Thursday, January 30, 2025

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we're looking at Meta's vow to keep throwing money at AI, the danger of outdated versions of WordPress, and Elon Musk's promises for Tesla self-driving. We've also got news on funding for hot startups in fintech and data analytics, SoftBank's potential investment into OpenAI, advancements in quantum and supercomputing, and the contentification of Trump's administration. Let's go! — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg / Getty Images

1. I know what I'm doing: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn't seem to be too bothered by DeepSeek's popularity, saying on the company's first quarter results call yesterday that Meta will spend "hundreds of billions of dollars" more on AI. Read More

2. Beware WP malware: Hackers have been exploiting outdated versions of WordPress and the hosting platform's plug-ins. They've been altering websites to trick visitors into downloading and installing malware that can steal passwords and other sensitive information from Windows and Mac machines. Read More

3. Set your calendars: Elon Musk has said Tesla will launch a robotaxi service in Austin this June, and the fleet will be all owned by Tesla itself. These won't be the Cybercabs, though, but some self-driving Model Ys and Model 3s. Read More

A Message from Masters of Scale

Masters of Scale Summit: Where leaders shape the future

Masters of Scale Summit, presented in alliance with Capital One Business, returns to SF this Oct 7–9. Summit brings together fast-scaling leaders with speakers like Bret Taylor & Brian Chesky to drive innovation and shape the future of business. Sign up for priority access to unlock curated Summit highlights, and fast-track your application.

Morning must-reads

Image Credits: Swan

🦢 Swan Noir: French startup Swan helps companies offer financial products at scale, like physical corporate cards that work with Apple and Google Pay. It's become a favorite at several fast-growing companies, and now Swan has tacked on $44 million to its Series B off the back of that success. Read More

🏀 One shot, one opportunity: SoftBank is reportedly in talks to invest $25 billion in OpenAI in a larger partnership that could see that investment tick up to $40 billion. It would make SoftBank OpenAI's largest single backer, surpassing Microsoft. Read More

🤑 Will invest for food: 8VC, a venture firm led by Palantir founder Joe Lonsdale, has its hat out to collect $1 billion for its sixth fund. That's a tall order, and nearly 14% more than the Austin firm's previous fund. Read More

🩸 If Nosferatu made ransomware: Blood donation nonprofit New York Blood Center is experiencing service disruptions after it was hit with a ransomware attack. They may need to reschedule donation activities and blood drives, and processing times for blood donations might take longer than normal. Read More

📊 Athenic AI wants to be the central nervous system of an organization's database that anyone at the company can use, regardless of their coding or data experience. Its platform lets employees ask questions about internal data, and it will not only pull those insights, but also explain how it got there and whether it might be wrong. Read More

A Message from Dataiku

Insights From 200 IT Leaders on GenAI, Tech Stack, & More

This survey of 200 senior analytics and IT leaders reveal a gap between CIOs' aspirations and execution capabilities. While 70% have adopted GenAI, only 20% are using the tech and face costs that overshadow benefits. Dive into the survey report for practical strategies to overcome these challenges.

Learn More

Around the web

📈 Scaling quantum: Canadian startup Xanadu has built a new quantum computer that it claims can be scaled up to achieve the type of computational power needed to handle everything from drug discovery to more efficient machine learning, reports MIT Technology Review. Read More

🎥 That's show business, baby: You've probably seen the theatrics already – Dr. Phil in a ride-along with ICE agents like it's an episode of "Cops"; Kristi Noem in a bulletproof vest filmed alongside agents promising to get "these dirtbags off these streets." Wired takes a look at the 'contentification' of Trump policy. Read More

💻 The dawn of supercomputing: Argonne National Laboratory says its Aurora supercomputer is fully operational and available for the scientific community to use. It offers over 1 FP64 ExaFLOPS for simulation as well as 11.6 mixed precision ExaFLOPS for AI and machine learning, per Tom's Hardware. Read More

Before you go

🤝 Frenemies: Microsoft and OpenAI are pretty tight, but that's not stopping the former from putting DeepSeek's shiny new models on its Azure AI Foundry platform. Microsoft said the version of R1 on Azure has "undergone rigorous red teaming." Read More