Fisker collapsed under the weight of its founder's promises

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Umbrella on rainy day - The raindrops falling on an umbrella which put on the ground and copy space, feeling lonely and sad concept. (Umbrella on rainy day - The raindrops falling on an umbrella which put on the ground and copy space, feeling lonely

Image Credits: Food Photographer (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

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Over the past eight years, famed vehicle designer Henrik Fisker suggested his EV startup would deliver on a lot of promises, but none came true. As Fisker looks for an unlikely rescue, employees told TechCrunch that the blame rests largely on the shoulders of the husband-and-wife team who steer the company.

This week also had a major disturbance in the fintech space. After years of missteps and struggles, the banking-as-a-service fintech Synapse officially went bankrupt. Based on Synapse’s filings, as many as 100 fintechs and 10 million end customers could have been impacted by the company’s collapse.

Elon Musk just got a lot of cash for xAI. The AI startup raised $6 billion at an $18 billion pre-money valuation as it aims to compete with OpenAI, Microsoft and Alphabet.

In other big money moves, Google is investing nearly $350 million into Flipkart. The new investment gives the Walmart-owned Indian e-commerce startup a valuation of $36 billion. Google, which reaches more than half a billion people in India, identifies the South Asian nation as a key overseas market. 

News

Sam Altman walking away from a dissolving OpenAI logo
Image Credits: Darrell Etherington with files from Getty under license

Was Sam Altman fired from Y Combinator?: Paul Graham is setting the record straight. In a series of posts on X, the Y Combinator co-founder brushed off claims that Sam Altman was pressured to resign in 2019 due to potential conflicts of interest. Read More

Spotify doles out Car Thing refunds: Spotify is facing backlash over its decision to discontinue support for its in-car streaming device, Car Thing. Spotify has now instituted a refund process, but some users are asking the company not to brick their devices. Read More

Are earbuds the future of AI hardware?: Unlike generative AI gadgets like Humane’s Ai Pin and Rabbit’s R1, Iyo is aiming to build its technology into an already successful category: the Bluetooth earbud. Read More

Firefly forges on: On the heels of personal tragedy, the Tel Aviv-based startup has raised $23 million for its “infrastructure as code” solution to the growing issue of cloud asset management. Read More

Is Apple going to “sherlock” Arc?: Apple is reportedly planning to release a new technology called “smart recaps” in iOS 18, which appears to closely mimic Arc Search’s innovative “Browse for me” functionality. Read More

Misinformation is so back: A pair of new studies offers evidence that misinformation on social media has the power to change people’s minds. Find out who was most responsible for the vast majority of “fake news” in the studied time periods. Read More

AI models have favorite numbers too: Engineers at Gramener performed an experiment where they asked several major LLM chatbots to pick a random number between 0 and 100 — and the results were fascinating. Read More

Mistral unveils coding model: The French AI startup has released its first generative AI model for coding, dubbed Codestral, which is designed to help developers write and interact with code. Read More

Say hello to meme tech: Is it time to disrupt the meme industry? With Meme Depot, founder Alex Taub aspires to build a comprehensive archive of any meme imaginable with a crypto-focused business model. Read More

AI comes for tutors: The arrival of AI bots is posing a threat to long-established tutoring franchises and professional tutors, and the leading apps are from China. But do they actually help students learn? Read More

Analysis

onyx motorbikes-james Khatiblou
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

What happens to a company when its founder dies?: Onyx Motorbikes was already in trouble — and then its 37-year-old owner passed away unexpectedly with no will or succession plan, leaving behind millions of dollars in debt. Rebecca Bellan reports on how the ensuing battle for control has put Onyx in legal limbo. Read More

The ‘edgelords’ at OpenAI: Meredith Whittaker has some candid thoughts about the current leadership at OpenAI. Mike Butcher sat down with the Signal president to discuss what she describes as a disrespectful “frat house” contingent of the tech industry in a wide-ranging conversation. Read More

Don’t expect IPOs from these startups: While 2024 is looking to be a better year for tech startups going public, there’s still a number of high-profile companies that are wanting to wait just a little bit longer. From Plaid to Figma, Rebecca Szkutak rounds up the companies that aren’t itching to go public just yet. Read More

Microsoft, X throw their weight behind KOSA, the controversial kids online safety bill

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X CEO Linda Yaccarino

Image Credits: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP / Getty Images

On the eve of Wednesday’s Big Tech hearing (both Big Tech and a big hearing — five CEOs are testifying as we speak), Microsoft stepped up to back a controversial bill that aims to protect children from the dangers of social media. In the early hours of the hearing, X CEO Linda Yaccarino also climbed aboard.

“Senator, we support KOSA and we’ll continue to make sure that it accelerates and make sure to continue to offer community for teens that are seeking that voice,” Yaccarino said when asked if X, formerly Twitter, will support the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). The question came when KOSA co-sponsor Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) went down the line of tech CEOs asking if each company would back his legislation.

The answer was strangely worded given that KOSA is not yet law, but Yaccarino didn’t offer any of the qualifiers of her more reluctant peers. In a statement to TechCrunch, X confirmed the company’s backing for the bill. “We support the Kids Online Safety Act and will work to preserve freedom of speech for all groups,” X spokesperson Joe Benarroch said.

Snap’s Evan Spiegel restated his company’s previous commitment to supporting the new proposal to regulate social media apps. “Senator, we strongly support the Kids Online Safety Act and we’ve already implemented many of its core provisions,” Spiegel said.

Meta, Discord and TikTok all demurred, pointing to groups that have criticized the bill or stating that they support some of its parts and not others. “Senator, with some changes we can support it,” TikTok CEO Shou Chew said. “We are aware that some groups have raised some concerns.”

Mark Zuckerberg similarly agreed with the “basic spirit” of the bill while declining to endorse it. Discord’s Jason Citron said his company supported “parts” of the proposal but declined to say yes, stating that Discord would prefer to support a national privacy standard.

In spite of some revisions, the bill’s many critics have warned that KOSA would dangerously sanitize the internet, empower censorship and isolate young LGBTQ people in the process. Security, privacy and free press advocates have also called attention to the bill’s potential threat to encryption. The bill was revised last year in response to some criticisms, but many concerns persist.

While X and Snap are popular social apps, they’re on the fringe compared to the heft of a company like Microsoft. Microsoft, now worth roughly $3 trillion, is currently the most valuable company in the world and a sophisticated operator in the world of policy that’s been around long enough to know how to play the game.

While X and Snap are likely hoping that their KOSA support will either generally endear them to regulators or have a much worse impact on rival companies, Microsoft probably has its sights set on a different issue entirely. Unlike its peers testifying on Capitol Hill, Microsoft doesn’t own a traditional social media network steered by algorithms (Discord is also a notable exception here). For Microsoft, AI is the name of the game — and throwing support behind a bill that will change the rules for social media companies might buy it some regulatory goodwill where it counts.

Fan fiction writers rally fandoms against KOSA, the bill purporting to protect kids online