Tuesday, September 2, 2025

Tesla's 4th 'Master Plan' reads like LLM-generated nonsense

TechCrunch Top 3

Tesla's 4th 'Master Plan' reads like LLM-generated nonsense: Tesla's fourth "Master Plan" lacks an important building block of plans: specifics. Even Elon Musk agrees it was too generic. Read More

MrBeast reportedly plans to launch a phone company: MrBeast, the 27-year-old popular YouTuber, plans to launch a phone company as he diversifies his brand. Read More

Anthropic raises $13B Series F at $183B valuation: AI firm Anthropic's $13 billion Series F round will be used to grow its enterprise adoption, deepen safety research, and support international expansion. Read More

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Afternoon Must-Reads

Google avoids break up, but has to give up exclusive search deals in antitrust trial: U.S. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta outlined remedies on Tuesday that would bar Google from entering or maintaining exclusive deals that tie the distribution of Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, or Gemini to other apps or revenue arrangements. Read More

OpenAI to route sensitive conversations to GPT-5, introduce parental controls: OpenAI said Tuesday it plans to route sensitive conversations to reasoning models like GPT-5 and roll out parental controls within the next month – part of an ongoing response to recent safety incidents involving ChatGPT failing to detect mental distress. Read More

Just 4 days left to exhibit at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 — 10 tables remain: The clock is ticking, and exhibit space at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 is moving fast. With just 4 days and 10 table left to book, now's the time to stop circling the idea and claim your spot on the show floor. Read More

WordPress shows off Telex, its experimental AI development tool: WordPress CEO Matt Mullenweg introduced the new WordPress AI tool, called Telex, at the company's WordCamp US 2025 conference in Portland last week, alongside other AI experiments. Read More

Judges side with Trump EPA over canceled Inflation Reduction Act grants to nonprofits: An appellate court found that the Trump administration was within its rights to cancel billions of dollars in grants. The nonprofits that had their grants canceled are expected to appeal. Read More

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Last but Not Least

OpenAI acquires product testing startup Statsig and shakes up its leadership team: OpenAI is bringing on the founder of Statsig as its CTO of Applications, and making changes to other leadership roles at the company. Read More

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Klarna revives IPO plans, aims to raise $1.27B

TechCrunch Top 3

Klarna revives IPO plans, aims to raise $1.27B: Swedish buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) startup Klarna and its shareholders are reviving its initial public offering, hoping to raise as much as $1.27 billion in a listing that would value the company at up to $14 billion. Read More

LayerX uses AI to cut enterprise back-office workload, scores $100M in Series B: This Japanese AI startup just raised $100M to cut businesses' admin burden. Read More

U.S. and Indian VCs just formed a $1B+ alliance to fund India's deep tech startups: Eight U.S. and Indian VC and PE giants are teaming up to fuel India's deep tech boom. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

Murder at Burning Man turns Silicon Valley's desert playground into a crime scene: A homicide investigation has rocked the final days of Burning Man after a man was found dead "lying in a pool of blood" Saturday night at the Nevada desert festival, according to the Pershing County Sheriff's Office. According to the New York Times, the grim discovery occurred around 9:14 p.m. just as the festival's iconic wooden "Man" effigy began its traditional burn. The victim, described as a white adult male whose identity remains unknown, was found by a festival participant who flagged down a deputy. Read More

Lovable's CEO isn't too worried about the vibe-coding competition: Lovable specializes in helping people build apps and websites, especially people with no coding experience. It's one of the standouts in the popular AI category known as vibe-coding, which lets users guide AI models as they produce code, websites, or whole applications. Read More

Why Runway is eyeing the robotics industry for future revenue growth: Runway is building up a robotics-focused team and fine-tuning its existing models for robotics and self-driving car customers. Read More

Indian grocery startup Citymall raises $47M to challenge ultra-fast delivery giants: Indian e-commerce startup Citymall, which offers grocery delivery in tier 2 and tier 3 towns, has raised $47 million at a $320 million valuation — a price tag that's unchanged from its $75 million Series C three years ago. Investors in Citymall told TechCrunch that the prior valuation reflected a bullish market environment at the time, which explains why the valuation has remained unchanged despite the company's growth. However, they remain optimistic about the company's trajectory. Read More

Space investing goes mainstream as VCs ditch the rocket science requirements: Seven Seven Six's Katelin Holloway represents non-technical VCs pouring billions into space startups, betting operational chops will trump aerospace degrees as the industry shifts from rockets to lunar mining and orbital manufacturing. Read More

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