On today's episode of Equity, Rebecca Beran explores Google's reported talks to acquire cloud security company Wiz for around $23 billion. Wiz offers an “all-in-one approach to cloud security,” pulling data from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and more, and scanning it all for security risk factors. Google may see this as a good way to bolster its own cloud business, which grew 28% to $9.57 billion in the first quarter of this year.
We also discussed a letter from OpenAI whistleblowers alleging that the AI company places unlawful restrictions on employees' communications with government regulators: They argue that OpenAI's NDA prohibits or prevents employees and investors from communicating with the SEC about securities violations, requires employees to waive their rights to whistleblower incentives and compensation, and more.
We discussed the discrepancy between how much money is being invested in AI and how much it is generating. According to Crunchbase data, more than $35.5 billion was invested in AI startups worldwide in the first half of 2024 alone. As these AI startups gain momentum, other companies jumping on the generative AI train want more than the assurance of trigger-happy VCs and eye-popping valuations before they pull out their wallets. They want to know that the technology will improve business performance and revenue as promised. After all, many experts say it will take much longer for the promise of AI to come true than the current investment frenzy suggests, and that could even lead to the AI bubble bursting.
Finally, we touched on the resurgence of VanMoof, a rising e-bike startup, and how the new owners are trying to win back old customers. VanMoof's bold strategy is to offer customers who had never bought an e-bike before VanMoof went bankrupt a 1,000 euro discount on the purchase of a new bike. Why not refund those customers? VanMoof's new owners cannot access customer money that is held captive in bankruptcy proceedings. Will this strategy be enough to win back lost customers? We'll find out soon.
Equity will be back on Wednesday, so we hope to see you there!
Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast produced by Theresa Loconsolo and posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
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