal Biosciences, the de-extinction company, has claimed it used its tech to bring dire wolves back after they've been extinct for 12,000 years. Not everyone is on board with calling this a scientific breakthrough, and it makes us wonder, does this milestone justify the company's lofty valuation?

💻 AI for good: Nonprofit Sage Future launched an experiment to see how different AI models would raise money for charity. The models weren't wildly successful, but Sage director Adam Binksmith said the test gives them a better feel for what AI agents can and can't do in this space.

Around the web

🔊 Testing, testing: Products undergo a lot of testing, including for how loud they are. The Verge has a fascinating look at a lab that helps companies determine the sound their products make from the inside of an unused nuclear power plant.

💰 Nvidia's tariffs playbook: Stephen Witt's book on Nvidia and its CEO Jensen Huang is out this week. Witt caught up with Rest of World to talk about how the company is navigating tariffs and the growing geopolitical tensions.