Sunday, January 26, 2025

Image Credits: Eric Lee/Bloomberg / Getty Images

More AI companies are spending more money to influence federal lawmakers, according to data from Open Secrets.

Kyle Wiggers reports that 648 companies spent money on AI lobbying in 2024, compared to 458 in 2023. Among the major players, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere spent a total of $2.7 million — not much compared to larger tech industry lobbying, but four times as much as they spent in 2023.

These numbers reflect both the growth of the AI industry and increasing regulatory activity. The Brennan Center tracked 90 pieces of AI-related congressional legislation in the first half of 2024, plus over 700 laws proposed at a state level.

Keep reading to see what else TechCrunch is covering this weekend.

Weekend news and opinion

Image Credits: Getty Images under a GEN AI Base20K license

It could be another brutal year of startup shutdowns: According to Carta, 966 startups shut down in 2024, compared to 769 in 2023. And Mary Ann Azevedo reports that we are likely to see more shutdowns in the first half of 2025 — but at least there could be a gradual decline for the rest of the year. Read more

Open source social media developer takes to Kickstarter: Daniel Supernault, who's built open source alternatives to Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp, is turning to crowdfunding to pay for further development and hiring. As Sarah Perez writes, these apps aim to expand the "fediverse" and offer an alternative for anyone disenchanted with the dominant social apps. Read more

Stargate's data centers might be powered by solar and batteries: Tim De Chant looks at new reporting around the $100 billion joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, building data centers that will apparently be powered (at least in part) by solar and batteries. That could be particularly crucial given projections that 50% of new data centers could be underpowered by 2027. Read more

X's vertical video feed goes global: Just a few days after X rolled out a vertical video feed to U.S. users, Jagmeet Singh reported that the feature has appeared in India, Australia, and some European markets. Read more

What else we're reading

📗 Brazil's big AI regulation push has stalled, raising questions about how countries outside the West will handle the tech. Meanwhile, Big Tech companies in the U.S. are lobbying abroad and being welcomed with open arms. Rest of World has more

📕 Also, Spyglass' M.G. Siegler has questions about Stargate. Read more