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- Tensions between companies
Tensions between companies
Apple terminates Epic Games' developer account, OpenAI fires back at Elon Musk, and more...
Top hits
Apple terminates Epic Games’ developer account, calling it a ‘threat’ to the iOS ecosystem.
OpenAI and Sam Altman fire back at Elon Musk in a legal fight over breach of contract claims. OpenAI posted emails in support of the claim that Elon Musk actually backed the plan to create a for-profit unit.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is getting serious about developing a commercial space transportation system for humans.
Twitch is planning to redesign its app with a scrollable TikTok-style feed and optimize for more social sharing.
Apple gets fined nearly $2 billion by the EU for hindering music streaming competition.
This week’s video
Other news
For the year ending January 31, 2024, Databricks generated $1.6 billion in revenue, a number that grew 50% from the previous year.
Rivian just surprised-announced an all-electric hatchback called the R3 and this will be the brand’s smallest electric SUV yet.
Amazon now has humanoid robots, called Digits, working in one of its warehouses. They’re tasked with moving bins.
Google trims more jobs, this time in its Trust and Safety department. The layoffs, part of a broader staff reduction, come amid backlash over AI chatbot Gemini
Airbnb releases 4 big updates—including a new label to denote its top and worst listings.
Former Brex executive, Sam Blonde, leaves Founders Fund, a top VC firm just after 18 months after joining.
Former Twitter CEO sues Elon Musk. 4 former Twitter executives, including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, are suing Elon, alleging that they’re owed over $128 million in severance payments.
Anthropic releases Claude 3 and claims it’s better than OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Google’s Gemini.
Apple launches new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models with the M3 chip.
GM’s Cruise valuation gets slashed by more than half from a quarter ago as the fallout from an October accident continues to weigh on the self-driving car company.
Deal flow
Ex-Uber employees raise a $1 million pre-seed round for their new geospatial data startup that streamlines satellite imagery visualization called Fused.
Ema secures $25 million in funding from Accel to build an AI solution for workplaces called Universal AI Employee. Ema is short for Enterprise Machine Assistant.
Accenture to acquire the learning platform Udacity to accelerate its own learning platform focused on AI called LearnVantage. The amount was undisclosed.
E-commerce aggregators Razor and Perch merge and raise $100 million on a $1.7 billion valuation.
TravelJoy, a startup providing tools for travel entrepreneurs, raises a $10 million Series A led by Acrew Capital.
Salvo Health, a NYC-based healthcare technology company, raises $5 million in Seed Prime funding.
CommandBar, a B2B tool designed to make software easier to use, raises a $4.8 million seed round from Thrive Capital and Y Combinator.
Nissan is in talks to invest over $400 million in the struggling EV maker Fisker. This is a deal that could give the Japanese automaker access to an electric pickup truck.
Boeing is in talks to buy former subsidiary Spirit AeroSystems, which has a $3.8 billion market cap, to reintegrate its manufacturing operations to improve safety and quality.
FogPharma, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical firm, raises a $145 million Series E led by Nextech Invest.
Ether.Fi, the leading liquid restaking protocol, announces $23 million in funding led by Bullish Capital and CoinFund.
Ethereum layer 2 developer Taiko raises a $15 million Series A funding round from Lightspeed Faction, Wintermute Ventures, GSR and others.
Interesting gems
Instacart CEO Fidji Simo sits down with Sequioa Capital to reflect on her journey, Instacart’s journey to the public markets, and her vision for the future.
Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek explains how its artist payouts work in a video posted on X. This comes after he announced that Spotify paid out a record-breaking $9 billion to the music industry in 2023.
CEOBuySell lets you track insider trades from CEOs of publicly-traded companies.
Metalab, a top-tier design firm rebrands and launches a slick new website.
That’s it for this week. Let me know what you think!
🌜 Loryn from Dark Mode Digest