Elon Musk’s xAI buys X and all its juicy data

Also: CoreView's origin story

View this email online in your browser By Rebecca Bellan Monday, March 31, 2025 Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we're exploring the logic of the X and xAI deal; what sci-fi means; and the origin story of CoreWeave. We've also got notes on: fresh funds for AI agents and drug discovery; how one fintech is preparing for its IPO, the Tesla Takedown movement, SpaceX and Apple's satellite fight, and more. — Rebecca TechCrunch Top 3 Image Credits: SAUL LOEB / AFP / Getty Images 1. It finally happened: Elon Musk's xAI has acquired X in an all-stock deal that values the social media company at $33 billion. Is this deal meant to turn X into a data-gathering resource for the xAI, or simply to shed off some of the debt Musk & Co. incurred when they bought it? Read More 2. What is sci-fi? China Miéville, the author of novels like "Perdido Street Station" and "The Book of Elsewhere," says it's a mistake to read sci-fi as if it's actually about the future. "It's always about now. It's always a reflection," he told TechCrunch. Read More 3. Buzzwords: TC's Julie Bort sat down with CoreWeave's co-founder Brian Venturo in the wake of its public debut – the biggest U.S. tech IPO since 2021 – about how a closet of crypto-mining GPUs morphed into an AI training infrastructure play. Read More   A Message from Persona Verify more users without sacrificing security. Verify users during onboarding to fight fraud, meet compliance requirements, build trust, and protect your business and customers. Persona's low-code identity verification platform adapts to risk signals in real time — increasing friction for potential fraudsters while fast-tracking good users so you can maximize conversion and minimize risk. Get a Demo   Morning Must-Reads Image Credits: Chime 🏦 Deals, deals, deals: As Chime heads towards the public markets, the digital bank is revving up to attract customers. TC got the scoop that Chime is now offering customers who agree to have paychecks directly deposited into a Chime account an APY of 3.75%. Read More 🤑 Agent this, agent that: Seattle-based Temporal made a name for itself offering microservices, like helping platforms build integrations across apps. Now, with a fresh $146 million, Temporal will be one of the latest to support new areas like agentic AI. Read More 🙂 Everything's fine: Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas says the startup is doing just fine financially after users took to Reddit to hypothesize about cost cuts worsening the user experience. He also confirmed that Perplexity isn't looking to IPO anytime before 2028. Read More 🔥 It's getting uglier: Tesla Takedown protests are still going strong three months after they began. But there's a risk that the feds will treat peaceful protests the same as people throwing Molotov cocktails and label it all "domestic terrorism." Read More 🪑 People moves: Jennifer Salke is stepping down as head of Amazon MGM Studios, a move that could indicate dissatisfaction with the company's streaming strategy over the past few years. I wonder if the disappointment that was "Rings of Power" has anything to do with it. Read More   A Message from TechCrunch Events Last 24 hours! Save $320 on TC All Stage founder + investor passes Founders & VCs, are you ready to scale? TechCrunch All Stage hits Boston on July 15 with two stages covering early growth & post-Series A strategies. Join Breakouts, Roundtables & top networking. Hear from leaders like Charles Hudson (Precursor Ventures) & Jahanvi Sardana (Index Ventures). Save up to $320 — offer ends tonight at 11:59 p.m. PT! Save Now   Around the Web 🛰️ Apple v. SpaceX: A Wall Street Journal report details the clash between Apple and SpaceX as the iPhone maker tries to eliminate cellphone dead spots with satellite technology. Apple wants to expand its own satellite investments, but not if SpaceX has anything to say about it. Read More 💊 Drug discovery gets a boost: Isomorphic Labs, a division within Google using AI to accelerate drug design, has raised $600 million from outside investors. Jared Kushner-owned Thrive Capital led the round, reports The New York Times. Read More 🔮 Making money work for you: A Reuters analysis details how the Trump family took control of World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture, and grabbed the lion's share of half-a-billion dollars raised from selling governance tokens, which give holders the right to vote on changes to the project's underlying code. Read More Before You Go 🩺 Put me in, coach: Apple is developing a new version of its Health app that includes an AI coach that will be able to look at all your health data, including the food you eat, and suggest ways to improve. "You've been sitting for four hours and now you've had a donut. Tsk Tsk." Read More Featured jobs from CrunchBoard Head of Strategic Finance, GITAI USA (Torrance, CA) Senior Software Engineer, Source (Remote) Engineering & Support Senior Director, AAOS (Rosemont, IL) Research Systems Engineer - Computing Services, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) Machine Control Technician, Sinacola (Dallas, TX) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.   Check out some of our other newsletters: Startups Weekly TechCrunch AI TechCrunch Mobility Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Update your preferences here at any time Copyright © 2024 TechCrunch, All rights reserved.Yahoo Inc. 680 Folsom Street,San Francisco,CA Privacy Policy

The future of Intel Capital

Plus, AT Protocol apps

View this email online in your browser By Anthony Ha Sunday, March 30, 2025 Image Credits: SOPA Images / Contributor / Getty Images It's the end of an era for what many consider to be the first true corporate venture capital firm: Intel Capital announced plans this year to spin out from Intel. To mark the occasion, Rebecca Szkutak spoke to the firm's vice president and senior managing director, Mike Rostick, who first joined back in 1999. He said plans to make Intel Capital a stand-alone firm started to become more concrete last fall: "We thought our track record merited attention from outside investors." Other changes seem to be afoot, with four longtime managing directors recently leaving the firm — although an Intel Capital spokesperson said the departures weren't related to the spinout. Weekend news and opinion Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch Africa's largest startups, based on valuation: With funding returning to pre-pandemic levels, Tage Kene-Okafor highlights Africa's most valuable startups — unicorns like Flutterwave, OPay, and Andela, as well as "soonicorns" like PalmPay and Moove. Data centers love solar: In news that may reassure anyone worried about the climate impact of power-hungry AI, tech companies and data centers have announced 12 solar deals over 100 megawatts since the beginning of 2025. Tim De Chant rounds them up. AT Protocol apps go beyond Bluesky: While Bluesky is by far the most prominent social app built on the open AT Protocol, it's not alone. Sarah Perez explains that other apps using the protocol run the gamut from photo- and video-sharing to alternative Bluesky clients to blogging.   A Message from TechCrunch Final call to save up to $320 — TC All Stage offer ends tomorrow Last chance to save — prices go up after tomorrow, March 31! Join 1,200+ founders, VCs, and scaling experts at TechCrunch All Stage on July 15 in Boston. Gain insights from breakouts, roundtables, and elite networking. Hear from leaders like Charles Hudson (Precursor Ventures) and Chris Gardner (Underscore VC). Secure your spot now at the lowest price! Register Now   What else we're reading 📗 We've all seen examples of AI-generated art and writing, but The New York Times is offering readers a new way to test how their own intelligence stacks up, with an escalating series of puzzles that are supposed to be easy for humans but tough for AI. (I skipped the puzzles because I don't want to know.) Also, with the Trump administration's recent national security controversy, 404 Media writes about what to do when your threat model is being a moron.   A Message from TechCrunch From seed to scale — TechCrunch All Stage unites founders and VCs Ready to scale? Founders and VCs, don't miss TC All Stage on July 15 in Boston. Two stages focus on early-stage growth and post-Series A scaling, with breakouts, roundtables, and top-tier networking. Learn from leaders like Cathy Gao (Sapphire Ventures), Jahanvi Sardana (Index Ventures), and more. Save up to $320 with Early Bird pricing — ends March 31! Register Now   Before you go 🎬 Marvel did a five-hour, slow-motion livestream to reveal the cast of the next "Avengers" movie, but now you can watch the whole thing in just a minute and a half. Featured jobs from CrunchBoard Head of Strategic Finance, GITAI USA (Torrance, CA) Senior Software Engineer, Source (Remote) Engineering & Support Senior Director, AAOS (Rosemont, IL) Research Systems Engineer - Computing Services, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) Machine Control Technician, Sinacola (Dallas, TX) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.   Check out some of our other newsletters: Startups Weekly TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Update your preferences here at any time Copyright © 2024 TechCrunch, All rights reserved.Yahoo Inc. 680 Folsom Street,San Francisco,CA Privacy Policy