The TikTok ban clears key hurdle while Perplexity AI continues to shake up search
Well, if you are a big TikTok fan and live in the United States, I have some bad news for you: A bill that would force a sale of TikTok or ban it in the United States passed the Senate. And the president is expected to sign it. Given that China has made noise that it will not allow a sale of the social media company that is headquartered in Singapore, but is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, it's not looking good for TikTok in the States.
But if that has you bummed out, don't worry, we have lots of pretty positive news to discuss as well. News like two AI startups in Europe that are making a bit of noise that caught our attention. There's a lot more AI in Europe than just Mistral, of course.
And we had to discuss the latest from Perplexity AI, which just raised money and is shaking up its operating plans by raising even more money. It's a good time to be an AI startup.
Not that that is the only thing going on. The Framework laptops folks just raised more capital, Pony.AI is considering a U.S. IPO and Volition Capital is expanding. Hit play, and let's have a chat!
Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast and posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and you can subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.
You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
For the full interview transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, read on, or check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast.