Wednesday, May 7, 2025

What's next for OpenAI?

Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Welcome to TC PM! Today we look into what OpenAI's restructuring reversal means for its future; we learn of a mega-round for a longevity startup; and we have the details on a new partnership Uber inked with a Chinese autonomous vehicle company. Buckle up!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Stefano Guidi / Getty Images

⏪ Now what? Yesterday OpenAI announced that it will no longer pursue a restructuring into a for-profit organization. So, what happens now? Maxwell Zeff has a piece on what this reversal means for OpenAI and its potential exit opportunities down the line.

🧒 Forever young: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong's longevity startup, NewLimit, raised $130 million in a Series B round led by Kleiner Perkins. The startup claims that it is making progress toward developing treatments that can restore youthful characteristics to aged cells.

🔬 Science of the future: FutureHouse is an AI nonprofit trying to build an "AI scientist" in the next decade. The Eric Schmidt-backed nonprofit released a new tool called Finch that is an AI agent meant to automate data-driven discovery in biology. Neat!

Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty Images

📚 Book buying: Amazon Kindle's iOS app now has a Get Book button that allows users to buy books in an external mobile web browser. This comes after a judge ruled that Apple can't collect a 27% commission on purchases made through iPhone apps.

🐴 Uber ponies up: Uber announced a third partnership with a Chinese autonomous vehicle company today. The company announced it will work with Pony AI to launch robotaxis later this year in "a key market in the Middle East." Ominous!

👀 Across the pond: Today's episode of StrictlyVC Download features a chat with Eric Slesinger, a VC at 201 Ventures. Slesinger talks about his journey from CIA agent to backing defense tech startups in Europe and how defense tech investing is viewed by European VCs.

📝 Docusign disruptor: Agree.com wants to be an "all-in-one" platform for agreements through its e-signature, invoice, and payment infrastructure. The company just raised a $7.2 million seed round and is looking to take on both Docusign and Bill.com.

🖥 Pro preview: Google announced the launch of Gemini Pro Preview (I/O) edition today. This is an updated version of its flagship Gemini 2.5 Pro model. The model is priced the same as its predecessor and allegedly has "significantly" improved capabilities for things like coding.

Around the web

🇦🇷 AI in Argentina: Argentina president Javier Milei has an ambitious plan of upping the country's nuclear energy resources to lure Big Tech companies to build AI data centers in the country. But some nuclear scientists in the country think the plan may be too ambitious.

🔄 The online life cycle: Puck News media correspondent Julia Alexander has a fascinating piece out today about how Google is the reason many digital media companies and websites were able to grow and why every online road now starts and ends with Google.

Before you go

Image Credits: Instacart

🥳 Fizz fun: Fizz is a new app from Instacart that is supposed to make it easier for people to shop for parties and events by allowing friends to collaborate on grocery carts together. This feature is also designed to make it easier to see and split the costs of party food and supplies. Fun!