TechCrunch Top 3

Exowatt wants to power AI data centers with billions of hot rocks: The solar-thermal startup wants to deliver electricity for as little as one cent per kWh. But first it has to scale production to 1 million units per year. Read More

Google augments AI shopping with conversational search, agentic checkout and an AI that calls stores for you: Google is expanding AI shopping with conversational search, agentic checkout and an AI that calls stores for you about local inventory. Read More

Coding assistant Cursor raises $2.3bn five months after its previous round: Cursor plans to use the capital to continue developing Composer, the AI model the vibe coding startup released in October. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

Jack Dorsey funds diVine, a Vine reboot that includes Vine's video archive: Jack Dorsey backs diVine, a Vine reboot that includes Vine's video archive of six-second, looping videos. A new app called diVine will give access to more than 100,000 archived Vine videos, restored from an older backup that was created before Vine's shutdown. Read More

Spotify introduces a Premium Platinum plan with lossless access in five markets: Spotify is debuting a new tiered premium plans in five markets with the costliest tier gaining access to lossless streaming. Read More

'Chad: The Brainrot IDE' is a new Y Combinator-backed product so wild, people thought it was fake: Chad: The Brainrot IDE is an actual product that pairs vibe coding with brainrot activities like gambling, Tinder and games. Read More

Spotify adds a new, less repetitive shuffle, plus audiobook recaps: Spotify's new default shuffle option will queue up fewer songs from your recent listening history Read More

Harbinger raises $160M, will build trucks for FedEx: The Los Angeles-based startup will build more than 50 electric truck chassis for the delivery giant by the end of this year. Read More

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Last but Not Least

EU launches antitrust probe into how Google's anti-spam policy affects publishers' search rankings: The Commission said on Thursday that it had identified that Google is using its spam policy to push news media and other publishers' websites and content lower in search rankings when they include content from third parties. Read More