Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Welcome to TC PM! Today we find that Grammarly is getting into email; we dive into two hardware releases from Nothing; and we learn some robotics news from companies big and small. Onward!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Grammarly

📧 An acquisition: AI writing tool Grammarly acquired AI email client Superhuman as it looks to build out its suite of productivity tools. While terms of the deal were not disclosed, Superhuman was last valued at $825 million. The combined company says AI agents are on the way.

🌱 Sizable seed: Genesis AI says it's building a foundational model that can power all kinds of robots. The company just emerged from stealth with a monster $105 million seed round that was co-led by Eclipse Ventures and Khosla Ventures.

🤷 Off the table: Well, I guess the federal government decided states should have a say on AI policy after all. The ban on states' abilities to regulate AI has been removed from the Trump administration's "Big Beautiful Bill," which passed in the Senate today.

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Nothing

🎧 That new, new: It's a big day for hardware company Nothing. The company released both the latest version of its flagship smartphone today and its first pair of over-the-ear headphones, which our own Maggie Stamets tested out.

🤖 A lot of robots: Amazon has officially deployed its 1 millionth robot to its web of fulfillment warehouses. The company also announced that it built DeepFleet, a generative AI model that controls the company's robot fleet to make it more efficient.

💸 More money: Elon Musk's xAI continues to gobble up money. The company just raised $5 billion in debt and an additional $5 billion in a strategic equity transaction. This follows xAI's $6 billion funding round just last December.

🏦 Bank agents: This week's episode of StrictlyVC Download features a chat with Circle co-founder Sean Neville. He dives into his latest company, Catena Labs, which just raised $18 million and is exploring building banking infrastructure that is designed for AI agents.

🤝 To each their own: General Motors is seeing strong demand for its electric Hummer SUV and sold almost the same number of them in Q2 as Ford's significantly less expensive electric F-150 Lightning. This surprises me now but wouldn't have surprised 8-year-old me, who was obsessed with Hummers for some reason.

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Around the web

😬 Prepare for a rough landing: In 2003, the Federal Aviation Administration started scoping out a new tech solution for U.S. air traffic control, and it was supposed to be fully implemented by 2025. It hasn't even hit a minimum target yet. Where are all the tech entrepreneurs at?

🙃 AI-ception: Universities are turning to AI tools to spot when students are using AI to complete assignments. The problem is that they don't work very well. Some students in China have found themselves using AI tools to prove to other AI tools that they did in fact write their work themselves. Girl, so confusing!