August 19, 2025

TechCrunch Top 3

US spy chief says UK has dropped its Apple backdoor demand: Tulsi Gabbard said that President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance also participated in the negotiations with the U.K. government over its once-secret demand to Apple. Read More

OpenAI launches a sub-$5 ChatGPT plan in India: This plan will offer 10x more messages and image generation than the free tier, among other benefits. Read More

Nvidia said to be developing new, more powerful AI chip for sale in China: Nvidia is apparently putting together a new AI chip meant for sale in China that's half as powerful as its flagship B300 Blackwell GPU. The new chip would be more powerful than the H20 GPUs the company is currently allowed to sell in the country. Read More

A message from Persona

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Morning Must-Reads

Why Paradigm built a spreadsheet with an AI agent in every cell: Paradigm raised a $5 million seed round and is releasing it's AI-powered spreadsheet to the general public. Read More

iPhone 17, the 'thinnest iPhone ever,' and everything else we're expecting out of Apple's hardware event: From a new slim iPhone Air model to redesigned AirPods, here's what to expect from this year's Apple event. Read More

AI crawler Firecrawl raises $14.5M, is still looking to hire agents as employees: Firecrawl nabbed Shopify's CEO Tobias Lütke as an investor from a gutsy email after they discovered he was using the product. Read More

Spotify's latest feature lets you add your own transitions to playlists: The new options are designed to appeal to playlist experts and other music fans, who have collectively created nearly 9 billion playlists on Spotify's platform to date. Read More

Hank Green's Focus Friend app is climbing the App Store charts — and it's extremely cute: If you fail to stay focused, you will make an anthropomorphic bean very sad, because its knitting project depends on your ability to stay on task. Read More

A message from Antigravity

Meet Antigravity A1 — the world's first 8K 360 drone

A new era of drone flight is here. At just 249g, this 8K 360 drone lets you explore every angle of the sky with unparalleled clarity. Head-tracked FPV goggles put you inside the action, radically transforming how you see the world and tell stories. Lightweight, powerful, and unlike anything you've flown before. This is flight reimagined for life.

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Last but Not Least

Figure's IPO filing marks Mike Cagney's return to public markets: Figure Technology, a seven-year-old blockchain-based lending company, has filed a registration statement with the SEC for an IPO of its Class A common stock. The filing offers a chance at vindication for Figure co-founder Mike Cagney. Read More