Techcrunch blog!: Another top Amazon unit exec leaves

Monday, December 11, 2023

In today's top story, Manish reports that Amazon loses a second AWS India and South Asia top executive. Vaishali Kasture was in the role for less than a year. Get the scoop.

Meanwhile, venture capitalists continue to pour hundreds of millions into artificial intelligence. Romain covers Mistral AI's $415 million funding round that brings its valuation to $2 billion. The Paris-based company is an OpenAI rival working on foundational models. Read more.

And Carly writes about another healthcare data breach. This time it involves U.S. healthcare giant Norton, which confirmed that hackers stole millions of patients' data during a ransomware attack. Learn more.

Image Credits: Getty Images

More top reads

TikTok duet: TikTok plans to invest $1.5 billion in GoTo's Indonesia e-commerce business. Meanwhile, the social media giant becomes the first non-game app to reach $10 billion in consumer spending.

Can Tesla block resales?: The vehicle maker is definitely trying to in the form of a $50,000 threat to Cybertruck resellers. Read more.

Who will reign supreme?: The U.S.–China tech war is heating up over electric vehicle battery dominance. Here's what's at stake.

M&A: We've got two acquisitions for you today: Docker acquires AtomicJar, a testing startup that raised $25 million in January. And PwC is acquiring Surfaceink, the hardware designer that was once a close partner of Apple's.

Your invitation is in the email: Arc browser launches its Windows client in beta. Check it out.

Personnel party: After a yearlong search, Strava appoints YouTube exec Michael Martin as its new CEO. Meet Michael.

Guess who's back? Back again: It's been a wild weekend for Beeper Mini. Late last week, Apple cut off the company, which was reverse-engineering iMessage for Android users. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren was paying attention and called out Apple for doing that. Well, today, Beeper Mini is back in operation.

Getting a charge: Vammo, which just raised $30 million in new funding, aims to scale e-motorcycle battery swapping across Latin America. Read more.

Everything in order: With regulation looming, Citrusx helps ensure AI models are in compliance. It is also now flush with $4.5 million.

X marks the Spaces: Elon Musk says X is bringing video to Spaces soon. And guess who's been allowed back on X?

Tumblr somersaults: Tumblr's parent says plans for a "fediverse" integration are still in the works. And that's not all.

What's eating you?: I take a look at venture capital investment into the food tech industry. No surprises, there is still a decline.

Revel in the rivalry: With Shein going public and Temu seeing massive revenue results, Alex says we should all be paying more attention to the Pinduoduo-Alibaba rivalry. Read more. (TC+)

Weekend warriors you may have missed:

The possibility of regulation hangs on the horizon over generative AI (TC+)

SumUp taps €285M more in growth funding to weather the fintech storm

Deal Dive: Making the clean energy transition, well, cleaner (TC+)

Do you believe in job after job? (TC+)

Image Credits: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

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On the pods

Today on Equity, the end of tech earnings is in sight as Adobe and Oracle report this week. Elsewhere, Mistral raises again while the EU gets its regulatory plan in place for AI, TikTok loves e-commerce, and fintech is far from dead. Listen here.