Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we've got notes on the chaos DeepSeek has unleashed at Wall Street, more funding for travel tech, and the Gulf of Mexico's new name. We've also got Nvidia's plunging market cap, fresh capital for nuclear fusion, the future of quantum computing, the intersection of storytelling and blockchain, and California's fight for EVs. Let's go! — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Horacio Villalobos / Getty Images

1. Look who's using DeepSeek: DeepSeek's new open-source reasoning model, R1, has gotten an important endorsement from Pat Gelsinger, Intel's former CEO. He's already using the Chinese foundational model at his startup Gloo, a messaging and engagement platform for churches. Just don't ask it about Tiananmen Square. Read More

2. Pack your bags: Travel tech is hot right now, and business travel management platform TravelPerk is the latest example of that. The startup just raised $200 million at a $2.7 billion valuation, and it has acquired Swiss startup Yokoy to bring expense management into the fold. Read More

3. Gulf of Geopolitical Tension: Google Maps will soon rename the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America" following Trump's executive order to change the names of some geographic landmarks. Google will only do this for the U.S., which is where Trump has the power to do such things. Read More

A Message from Masters of Scale

Masters of Scale Summit: Where leaders shape the future

Masters of Scale Summit, presented in alliance with Capital One Business, returns to SF this Oct 7–9. Summit brings together fast-scaling leaders with speakers like Bret Taylor & Brian Chesky to drive innovation and shape the future of business. Sign up for priority access to unlock curated Summit highlights, and fast-track your application.

Morning must-reads

Image Credits: Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto / Getty Images

🌠 All giants must fall: DeepSeek's R1 has Wall Street backpedaling on Nvidia shares. This week, Nvidia's stock plummeted by 17% and its market cap took a $600 billion hit. Because maybe, just maybe, AI models don't need such expensive high-end chips to be effective. Read More

🇨🇳 Alibaba wants to play, too: Alibaba's Qwen team released a new family of AI models that can parse files, understand videos, count objects in images, and more. They can even control a PC, which is similar to the model powering OpenAI's recently launched Operator. Read More

🔋 Going nuclear: Sam Altman-backed nuclear fusion startup Helion has raised $425 million at a $5.2 billion valuation to build a fusion reactor for Microsoft. The deal is to supply Microsoft with electricity by 2028, years before its competitors. Read More

🧯 You don't always get what you pay for: Cybersecurity company SonicWall says hackers have figured out how to exploit a new vulnerability in one of its enterprise products to break into its customers' corporate networks. Microsoft researchers discovered the vulnerability. Read More

✍️ AI journalism: Business news outlet Quartz has started quietly publishing AI-generated news articles under the byline "Quartz Intelligence Newsroom." The articles aggregate news from other outlets, which Quartz names at the top of each article, and is the latest in AI-generated content from parent company G/O Media. Read More

🐈 Shrodinger's cat qubits: Paris-based quantum startup Alice&Bob just raised a $104 million Series B to continue building a "fault tolerant" quantum computer based on "cat qubits." Its goal is to have a "useful" quantum computer online by 2030. Read More

📚 Sci-fi meets sci-fi: "Tokenized storytelling" lets fans participate in story development by turning elements like characters and plot into tokens that can be owned as digital assets. David Goyer, the writer of "Blade," "The Dark Knight," and the "Foundation" TV series, is exploring this tech by launching a new sci-fi franchise called "Emergence" on Story's IP blockchain. Read More

A Message from Dataiku

Insights From 200 IT Leaders on GenAI, Tech Stack, & More

This survey of 200 senior analytics and IT leaders reveal a gap between CIOs' aspirations and execution capabilities. While 70% have adopted GenAI, only 20% are using the tech and face costs that overshadow benefits. Dive into the survey report for practical strategies to overcome these challenges.

Learn More

Around the web

🐦 A history of Elon Musk's X: The Verge has put together a timeline detailing the entire story of Twitter/X under Elon Musk – everything from unpaid bills and layoffs to the drama in Brazil and the recent backlash on Reddit. Just goes to show that truth is stranger than fiction. Read More

🧿 California straps up for battle: California has led the U.S. in green energy policies, and many other states in the country have promised to fall in line and phase out gas cars by 2035. Now, the state will lead the fight to maintain its right to issue such phase-outs as it comes under attack from the Trump administration. Read More

Before you go

🪼 Bio-robotics: Researchers at Cornell University have revealed a pair of remarkably realistic-looking robots that are powered by hydraulic battery fluids and can mimic the movement and biological functions of worms and jellyfish. Read More