Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! Our site is HEAVY with Apple WWDC news this morning, which is all important, interesting, amazing and a little terrifying. But we’ve also got some human-focused pieces on inspiring VCs and the funds they’ve raised, Raspberry Pi going public, and the introduction of AI slop. Onward! — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Apple

1. All the Apple news that’s fit to print: We’re all still talking about the big reveals at Apple’s 2024 WWDC – everything from Apple Intelligence and Siri’s ChatGPT makeover, to the new Vision Pro operating system and Apple TV+ updates. There’s also fun new features like Tap to Pay, SmartScript in the new iPad OS, a preview of MacOS Sequoia and so much more. Read a summary of all that went down at WWDC here: Read More

2. Mistral AI raises $640M: The rumors are true: Mistral AI has just closed a massive Series B, led by General Catalyst, at a $6 billion valuation. Mistral is relatively new to the artificial intelligence space, so this amount of funding is either a vote of confidence in the startup’s tech or a manifestation of the insane hype around AI. Read More

3. Raspberry Pi goes public: The maker of the tiny, cheap, single-board computers today listed on the LSE at £2.80 per share, making for a £542 million valuation (~$690 million). The listing is a win for the London stock market, which is often overlooked by tech companies who’d rather like their chances on the Nasdaq or NYSE. Read More

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Morning Must Reads

Image Credits: Redpoint

It was all a dream: Urvashi Barooah got rejected from every MBA program she applied to. She was told her dream of being a venture capital investor in Silicon Valley was unrealistic. Now, at 33, Barooah is being promoted to a partner at Redpoint, which is investing out of its $650 million ninth fund. Go on, queen. Read More

Cognigy raises $175M to automate call centers: Cognigy is doing the ‘Her’ of call center AIs: the startup manages AI agents that can handle up to tens of thousands of conversations at once, and uses a combo of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Luminous to get it done. Is it weird that I still just want to talk to a person? Read More

Elon Musk threatens to ban iPhones: Musk said that “if Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level,” he’d ban all Apple devices from his businesses. That’s not what’s happening, by the way. People can ask Siri questions, and if Siri thinks ChatGPT can help, it will ask permission to share the question and present the answer directly. It just means users don’t have to open the ChatGPT app. Is Musk trying to flex some muscle to try to stop Apple from exploring such an integration eventually? Read More

VC queen of PR portfolios Masha Bucher raises $150M fund: Masha Bucher, founder and general partner of Day One Ventures, has made a name for herself by spearheading public relations for her firm’s early-stage portcos. That strategy is clearly working, judging by the big dollar sign attached to the VC’s latest fund. Read More

Double your CPU’s performance, double your fun: Finnish startup Flow Computing is making a bold claim: by adding its own companion chip, any CPU can 100x its performance. In the words of Elon Musk, ‘Big, if true.’ This could help the industry keep up with the crushing compute demand from AI companies. Read More

Particle wants to help publishers with AI, not hurt them: Particle, a news reader startup, has teamed up with Reuters and other publishers to help them seek out a new business model for the AI era. Built by former Twitter engineers, the startup aims to help readers understand all angles of a story using AI to summarize news from across publishers. It’s now raised $10.9 million. Read More

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Around the Web

Yahoo Mail gets new AI capabilities: Yahoo’s desktop app will get new features like brief AI-generated summaries of emails that highlight proposed tasks and other actions, reports The Verge. Other AI updates include quick action buttons and the ability to link other email accounts so they can all be viewed on one app. Read More

Nothing can stop Shein: China has issued draft rules to promote the construction of overseas warehouses and expand cross-border e-commerce businesses, like Shein, Temu and AliExpress, Reuters reports. Read More

Welcome to the world of AI slop: We’re all accustomed to “spam” in the digital era. Well, now that we’ve got AI, you can now suffer through “slop.” The new term, as the New York Times says, refers to the crummy, unwanted AI content in social media, art, books and search results. Read More

Before You Go

Image Credits: TechCrunch

Don’t miss Slack’s CEO at Disrupt: Slack CEO Denise Dresser, who stepped up to lead the company in November, is joining us for a fireside chat at TechCrunch Disrupt in October. She’ll be there to talk about running a company that has had many executive shakeups, her extensive enterprise expertise, and more. Make sure to check it out! Read More