Monday, August 5, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we're feeling super inspired by a Sri Lankan founder's success story. We also have notes on Groq's new AI chips; TikTok getting investigated for COPPA compliance; a preventable data breach that resulted in 40M people's info getting stolen; why Bill Gates is keen on universities for startups; and an answer for all those Pelotons collecting dust. Let's go! — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: WSO2

1. From building a startup during a civil war to a $600M sale: Sanjiva Weerawarana is a Sri Lankan success story. He founded enterprise software firm WSO2 in 2005, got it close to $100 million in ARR as CEO, then sold it to private equity firm EQT for $600 million in May. Paul Sawers has an excellent feature on how he did it. Read More

2. Big money for chips: Groq, a startup developing chips that aim to run generative AI models faster than conventional processors, has raised $640 million, bringing its total money stack to $1 billion at a $2.8 billion valuation. Groq (not to be confused with Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok) claims its language processing units (LPUs) can run existing genAI models at 10x the speed and on a 10th of the energy. Read More

3. Tesla Dojo, explained: Elon Musk has been talking about Dojo being the key to Tesla's AI ambitions, like achieving self-driving cars and humanoid robots. But what even is Dojo, how far along is Tesla, how does Nvidia play into this, and what does it all mean for the carmaker? We've got you covered with an in-depth explainer. Read More

Morning must-reads

Image Credits: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg / Getty Images

🕳️ Berkshire Hathaway dumps Apple: Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway has cut its Apple holding by half to around $84.2 billion, sending shock waves across the stock market. Apple is still the firm's largest holding by far, even after Buffett already reduced its stake by 13% earlier this year, apparently for tax reasons. Read More

🚸 TikTok under scrutiny, again: Two federal agencies are suing TikTok and ByteDance for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The FTC and the DOJ say the companies failed to implement steps to stop children under 13 years of age from signing up to the platform without their parents' consent. Read More

🛑 Post mortem of a data breach: A cyberattack exposed the voter register records of 40 million UK citizens, and it was entirely preventable. A watchdog blames the Electoral Commission for a series of security failings that led to the theft, saying basic steps like effective security patching and password management would have prevented this breach. Read More

🎓 Bill Gates' recruitment strategy: Breakthrough Energy, Gates's climate tech organization, has a division devoted to early-stage startups, and it's scouring universities for promising founders. It can be a risk to support climate tech startups too early in the journey, but for those who can stomach the risk, the advantages are clear. Read More

🍎 OpenAI has built a tool to help teachers catch students cheating, but the company is reportedly debating whether to release it. The company told TC that the "text watermarking method" it's developing is "technically promising," but has some risks like "the potential to disproportionately impact groups like non-English speakers." Read More

🚲 This is how you benefit from others' products: Are you one of the thousands who bought an expensive Peloton during the pandemic that's now doubling as a clothes rack? If so, Trade My Spin might have an answer for you: The startup has essentially launched a logistics business to help people sell their used fitness equipment. I think it's great because have you ever tried to move one of those things? Read More

Around the Web

📉 Bitcoin takes a tumble: Recession fears have resulted in global sell-off of Bitcoin, which dipped to below $50,000, its lowest level since February, from close to $70,000 a week ago, reports CNBC. And because Bitcoin affects all of crypto, Ether's losses were even steeper. Read More

🧑‍⚖️ Elon Musk revives OpenAI lawsuit: Musk has long had a bone to pick with OpenAI, alleging that the latter's founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, breached the company's founding contract by putting commercial interests ahead of the public good. Musk withdrew the lawsuit seven weeks ago, but has now fired it back up with claims of racketeering and conspiring to defraud Musk, reports The New York Times. Read More

🚘 U.S. to bar Chinese software in vehicles: The Commerce Department is expected to propose barring Chinese software in autonomous and connected vehicles in the coming weeks, reports Reuters. The rule would not only ban Chinese-made software in vehicles with automated driving features, it would also ban AVs produced by Chinese companies from being tested on U.S roads. Read More

Before you go

Image Credits: Ken Thorsteinsson / Getty Images

🎾 Sports tech is getting better and better: Outdoor activities — from pickleball and golf to hunting and fishing — are having a moment, and the tech world has taken notice. Over the past few years, entrepreneurs have built SaaS software and AI-powered platforms to help people have fun outdoors, and VCs are just as excited: Investment into sports tech rose to $189.71 million in 2023, up 290% from 2019. Read More