The Reddit and Astera Labs IPOs last week ate up a lot of media oxygen.
And with good reason, the two tech IPOs priced well and traded with even more gusto.
After a long dearth for technology offerings, seeing two large, multi-billion dollar offerings in the same week was part of a much-needed win for private-market tech companies, and sigh of relief for the same.
But there was another offering last week that has a tech-angle to it: Trump Media and Technology Group, which is the company behind Truth Social.
More from TechCrunch here, but the gist is that after much back-and-forth, it merged with its chosen SPAC and started to trade.
The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Apple over allegedly monopolistic smartphone practices.
The federal agency is not alone in the matter, bringing 15 states and the District of Columbia into the mix as well.
Regulators and tech companies, name a more iconic duo.
But as we’re about to see with Apple, big tech companies are not going to go down without a fight.
For more on Apple’s antitrust lawsuit, check here:
The Apple Watch gets some face time in the filing, as well.
The suit rightly notes that the Apple Watch is “only compatible with the iPhone” – a longstanding complaint among Android users interested in picking up what is far and away the market share leader.
Apple is not, however, alone in ensuring that certain functionality only operates as stated with first-party hardware, however.
The Apple Watch has historically been even more dominant in its respective category than the iPhone in the global market.
Should the DOJ’s suit force the company to open Apple Watch functionality, it would not only limit watch-based iPhone sales, it would also potentially open the device up to Android users, which, in turn, could have a positive impact on sales.
Microsoft’s latest gambit to snag much of the human talent from Inflection AI is causing waves this week.
The subtext is clear enough: Microsoft doesn’t want to run into regulatory oversight in the form of anti-trust action.
Regardless of your perspective on such deal-killing, Microsoft seems to have found a way around the matter in this case.
Elsewhere in Microsoft land there’s talk of a new GPT model from OpenAI, and even some new Surface and Windows news that has an AI lilt.
Wherever you look, there’s Microsoft and AI, cutting up the rug.
NBCUniversal’s Peacock will let you watch four live streams at once for 2024 Paris OlympicsToday, during NBCUniversal’s annual technology conference, One24, the company revealed a slew of features coming to its streaming service Peacock ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics in July.
Since up to 40 Olympic events will be happening simultaneously, the unique offering helps viewers determine which four events are the most important.
Peacock’s multiview feature is not only available on the web, but also on smart TVs, streaming devices, and tablets.
The feature lets fans watch highlights of a game to quickly catch up without having to exit out of the main screen.
The company noted that multiview and Live Actions will extend to other live sporting events after the Olympics.
Blockchain is back and Bitcoin is hot, the Ethereum blockchain seeing price gains, lots of folks are stoked about ETFs.
But one less-mainstream blockchain is perhaps making the biggest waves in crypto lately: Solana.
TechCrunch has reported on Solana’s massive, recent price appreciation, digging into its rapid ascent and the reasons why.
The answer is not something new, but instead a return of something that we’ve seen in the past.
Not that the Dogwifhat folks are worried — they’re probably too busy having a great time.
Fisker’s finances are back in the news after the company warned back in February that it didn’t have enough cash to make it through its next year.
The company said this week that it intends to halt production for six weeks to get its business back in order.
Softening demand growth for EVs is making the normal challenges of scaling a company all the harder for Fisker and its peers.
Not that we’re all doom and gloom here at TechCrunch — we’re actually rather bullish on the prospect for EVs in the near and far future.
Let’s take a look at what’s going on under the hood here:
Chip giant Nvidia is hosting a massive AI conference as part of its GTC event this week, which kicks off Monday.
With a keynote planned from Jensen Huang, CEO and co-founder, of the company best known in year’s past for its gaming hardware and today for its massive market share in the burgeoning AI hardware market, expect Nvidia to make some news.
Given how many AI startups and giants alike use Nvidia gear, TechCrunch is expecting quite a lot to shake loose over the next few days.
To presage the confab, and detail just why we’re paying such close attention to a single company’s industry event, hit play below.
Stick close to TechCrunch for coverage throughout the week.
TikTok users, however, are not taking the changing political winds — and their consequences — sitting down.
TechCrunch spoke with several TikTok users that are incensed about, and fighting back against the potential ban of TikTok.
But while the talk of a possible ban is getting all the press, what about the potential of TikTok simply being divested from its parent company, Bytedance?
That would resolve the United States’ government’s issues, right?
So, the bill may have two tracks in it for TikTok, but it could really just be a single-issue law in practice.
The great EV boom is fading a bit, but that’s not a concern if you take a long-enough view.
Sure, Tesla expects slower growth for its car sales this year, and there are some indications that other companies are trimming their electric car plans, but there’s also reason to be optimistic.
If you take a look at some upcoming EVs, you may notice that the don’t look precisely like the current, bestselling gas-powered cars out there.
I reckon that that is for the best — when you swap power sources, you can shake up the rest of a vehicles design, right?
So two cheers for Rivian’s R3 and what Telo is cooking up, because their plans have me hype.
