Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Welcome to TC PM! Today we are learning that the Federal Aviation Administration is testing Starlink as a potential replacement for Verizon; we look at what Amazon has in store for tomorrow's Alexa event; and we have news on multiple app-building platforms. Onward!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Starlink

🧐 Musk's meddling: The Federal Aviation Administration has started testing SpaceX's Starlink internet terminals in the national airspace system. Elon Musk claims that Verizon, which is currently contracted for this type of work, isn't working. I'd like to hear a second opinion. Read more

🤷 Didn't need them: Microsoft canceled some of its data center leases that equated to a couple hundred megawatts of capacity, or the equivalent of two data centers. This news stands out as other companies, and the government, seem to be ramping up investment in data centers. Read more

🤐 Breaking his silence: Imprisoned FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried posted on X for the first time in two years for some reason. He wrote a 10-post thread about Elon Musk's recent ultimatum to federal workers. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. Read more

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Eugene Mymrin / Getty Images

📑 Supply chain software: DocUnlock is helping to automate the filings customs brokers fill out every time a company imports something to the U.S. This seems like a timely solution as the U.S. continues to warn that it'll start implementing tariffs. Read more

👀 All eyes on Alexa: Amazon will be hosting its first Alexa press event in nearly two years on Wednesday. We've got a preview of the event and some guesses at what may be announced. Read more

🇨🇳 Apple digs into China: Apple is bringing its Apple Developer service, which includes news, announcements, and activities aimed at developers, to China's WeChat app. This announcement comes as Apple has seen its iPhone sales slump in China. Read more

🤗 More love for Lovable: Lovable made waves last year for its product that allows people to build apps through prompting as opposed to coding. The company just raised a $15 million pre-Series A round led by Creandum. Read more

🏗️ Speaking of creating apps: Quora's platform, Poe, which brings a number of AI models under one roof, has launched a new capability that allows users to essentially build AI-powered apps on top of any combination of models. Read more

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Around the web

✊ Fight the power: While many companies are falling right in line with President Donald Trump's executive orders that police language around DEI and marginalized groups, not everyone is. Some medical researchers are refusing to change their reports and opting for them to go offline instead. Read more

📰 Mass protest: Newspapers in the U.K. are standing in solidarity today to fight a government proposal that would allow AI companies to train their models on copyrighted works without permission. The papers all ran coordinated front pages. Read more