Welcome again to Week in Evaluation. This week, we’re coming at you proper off the heels of TechCrunch Disrupt! When you missed it, we’re highlighting conversations from Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, and Disney star turned area CEO Bridgit Mendler. In fact, we’ve received information from the remainder of the tech world as nicely. Let’s do it.
Why did Wiz flip down $23 billion? Wiz co-founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport mentioned at TechCrunch Disrupt that turning down Alphabet’s supply was “the hardest choice ever,” however they did so as a result of they believed the cloud safety area is a $100 billion alternative for the corporate. On the time Wiz turned down the supply, the startup had a non-public valuation of $12 billion. The CEO admitted that additionally they had different affords, although none as large as Google’s.
Apple had a giant week of reveals, together with the most recent additions to the M-series of chips. The corporate unveiled the brand new M4 Professional, which debuts alongside the tiny new Mac mini and the M4 Max, the latter of which is coming to the MacBook Professional line as an upgradeable possibility. Apple additionally gave a refresh to its desktop equipment, switching them from Lightning to USB-C. However the charging port for the Magic Mouse remains to be awkwardly on the underside.
Dropbox is shedding 20% of its workforce. In a letter to employees, CEO Drew Houston mentioned the cloud firm is present process a “transitional interval” and that the purpose was to make cuts in areas the place Dropbox has “over-invested” whereas designing a “flatter, extra environment friendly” crew construction. The discount in headcount will have an effect on 528 workers.
That is TechCrunch’s Week in Evaluation, the place we recap the week’s largest information. Need this delivered as a e-newsletter to your inbox each Saturday? Join right here.
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What’s plagiarism? At TechCrunch Disrupt, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas was requested how the corporate outlined “plagiarism.” Srinivas wouldn’t say immediately, however he was adamant that Perplexity “at all times cites its sources” and doesn’t declare possession of any content material. Learn extra
OpenAI could possibly be constructing its first AI chip: OpenAI is working with TSMC and Broadcom to construct an in-house AI chip for working AI fashions, which may arrive as quickly as 2026, Reuters stories. Learn extra
Flip your design right into a actuality: Arcade AI is a brand new kind of market that enables prospects to enter their concepts right into a generator that then produces a wide range of design choices to be delivered to life as tangible items of knickknack. Learn extra
From Disney Channel to CEO: Former Disney star Bridgit Mendler joined TechCrunch Disrupt to debate how she based Northwood House and why the area startup is dedicated to fixing “unsexy issues.” Learn extra
AI comes for recruiters: LinkedIn is taking the wraps off its newest AI effort: Hiring Assistant. The product is designed to tackle a wide selection of recruitment duties, from ingesting scrappy notes to show into job descriptions, to sourcing candidates and fascinating with them. Learn extra
Matt Mullenweg makes his case: The WordPress co-founder and Automattic CEO mentioned at TechCrunch Disrupt that he’s not anxious that the current authorized drama between his firm and WP Engine could result in a fork of the open supply WordPress software program. Actually, he mentioned he’d welcome it. Learn extra
Olivia Wilde, VC: Actor and director Olivia Wilde quietly launched enterprise agency Proximity Ventures late final 12 months, based on Bloomberg. The agency has already inked 4 investments, together with biotech firm Pendulum Therapeutics. Learn extra
Slice makes its mark in India: Fintech Slice merged with North East Small Finance Financial institution, marking a uncommon occasion of a startup efficiently coming into India’s tightly regulated banking sector. The merger transforms Slice right into a banking entity following months of regulatory scrutiny. Learn extra
A neater method to code: Introduced at GitHub’s annual convention in San Francisco, Spark is an experiment launching out of its GitHub Subsequent labs that lets you rapidly construct a small net app utilizing nothing however pure language. Learn extra
Flip textual content right into a podcast: Meta launched an “open” implementation of the viral generate-a-podcast function in Google’s NotebookLM. Known as NotebookLlama, the challenge can generate back-and-forth, podcast-style digests of textual content recordsdata uploaded to it. Learn extra
Zoox calls Tesla’s bluff: Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson is uncertain that Tesla will launch a robotaxi ride-hailing service subsequent 12 months. The “basic difficulty is that they don’t have know-how that works,” he mentioned at TechCrunch Disrupt. Learn extra
And the winner is … : The winner of the Startup Battlefield 200 competitors at TechCrunch Disrupt is Salva Well being. The corporate’s Julieta machine is a transportable, AI-powered breast most cancers detection machine that eliminates obstacles to early screening, guaranteeing entry even in distant areas. Learn extra
