Welcome back to this week’s review. This week, we come to you in the wake of TechCrunch Disrupt! If you missed it, we’re highlighting conversations from Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, and Disney star turned CEO of the space Bridgit Mendler. Of course, we also have news from the rest of the tech world. Let’s do it.
Why did Wiz turn down $23 billion? Wiz co-founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport said during TechCrunch Disrupt that turning down Alphabet’s offer was “the hardest decision ever made,” but they did it because they believed the space cloud security represented a $100 billion opportunity for the enterprise. At the time Wiz declined the offer, the startup had a private valuation of $12 billion. The CEO admitted that they also had other offers, but none as big as Google’s.
Apple had a big week of revelationsincluding the latest additions to the M series of chips. The company has revealed the new M4 Pro, which debuts alongside the all-new Mac mini and M4 Max, the latter of which arrives in the MacBook Pro lineup as an upgradeable option. Apple also updated its desktop accessories, moving them from Lightning to USB-C. But the Magic Mouse’s charging port is still awkwardly at the bottom.
Dropbox lays off 20% of its workforce. In a letter to staff, CEO Drew Houston said the cloud company was going through a “transition period” and that the goal was to reduce areas in which Dropbox had “overinvested” while designing a team structure ” flatter and more efficient. The workforce reduction will affect 528 employees.
This is TechCrunch’s week in review, where we round up the biggest news of the week. Want this sent as a newsletter to your inbox every Saturday? Register here.
News
What is plagiarism? At TechCrunch Disrupt, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas was asked how the company defines “plagiarism.” Srinivas wouldn’t say it directly, but he insisted that Perplexity “always cites its sources” and does not claim ownership of any content. Learn more
OpenAI could build its first AI chip: OpenAI is working with TSMC and Broadcom to create an in-house AI chip to run AI models, which could arrive as soon as 2026, Reuters reports. Learn more
Turn your design into reality: Arcade AI is a new type of marketplace that allows customers to input their ideas into a generator that then produces a variety of design options that will come to life as tangible jewelry. Learn more
From Disney Channel to CEO: Former Disney star Bridgit Mendler joined TechCrunch Disrupt to explain how she founded Northwood Space and why the space startup is committed to solving “unsexy problems.” Learn more
AI comes for recruiters: LinkedIn unveils its latest AI effort: Hiring Assistant. The product is designed to support a wide range of recruiting tasks, from ingesting rambling notes and turning them into job descriptions, to sourcing and interacting with candidates. Learn more
Matt Mullenweg explains his point of view: The WordPress co-founder and CEO of Automattic said during TechCrunch Disrupt that he’s not worried that the recent legal drama between his company and WP Engine could lead to a fork of the open source WordPress software. In fact, he said he would enjoy it. Learn more
Olivia Wilde, VC: Actress and director Olivia Wilde quietly launched venture capital firm Proximity Ventures late last year, according to Bloomberg. The company has already signed four investments, including biotechnology company Pendulum Therapeutics. Learn more
Slice establishes itself in India: Fintech Slice has merged with North East Small Finance Bank, marking a rare example of a startup successfully entering India’s tightly regulated banking sector. The merger transforms Slice into a banking entity after months of regulatory review. Learn more
A simpler way to code: Announced at GitHub’s annual conference in San Francisco, Spark is an experiment launched from its GitHub Next Labs that lets you quickly build a small web application using only natural language. Learn more
Transform text into podcast: Meta has released an “open” implementation of the viral podcast generation feature in Google’s NotebookLM. Called NotebookLlama, the project can generate back-and-forth podcast-style summaries of text files uploaded to it. Learn more
Zoox calls Tesla’s bluff: Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson doubts Tesla will launch a robotic taxi service next year. The “fundamental problem is they don’t have technology that works,” he said at TechCrunch Disrupt. Learn more
And the winner is…: The winner of the Startup Battlefield 200 competition at TechCrunch Disrupt is Salva Health. The Company’s Julieta device is an AI-powered, wearable breast cancer detection device that removes barriers to early detection, ensuring access even in remote areas. Learn more