A bumpy road for EV makers

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The Rivian was launched with the promise of revolutionizing the way we think about trucks and SUVs, but now its momentum has slowed down a bit. In a move that screams, “Oops, we probably got a little ahead of ourselves,” the company announced that it is Laying off 10% of its workforce, Why are you asking? Well, it looks like the EV market is a little tougher than anticipated, with pricing pressure building up like the suspense in a bad thriller movie. Rivian now faces the harsh reality that making cars is hard and making them profitable is even harder. The current round of layoffs is as follows A year ago it laid off 6% of its employeesand another 6% were shown the door About 18 months ago.

The manufacturer is reportedly launching Its R2 series vehicles from early next monthWhich will reportedly improve the company’s profit margin to some extent.

As the Rivian navigates these turbulent waters, one can’t help but wonder if this is just a bump in the road or a sign of more ominous clouds on the horizon. Who needs soap operas when you’ve got the EV market?

This week’s most interesting startup stories

Staying in the automotive world, there has been a lot of movement from leading EV manufacturers.

Lucid Motors, in a bold attempt to make lemonade out of lemons, which were its 2023 sales figures, has decided cut prices of its electric sedan range, The trick screams “Please notice us!” In a market where being the new kid on the block (Lucid was founded in 2007) is about as profitable as a skateboard in a Formula 1 race. The base model Lucid Air Pure, which was previously flirting with the $80,000 mark, is now blinking at potential contenders with a more acceptable $69,900 price tag. This comes after a humble admission that the company managed to deliver only 6,001 cars in the whole of 2023. The company once predicted it would ship 90,000 cars in 2024 — it looks like this The actual number will be one tenth of that,

It’s not just the new kids on the block who are struggling. Ford, a solid organization founded 104 years before Lucid, has decided to Cutting the price of its electric Mustang Mach-E In response to softening demand for premium EVs. It seems the electric vehicle market is experiencing somewhat of a reality check, with consumers suddenly reminded that money doesn’t grow on trees, even if those trees are saved by driving electric cars.

These price adjustments from Ford and Lucid come on the heels of the EV industry’s poster child Tesla price cutThis suggests that the EV market is maturing and customers are becoming more price conscious.

Great sale on electric motorcycles: owner of a Florida retail shop acquires majority of Swedish electric motorbike brand Cake’s US inventory, which includes all Mecca and Osa motorbikes, accessories and spare parts that made their way to the States. it’s just cake heading towards bankruptcy,

Despite all his anger, he is still just a rat in a Faraday cage: Struggling EV startup Faraday Future The landlord of its Los Angeles headquarters is owed nearly $1 million After missing the last two months’ rent.

Keep an eye on the roads: HiveMapper, the company that has been making waves in the tech landscape with its innovative mapping technology in an effort to take on Google Maps, has recently unveiled its latest creation: the Bee Dashcam. This is not your ordinary dashcam: this is Designed to collect and share street-level imageryContributing to HiveMapper’s global map.

The most interesting trends in fundraising this week

Global investment firm Partech recently closed down This is the second Africa fund of $300 million, doubling down on its commitment to the continent’s growing tech ecosystem. The new fund aims to bridge the gap from seed to Series C funding rounds, providing much-needed continuity of financial support for African startups. The fund’s strategy is to not only deploy capital, but also provide strategic guidance and access to a global network, empowering startups to scale in Africa and internationally.

Very tasty: Chicago-based early-stage venture capital firm Bluestein Ventures recently closed its third fund with $45 million of capital commitments. Established in 2014, the firm focuses on investing Consumer-facing technology in the food supply chainWhich includes health and wellness, proprietary food technology, commerce and digital technology.

Ready Player 2: The global video game industry, despite generating more revenue than movies and music combined, faced a challenging year in 2023 with significant layoffs and a five-year low in venture funding. However, Optimism among VCs remains high for change in 2024,

That’s a big bag of money, you guys: Moonshot AI, an emerging artificial intelligence startup from China, Over $1 billion has reportedly been secured in a Series B funding round, setting a new record for the largest single funding round for Chinese large language model (LLM) developers. This financial raise has increased Moonshot AI’s valuation to an impressive $2.5 billion.

This week’s big trend: The AI ​​train keeps rumbling

OpenAI has introduced a new generative AI model called Sora, Able to create videos from text descriptions or still images, Sora stands out by generating high-resolution movie-like scenes that can include multiple characters, different speeds, and detailed backgrounds. The model can also expand on existing video clips by filling in missing details, demonstrating a deep understanding of language and the physical world.

Sora’s capabilities extend to creating videos in multiple styles, such as photorealistic, animated, and black and white, with lengths up to one minute – significantly longer than most existing text-to-video models. Despite some limitations, such as occasional inaccuracies in simulating complex physics or specific cause-and-effect scenarios, Sora’s output maintains a high level of coherence, avoiding the common pitfalls of “AI weirdness”. The model will likely not be released to the public.

In other OpenAI news, the US Patent and Trademark Office has rejected the company’s attempt to trademark “GPT”, ruling that the term “Descriptive only” and therefore unable to be registered,

Yes, he checks: Dili is a platform designed to automate the due diligence and portfolio management stages of key investments for private equity and VC firms using AI. Raised $3.6 million in venture funding, The company aims to reduce the burden of due diligence tasks by leveraging generative AI, specifically large language models, to streamline investor workflows.

Is there anything else AI can help you with today?: Sierra’s approach to customer service focuses on AI Augmenting human agents rather than replacing them, The company believes that AI can handle routine and repetitive inquiries, allowing human agents to focus on more complex and nuanced customer interactions. The company has raised $110 million so far.

Focusing on XX: In a New York Times article late last year, the Gray Lady explained how the current boom in AI came about. The piece went viral — not for what was reported, but for what it failed to mention: women. We take a look at the women who are making waves in AI,

Other unforgettable TechCrunch stories…

Every week, there are always a few stories I want to share with you, but they somehow don’t fit into the categories above. It would be a shame if you forgot them, so here’s a random bag of goodies for you:

Onshoring: Don’t miss Aria’s amazing profile Hadrian Founder and CEO Chris Power, an industrial automation startup. He is on a mission to challenge the historical pattern of empire decline through innovation in American manufacturing. Drawing from his observations of historical cycles where outsourcing core industries leads to the collapse of empires, Power began traveling from Australia to the US in 2019 with the thesis that the US industrial base was in steep decline. That fall, he saw an opportunity.

Give me all your money: Ransomware has become a lucrative business model for cybercriminals, generating billions of dollars in revenue annually. This malicious software encrypts the victim’s data, makes it inaccessible, and demands a ransom for the decryption key. Carly sneaks in to see How did this become such a lucrative criminal enterprise?,

Hello, I am Mr: Y Combinator’s latest solicitation for startups (RFS) is worth a read, and not just because it’s been a while since the incubator has shared its partners’ ideas and categories, “they’d like to see more people working on it.” It also includes a request for more startups working on cancer treatment.

Domo Arigato, Brikar Roboto: Bricklaying robots aren’t exactly an untested concept, but Amsterdam-based Monumental specializes in the more familiar red clay variety And our reporter’s eyes fell on it.

Possession of means of production: Amazon, SpaceX, and Trader Joe’s have recently taken legal action Challenge to the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), potentially jeopardizing national employee protections that have existed for nearly a century.