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This week in Dutch tech
Hallo, Netherlands! Welcome to TNW’s first weekly round-up of tech news from our glorious home country. As we count down to TNW conference in Amsterdam on June 20 and 21, we’re ramping up our coverage of the Dutch IT sector. We’d also love to hear your thoughts on the local ecosystem. Drop us a line if you want to showcase your startup, share a digital tip, or just tell us your deepest, darkest secrets. In the meantime, let’s get to the news. What we’re writing Chip giant ASML plans Eindhoven e
Why Lithuania is a hidden gem of Europe’s startup ecosystem
In 2022, over 20,000 Lithuanians returned to their country of birth from abroad. A high quality of life coupled with a booming entrepreneurial ecosystem and a collaborative mentality has contributed to what investors are calling a “reverse brain drain.” Many of their minds reemerge in the country’s startup scene. It was on a visit to Lisbon that I first heard someone refer to Lithuania as “a hidden gem” of Europe’s startup ecosystem. A recent trip to Vilnius convinced me they were right. To furt
Pitch Deck Teardown: NOQX’s $200K pre-seed deck
<div><p>Aside from the crucial omission of an Ask and Use of Funds slide, just about every slide in the deck felt almost very good — but then stumbled by overlooking an important detail.</p>
<p>© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.</p></div>
TechCrunch Minute: Rabbit’s R1 vs Humane’s Ai Pin, which had the best launch?
<div><p>After a successful unveiling at CES, Rabbit is letting journalists try out the R1 — a small orange gadget with an AI-powered voice interface. This comes just weeks after the launch of the Humane Ai Pin, which is similarly pitched as a new kind of mobile device with AI at its center. While we’re still […]</p>
<p>© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.</p></div>
Disrupt 2024 speaker applications close at midnight
<div><p>Act fast! Applications for our Call for Content close today, April 26 at 11:59 p.m. PT. If you’re a seasoned startup pro ready to lead a session at TechCrunch Disrupt on October 28-30, now’s your chance to apply! Send in your proposal to speak at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 before the deadline hits. Your topic should […]</p>
<p>© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.</p></div>
OpenAI Startup Fund quietly raises $15M
<div><p>The OpenAI Startup Fund, a venture fund related to — but technically separate from — OpenAI that invests in early-stage, typically AI-related companies across education, law, and the sciences, has quietly closed a $15 million tranche. According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, two unnamed investors contributed the $15 million in […]</p>
<p>© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.</p></div>
GEM Capital adds AppMagic, Mundfish, Pixonic CEOs as investment advisors
GEM Capital announced its adding three new advisors to guide its investment strategy, all CEOs from the games industry.Read More
Google’s new ‘Speaking practice’ feature uses AI to help users improve their English skills
<div><p>Google is testing a new “Speaking practice” feature in Search that helps users improve their conversational English skills. The company told TechCrunch that the feature is available to English learners in Argentina, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Venezuela who have joined Search Labs, its program for users to experiment with early-stage Google Search experiences. The […]</p>
<p>© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.</p></div>
Dear Boss, You're Holding Too Many Meetings — Here's Why the Best Teams Have Fewer Meetings
<div>In the hustle of modern work life, efficiency is key.</div>
Area man, Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson, buys The Onion
<div><p>Jeff Lawson, co-founder and recently departed CEO of Twilio, is the proud new owner of satirical online newspaper The Onion.</p>
<p>© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.</p></div>
Despite complaints, Apple hasn’t yet removed an obviously fake app pretending to be RockAuto
<div><p>Apple’s App Store isn’t always as trustworthy as the company claims. The latest example comes from RockAuto, an auto parts dealer popular with home mechanics and other DIYers, which is upset that a fake app masquerading as its official app has not been removed from the App Store, despite numerous complaints to Apple. RockAuto co-founder […]</p>
<p>© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.</p></div>
Good news for Rubrik, bad news for TikTok and medium news for early-stage startups
<div><p>Rubrik’s strong IPO pricing and warm reception by the public markets after its listing add more weight to the perspective that the public markets are not as closed to tech startups as some thought. If Rubrik’s result isn’t enough to break the logjam, well, maybe there’s something else going on. But there was a lot more that […]</p>
<p>© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.</p></div>
'Americans Just Work Harder' Than Europeans, Says the CEO of Norges Bank, the World's Largest Wealth Fund
<div>About half of the fund's equities are invested in American companies.</div>
DeepL launches AI writing assistant for businesses trained on its own LLM
DeepL, which has been rivalling machine translation giants such as Google Translate and Microsoft Translator, has launched an AI writing assistant tailored for businesses. Dubbed DeepL Write Pro, the product acts as a creative assistant for use during the drafting process. It provides suggestions on word choice, phrasing, style, and tone, aiming to improve the text, while preserving the writer’s own voice. Currently available in English and German, the tool comes with customisation options for b
Thoma Bravo to take UK cybersecurity company Darktrace private in $5B deal
<div><p>Darktrace is set to go private in a deal that values the U.K.-based cybersecurity giant at around $5 billion. </p>
<p>© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.</p></div>
Tesla Autopilot investigation closed after feds find 13 fatal crashes related to misuse
<div><p>The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration closed a long-standing investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance system after reviewing hundreds of crashes involving its misuse, including 13 that were fatal and “many more involving serious injuries.” At the same time, NHTSA is opening a new investigation to evaluate whether the Autopilot recall fix that Tesla implemented […]</p>
<p>© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.</p></div>
Bulgarian politicians propose a national gambling ad ban
Two Bulgarian political parties have submitted an amendment to the country’s Gambling Act, seeking to ban betting ads nationally.
If this amendment is successful, Bulgaria will make a significant mark in history as the first European Union member to enforce a nationwide ban on gambling advertising.
This potential change could reshape the industry’s landscape, sparking a domino effect for other EU countries.
Bulgaria seeks gambling ad ban
As reported by Gambling Insider, the amendment to the Gamb
Microsoft ramp up AI spending as it smashes Q3 earnings expectations
Microsoft’s decision to invest heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) appears to have paid off after the company revealed significant gains in its third-quarter earnings call on Thursday (25 Apr).
The world’s largest public company outperformed Wall Street expectations, delivering $61.86 billion in revenue after billions of dollars were invested in AI but the spending is set to continue.
Demand for AI is soaring and Microsoft has vowed to boost capital expenditure to scale up its cloud platform
Elon Musk’s xAI closes in on $6 billion as AI race heats up
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) start-up, xAI, looks like it has some serious venture capital money behind it with the commitment of Sequoia Capital, to invest in the company.
Musk launched xAI in 2023 with lofty ideals and plans to work on existential problems like understanding the nature of the universe.
In his efforts to raise up to $6 billion for his fledgling company, the 52-year-old billionaire has approached investors who previously supported his acquisition of Twitter (now X) i
Surprisingly, people are surprised that the Fallout 4 next-gen update is packed with bugs
Oh Fallout, it was going so well. Seemingly forgotten about until approximately two weeks ago when people discovered the TV show, millions went flocking to Fallout 4, many for the first time so that they too could adventure into the wasteland like their new small-screen heroes.
They forgave the bugs, the game is old after all, they modded the game to remove some of the original heart-warming jank and then, they look forward to the new next-gen update having got the game into a state they want, a