This week on TechCrunch Disrupt, Wiz co-founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport revealed that the company turned down a staggering $23 billion offer from Alphabet. Rappaport explained that this decision was incredibly difficult, but they believed that the cloud security space presented a $100 billion opportunity for Wiz. Despite having other offers on the table, none were as significant as Google’s.
In other tech news, Apple made some big announcements, including the introduction of the new M4 Pro chip, the Mac mini, and the M4 Max for the MacBook Pro line. They also updated their desktop accessories to USB-C, although the Magic Mouse still has an awkward charging port placement.
Dropbox shared news of laying off 20% of its workforce as part of a restructuring effort to create a more efficient team. CEO Drew Houston stated that these cuts were necessary in areas where the company had over-invested.
At TechCrunch Disrupt, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas discussed the issue of plagiarism and emphasized the importance of citing sources. OpenAI is reportedly collaborating with TSMC and Broadcom to develop an AI chip, while LinkedIn introduced Hiring Assistant, an AI tool for recruiters.
Former Disney star Bridgit Mendler spoke about founding Northwood Space at TechCrunch Disrupt and highlighted the startup’s focus on solving challenging problems. Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, addressed legal issues with WP Engine and expressed openness to a potential fork of the open-source software.
Olivia Wilde quietly launched venture firm Proximity Ventures, Slice merged with North East Small Finance Bank in India, and GitHub introduced Spark, a tool for building web apps using natural language. Meta unveiled NotebookLlama, a project that generates podcast-style digests from text files.
Zoox co-founder Jesse Levinson questioned Tesla’s timeline for launching a robotaxi service, citing technological challenges. The winner of the Startup Battlefield 200 competition at TechCrunch Disrupt was Salva Health, recognized for its AI-powered breast cancer detection device.
Overall, this week was filled with significant developments in the tech industry, from major business decisions to innovative product launches and insightful discussions at TechCrunch Disrupt. Stay tuned for more exciting updates in the world of technology.
