Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Hey, everyone, welcome to TC PM! Lots in store for you today. The co-founder of Russian crypto exchange Garantex was arrested; Google's COO of Quantum AI takes the stage at SXSW; and much, much more. Let's get to it!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: U.S. Secret Service / Getty Images

🚔 Crypto exchange co-founder arrested: Aleksej Besciokov, the co-founder of the sanctioned Russian crypto exchange Garantex, was arrested in India. U.S. officials accuse him of approving transactions linked to government hackers and cybercriminals from North Korea.

👻 Snapchat updates: The social platform is releasing generative AI Lenses for premium users for the first time ever. Snap has been investing in AI over the past few years and has become a leader in AR technology.

🪫 Battery power: Google is introducing lithium-ion cells to its data centers to help provide backup power to its servers. Google says these cells hold twice as much power without taking up as much space as lead-acid batteries.

Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Lakshmi3 / Getty Images

🕵 Agents abound: Dapr has launched Dapr Agents to help developers build their own AI agents. The platform currently supports Python, with Java, JavaScript, and Go soon following suit.

📖 More of this, please: Moonvalley launched an AI video-generation model with the catch being that it's trained on openly licensed data, rather than copyrighted work. This makes it one of the few models trained on open data, and a welcome reprieve from the fair-use complaints that have plagued AI companies.

💰 Big bucks for search: Onyx, an internal enterprise search tool, has raised a $10 million seed co-led by Khosla Ventures and First Round Capital. The founder said the company is more of a foundational tool for companies and that it has seen explosive growth in the past year.

⌨️ Quantum's potential: Charina Chou, Google's COO of Quantum AI, spoke at SXSW today, arguing for more government investment in the quantum computing market. She said China is outspending the U.S., meaning the U.S. is at risk of falling behind one of our biggest competitors.

🤔 Monetizing MAGA: Donald Trump Jr. has been a busy bee since his father won the presidential election in November. Notably, he's working with the investment firm 1789 Capital to help monetize the MAGA ecosystem.

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Around the web

🇨🇳 Geopolitical tensions: Chinese companies face problems while trying to set up business in the U.S. amid constant geopolitical tension. Rest of World has the story of one battery factory that brought some drama to a small Michigan town — and what it reveals about the ideological divide between national and local concerns.

💻 Google's AI grip: The New York Times has the rundown on Google's investment into the AI startup Anthropic. Google owns 14% of the company, per legal filings obtained by the outlet, though that doesn't exactly mean it has much control over the company.

Before you go

Image Credits: Getty Images/Steve Jennings

🤠 What's up in startup land? Cowboy Ventures' Aileen Lee sat down with TechCrunch EIC Connie Loizos to talk about the startup ecosystem, touching on topics ranging from the bustling secondary market to how inventors are adapting to the post-ZIRP era.