TechCrunch Newsletters - Musk sues OpenAI

Good morning! Today in TechCrunch AM we have news for AI founders (Nvidia is writing a lot of checks), a new lawsuit between Elon Musk and OpenAI over its mission, social media updates for the media types amongst us, and new developer-OS drama, this time in India.

Happy Friday everyone, let’s get into it!

– Alex

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TechCrunch Top 3

1. Nvidia’s startup investments soared last year: Venture capital investments might be slowing around the world, but Nvidia’s been quite busy through its own corporate investing arm. Last year, the chip giant participated in around 46 deals, which was 280% more than its 2022 pace. TechCrunch’s Kyle Wiggers dug into how those figures stack up compared to corporate venture capital activity from other chipmakers like Intel, Arm, and AMD.
2. Musk sues OpenAI: Musk was a critical backer of OpenAI earlier in its life, but now the billionaire is taking the company to court over its structure, backing and focus. Remember when OpenAI went through a leadership crisis last year? The venture capital industry reacted as one to call for the exile of its former board and return Sam Altman to the company. They won. Now, Musk is kicking that very hornet’s nest. I’m betting on the side of the argument with more money, and that’s not Musk.
3. Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander broke more ground than you thought: For fans of space tech, Intuitive Machines landing its hardware on the Moon was a triumph. TechCrunch reports that the company’s lunar jaunt actually broke ground in another way: through an innovative fuel choice that could open more doors for space work in the future.

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How to survive a DTC boom and bust: Home goods DTC company Parachute made it through the direct-to-consumer boom and bust, when many companies of its ilk expanded quickly only to later deflate. Parachute is now moving into the brick-and-mortar world, so we had founder Ariel Kaye on Found to talk about how the company sourced materials, learned logistics and more.

Google removes some Indian apps over fee dispute: If you want to run a business via Android, Google wants you to hand over a chunk of your revenue. There are nuances to that point, but Google’s recent move to yank some apps from the Play Store in India for not complying with its billing policies is an indication of what major mobile OS companies think of third-party developers. In feudal terms, Google thinks that it is a lord, and developers are pesky peasants who aren’t turning over enough of their grain. Indian developers are incensed, as you can imagine.

Meta’s news retreat continues: Social giant Meta intends to remove the News tab from Facebook in the United States and Australia this year. The company had deprecated the feature in several European countries last year. News has been a fading priority for Meta for some time –– the move will likely reduce traffic to news publishers, but may also limit Facebook’s conflicts with countries and publishers alike.

Don’t leak 2FA codes: The internet is not a series of tubes; it’s a series of leaky tubes taped together with the hopes that the duct tape will prevent leaks. It’s no surprise then that the system often fails. One good, recent example of that fact is YX International, which provides SMS routing services. The company left a database of two-factor authentication codes exposed to the internet without a password that would have allowed “anyone to access the sensitive data inside using only a web browser, just with knowledge of the database’s public IP address,” TechCrunch’s Zack Whittaker reports. Not good!

The troubles of Electric Car Land: EV company Fisker is cutting staff to preserve cash. The company intends to lay off about 15% of its staff, and says that it doesn’t have the funds it needs to make it for the next 12 months. Still, things could be worse: Lordstown Motors has been charged by the SEC for “misleading investors about the sales prospects of its Endurance electric pickup truck.”

Also, NFX’s James Currier will break down MVPs at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024!

Before you go

All hail the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp: With some of Disney’s IPs entering the public domain this year, there’s a race afoot to put the newly-unlocked intellectual property into use. Enter the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, the Triple-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins, an MLB team. They have jersey’s coming up that employs Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Disney’s Steamboat Willie presentation of Mickey Mouse in a uniform collage that it is a lovely combination of cringe and flippancy.

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