Monday, June 2, 2025

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we're looking at the effects of AI on the workforce and traditional businesses, as well as Sam Altman's role leading OpenAI. We've also got Scale AI doing an acqui-hire; Elon Musk's new priorities; Bluesky's reach; xAI's dirty data; Samsung mulling a Perplexity investment, and more. Let's go!

TechCrunch Top 3

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1. Your new coworker: Startups are giving their AI tools human names and job titles, not just to build trust, but to soften the blow as these tools quietly replace real workers. But as layoffs rise and CEOs predict massive white-collar job losses, the charm feels less like clever branding and more like corporate gaslighting. Read More

2. Roll-up reboot: Early AI backer Elad Gil is now eyeing the next big play: using generative AI to supercharge traditional businesses like law firms, then scaling them via roll-ups. The pitch? Own the asset, slash costs with AI, boost margins, and repeat. It's PE meets LLMs. Read More

3. The Optimist, a Sam Altman biography by WSJ's Keach Hagey traces the OpenAI CEO's rise from Midwest coder to a polarizing figurehead of AI. Hagey called OpenAI's governance structure "fundamentally unstable" and warns it may scare off future investors, even as Altman leans into his dealmaking prowess. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

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🎩 Pesto Change-o! Scale AI just scooped up the team behind Pesto AI, a remote dev-recruiting startup co-founded by Swiggy's Rahul Jaimini. As Pesto shuts down, co-founder Ayush Jaiswal heads to Scale as head of growth. Read More

🚀 SpaceX, not politics: Elon Musk's CBS interview took a tense turn when he was asked about Trump-era policies – a topic he dodged, insisting the focus stay on "spaceships." Still, he weighed in on criticism of DOGE, saying that it's become a scapegoat for federal cuts he doesn't control. Read More

💙 Migration, not mutiny: A Pew Research analysis shows that nearly 69% of major left-leaning influencers have joined Bluesky since the 2024 election, compared to just 15% of their conservative counterparts. Still, most haven't ditched X, where the majority remain active. Read More

😡 Dirty data: The NAACP is demanding an immediate shutdown of Elon Musk's xAI supercomputer site in South Memphis, citing unpermitted turbine use and hazardous emissions in a historically Black neighborhood. In a letter, the group accused local authorities of enabling environmental harm in Boxtown. Read More

🤝 Closing in: Samsung is reportedly about to close an investment in Perplexity. The deal would also see Perplexity's app and assistant pre-installed on its phones and its search features built into the default browser. That kind of arrangement with Apple came back to bite Google in the butt, so we'll be watching this closely. Read More

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Around the Web

🫧 House of cards: Blackstone says data centers are one of its "highest conviction investments," according to a New York Times article that delves into how private equity firms are using their clients' money to buy and build data centers to fuel the AI boom. Read More

🤳 AI-era exit? OnlyFans is in talks to be sold to an investor group for around $8 billion. VC Jared Carmel posits the selloff – when OnlyFans is at its peak valuation – comes as AI generation tech like Google's Veo 3 threaten to disrupt the company's business model. Carmel goes further and asks if Veo 3, and other tech like it, is fueling the Dead Internet Theory. Read More

Before You Go

📺 Tudum, tadah! Netflix turned up the hype at its annual Tudum event, livestreamed on the platform for the first time and drawing 9,500 fans IRL. Highlights included Lady Gaga joining "Wednesday," a three-part finale plan for "Stranger Things 5," and a November release date for Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein." Read More

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By Anthony Ha

Sunday, June 1, 2025

Image Credits: TechCrunch/Bryce Durbin

A U.K. startup called Space Forge aims to make chip materials in space, because crystals grown in space should have fewer defects.

That might sound like science fiction, but Space Forge has raised a $30 million Series A led by NATO Innovation Fund, and Northrop Grumman has already signed up to be one of its partners. CEO Joshua Western said the company's approach stands "on the shoulders of about 50 years of research."

Keep reading to see what else TechCrunch is covering this weekend.

Weekend news and opinion

Image Credits: Meta

How to use Meta's Edits app: Facebook's parent company recently released an app designed to challenge ByteDance's video editor CapCut. This guide walks you through everything you need to know to use it.

AI really is speeding things up: At least, that's true according to VC Mary Meeker. She just released the first edition of her trends report in more than half a decade, in which she argued that AI is powering a tech revolution unlike any before it.

DOGE damage includes rats and roaches: The chief executive of the United States Institute of Peace said in a sworn statement that Elon Musks' Department of Government Efficiency left the institute's headquarters full of water damage, rats, and cockroaches.

What else we're reading 📗

Bloomberg's Dave Lee examines the recently announced Meta-Anduril deal, arguing that it reflects broader shifts in Silicon Valley, with Facebook's parent company crossing what once seemed like a red line around military work. Plus, it means there's finally a use case for the metaverse.

Also, The New Yorker's Joshua Rothman argues that there are two paths forward with artificial intelligence: remaining passive or asserting control.