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Good morning,

Here are the most important things that happened this week in tech…

Top 5 hits

• Walmart-backed digital rewards app Ibotta goes public and raises $577M in its debut.

• Bitcoin’s halving event is expected to occur over the weekend which could set up cryptocurrency for long-term gains.

• Google fires 28 employees after their protest over a controversial Project Nimbus contract with Israel.

• Space startup Max Space is looking to launch expandable stadium-sized habitats into Earth’s orbit on board a SpaceX rocket by the end of the decade.

• Micron has won $6.1 billion in grants under the federal CHIPS Act to help it complete semiconductor plants in Idaho and New York.

This week’s videos

Other news

• After mass layoffs, Tesla asks shareholders to approve Texas move and restore Elon’s $56B pay package.

• Boston Dynamics’ new humanoid robot can move freely with 360° joints that give it inhumane movements.

• Samsung received $6.4 billion via the CHIPS Act and, as a result, will boost its investment in Texas from the $17 billion it pledged two years ago to $45 billion.

• The messaging app Telegram is expected to reach 1B users by the end of the year.

• Netflix grew subscribers by 9.3M worldwide in Q1 2024 from its password-sharing crackdown, which is double what Wall Street expected.

• Google is restructuring its finance team in a move that involves an undisclosed number of layoffs and relocations in its AI push.

• Meta releases Llama 3, its latest open generative AI model, and has upgraded its AI chatbot to it.

• Getir, once valued at $12B faces investor pressure to cut costs and restructure. It’s weighing asset sales and potential exits from non-core markets.

• Tim Cook visits multiple countries in Asia including Vietnam and Singapore to assess Apple’s Asia expansion.

• 6 Waymo robotaxis block traffic to the San Francisco freeway on-ramp.

• Adobe explores a partnership with OpenAI to allow creators to use Sora to generate and use video within Premiere Pro.

• Apple’s global iPhone sales fell 10% in the first quarter of 2024 as China rivals rise.

• Meta unveils a new education product for Quest to help teachers bring subjects to life in the classroom.

• Waymo, Cruise, and Zoox expand coverage ahead of Tesla’s robotaxi announcement coming in August.

• Naval Ravikant launches AirChat, a new social media app that connects people through voice.

• OpenAI names former AWS exec Tadao Nagasaki to head its Japan operations and lead its new Tokyo office.

• Game emulators are now available in Apple’s App Store after the company changed its App Store policies.

• Tesla lays off more than 10% of its workforce due to poor financial performance from 2023 and Q1 2024.

Deal flow

• Uber and Nvidia-backed sidewalk robot delivery company Serve Robotics goes public on the Nasdaq under the ticker “SERV”, raising $40M. The company spun out of Uber’s acquisition of Postmates back in 2021.

• Billing software firm Zuora, valued at $1.4B, is exploring a sale after takeover interest.

• Lacework, a cloud-security startup last valued at $8.3B is in talks to be acquired by a competitor Wiz, for just $150M–$200M.

• Ramp raises a $150M Series D-2 round which now values the company at $7.65B.

• Privacy-first mobile carrier startup Cape raises $61M from a16z. It’s based in Washington D.C.

• Toyota is putting $300M into VC funds for climate, carbon capture, AI, and space commercialization.

• Microsoft-backed Rubrik, a cloud and data security company, aims to raise as much as $713M in a big IPO.

• Paraform raises a $3.6M seed round to connect startups with recruiter networks.

• Knostic, a startup providing access control solutions for enterprises that internally use generative AI, comes out of stealth to raise a $3.3M pre-seed round.

• New York-based materials science company CleanFiber, raises $28M Series B round.

• Carbon removal startup Captura extends its Series A funding to $45.3M.

• Cloud computing company Akamai Technologies is in advanced talks to acquire Israeli-based cybersecurity startup Noname Security for $500M.

• Salesforce is in advanced talks to acquire data-management app Informatica, which has an $11.4B market cap.

Interesting gems

• Boston Dynamics releases a quick video of its new humanoid robot with insane movements.

• Youtuber MKBHD publishes a video reviewing Humane’s AI Pin—saying it’s the “worst product he’s ever reviewed… for now”. It’s led to a lot of controversy on the power influencers have over companies.

• Investors are growing weary of AI after a couple of years of easy money.

• Teenager chess prodigy solves problems without ever seeing the board.

• A new vision for car UX. As EVs continue to grow, good automobile user experience is becoming increasingly more important.

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That’s it for this week. Let me know what you think!

🌜 Loryn from Dark Mode Digest