[ad_1]
Welcome back to Review Week. This week we reveal the latest layoffs at Mozilla, Perplexity offers to cross the picket line, and Apple warns investors that it may never beat the iPhone. Let’s get into it.
Mozilla Foundation lays off 30% of its employees in the Firefox maker’s second round of layoffs this year. Executive Director Nabiha Sayed confirmed that two of the foundation’s main divisions – advocacy and global programs – “are no longer part of our structure.” Brandon Burman, Mozilla’s head of communications, told TechCrunch that advocacy “remains a core principle” in the company’s work but did not provide details.
Anduril is thinking about construction Its first major factory, a 5 million-square-foot facility known as “Arsenal-1,” will be located in Arizona, Ohio or Texas after its $1.5 billion round, according to a person familiar with the matter. When TechCrunch asked an Anduril spokeswoman if the defense technology company was now choosing between these three locations for its plant, she replied, “That’s not true,” but didn’t specify exactly what part was incorrect.
Video game giant Activision has been overhauled A vulnerability in the anti-cheat system that it said affected a “small number of legitimate player accounts” was banned for it. But according to the hacker who discovered the vulnerability and was exploiting it, they were able to ban “thousands and thousands” of Call of Duty players, whom they accused of being cheaters. The hacker spoke to TechCrunch about the exploit and told his side of the story.
This is TechCrunch Review Week, where we recap the week’s top stories. Want this delivered as a newsletter to your inbox every Saturday? Register here.
news
Confusion crosses the picket line: Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas offered the AI company’s services to mitigate the impact of a New York Times tech workers’ strike, which led to several X users chastising Srinivas for acting as scabies. Read more
Nvidia becomes number 1: Nvidia has surpassed Apple’s market cap to become the largest company in the world. At the close of the market earlier this week, Nvidia was valued at $3.43 trillion, surpassing Apple’s value of $3.38 trillion. Read more
Will Apple ever surpass the iPhone? Apple is warning investors that its new and future products may never be as profitable as the iPhone. This revelation comes at a time when the company seeks to develop artificial intelligence technologies and mixed reality headsets such as Apple Vision Pro. Read more
Bowery Farm Closing: The Agtech unicorn known for building vertical farms that can produce crops has shut down. The company held multiple rounds of layoffs in 2023 and was most recently valued at $2 billion in 2021. Read more
Our review of ChatGPT search: OpenAI released its upcoming search product, ChatGPT Search, last week. But is it really the “Google killer” it has been hyped up to be? TechCrunch’s Maxwell Ziff doesn’t think that’s the case yet. Read more
Investing in “AI-Powered Parenting”: Can AI help you become a better parent? Andreessen Horowitz partner Justine Moore presented the firm’s new investment thesis on Read more
BP 18 Hydrogen Project: Oil and gas giant BP revealed in a 32-page earnings report that it has halted 18 early-stage hydrogen projects, a move that could have a negative impact on the nascent hydrogen industry. Read more
Minecraft Infinite: AI company Decart has released what it claims is the first playable AI model in an “open world.” The model is called Oasis, and it runs a Minecraft-like game that generates frames in real-time, quickly simulating physics, rules, and graphics. Read more
Canada has its eyes on TikTok: Canada has ordered the closure of ByteDance’s operations in Canada – specifically the offices of TikTok Technology Canada, Inc. – Due to national security risks. However, Canadians can still download and use TikTok. Read more
No Instagram until you’re 16: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced plans to ban social media for children under 16 without exceptions for parental consent. If passed, it would be the strictest ban on social media for teenagers in the world. Read more
Drop GPT, it’s cleaner: OpenAI bought Chat.com, which now redirects to ChatGPT. Last year, it was reported that HubSpot co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah acquired the domain for $15.5 million, making it one of the two largest publicly announced domain sales ever. Read more
analysis
What does Trump’s victory mean for Elon Musk: The billionaire CEO took a sharp shift to the right this election to support President-elect Donald Trump, using his vast wealth, influence and megaphone on X to influence the outcome of the election. Many expected there would be a rift between the two bigwigs before Trump’s term ends, but as Rebecca Bellan and Arya Alamulhoda write, Musk’s role in the presidency could represent one of the most significant examples of a businessman helping to shape a government. The policies and regulations that govern his own business. Read more
[ad_2]