Topics
modish
AI
Amazon
Image Credits:Jaque Silva / NurPhoto / Getty Images
Apps
Biotech & Health
Climate
Image Credits:Kirsten Korosec
Cloud Computing
mercantilism
Crypto
Image Credits:Moor Studio / Getty Images
Enterprise
EVs
Fintech
fund-raise
gismo
back
Government & Policy
computer hardware
layoff
Media & Entertainment
Meta
Microsoft
Privacy
Robotics
surety
Social
Space
Startups
TikTok
transit
Venture
More from TechCrunch
Events
Startup Battlefield
StrictlyVC
Podcasts
video recording
Partner Content
TechCrunch Brand Studio
Crunchboard
get hold of Us
Welcome back to Week in Review ! I ’m Karyne Levy , TechCrunch ’s deputy managing editor , and I ’ll be writing this newssheet from here on out . Thrilled to be here !
This week we ’re see out everything at SXSW ; Waymo ’s enlargement into Silicon Valley ; Intel ’s raw CEO ; TikTok ’s raw suitor ; and why DeepSeek is n’t train VC money . permit ’s get to it !
Environmental impact : The FBI , the EPA , the EPA inspector general , and the Treasury Departmentrequested that Citibank freeze down accountsof several nonprofits and United States Department of State government agencies . The chronicle were frozen in February , but the new document make public contingent that had previously been unknown until they were revealed in court filing this hebdomad .
SXSW comes to an end : TechCrunch was all overSXSW in Austinthis calendar week , twit inWaymo taxis , learningMark Cuban ’s thought on AI(it ’s a tool , not a panacea ) , and deciphering the thyroxine - shirt that Bluesky ’s CEO wore ( turns out she wastaking a swipe at Mark Zuckerberg ) .
Intel ’s novel top dog : Intelappointed Lip - Bu Tan as its next chief operating officer . Tan , a Malaysia - expect , longtime tech investor , formerly dish up as CEO of Cadence Design Systems and said that Intel will be an “ engineering - focalize company ” under his leaders . And he’llhave his workplace abridge out for him .
This is TechCrunch ’s hebdomad in Review , where we recap the week ’s biggest news . Want this delivered as a newssheet to your inbox every Saturday?Sign up here .
News
A new era : Rad Power Bikeshas a unexampled CEOjust a few day after its previous CEO stepped down . Kathi Lentzsch , who has spent eld helping turn around underperforming companies in both the consumer and B2B spaces , will take over the e - bike fellowship as it continues to reposition aside from direct - to - consumer in favor of a retail - base approach .
Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
back door policies : Last month it was revealed that the U.K. government secretly ordered Apple to make a “ backdoor , ” allowing authority to enter the cloud - hive away data of all Apple customer . U.S. lawmakers are involve the head of the U.K. ’s surveillance homage tohold an open hearingfor Apple ’s possible challenge to the allege secret U.K. regime sound demand .
Food for thought : Bryan Johnson — the investor and founder behind the Do n’t Die bowel movement — want to start “ foodome ” sequence . His goal is to test as much food as potential , creating a public database where people can donate money to have certain foods and stain screen for toxins .
No parking : Waymo ’s 300 driverless vehicles in San Francisco areracking up parking tickets . The railcar ’ 589 parking violations totaled $ 65,065 in fines last year .
Open Sesame : AI troupe Sesamehas release the base model used for Maya , its super - realistic voice help . The simulation is open generator , too , which think of it can be used commercially .
Tick tock , TikTok : TikTok ’s deadline to finalise its sale to a U.S. party is just around the corner , and nowanother suitor is evince stake — Oracle . Sources severalise The Information that ByteDance , TikTok ’s parent company , is favoring Oracle over other companies .
petty tech ’s hero : Y Combinatorsent a missive to the White Housethis week , urging the government to support Europe’sDigital Markets Act , which aim to bust up Big Tech ’s market mightiness . It ’s unclear how the White House will respond .
Caviar dream : Trump ’s family unit has beenlooking into investment in Binance U.S.This comes just a span of year after Binance ’s U.S. arm plead guilty to outrage anti - money laundering regularization .
That was loose : I’m not counterbalance to AI , specially when it help oneself me be more efficient . Take , for case , a newfangled feature article that rolled out this week to Gmail . We can now bring effect to a Google Calendar directly from an email . That ’s coolheaded !
father him : The co - beginner of Garantex , a Russian cryptocurrency substitution , was apprehend in India . Last calendar week , the U.S. Department of Justice incriminate Aleksej Besciokov of personally approving transactions on Garantex linked to North Korean - government hackers and other cybercriminals .
Pokémon sold : Niantic , the troupe behind the viral sensation Pokémon GO , isselling its gambling division to Scopelyfor $ 3.5 billion . Niantic said it will now focus on make real - world three-D maps through a new stand - alone entity called Niantic Spatial .
DeepSeek , deep pockets?Though it has net ton of interest , Chinese AI company DeepSeek is n’t taking VC money — yet . Charles Rollet race through a few reasons why .
New day , novel deal : OpenAI has sign afive - class , $ 11.9 billion agreementwith the GPU - heavy swarm service supplier CoreWeave . But the amount of money is n’t the only reason why this spate is heart - popping . Before this deal , CoreWeave ’s openhanded client was Microsoft .
Waymo One : Waymo isexpanding its early passenger programacross Silicon Valley , now offering robotaxi ride to people in Palo Alto , Mountain View , Los Altos , and part of Sunnyvale . The new territories add to the 55 square Admiralty mile of reportage already offered in the San Francisco Bay Area .
coolheaded , coolheaded : Fact - checking at Meta isgetting an overhaul . begin Tuesday , the company will begin releasing its version of Community Notes for Facebook , Instagram , and Threads users in the United States .
We ’ve got question : Three years after its launching , exactlyhow Lockdown Mode works is still a mystery . There ’s no account for why it take some of the actions it demand , and some of its notifications are exceedingly perplexing .
Analysis
The piece of writing ’s on the wall : OpenAI ’s new creative writing AI is impressivebut feels like that one child in high schoolhouse fabrication clubwho tries way too heavy to sound deep . While the AI can moil out cagey metafiction , critic say its writing miss real emotion and originality , spend a penny it more of a showoff than a true storyteller .
