TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: monsitj / Getty Images

1. From free to a billion: TechCrunch got the scoop that AI infrastructure startup LangChain is raising a new round that will give it unicorn status a mere three years after it started as an open-source project. That's quite the feat for a startup which has had its core features cannibalized by the leading LLM providers. Read More

2. Fetch, boy! YC-backed Moroccan startup ZeroEntropy is hoping to make its mark in the next layer of AI search: retrieval. After all, LLMs are only as accurate as the information they retrieve. ZeroEntropy hopes to solve that, and has raised $4.2 million in seed funding to do so. Read More

3. Musical chairs: Apple's COO Jeff Williams is stepping down later this month. Sabih Khan, the current SVP of operations, will take over the role. Williams played a big role in introducing the iPod and iPhone programs and led development on the Apple Watch. Read More

A Message from Fidelity

It's not 2021 anymore. Understanding the 2025 VC landscape.

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Morning Must-Reads

Image Credits: Hugging Face

🤗 Hugging Bot: Hugging Face is accepting orders for its Reachy Mini desktop robots. Rather than a fun consumer product, this is meant to be a tool that helps developers start tinkering and testing. There are two versions at $449 and $299. Read More

🚀 All in on war: One of the biggest side effects of the Trump admin for Europe will be a push towards investing in defense. The latest example? Estonian VC firm Darkstar, which has broken the taboo by investing in pure defense tech straight out of Ukraine's war zones. Read More

🧓 That crazy uncle: Grok is becoming increasingly reminiscent of that crazy uncle everyone has who spouts conspiracy theories and racist jokes. Most recently, the chatbot has taken to posting antisemitism, using neo-Nazi terms like "every damn time," implying conspiracy and dehumanizing jewish folk. Read More

💰 Get those sales: We're in the thick of Amazon's Prime Day sale, and some shoppers are worried they won't have time to get all the best deals. Not if AI has anything to say about it. Adobe forecasts that Prime Day spending will shoot up as shopping assistants become more popular. Read More

🛴 Rivian's micromobility spinoff, Also, has reportedly raised $200 million from Greenoaks Capital to build e-bikes and other small electric vehicles. I'm curious to see how the company does — even though Trump's tariffs could create a market for smaller EVs, and we've seen what happens to overhyped venture-backed micromobility businesses. Read More

A Message from HSBC

The HSBC 2025 Fintech report is here

Discover where Fintech is headed. Unpack key industry shifts and how they're shaping the global financial ecosystem.

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Around the Web

📈 Line goes up: The world's biggest GPU maker has become the world's most valuable public company, hitting a market value of $4 trillion, CNBC reports. The company has been the one to benefit the most from the demand for all things AI, as businesses across the world scramble to build data centers to train large language models. Read More

⌘ Believe it or not, the Command key symbol on Apple keyboards came from a Swedish road sign, per the BRND Studio blog. Seeking to differentiate an app that would let users enter keyboard shortcuts inside apps, Apple graphic designer Susan Kare thought of using the looped square, which is typically used in Nordic countries to indicate tourist sites. Read More

Before You Go

📳 New fear unlocked: SIM swapping is a fresh facet of the modern hell that involves hackers deceiving telecom operators into porting away your cell phone number to gain access to your online accounts and even steal your identity. The good news is, it's relatively easy to protect yourself against this. TC's Zack Whittaker runs us through it. Read More