Canoo reveals it paid for the CEO’s plane, leaks AT&T records, and X announces NSFW plans

Hey folks, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s newsletter that recaps the noteworthy events in tech over the past few days (and change).

Popular startup accelerator Y Combinator had demo days, and the venture office took it all with an appropriately skeptical eye. You can read Day 1 and Day 2 coverage, plus AI reporting from your real coverage and analysis pieces from the rest of our hard-working editorial team.

But the world hasn’t stopped turning to YC. Also this week, Microsoft and Quantinuum, a quantum computing startup, achieved a scientific breakthrough — or so they claim. The companies say they have been able to run thousands of experiments on a quantum computer without a single error, a feat that has long eluded the industry.

Elsewhere, Apple could get into home robotics. The company — which recently made its decision to cancel its long-running autonomous electric EV — is said to have put Apple Home and its AI execs into some form of robotics for households project, though many details have yet to be finalized.

A lot happened. We recap it all in this edition of WiR – but first, a reminder to sign up to receive the WiR newsletter in your inbox every Saturday.

News

Canoo paid for its CEO’s plane: Kirsten reports that electric vehicle startup Canoo paid the CEO’s private jet rent — $1.7 million — in 2023. That’s double the amount of revenue the company generated that year.

AT&T leak: Phone giant AT&T has reset millions of account passcodes after a large amount of data containing customer records was dumped online earlier this month, Zacks reports.

No ChatGPT account required: OpenAI is making its leading conversational AI software, ChatGPT, accessible to everyone — even people who haven’t bothered to create an account. But it won’t be quite the same experience. Devin has the story.

Microsoft is breaking up: Microsoft has rolled out new versions of its Microsoft 365 and Office 365 subscription services that exclude Teams, its chat offering for business collaboration, following scrutiny from EU regulators and complaints from rival Slack.

Finance

ghost ghosts: Ghost Autonomy, a startup working on self-driving software for automakers, has closed after raising nearly $220 million.

analysis

Alphabet and HubSpot: Reuters mentioned Alphabet, Google’s parent company, said Thursday it is exploring the possibility of buying Boston-based HubSpot, a customer relationship management and marketing automation company with a market value of more than $33 billion. Ron explains why they’re such strange bedfellows.

Podcasts

This week on justiceAlex talked about BlaBlaCar’s new credit facility (and how it secured it), discusses how PipeDreams can be a smart model for building startups, GoStudent’s recovery and profitability, Hailo’s chip business, and the two new brands that GGV is calling home during its split. Its operations are on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean.

And more is found, Nick Green, co-founder and CEO of Thrive Market, was the featured guest. Thrive is a membership-based online grocery store that focuses on natural and organic foods and household products. Green talked about how Thrive is not only focused on offering healthy options, but also wants to make sure everyone has access to them — including those with SNAP and EBT benefits.

Bonus round

NSFW on X: The social media company has confirmed that authorized users on the platform can create NSFW communities, ahead of a change that will see all NSFW content on the X filtered out by default.