Also: 6-month old, solo-owned Base44 sells to Wix for $80M
| Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we’ve got news on SpaceX’s latest explosion; a founder that got close to the mythical solo unicorn; and a former Robinhood founder’s dream of space. We’ve also got a rundown of Nvidia’s AI empire; all the AI startups raising fat rounds in 2025; why remittances are an opportunity for growth, and more. Let’s go! |
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| 1. Boom: One of SpaceX’s Starship rockets exploded while on a test stand in Texas this week. The company was preparing for the 10th test flight of the heavy-lift rocket system. Nobody was hurt, but it’s not a good look considering this is the fourth Starship incident this year. Read More 2. Solo unicorn centaur? For all the talk of “solo unicorns,” Israeli developer Maor Shlomo just showed us that at least one kind of mythical startup can be built on your own. He just sold his six-month-old, bootstrapped vibe-coding startup Base44 to Wix for $80 million. Read More 3. From stocks to solar: TC’s Connie Loizos sat down with Baiju Bhatt, former co-founder of Robinhood and current founder of Aetherflux, to talk about his mission to turn the sci-fi idea of space-based solar panels into reality, and why a startup' not really a space company until you make it to space. Read More |
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| Image Credits: hocus-focus / Getty Images |
| 🎵 What a tease: Spotify has been teasing a lossless audio tier for at least four years. We’ve stopped holding our breath, but newly added references in the app’s code suggest lossless streaming could be close. Read More 💹 Silicon empire: Nvidia is one of the biggest winners of the AI revolution, and it has used its skyrocketing revenue and valuation to increase investments into AI startups. We've rounded up the company’s investments, particularly those exceeding $100 million, since 2023. Read More 🤑 Concentration: In 2024, 49 startups raised rounds worth $100 million or more, and that momentum is continuing this year. We’ve rounded up all the U.S. AI companies that have raised over $100 million this year, from Glean to Hippocratic AI. Read More 💸 AI rollups in action: Noah Pepper, founder of Multiplier, decided not to bother building a SaaS business. Instead, he decided to figure out how to make existing firms more effective with AI. That strategy is paying off, as Multiplier just raised $27.5 million, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and others. Read More 🌍 Bootstrap diaries: Joe Kinvi used his Stripe equity winnings to start Borderless, a fintech that helps African diaspora collectively invest in startups and real estate back home. Because if Africans abroad are already sending billions in remittances, why not put it into productive assets? Read More |
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| 🕶️ Lookin' smart: Meta’s next pair of smart glasses will be made in partnership with Oakley, reports The Verge. The model will cost $499 and be available for preorder starting July 11. Read More 🤝 Joining hands: SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son wants to team up with TSMC to set up a $1 trillion industrial complex in Arizona to build robots and AI, per Bloomberg. Son is said to be interested in replicating Shenzen’s vast manufacturing hub. Read More 🤨 How do you define ‘plagiarism’? The BBC is threatening legal action against Perplexity for reproducing its content “verbatim” without its permission. This is the first time the BBC has taken action against an AI company, but it isn’t the first to accuse Perplexity of plagiarism. Read More |
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| 👶 Kid-pilled: Sam Altman isn’t just the CEO of OpenAI, he’s also the father of a 3-month-old baby. And he’s relying on ChatGPT to “constantly” ask questions about the behavior of babies and child developmental stages. He’s not the only one, though. Read More |
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