Author: GT

Dear Shareholders:2024 was a strong year for Amazon.Our total revenue grew 11% year-over-year (“YoY”) from $575B to $638B. By segment, North America revenue increased 10% YoY from $353B to $387B, International revenue grew 9% YoY from $131B to $143B, and AWS revenue increased 19% YoY, from $91B to $108B. For perspective, just 10 years ago, AWS revenue was $4.6B; and in that same year, Amazon’s total revenue was $89B.Amazon’s operating income in 2024 improved 86% YoY, from $36.9B (an operating margin of 6.4%) to $68.6B (an operating margin of 10.8%). Free Cash Flow, adjusted for equipment finance leases improved from…

It’s been a tough but exciting year for 23-year-old Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, founder and CEO of AI sales agent startup Artisan. Artisan just raised a $25 million Series A led by Glade Brook Capital, Carmichael-Jack exclusively tells TechCrunch. Y Combinator, Day One Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, Oliver Jung, Fellows Fund, and others participated as well. A year ago, Artisan was one of the most sought-after grads from the winter 2024 Y Combinator class, raising $12 million in September, one of the biggest rounds of the cohort.  In between, Carmichael-Jack and his co-founder, 30-year-old Sam Stallings (a former IBM product manager), have experienced…

Samsung has updated SmartThings, its app that lets users control the company’s IoT devices, with new home automation capabilities in an apparent bid to cross-sell more of its smart home devices and appliances to existing customers. Besides the automation features, users will get new integrations with the Samsung Health app, an intercom feature, and support for more devices through the Matter 1.4 smart home connectivity standard. The app’s “Routines” feature — like Apple’s Shortcuts and IFTTT, this is essentially a basic, no-code conditional programming interface that can trigger tasks — has been updated to enable a good amount of home…

Bitcoin (BTC) rose to nearly $82,000 early Thursday to usher gains across the crypto market after a U-turn on tariffs led to relief in broader equity markets on Wednesday, prompted by President Donald Trump changing course on a steep tariff levy globally. XRP and ether (ETH) led gains among crypto majors with a 12% surge, while Cardano’s ADA, BNB Chain’s BNB, Solana’s SOL and dogecoin (DOGE) zoomed as much as 10%. Overall market capitalization rose 6%. The broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20) showed a 7% increase. Crypto-tracked futures showed short liquidations of over $350 million, the highest since early March, which…

Doing laundry can be a chore. It takes time and is tedious. Few people like to do it. So it’s no surprise that startups have emerged to take that load off your back — literally. And investors are lining up to fund new and older players alike.  Eleven-month-old NoScrubs has just raised $2 million in a pre-seed round led by Initialized Capital for its on-demand laundry delivery service. And in late February, Rinse raised a $23 million Series D led by LG Electronics to continue growing its 12-year-old business, which includes dry cleaning services. While they have different business models,…

If you like to stay hydrated no matter where you go, chances are you’ve got a reusable water bottle or two. Or 10. (The collectors know who they are.)Whether you’re a tech enthusiast, fashion trendsetter, hiker, commuter or just an eco-conscious consumer, there’s a bottle out there for you. There are bottles that sterilize themselves. Bottles that remind you when to drink. Bottles designed for sustainability. And bottles transformed by a paintbox of colors and imagery into mini artworks.Hydration’s become more than a necessity. It’s got a personality. This Feb. 2025 photo shows insulated tall and short bottles from Legami…

The news cycle has turned chaotic for crypto traders, courtesy of President Donald Trump’s back-and-forth tariffs announcement. In such situations, traders tend to ignore the noise and follow the tape – monitor the price chart, identify the path of least resistance and follow the same. In case of bitcoin (BTC), the tape has turned bullish, with short-duration price charts flashing a pattern opposite of the one that characterized the January-February price peak above $109K. We are talking about the double bottom pattern comprising two consecutive troughs with lows at about the same price, representing downtrend exhaustion, and a trendline drawn…

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) may have to pay a fine of $1 billion or more to resolve a U.S. export control investigation related to a chip it made that was used in a Huawei AI processor, according to a report by Reuters. TSMC did not provide any further comments as it is now “in [a] quiet period,” a spokesperson for the chipmaker said in an emailed statement to TechCrunch. It’s the latest development in a situation that first came to light in late 2024 involving TSMC, Huawei, and Xiamen Sophgo Technologies, a Chinese chip designer. Sophgo is an affiliate…

KAWASAKI, Japan (AP) — Seafood lovers know the fatty marbling is what makes tuna sashimi and sushi so tasty, so for the industry, it’s the fish’s level of fattiness that’s used to judge its quality and pricing. Usually, several people assess how fatty a tuna is by cutting the tail with a giant saw-like knife, an operation that takes about 60 seconds per fish.But now a machine called Sonofai uses ultrasound waves to do the job in 12 seconds, operated by a person without prior knowledge of how to carve fish. Fujitsu, the Japanese company behind the technology, invited reporters…

Spot AI has introduced Iris, which the company describes as the world’s first universal video AI agent builder for enterprise camera systems. The tool allows businesses to create customised AI agents through a conversational interface, making it easier to monitor and act on video data from physical settings without the need for technical expertise. Designed for industries like manufacturing, logistics, retail, construction, and healthcare, Iris builds on Spot AI’s earlier launch of out-of-the-box Video AI Agents for safety, security, and operations. While those prebuilt agents focus on common use cases, Iris gives organisations the flexibility to train agents for more…