TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Grammarly

1. Well-capitalized clauses: Grammarly landed a $1 billion commitment from General Catalyst, which gets a chunk of the company's revenue instead of equity. The nondilutive deal, drawn from GC's Customer Value Fund, will fuel sales, marketing and potential M&A as the AI writing assistant company sharpens its pivot into productivity tools. Read More

2. Waste not, want not: Misfits Market is expanding beyond veggies with the acquisition of The Rounds, a household restocking startup. The deal adds over 250 new items to Misfits' lineup, like cleaning supplies and paper products. Read More

3. Chip off the old block: The U.S. has tightened the screws on China's AI ambitions with new export controls on chip design and testing software. Industry heavyweights Siemens EDA, Synopsys, and Cadence confirmed they've received notices from the Commerce Department. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

Image Credits: Matthias Balk/picture alliance / Getty Images

👍 It is not 2025: Google says it has finally fixed a bug that led its AI Overviews to think we're all living in 2024. When one user asked if it was 2025, AI Overviews responded, "No, it is not 2025. The current year is 2024, according to a calendar." Read More

😵‍💫 High stakes: Elon Musk reportedly ramped up his drug use during the 2024 election season as his political activity and family turmoil reached a peak. The New York Times details his increasing use of ketamine, Adderral, mushrooms and Ecstasy. Read More

🖼️ Picture perfect: Black Forest Labs has launched Flux.1 Kontext, a new image-generation model that promises photorealistic renders, speedy inference, and sharp typography – all up to 8x faster than leading rivals. The startup once powered Grok, but is stepping back into the spotlight as competition heats up. Read More

🔋 Power move: Heron Power, founded by ex-Tesla exec Drew Baglino, has raised a $38 million Series A to reinvent a century-old grid essential – the transformer. The startup's solid-state tech promises faster, smaller, smarter voltage control, and it's being backed by energy heavyweights. Read More

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Around the Web

🙈 Do no evil? A Bloomberg Opinion piece looks into Meta's partnership with Anduril to build XR products for warfighters, and how it's the perfect illustration of just how much Silicon Valley has changed in the past few years. Read More

🏘️ House of cards: Canada's Zown wants to tip the scales on home affordability, writes Fast Company. By employing salaried real estate agents, cutting commission fees, and rebating the difference to buyers, Zown hopes to make home ownership more attainable. Read More

🇺🇲 This is Dystopia: A Texas sheriff used Flock's massive network of more than 83,000 license plate reader cameras – many in states where abortion is legal – to search for a woman who reportedly self-managed an abortion, 404 Media reports. Read More

Before You Go

🚀 Future forward: VivaTech has named 30 startups in the running for its
"2025 Innovation of the Year" award, spotlighting breakthroughs like mind-reading AI and carbon-sinking mining waste. Five finalists will pitch next week, and the winner will land a spot on TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield 200. Read More