Thursday, October 24, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we've got notes on a top VC firm raising billions and billions; how Tesla's Cybertruck showed everyone it has fans too; and why the secondary market remains a viable avenue for fundraising. We've also got details of Perplexity's new Mac app; a cool startup pivot story; long overdue child protection reforms at Roblox, and more. Let's go! — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

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1. General Catalyst rakes it in: The VC firm has raised $8 billion to invest in AI, defense and intelligence, climate, energy, industrials, healthcare and fintech startups in the U.S., Europe and India. Read More

2. Cybertruck FTW: Tesla's Cybertruck was somehow the third best-selling EV in the U.S., beating out the Ford Mach-E and every non-Tesla EV. Not my taste, personally, but it speaks to Tesla's brand power. Read More

3. Who needs a traditional exit plan? Second-hand fashion marketplace Vinted has secured a new valuation of around $5.4 billion after it closed a secondary share sale worth $367 million. In this dry IPO market, secondaries really appear to be popping off. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

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💻 Going native: Perplexity has launched a Mac app, joining the ranks of similar AI chat apps ChatGPT and Quora's Poe. Perplexity's app lets you use keyboard shortcuts to quickly run searches, and even supports voice commands. Read More

🧑‍⚖️ Intel gets off with a warning: The EU's attempt to pose a $1.45 billion antitrust fine on Intel is now history after a top EU court decided to uphold a judgment in favor of the chipmaker. That said, the ruling confirmed Intel's "naked restrictions" were unlawful. Read More

💸 Pivots work: Upflow originally focused on managing invoices. Now, it's changing its stance to become a B2B payment platform with its own payment gateway. CEO Alexandre Louisy said his "vision has always been that the real problem is payment methods." Read More

🚗 Robotaxi dreams: Elon Musk claimed Tesla is already testing a ride-hail service that uses its robotaxis with employees in the Bay Area. Only thing is, the DMV told me last week that Tesla hasn't used its "drivered testing permit" (used for testing AVs with a driver behind the wheel) since 2019. Read More

🚀 Blasting off: The Space Development Agency has picked 19 companies to compete for future defense contracts. Each company will get $20,000 to cover overheads as they bid on future prototype missions to support a massive satellite constellation that can track missiles and other wartime activities. Read More

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Around the Web

🫣 Everyone cares about the US: Microsoft has warned that Russia, Iran and China are all targeting the U.S. elections, Wired reports. Microsoft also found that the attackers will work to stoke doubts about the integrity of the election in its aftermath. Read More

🚸 Protect the kids: Bloomberg reports that Roblox is working on reforms to protect kids under 13. The move comes after a slew of alleged child abusers using the service were arrested. Now, parents will be able to monitor their child's activity on Roblox. Read More

🤗 Open up for a hug: Hugging Face is releasing a new open-source tool called HUGS (Hugging Face for Generative AI Services) through Amazon, Google, and Digital Ocean's cloud computing services to help lower the cost of building chatbots and other AI systems, reports Reuters. Read More

Before You Go

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📉 Down and to the right: X's revenue in India fell 90% to $2.51 million in the financial year ended March from $24.7 million a year earlier. Musk had previously identified India as a key market for Twitter, but looks like that was wishful thinking. Read More