Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Welcome to TC PM! Today we are looking into the early news coming out of Meta's Llama developer conference, like a preview of a new Llama API; we have the details on a startup helping cows produce less methane; and we've got the latest Spotify subscriber numbers. Turn it up!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Meta

🧐 Its own app: Meta is rolling out a stand-alone AI app that could help it better compete with other AI companies like Anthropic or OpenAI. Although, it's interesting to think of the use cases here for a Meta AI app considering Meta already has Meta AI baked into all of its products.

🧑‍🏫 Learn a new language: Google announced today that it is releasing three new AI experiments that use Gemini to help people learn new languages in a personalized way. The tool can be accessed through Google Lab and includes a variety of different languages.

✉️ Email drama: A court in India today directed the Indian government to ban encrypted email service Proton Mail in the country. This directive follows a legal complaint from a local law firm that had inappropriate emails sent to its associates and no way to find out who sent them.

A Message from HSBC Innovation Banking

HSBC helps evolectric transition vehicles to 100% electric

Evolectric makes it easy for owners to give their fleets a new lease on life. Discover how HSBC helps connect them to the right investors, resulting in an extended runway and growth plans for both domestic and international markets.

Watch Now

Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Amazon

🛰️ Hey, they made it: The first 17 satellites of Amazon's space-based internet program have made it into orbit. This initiative seems to clearly be looking to compete with Elon Musk's Starlink. Amazon plans to send more than 3,000 satellites to space for this initiative.

🦙 Lotta Llama news: At its LlamaCon AI developer conference today, Meta said its Llama AI model family has reached 1.2 billion downloads, a modest bump from the 1 billion the company reported a month ago. Meta also previewed an API for its Llama model family today.

🫢 Lawsuit time: Fashion startup CaaStle, whose board recently accused the founder of financial misconduct, is now facing two new lawsuits. One lawsuit is from P180, a vehicle it launched to invest in companies using CaaStle's tech, and another for EXP Topco, an apparel company.

🎶 Spotify is still growing: Spotify reported today that its premium subscriber base grew by 5 million in the first quarter, to 268 million, marking a 12% year-over-year increase. The company also reported a record-high quarterly operating income.

🐮 Moooooney: Cows produce a lot of climate-harming methane gas. Hoofprint Biome is a startup that is developing probiotics and enzymes for cows that change their microbiome in a way that is both beneficial to them and causes them to release less methane into the environment. Neat!

A Message from TechCrunch Events

Last week — buy one, get second 50% off to TC Sessions: AI

Last chance for Early Bird pricing to TechCrunch Sessions: AI! Buy one ticket, get the second 50% off — or go solo and save up to $210. Join us June 5 in Berkeley, California, for AI deep dives with leaders from DeepMind, Anthropic, Odyssey, OpenAI, Google Ventures, and more. Offer ends May 4 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Around the web

🪫 An AI conundrum: Donald Trump is pushing for more AI data centers to come online in the U.S. He's also pushing the country to focus less on renewable energy sources and more on fossil fuels. But these AI data centers won't be able to keep up without renewables.

⏪ TikTok turnaround: Why did Donald Trump reverse course on banning TikTok? The Verge argues that while Trump didn't like how the platform helped Joe Biden in 2020, MAGA-supporting TikTokers may have changed his mind.

Before you go

Image Credits: Amazon

💲A sale? Amazon announced that its annual Prime Day sale shopping event will be back this July. While Prime Day is generally very popular, it will be interesting to see the interest in this year's event, as tariffs will make items more expensive.