🕶️ A $1.4B Hack and the EV drama

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Six bullets of updates

1. 💰 TikTok and Douyin have generated a record $6B in 2024 in-app purchase revenue, doubling last year’s figures.

2. 🚨 Researchers accuse North Korea of orchestrating a $1.4B crypto heist from Bybit, marking the largest theft in crypto history.

3. 🏆 Applications are open for TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield 200, offering a $100K prize and a network of over 1,500 alumni.

4. 🔌 The Trump administration plans to shut down a federal EV charging network with 8,000 plugs, arguing it isn’t mission-critical.

5. 🌐 Europe’s exploration of defense tech in Ukraine is propelled by a $1B venture capital surge in 2024 and leadership in AI-enabled drones.

6. 🚧 AI tools like Microsoft's new Factory Operations Agent are revolutionizing manufacturing by analyzing global data.

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Cutting edge or cutting jobs? NIST's bold AI safety gamble

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is reportedly poised to lay off as many as 500 employees, a move that threatens to cripple its fledgling AI safety initiatives. Reports indicate that the cuts are aimed at probationary staff within the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI) and Chips for America, with some employees already receiving verbal notices of termination. These layoffs could critically undermine efforts to develop standards and research risks associated with rapidly evolving AI technologies.

The timing of these cuts is particularly concerning, as the AISI was established under Biden’s executive order on AI safety just last year—a mandate later reversed by the Trump administration, which also saw the departure of AISI’s director. Critics argue that reducing the workforce at a time when AI expertise is more crucial than ever will significantly impair the government’s ability to safeguard against potential AI hazards.

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These companies just raised money

1. 🍔 Just Eat Takeaway is snapped up by Prosus for €4.1bn, achieving a tasty 22% premium over its recent share price.

2. 💼 Khosla Ventures is aiming to raise $3.5B in fresh capital—boosting its previous fund by 17%—to fuel the next stages of startup growth.

3. 🏦 Brazilian insurtech Azos raises $30.5M in Series B funding to simplify life insurance, managing an impressive $10.5B in active policies.

4. 💳 Argentine fintech N5 lands $20M to accelerate its AI enhancements, expand its team, and break into new markets with smarter financial solutions.

5. 🚀 Quix secures $350K in pre-seed funding to power AI-driven training programs across Latin America, paving the way for widespread adoption.

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How Grammarly BRUTE FORCED Success

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When AI Decides to Take a Moment

Anthropic has unveiled its latest frontier AI model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet—a hybrid reasoning engine designed to deliver both snap responses and more contemplative, “thought-out” answers based on user preference. By enabling users to toggle its reasoning mode, Anthropic aims to simplify the typically confusing array of AI model choices, all while showcasing its internal planning through a visible scratch pad (with certain details redacted for trust and safety). The model is available to all users, though only premium subscribers can access its full reasoning capabilities.

Priced at $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens, Claude 3.7 Sonnet may cost a bit more than some competitors, but it boasts improved performance on real-world coding and retail tasks—outperforming rival models in benchmark tests. Additionally, Anthropic has introduced Claude Code, an agentic coding tool that empowers developers to modify codebases directly from their terminal. This launch marks another strategic move in Anthropic’s push to lead the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

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Startup Events and Deadlines

1. Alchemist Accelerator | Deadline: March 21 | USA

2. Techstars Columbus | Deadline: April 1 | USA

3. Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator | Deadline: April 28 | USA

4. Entrepreneur First London - Summer | Deadline: July 1 | UK

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