Wednesday, August 7, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we're studying a cool fintech acquisition, and wondering if X getting dragged into court in Ireland will finally force it to comply with EU GDPR laws. We also have notes on Rivian's continuing losses, an AI writing tool getting baked into WordPress; Lyft fighting surge pricing; and Elon Musk beefing with the U.K. prime minister. Let's dive in! — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Skuad founder Sundeep Sahi. Image Credits: Payoneer

1. Skuad gets a payday: Fintech startup Payoneer has acquired Skuad, a global HR and payroll startup, for $61 million in cash, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. Payoneer might even chuck in an additional $10 million if Squad meets its performance goals within the first 18 months of the acquisition, plus another $10 million in restricted stock units. Read More

2. An unlucky day for X: Ireland is taking X to court for using Europeans' data to train AI models – in particular Grok – without their consent. Europe is pretty serious about companies repurposing user data without their consent, and this appears to break some GDPR laws. The Irish regulator is seeking an injunction to stop X from doing that. Read More

3. Rivian takes more Ls: The EV startup reported that it lost $1.46 billion in the second quarter, even as it's been pushing out the last of its first-gen R1 trucks and SUVs in favor of newer, more cost-efficient versions. I bet Rivian is really hankering for that extra $5 billion it could get from a recently announced deal with VW. Read More

Sponsored By Bank of America

Tech trends investors want

From sustainability to AI, we gathered top tech leaders and asked them about emerging trends for 2024. If you want to grow your company, start here.

Learn More

Morning must-reads

Image Credits: Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for WIRED25

Airbnb to pilot co-hosting: Don't have time to manage the multiple properties you took from the housing market to rent to tourists? Airbnb has you covered: Later this fall, the company will connect homeowners who don't have time to manage their listings with those who do have the time, but don't have a home to offer on the platform. Read More

An AI writing tool for bloggers: Write Brief with AI is Automattic's new tool for WordPress that aims to help bloggers write better. The tool can generate text, help you tweak the tone of your writing, and even tells you when you're sounding less confident. Read More

Lyft's can of whoop ass: The ride-sharing company has been trying to temper the much-hated reality of surge pricing for the past year in an attempt to convert riders from Uber, and it appears to be making some progress. Now, it wants to double down with a new monthly subscription called Price Lock that will let commuters lock in reliable pricing rates. Read More

Microsoft backs open-source AWS alternative: Big tech likes new database tech, and Microsoft's investment into Neon is the latest example of that. Microsoft's venture arm, M12, led a $25 million investment in the startup, which is building an open-source alternative to AWS Aurora Postgres. Read More

Google Assistant gets a second chance: Advancements in generative AI have pretty much made smart assistants of yesteryear — like Google Assistant, Cortana, and Samsung's Bixby — obsolete. And Google is growing out of the ecosystem it built around its Assistant now that it's being forced into the AI race. Still, we might still see Google Assistant puttering around for a while on the company's Google Home products. Read More

Around the Web

Elon Musk picks a fight with the UK: The UK government is pissed off at Musk after he posted inflammatory tweets, including one that said "civil war is inevitable," even as anti-immigration demonstrations by far-right groups have devolved into violent rioting in parts of the country. The country's Justice Minister, Heidi Alexander, said Musk's jibes against prime minister Sir Keir Starmer were "totally unjustified" and called his comments "pretty deplorable," according to the BBC. Read More

Intel's lost opportunity: The chip giant was apparently in talks to acquire a 15% stake in OpenAI for $1 billion in 2017, according to Reuters. The AI company was a small, nonprofit back then, and Intel reportedly passed on the deal because it thought genAI wouldn't come to market anytime soon. Things would certainly have been very different for Intel now if it had made that deal – the company lost ground to Nvidia in the AI race, and recently reported worse-than-expected Q2 results. It's also laying off 15% of its employees. Read More

Disney doesn't like people sharing passwords: Following in Netflix's wake, Disney CEO Bob Iger has said the company will start cracking down on people who share their Disney streaming accounts outside their households as soon as September, The Verge reports. The company is also raising subscription prices. Read More

Before you go

Image Credits: Maya Watson and Lexi Nisita

Why?! not? A couple of former Clubhouse employees are taking a swing at a new social networking platform that's part messaging app, part networking app and part dating app, and they've just raised $1.65 million in a pre-seed round. Why?!'s founders apparently worked with mental health experts to help their app stand out from the pack. Read More