TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Grammarly

📖 Grammarly gets deeper into AI: Grammarly, the AI-powered writing tool, acquired productivity startup Coda. This deal will help turn Grammarly's AI assistant into an AI productivity platform, according to the company. Coda's CEO will also become the CEO of the combined org. Read more

🧑‍⚖️ A guilty verdict: Nima Momeni was found guilty of second-degree murder for the stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee in April 2023. Read more

💰 Dough for Databricks: Data analytics company Databricks raised a hefty $10 billion funding round that values the company at $62 billion. The round, which is one of the largest in history, will help the company with M&A, stock payouts to early employees, and expansion abroad. Read more

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Cassandra Klos/Bloomberg / Getty Images

⚡️ First fusion plant: Commonwealth Fusion Systems has selected Richmond, Virginia, as the site of its first commercial-scale power plant. The company hopes that the plant will be hooked up to the grid by 2030. Read more

🔧 More tools: Google announced today that its enterprise-focused AI code completion service, Gemini Code Assist, will support third-party tools. This means users will be able to bring in real-time data and access info from outside applications. Read more

🥸 Deceiving data: Venture fundraising data would make it seem like the industry is on its way to recovery. But while AI companies seem to have no issues raising venture capital, their success is masking the fact that many startups are still struggling. Read more

🤝 AI API: OpenAI is working to further roll out o1, its "reasoning model." Starting today, developers who qualify as OpenAI's "tier 5" usage category will be able to access the model, which replaces the o1-preview model that was already available in the API. Read more

☁️ Bring your own cloud: While SaaS dominated software deployment for the last decade-plus, Nuon argues that the next decade will be focused on bring-your-own-cloud applications. Nuon's tech is helping SaaS companies deploy their tech into their customers' clouds. Read more

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Around the web

📲 A hack(?): A week before the recent U.S. presidential election, a spyware detector flagged anomalies in two phones belonging to members of Kamala Harris' team. Fearing they had been hacked, the team reached out to Apple for help. Apple declined. Read more

😎 A long résumé: Stacy Brown-Philpot has held many roles, like being on Nordstrom's board and heading SoftBank's fund for backing founders of color. She was also the CEO of TaskRabbit. Now she's launching a VC fund. Read more

Before you go

Image Credits: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg / Getty Images

🎟️ Take that, Ticketmaster: The Federal Trade Commission has banned hidden "junk fees" associated with live events, hotels, and vacation rentals. Companies can still charge these fees; they just have to be up front about them. Read more