Author: GT

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week brought more than just Nvidia’s earnings reports; startups and VCs also had some news — quieter perhaps, but still worth paying attention to, especially where AI is involved. Most interesting startup stories from the week Image Credits:Cheng Xin / Contributor / Getty Images AI once again drove a large share of overall startup activity, including one acquisition, but this week also brought us a reminder that full M&A execution takes…

LAS VEGAS — The bitcoin treasury play that lifted Strategy’s market cap past $80 billion is now being mimicked by meme stock companies, media firms, and multinational conglomerates. But Wall Street isn’t buying all the hype.This week, Trump Media announced plans to raise $2.5 billion to buy bitcoin, and GameStop revealed a $500 million allocation. Meanwhile, Tether, SoftBank, and Strike’s Jack Mallers unveiled Twenty One, a bitcoin-native public company expected to launch with more than 42,000 bitcoin on its balance sheet, enough to make it the third-largest corporate holder of the asset globally.For now, the market doesn’t see the next…

WordPress.com parent company Automattic is changing direction… again. In a blog post titled “Returning to Core” published Thursday evening, Automattic announced it will unpause its contributions to the WordPress project. This is despite having said only last month that the 6.8 WordPress release would be the final major release for all of 2025. “After pausing our contributions to regroup, rethink, and plan strategically, we’re ready to press play again and return fully to the WordPress project,” the new blog post states. “Expect to find our contributions across all of the greatest hits — WordPress Core, Gutenberg, Playground, Openverse, and WordPress.org.…

The Department of Energy announced today that it would be clawing back $3.7 billion worth of awards made under the Biden administration for clean energy and manufacturing. Large corporations and growing startups were caught up in the decision. Energy secretary Chris Wright said the moves were “due diligence” on the part of the Trump administration. His statement did not cite specific reasons why the projects were canceled, but pointed to a memorandum he issued on May 15, which suggests that the department may attempt to use its audit powers to rescind the awards.  In total, 24 projects are affected by…

If the adoption of AI feels different from any tech revolution you may have experienced before — mobile, social, cloud computing — it actually is. Venture capitalist Mary Meeker just dropped a 340-page slideshow report — which used the word “unprecedented” on 51 of those pages — to describe the speed at which AI is being developed, adopted, spent on, and used, backed up with chart after chart. “The pace and scope of change related to the artificial intelligence technology evolution is indeed unprecedented, as supported by the data,” she writes in the report, called “Trends — Artificial Intelligence.” There’s…

The chief executive of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) says Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency left the nonprofit’s Washington, D.C., headquarters in disarray, full of water damage, rats, and roaches, according to a new sworn statement first reported by Court Watch. The statement from the executive, George Moose, comes just a few days after a federal judge ruled that DOGE’s takeover of the nonprofit was illegal. And this week, Musk has claimed he is stepping away from DOGE, although he and President Trump have said he will continue to advise the administration. DOGE started its takeover of…

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! It might have been a short week, but there was still plenty of news, including another Zoox recall, an update on the Stellantis-Amazon partnership, and a few startup-funding deals.  One item of note: This week, I wrote about Carma Technology and its patent infringement lawsuit against Uber. This isn’t a patent troll situation, and the IP attorneys I have spoken with say it will be a challenging case for Uber.  The gist?…

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The explosive growth of the data centers needed to power America’s fast-rising demand for artificial intelligence and cloud computing platforms has spurred states to dangle incentives in hopes of landing an economic bonanza, but it’s also eliciting pushback from lawmakers and communities. Activity in state legislatures — and competition for data centers — has been brisk in recent months, amid an intensifying buildout of the energy-hungry data centers and a search for new sites that was ignited by the late 2022 debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.Many states are offering financial incentives worth tens of millions of dollars.…

Elon Musk may have stepped away from his duties as the lead of the Department of Government Efficiency and adviser to President Trump, but he’s still active in D.C. circles. This time, he’s on the other side, lobbying lawmakers on legislation related to autonomous vehicles, according to a report by Bloomberg that cited unnamed sources. Musk and others in his orbit have been calling members of Congress directly, according to Bloomberg. His efforts appear to be directed at a bill introduced May 15 called the Autonomous Vehicle Acceleration Act. Musk has bet much of Tesla’s future on AI, robotics, and…

Grammarly has secured a $1 billion commitment from General Catalyst. The 16-year-old writing assistant startup will use the new funds for its sales and marketing efforts, freeing up existing capital to make strategic acquisitions. Unlike a traditional venture round, General Catalyst will not receive an equity stake in the company in return for the investment. Instead, Grammarly will repay the capital along with a fixed, capped percentage of revenue it generates from the use of General Catalyst’s funds. The investment comes from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund (CVF), a capital pool that helps late-stage startups with predictable revenue streams deploy…