TechCrunch Newsletters - Rivian makes a hatchback

Good afternoon! Today in TechCrunch PM, Rivian took the top spot with its new SUVs, Nikon made an acquisition and our team got into a testing frenzy. In addition, we do a deep dive into Europe’s Digital Markets Act, we hear a plea from TikTok and take a look at why Databricks is doing so well.

— Christine

TechCrunch PM Top 3

Have a Rivian day!: Today was supposed to be all about the new Rivian R2 SUV. However, the electric vehicle startup had other plans. It also made a surprise announcement that it is building the R3, an all-electric hatchback. We have the goods on both the R2 and the R3.

It’s photo M&A day: Nikon is buying RED, the cinema camera maker founded by the guy who created Oakley sunglasses. Elsewhere, Lensrentals, an online rental service for photo, video, audio and lighting equipment, is acquiring competitor BorrowLenses.

Testing, testing, is this thing on?: Remember when Anthropic, the AI startup backed by Google, Amazon and a who’s who of VCs and angel investors, claimed its Claude 3 chatbot was better than OpenAI’s GPT-4? We aren’t out to put doubt on those claims, but Kyle took it as a challenge to see if it could indeed exceed. Here’s what we found.

Speaking of testing: Brian sat down with the new version of Apple’s M3 MacBook Air and gives you all the dirty deets.

More top reads

Europe’s DMA explained: We’ve been writing a lot lately about the European Union’s Digital Markets Act because it’s quite a complex set of rules that has some Big Tech companies reeling about how to compete. Natasha Lomas breaks it down for us.

Apple makes a change: Now that the DMA is in effect, Apple says it will make it easier for customers to switch to Android. But you will have to wait until 2025.

TikTok makes a plea for its existence: The streaming app is asking American users to call Congress and say no to a TikTok ban. This comes after a bill was introduced that would give the president the ability to identify social media apps that are threats to national security, which would remove them from app stores.

AI-style computer up for grabs: AI2 Incubator, spun out of the Allen Institute for AI, secured $200 million in compute resources that startups going through its program can take advantage of to accelerate early development.

Databricks hits $1.6 billion in revenue: Demand continues for data services and Databricks is front and center. In September the company raised $500 million on a massive $43 billion valuation, and now this week the company announced some impressive revenue numbers to justify that investor confidence.

Getting an Oura is easier now: Smart fitness ring maker Oura is now selling its ring and other accessories on Amazon.

If you’re bored and you know it, play a game: Did you know there is a hidden game on Instagram? You do now. Bonus: There’s donuts.

No code and AI, we shouldn’t have to say more: Meet Brevian, a no-code enterprise platform for building custom AI agents. It came out of stealth today with $9 million in new funding.

Tap to Pay for iPhone is here: PayPal’s “Tap to Pay” is now available for merchants with an iPhone through the Venmo and Zettle apps in the U.S. The feature will allow businesses to accept contactless card and digital wallet payments directly on their iPhones with no additional cost or hardware. The launch comes eight months after PayPal introduced the feature for merchants with Android phones.

On the pods

For this week’s episode of Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn interviewed Dee Goens, the co-founder of Zora.

Zora is a platform and protocol that helps developers and creators bring their ideas on chain and on Ethereum through an open and shared environment. The platform has minted over 4 million NFTs, has over $300 million in secondary sales and about 1 million unique collectors, according to its website.

Jacquelyn and Dee discuss how Zora envisions blockchains and AI working together, the roles they can play for NFT creators and what the platform’s developers and community members want more of. Listen here.

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