Monday, March 3, 2025

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we have great news for crypto bros, why the Dutch love Signal so much, Google adding even more features to Gemini, Ben Horowitz donating Cybertrucks to the Las Vegas Police, and much more. Let's go!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: TechCrunch

1. Getting cozy with the cops: Ben Horowitz' cozy relationship with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police continues. TC's Sean O'Kane reports that the billionaire has donated an entire fleet of Tesla Cybertrucks to the department. Last year, we reported that Horowitz had donated more than $7 million to the department over the past few years. Read More

2. All hail crypto: U.S. President Donald Trump is calling for a federal reserve of crypto assets to help "elevate" the "critical" industry. He mentioned XRP, Solana, Cardano, Bitcoin and Ethereum in his post on Truth Social, and all those currencies are trading up now. Read More

3. AI everywhere: Soon you'll be able to ask an AI to weigh in on everything in front of you, because Google has added a new feature to Gemini that lets you take a video and ask Gemini about what's happening. You'll also be able to ask Gemini about whatever's on your screen. Read More

Morning must-reads

Image Credits: Artur Widak/NurPhoto / Getty Images

The Dutch love Signal: The privacy-focused messaging app has been No. 1 on app store charts for a few weeks in the Netherlands. According to the company's president, Meredith Whittaker, it's because people are grappling with a growing mistrust of big tech, want more privacy and are understanding how "vulnerable digital communication can be." Read More

Speaking of politics, DOGE over the weekend laid off an entire government tech department that helped government agencies build tech products. Now, billionaire investor Marc Cuban has said he would invest in a consulting company if it's formed by that department's workers. Read More

The new AI agent in town: Opera has unveiled an AI agent called Browser Operator that can do things like book tickets or shop for you. The company says it's safer than other AI agents out there because it runs natively in the browser instead of on a mirrored cloud instance. Read More

Bolstering the weaker links: Cloudsmith has raised a $23 million Series B led by TCV to help plug the security gaps in the software supply chain. The startup monitors and hosts the open-source repositories developers use to make sure they're updated and safe to use. Read More

Helping engineers waste less time: HackerPluse has raised a $1.5 million seed round for its dashboard, which connects with the tools that devs use as well as revenue markers to help team leaders identify where engineering teams are getting bottlenecked. Read More

Around the web

Texas state of mind: Big tech seems to be more interested in Texas than ever. Along with Apple, which last week announced a 250,000-square-foot factory in Houston, Samsung, Meta and Tesla are looking to make the most of the state's lower cost of doing business. Read More

Flying high: Ramp's valuation has nearly doubled to $13 billion, the Financial Times reports, after a share sale in which investors including GIC, Stripes, Thrive, Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst bought $150 million of stock from employees and early investors. Read More

Before you go

Image Credits: Brian Heater / TechCrunch

What if working out was fun? That's the question Aviron has asked as it has sought to bring video games to its exercise equipment over the years. TC's Brian Heater has a great review of the company's new Victory Treadmill and the gaming experience it offers. Read More