TechCrunch Top 3

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🤖 OpenAI denies Orion news: It was reported this week that OpenAI was planning to release a model named Orion by the end of the year. OpenAI says it doesn't have plans to release a model named Orion this year. But does that mean it'll release a model with a different name? Read more

🔓 Musk's meddling: Elon Musk has allegedly been in regular contact with Russia's president Vladimir Putin since late 2022. If true, this poses a national security risk. Read more

🚙 Whoa, Waymo: Alphabet's self-driving car unit, Waymo, just raised a massive $5.6 billion Series C round led by its parent company with participation from a who's who list of Silicon Valley VCs, including Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global. Read more

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Loops

♻️ Reusable drones: War is expensive for a lot of reasons, one of them being that weapons are costly and can typically be used just once. Origin is a startup out of Latvia looking to change that by making reusable drones. Read more

🛍️ India's influencers: YouTube is bringing its affiliate program, which allows creators to tag products in their videos and earn referrals, to India. YouTube is partnering with Flipkart and Myntra and will allow creators with at least 10,000 followers to take advantage. Read more

🤳 A fediversed TikTok: Loops, a new short-form video platform, has started taking early signups. While not open source yet, Loops is a TikTok alternative for the fediverse network of open source social media companies. Read more

✈️ Developer refresh: Alongside Apple's release next week of Apple Intelligence, the company is rolling out a sizable update to TestFlight, its app testing platform for developers. The update gives devs better control over who can join their beta and how features will be shared with testers. Read more

🗣️ Yap time: In today's Equity episode, the gang looks at Stripe's recent purchase and noodles on why the company is getting more into crypto. The group also looked at some fun new startups and talked about what a16z is going to do with all those Nvidia GPUs. Read more

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Around the web

🚭 No smoking please: Juul was supposed to be a device to help smokers quit, but that did NOT go as planned. Forbes reported today that startup Qnovia is looking to be the first approved prescription nicotine replacement in 20 years. Read more

🪐 Boeing explores a sale: The Wall Street Journal reports today that Boeing wants out of the space business, according to people familiar with its plans. "The beleaguered company is exploring a sale of its storied NASA business, including the troubled Starliner space vehicle and operations that support the International Space Station." Read more