TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Tesla

Tesla execs bid adieu: In our continuing coverage of the Tesla layoffs, we learned that two of its executives, Drew Baglino, SVP of Powertrain and Energy, and Rohan Patel, VP of Public Policy and Business Development, also left the company. Read More

It's all about the bots: Elon Musk is tired of bots getting past X's security. So his latest idea is to charge a small fee to new accounts for three months because it "is the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots," he tweets. How much would you spend to post on X? Read More

AI investment reckoning: Kyle Wiggers covered Stanford's latest report on AI trends and spoke to investors about the waning excitement for this sector. Read More

Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Getty Images / Maremagnum / Corbis

"The Salesforce of commercial building automation": That's what brothers Edi and Etrit Demaj are attempting to become with their startup Kode Labs, which aims to bring building management into the cloud era now that it has secured $30 million in Series B capital. Read More

Game emulators are allowed, just not this one: Apple removed iGBA, a Game Boy emulator app for the iPhone, after approving its launch over the weekend. But wait, the story gets better when you find out who's upset by this move. Read More

Jio and BlackRock are at it again: This time, Jio Financial Services, part of the Indian conglomerate Reliance, is forming a joint venture with the U.S. asset manager to set up a wealth management and broking business in India. Read More

Guess who's coming to the generative video dinner?: Why, that would be Adobe, which is building an AI model to generate video. Only it's being a bit secretive at the moment. Read More

Meta faces opposition in Europe: Reporter Natasha Lomas' latest story on how Meta is faring in Europe does not disappoint. It seems about two dozen rights groups wrote to the European Data Protection Board, urging it not to endorse a strategy used by Meta that forces Facebook and Instagram users to consent to its tracking. Read More

On the pods: Equity is back with two critical stories: First, OpenAI is going to Japan with plans for an office in Tokyo and a new GPT-4 model for the Japanese language. The second comes from Tesla, which is cutting more than 10% of its total global staffing. We're also keeping our eye on leaked pricing for Rubrik's upcoming IPO, ShareChat's valuation taking hits, and global smartphone sales picking up. Tune in and catch up!

A MESSAGE FROM ET30, presented by Wing VC

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The AI market is changing—fast. This year's ET30 list highlights the AI companies leading investors are most excited about—and the established market players hanging on for dear life.

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Money, money, money

PVML, now with $8 million in seed funding, combines an AI-centric data access and analysis platform with differential privacy. Read More

Draftboard secures $4.1 million to let companies list referral bonuses for anyone. Read More

Paraform raises a $3.6 million seed round to connect startups with recruiter networks. Read More

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What does it take to connect thousands of participants at large-scale events on a deep, meaningful level? It starts with Braindate! Check out some of Braindate's most successful implementations at tech events.

Around the web

Goldman Sachs' revenue from wealth management hit a record during the first quarter after its pivot from retail advisory, FinancialPlanning reports. Read More

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that Salesforce is eyeing an acquisition of Informatica to boost its data capabilities. If this moves forward, it would rank in the top 3 acquisitions Salesforce has ever made. No pressure, right? Read More

And Apple loses its foothold, or should we say handhold, as the leader of the smartphone, according to Reuters. Samsung now has that pleasure. Read More

TechCrunch Minute

Where the Apple Vision Pro stands now that the launch day hype has dropped off: A few months after its launch, how is Apple's Vision Pro doing? The company's ambitious bet on computers that nestle on your face made a huge splash when it was announced and later released. However, it seems the hype has since come back down to Earth. Hit play, and let's talk!