Sunday, March 30, 2025

Image Credits: SOPA Images / Contributor / Getty Images

It's the end of an era for what many consider to be the first true corporate venture capital firm: Intel Capital announced plans this year to spin out from Intel.

To mark the occasion, Rebecca Szkutak spoke to the firm's vice president and senior managing director, Mike Rostick, who first joined back in 1999. He said plans to make Intel Capital a stand-alone firm started to become more concrete last fall: "We thought our track record merited attention from outside investors."

Other changes seem to be afoot, with four longtime managing directors recently leaving the firm — although an Intel Capital spokesperson said the departures weren't related to the spinout.

Weekend news and opinion

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

Africa's largest startups, based on valuation: With funding returning to pre-pandemic levels, Tage Kene-Okafor highlights Africa's most valuable startups — unicorns like Flutterwave, OPay, and Andela, as well as "soonicorns" like PalmPay and Moove.

Data centers love solar: In news that may reassure anyone worried about the climate impact of power-hungry AI, tech companies and data centers have announced 12 solar deals over 100 megawatts since the beginning of 2025. Tim De Chant rounds them up.

AT Protocol apps go beyond Bluesky: While Bluesky is by far the most prominent social app built on the open AT Protocol, it's not alone. Sarah Perez explains that other apps using the protocol run the gamut from photo- and video-sharing to alternative Bluesky clients to blogging.

A Message from TechCrunch

Final call to save up to $320 — TC All Stage offer ends tomorrow

Last chance to save — prices go up after tomorrow, March 31! Join 1,200+ founders, VCs, and scaling experts at TechCrunch All Stage on July 15 in Boston. Gain insights from breakouts, roundtables, and elite networking. Hear from leaders like Charles Hudson (Precursor Ventures) and Chris Gardner (Underscore VC). Secure your spot now at the lowest price!

What else we're reading 📗

We've all seen examples of AI-generated art and writing, but The New York Times is offering readers a new way to test how their own intelligence stacks up, with an escalating series of puzzles that are supposed to be easy for humans but tough for AI. (I skipped the puzzles because I don't want to know.)

Also, with the Trump administration's recent national security controversy, 404 Media writes about what to do when your threat model is being a moron.

A Message from TechCrunch

From seed to scale — TechCrunch All Stage unites founders and VCs

Ready to scale? Founders and VCs, don't miss TC All Stage on July 15 in Boston. Two stages focus on early-stage growth and post-Series A scaling, with breakouts, roundtables, and top-tier networking. Learn from leaders like Cathy Gao (Sapphire Ventures), Jahanvi Sardana (Index Ventures), and more. Save up to $320 with Early Bird pricing — ends March 31!

Before you go 🎬

Marvel did a five-hour, slow-motion livestream to reveal the cast of the next "Avengers" movie, but now you can watch the whole thing in just a minute and a half.

Featured jobs from CrunchBoard

Head of Strategic Finance, GITAI USA (Torrance, CA)

Senior Software Engineer, Source (Remote)

Engineering & Support Senior Director, AAOS (Rosemont, IL)

Research Systems Engineer - Computing Services, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA)

Machine Control Technician, Sinacola (Dallas, TX)

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.

Check out some of our other newsletters:
Startups Weekly
TechCrunch Events
TechCrunch Mobility

Got a tip?
Get in touch securely.

Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com

Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter.

Update your preferences here at any time

View this email online in your browser

By Rebecca Szkutak

Friday, March 28, 2025

Welcome to TC PM! We've got lots of stuff for you today: Elon Musk's xAI is buying X; OpenAI implemented some content moderation changes; there are rumblings in M&A land; and much more. Have a great weekend!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: SAUL LOEB / AFP / Getty Images

💰 X-ception: Elon Musk's xAI announced today that it bought Elon Musk's X platform in a deal that values X at $33 billion and the combination of the two entities at $80 billion. xAI's Grok LLM is already prominently featured on the social media platform.

🪽 I think I'll try driving Gravity: Lucid Motors plans on ramping up the deliveries of its Gravity SUV next month. The EV company started taking orders for the Gravity back in November and started sending the cars to employees, friends, and family in December.

⛔️ Oh, good: OpenAI didn't just release a new image generator in ChatGPT this week. The company also rolled back its content moderation policies, meaning you can use that image generator to create images involving public figures, hateful symbols, and racial features. What could go wrong?

A Message from Thoma Bravo

Thoma Bravo's Behind the Deal: Insights from top tech leaders

🎧 Thoma Bravo's award-winning Behind the Deal podcast takes you inside the world's largest tech buyout firm. Hear from CEOs at top tech companies—including Nasdaq, SailPoint, and Coupa—on the strategies behind building their businesses. Tune in for exclusive insights every Thursday on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 🎙️

Listen Here

Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Elvie

😬 Watch yourself: Would you ever go see a movie about the founding of your company with the founder? Mark Zuckerberg says that he took employees to see "The Social Network" when the film came out. Cringe?

🚀 More startup M&A: Willow, a startup that builds wearable breast pumps, acquired Elvie, a startup that also makes breast pumps and other similar products. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but both companies have raised more than $100 million in VC funding.

🩺 Healthcare AI: There are numerous startups looking to use AI to fix workflow burdens in the healthcare space. Taxo is one of them, but it takes a slightly different approach by tapping a reasoning model, a model that shows its work, to build trust with doctors.

🎼 Status songs: WhatsApp launched a new feature today to its Status updates, which resemble Instagram stories. Now users can include brief music clips. WhatsApp can't view the songs people post due to the platform's end-to-end encryption.

🎙️ Artificial Ghibli intelligence: Today's episode of Equity breaks down OpenAI's new image generator, CoreWeave's IPO, what went down at AI sales automation startup 11x, and more!

🎥 Zelda on the big screen: Nintendo announced that the live-action Zelda film will be released in March 2027. Nintendo announced the release date through its Nintendo Today app, which the company just launched yesterday.

A Message from TechCrunch

Last few days to save up to $320 on your TC All Stage ticket

Final days to save up to $320 to join the ultimate founder summit: TC All Stage. Connect with founders and VCs on July 15 in Boston for a full day of expert-led Breakouts, immersive Roundtables, & powerful networking. Learn from Charles Hudson (Precursor Ventures), Chris Gardner (Underscore VC), & more. Lock in the lowest price — offer ends March 31!

Around the web

💸 Tariff troubles: When President Donald Trump announced that his 25% tariff on imported vehicles would be going into effect, it was clear that this decision positively affects Tesla. It will negatively hurt auto manufacturing markets in countries like Mexico, where 80% of its vehicle exports head to the U.S.

👀 Frank found guilty of fraud: Charlie Javice, the founder of Frank, has been found guilty of a series of fraud-related charges that stemmed from inflated numbers at the time of the company's acquisition in 2021. She faces up to 30 years in prison.