TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Maxwell Zeff

📣 More models: Google announced its latest flagship AI model, Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental, today. The company also announced that its "reasoning" model, Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking, which it released in December, will now be available in the Gemini app. Read more

😓 More layoffs: HR tech giant Workday laid off 1,750 employees, or 8.5% of its headcount, today. The company plans to hire AI talent. Workday is now the third tech company to conduct layoffs this week. Read more

🇺🇸 More Musk: Democratic congressional representative Mark Pocan plans to introduce a bill that would curb some of Elon Musk's seemingly unlimited power. The bill, cutely named the Elon Musk Act, would prevent "special government employees" from having federal contracts. Read more

Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Tesla

🧑‍⚖️ Speaking of Elon Musk: Tesla, and Elon Musk, submitted a court filing to dismiss Alcon Entertainment's claims that Tesla used AI to rip off imagery from "Blade Runner" for a press event. Alcon intends to oppose the motion. Read more

🌁 Buying Bridge: Fintech Stripe has completed its $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge, a stablecoin platform. This is Stripe's biggest acquisition to date and shows that the company is making a notable push into crypto. Read more

🪐 Space solar: Today's episode of Equity featured a conversation with Baiju Bhatt, one of the co-founders of Robinhood, who is now the founder of space solar startup Aetherflux. Bhatt talks about his transition from fintech to space and why now is the right time to start this kind of company. Listen here

🚫 In this economy? While the number of victims of ransomware attacks increased in 2024, the amount of ransom money paid decreased by a third. An increase in law enforcement action and an increasing number of victims refusing to negotiate with hackers explain part of the decline. Read more

🍒 Cherry on top: Berlin-based Cherry Ventures raised a $500 million fund to back both early-stage startups and follow-on rounds. The firm said it wants to back the "first trillion-dollar company in Europe," which is a lofty goal. Read more

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Around the web

🧟 Reviewed revived? Gannett announced over the summer that it would be shuttering Reviewed, its consumer reviews website. Reviewed laid off dozens of employees, and people assumed this announcement meant the site would turn into a zombie, but that's not quite what happened. Read more

🙈 FOIA foiled again: The employees at DOGE have been informed not to use Slack as government lawyers work to transition the org's communication to a platform that can't be subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Sigh. Read more