Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Welcome to TC PM! Today we have the details on Amazon's new family of generative AI models and the rest of what was announced today at AWS re:Invent; we also get an update on Google's video-generation model and we learn about the fundraising struggles of a once-buzzy space startup. Blast off!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Frederic Lardinois/TechCrunch

⚙️ More models: Amazon's AWS launched a new family of multimodal generative AI models called Nova. Nova has four text-generating models, three of which are live today, in addition to photo- and video-generating models. Read more about Nova here and more coverage of AWS re:invent here

📺 Walmart TV: Retail giant Walmart has officially closed its acquisition of Vizio, which was announced back in February. Walmart scooped up the television maker in an all-cash deal that valued the company at $2.3 billion. Read more

📹 Google GenAI: Google's video-generation AI model Veo is getting in front of more users. The company announced today that customers using Google Cloud's AI development platform Vertex AI will also be able to use the tech in a private preview. Read more

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: SpinLaunch

🚀 SpinLaunch simmers: SpinLaunch used to draw a lot of buzz with its plans to build a kinetic launch system, but now it seems to have lost some of its shine. The company is looking to raise $25 million, which, if successful, would be quite lower than its last funding round. Read more

👔 ThredUp sheds some layers: Fashion resale marketplace ThredUp divested its European business to focus on its core U.S. market. The company had entered the region in 2021 with the acquisition of Remix. Read more

💻 Screen recording scraps: Lica, a startup founded by two former Microsoft employees, looks to use AI to help companies create tutorials and product videos out of the screenshots and screen recordings they already have but aren't using. This is a neat idea. Read more

🤩 Cameo targets creators: Cameo is very fun but has had a rough go of making its marketplace really work. Now the company is targeting creators with a new initiative called CameoX. Read more

🎮 Lenovo leak: Lenovo is working on a new handheld controller for PC gaming. While the tech hasn't been released yet, someone leaked images of the upcoming handheld, which lets us get a look at what's new. Read more

Around the web

😍 AI companions: There are several companies building platforms that allow users to have relationships with AI friends or lovers. The Verge interviewed more than a dozen folks who have used them and found they got more emotionally attached than they anticipated. Read more

🤝 Intel gathers intel: Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger retired from the company this week. Now that the company has started to look for a replacement, former board member Lip-Bu Tan is allegedly in the mix, according to Reuters, but the search won't be quick. Read more