Friday, May 9, 2025

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! Today we've got Microsoft's stance on DeepSeek, a glimpse into Apple's app store revenue, and OpenAI's strategy for 'deep research.' We've also got fresh lawsuits, an Aurora exec departure, X outages, a stalled crypto bill, an AI ghost, and more. Onward!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: JASON REDMOND/AFP / Getty Images

1. No go: Microsoft president Brad Smith said in a Senate hearing that his employees can't use DeepSeek due to security and propaganda concerns. That's also why DeepSeek isn't in Microsoft's app store. Read More

2. HODL: Apple made over $10 billion in revenue last year from its U.S. App Store, per Appfigures. The data shows developers generated $33.68 billion in gross revenue, but only took home $23.57 billion after Apple's cut. No wonder Apple is fighting to keep its hold over iOS app buys. Read More

3. Breaking the black box: OpenAI connecting its "deep research" feature to Github so its chatbots can answer questions about codebase and engineering docs. The move is designed to show that AI-powered chatbots are more useful when linked to outside platforms and services. Read More

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Morning must-reads

Image Credits: Fizz

🧑‍⚖️ David v. Goliath: Social media startup Fizz is suing Instacart and Partiful for trademark infringement. Apparently, Instacart launched a new drinks and snack delivery app for parties, also called Fizz, and Partiful integrated the app directly into its platform. Read More

👋 Moving on: Autonomous vehicle veteran and Aurora co-founder Sterling Anderson resigned from his post at the startup just a week after helping launch a commercial driverless truck service. He's moving on to a senior leadership role at "an iconic global company." Read More

🧐 The irony: Sankaet Pathak's last startup, Synapse, filed for bankruptcy last year and still hasn't accounted for tens of millions in customer dollars. That's not stopping the fintech's former CEO from moving to raise $100 million for a humanoid robotics startup at a $1 billion valuation. Read More

🥊 VC drama: Silicon Valley veteran and Elon Musk backer Josh Raffaelli is suing his former employer, trillion-dollar AUM Brookfield Asset Management. He alleges, among other things, that Brookfield didn't buy as much stock in Musk-owned companies as he had secured the ability to buy. Read More

🔐 Even giants fall: In April, South Korea's telco giant SK Telecom was hit by a cyberattack that led to the theft of 23 million customers' data. That's almost half of the country. About 250,000 users have already switched to a new provider, and the company expects to lose 2.5 million, and $5 billion, more over the next three years if it waives cancellation fees. Read More

Around the web

⛔ Not so fast: Senate Democrats barred a stablecoin bill backed by the crypto industry. The move came after Republicans refused to include a provision banning Trump and other senior officials from profiting off of crypto ventures, like his memecoins, while in office, Bloomberg reports. Read More

👻 From beyond the grave: The family of a man who was fatally shot in a road rage incident created an AI-generated video of him to play at court, per NBC News. A lifelike version of the victim asked the judge for leniency and spoke directly to the man who shot him. Eerie stuff. Read More

🦗 The sound of summer: New Scientist looks at some research out of Japan that has figured out how to hijack the chirp of cicadas with electrodes and use that to turn them into cyborg loudspeakers. The researchers say this could be used to spread warning messages during an emergency. Read More

Before you go

❌ Freeze! X timelines and notifications stopped updating for many users last night. It appears to be a server-side bug and comes a year after X's last outage, which affected users worldwide. Elon Musk blamed the 2024 disruption on a cyberattack. Read More