Thursday, May 1, 2025

Welcome to TC PM! Today we learn that WhatsApp now has more than 3 billion monthly users; we have the latest in the court battle between Epic Games and Apple; and we dig into some new features for Claude users.

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto / Getty Images

🙀 Whoa, WhatsApp: Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp now has more than 3 billion monthly users, Mark Zuckerberg noted on the company's Q1 earnings call yesterday. The company hit 2 billion monthly users in 2020.

🤩 Written in the stars: Data movement platform Fivetran acquired data movement platform Census, which will allow Fivetran to offer end-to-end data movement. Fivetran CEO George Fraser told TechCrunch that they've known the Census team for over a decade and this deal seemed like fate.

🔌 Get connected! Anthropic launched a new way for users to connect apps to its AI chatbot Claude. The company also announced expanded "deep research" capabilities that allow Claude to search the web, enterprise accounts, and more.

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Neo

🔎 How a VC vets: Ali Partovi, the co-founder and CEO of startup accelerator Neo, is on today's episode of StrictlyVC Download to talk about his investing philosophy and the traits he looks for when trying to spot future tech billionaires.

🧑‍⚖️ An epic court battle: Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is not happy with Apple. She released an 80-page decision today that said Apple defied court orders set in the original case between Apple and Epic Games. We've got the highlights for you.

🥊 The girls are fighting: AI startup Anthropic came out in support of export restrictions for U.S. AI chips yesterday. Today, Nvidia is striking a very different tone and telling the AI startup it should focus on innovating instead of spreading "tall tales" about AI chip smuggling. Spicy!

🤖 Expanded AI: Google is expanding access to its AI Mode, an experimental feature that allows users to ask complex questions to dig deeper into a topic in Search. One new functionality: People will be able to pick up where they left off on a search.

🎮 In this economy? Microsoft's Xbox is getting more expensive. Consoles are expected to increase in price by $80 to $100 each while controllers and some games will also get more expensive. Microsoft didn't say why they were raising prices but, I mean, we all might have a hunch.

A Message from TechCrunch Events

Greece's prime minister joins StrictlyVC in Athens

StrictlyVC lands in Athens on May 8 — our first event in Greece! Prime minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis joins Europe's tech leaders, like Dimitrios Kottas (Delian Alliance Industries), Haris Pylarinos (Hack the Box), and more, to talk about Greece's tech momentum. Join the conversation and build meaningful connections here.

Around the web

💬 Oh, come on: Mark Zuckerberg thinks that we don't have enough real-life friends and should supplement those connections with chatbots. He also cautioned against AI therapy apps despite Meta's own products looking to perform similar tasks.

💰 Cash for creators: Microsoft announced today that it will begin sharing ad revenue with creators on LinkedIn. This is good because creators should get paid for their content. I can't wait to see a post on what this news taught someone about investing in B2B SaaS.

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By Rebecca Bellan

Thursday, May 1, 2025

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we have a piece on authoritarianism seeking to crush entrepreneurial spirit; how Microsoft's Phi 4 models stack up; and Aurora's commercial autonomous trucking debut. We've also got World's newest eye-scanning device; Meta's monetary expectations for genAI; Epic Games' win; AI agents that shop for you, and more. Let's go! – Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

1. Fight the power: Minsk-based startup hub Imaguru has been behind some of Eastern Europe's best tech success stories, raising more than $100 million and fostering over 300 startups. Now, its founders have been sentenced to a combined 23 years in prison by Belarusian authorities, who have declared their work "extremist." Read More

2. Small but powerful: The latest of Microsoft's Phi family of small models, Phi 4, are apparently good enough to compete with far larger models. The most capable of the bunch is even competitive with OpenAI's o3-mini on at least one benchmark. Read More

3. Seeking that first-mover advantage: Aurora Innovation has launched its first commercial, fully driverless trucking service in Texas. It's also the first time such a service has been launched on U.S. public roads. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

Image Credits: Tomohiro Ohsumi / Getty Images

🤖 Are you sure you're not a robot? Sam Altman-backed Tools for Humanity has unveiled a mobile device that can determine the difference between a human and an AI agent. The device apparently scans your eyeball and gives you a unique identifier on a blockchain that you can use to verify that you're a real person. Read More

❓ Tesla's Tim Cook moment: Tesla's board reportedly began quietly searching for Elon Musk's potential successor a month ago amid protests, plummeting sales, and shrinking profits due to Musk's cavorting in Washington. Read More

🤑 But how much in losses? Meta expects its generative AI products to rake in revenue of up to $3 billion in 2025 and up to $1.4 trillion by 2035. That said, the company's AI budget could exceed $1 billion this year, and it plans to spend $60 billion to $80 billion on data centers. Read More

🏆 Score! In a win for Epic Games, a judge ruled that Apple was in "willful violation" of a 2021 injunction that banned the company from imposing anticompetitive pricing. That means Fortnite might return to the U.S. iOS App Store as early as next week. Read More

☄️ Super Nova: Amazon has released what it says is its most capable AI model yet, Nova Premier. Available on Amazon Bedrock, the model can process text, images, and videos (but not audio), and is said to excel at "complex tasks." Read More

🛍️ My worst nightmare: Credit card giants Visa and Mastercard have both announced new products that would give AI agents the ability to shop online for customers. Mastercard claimed its agent could "proactively curate a selection of outfits and accessories from…online retailers" for a 30-year-old planning her birthday "based on her style, the venue's ambience, and weather forecasts." Read More

A Message from TechCrunch Events

Last days — Buy 1, 2nd 50% off to TC Sessions: AI

Last chance for Early Bird pricing to TechCrunch Sessions: AI! Buy 1 ticket, get the 2nd 50% off — or go solo and save up to $210. Join us June 5 in Berkeley for AI deep dives with leaders from DeepMind, Anthropic, Odyssey, OpenAI, Twelve Labs, and more. Connect with other AI leaders in unmatched networking. Offer ends May 4 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Around the Web

🚀 Not all copying is bad: A new fintech called Dub has raised $30 million to build out its technology that helps users copy trades from financial influencers and investors, reports Business Insider. Is there a Nancy Pelosi tracker on there? Because if so, I'm in. Read More

🏑 Rewriting the playbook: The Financial Times has an opinion piece exploring how Chinese companies like Tencent are changing the game for AI valuations and proving that vertical integration – a strategy pursued by Elon Musk's xAI – is no longer a competitive advantage. Read More

Before You Go

🎥 Fantasy movie league: Fantasy sports has been a thing for years, letting fans live out their dreams of managing teams. MoviePass wants to bring that idea to Hollywood with Mogul, a daily fantasy entertainment platform that lets movie enthusiasts act as studio heads. Read More