Friday, April 5, 2024

Good Friday afternoon to you all, and welcome to TechCrunch PM. As you settle in for the weekend, you might feel car happy once you read about how low Tesla is pricing its Model Y SUV. Meanwhile, Apple has some layoffs and we talk A LOT about Y Combinator’s Demo Day. Rounding out today’s coverage is a new Amazon store in India and what gets Sundar Pichai excited. Have a great weekend! — Christine

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Image Credits: Tesla

Tesla goes low: Tesla has too many Model Ys, so their problem has become your benefit. The electric automaker is slashing the price of its unsold Model Y SUVs in the U.S. by as much as $7,000. Read More

Speaking of lowered prices, Tesla is reportedly no longer planning to build a lower-cost electric vehicle, according to Reuters. Instead, it will focus on robotaxis. Read More

Apple layoffs: Apple reported that it will lay off 614 employees in California in May after abandoning its electric car project, according to the WARN notice posted by the California EDD. Most of the affected employees worked at eight locations in Santa Clara. Read More

Cross-border fintech focus at YC: Cross-border fintech is hot right now, so it’s no surprise that one of the trends among Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 batch of nearly 30 fintech startups is how to more easily move money globally. Read More

Afternoon must-reads

Amazon gets a Bazaar: The delivery giant is going after the likes of Walmart’s Flipkart and Reliance’s Ajio in India with a “special store” called Bazaar that features affordable and trendy fashion and lifestyle products. Read More

Sundar Pichai takes the stage: The Alphabet CEO went over to Stanford this week and pulled back the curtain on what it’s like to run one of the world’s most valuable tech companies. Read More

Join a Spotify Listening Party: Spotify’s live audio app is no longer active, but the company is using the tech to better connect fans and artists with the “Listening Party” feature, which lets high-engaging fans join events like releasing an album by an artist with opportunities to ask them questions. Read More

Meta’s new AI deepfake playbook: Meta changed its rules on AI-generated content and manipulated media following criticism from its Oversight Board. As a result, it will label a wider range of such content, including deepfakes. Read More

Shaking: Earthquakes are rare in the Northeast, but sure enough, there was one Friday that originated in New York. In full tech fashion, X and Bluesky were buzzing, because nothing unites people more than asking someone if they felt that. Read More

Inside Rubrik’s IPO filing: I’ll give you a hint — it involves an artificial intelligence governance committee. Read More

Pitch Deck Teardown: Check out what Haje had to say about LGBTQIA+-focused dating app Queerie’s pre-seed deck. Read More

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Money, money, money

Varda Space’s orbital drug factory success fuels $90 million in new funding just weeks after its first drug manufacturing capsule returned from orbit. Read More

Belgian computer vision startup Robovision, now with $42 million in fresh capital, eyes U.S. expansion to address labor shortages. Read More

Around the web

There was some good news today in that the U.S. economy added 303,000 jobs in March. This is the largest gain in over a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly jobs report. CNBC reports that the layoff rate sat at a near-historic low for more than two years.

Over on The Wall Street Journal, Johnson & Johnson is making a $13.1 billion bet on Shockwave Medical, a company that makes devices to treat heart disease. This is another notch in J&J’s medical technology belt, which also includes the 2022 $16.6 billion acquisition of heart-device maker Abiomed and the 2023 purchase of Laminar.

And you read about Apple’s layoffs. Now The Street has one analyst’s critique about Apple getting into the personal robot business.