TechCrunch Top 3

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📺 NewTube: YouTube today announced a new premium lite subscription product, confirming rumors from a few weeks ago. This new tier will allow people to watch "most" videos without ads for just $7.99 a month. Read more

💻 More Macs: Apple launched a new MacBook Air today, which runs on Apple's M4 chip and comes in two sizes. Does this sound familiar? It should! The company had a very similar announcement regarding new iPad Air models yesterday. Read more

🔒 VMware vulnerabilities: Broadcom is warning VMware users that security researchers have discovered a trio of vulnerabilities, collectively referred to as ESXicape, that are being actively exploited by hacker groups. Broadcom is urging VMware customers to patch these holes. Read more

A Message from Google Cloud

What businesses need to know about AI in 2025

Hear from 23 industry leaders including Amin Vahdat (Google Cloud), Chamath Palihapitiya (Social Capital), Harrison Chase (LangChain), Crystal Huang (GV), and more. They share their perspectives on the most critical cloud and AI trends, opportunities, investment areas, and challenges that business leaders need to be aware of in 2025 in Google Cloud's Future of AI: Perspectives for Startups report.

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Afternoon must-reads

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🤝 Digging into Digg: On today's episode of StrictlyVC Download, Kevin Rose talks about his decision to pair up with Alexis Ohanian, his former rival, to revitalize Digg, the news aggregator site that made waves back in 2004. Listen here

📈 Silicon Valley veteran: Anna Patterson has launched multiple startups, was vice president of engineering at Google, and founded Gradient Ventures. Now she's working on a new AI startup, Ceramic.ai, that is helping enterprises scale LLMs quicker and more efficiently. Read more

🎙️ Speaking of Silicon Valley: Some VCs like to say that Silicon Valley is the only place to build a successful startup. But is that true? On today's episode of Equity, Insight Partners' Ryan Hinkle says no way. He also talks about other fun stuff, like the evolving nature of VC. Listen here

💪 Flex flexin': Flex, a startup offering personal finance software and payments infrastructure for business owners, says its offering is like Brex or Ramp but for mid-market CEOs. The company just raised $25 million in fresh funding in addition to a $200 million credit facility. Read more

🤨 Oh, OK: AI startup Anthropic quietly removed several voluntary commitments the company made in tandem with the Biden administration regarding managing AI risks and AI biases. This makes sense because who needs trust and safety anyway? Read more

Around the web

🌍 Some good in the world: A team of volunteer archivists has re-created the CDC's website, exactly as it was the day Donald Trump took office. The website went live yesterday and is being hosted in Europe. This is very noble work. Read more

🧩 A missing piece: Electric vehicle sales in Colombia spiked 150% between 2023 and 2024. However, the country's infrastructure for recycling an EV battery isn't up to snuff, leaving a gap in the country's EV supply chain. Read more

Before you go

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🗳️ He's back, baby! In today's edition of "What the hell, sure," Ryan Breslow has been unanimously voted back in as the CEO of fintech Bolt. Breslow originally stepped down amid accusations of misleading investors and inflating metrics. Read more