Daily Crunch: Microsoft is doing away with its waiting list and opening up its AI-powered Bing chatbot to everyone

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Happy Thursday Crunchers!

An agreement between a group of the country’s biggest banks to deposit around $30 billion in First Republic Bank could save their bacon, Christine Reports and more on TC+, R.A.M. breaks down everything you need to know about the SVB crisis.

In the meantime, annie And days consider the broader implications of SVB in hot water and how it’s forcing African startups to reconsider their banking options.

With the national banking crisis out of the way…let’s continue with the rest of the tech news!

Don’t forget to wear something green tomorrow! — Christine And hey

The Zoo House News Top 3

No more waiting: Ivan reports that Bing’s waiting list for its GPT-4 supported chat no longer exists. Enjoy! Biting into an AI Apple: Apple isn’t going to let all these other big tech companies join in the AI ​​fun. A new story, also from Ivan, reports that Apple is reportedly experimenting with speech-generating AI to help Siri better understand queries. Load it up: Parker is taking on the corporate card world with its new credit offering tailored to the needs of e-commerce brands — and trying to grab a piece of the market from companies like Brex and Ramp. Christine has more.

Startups and VCs

One of the biggest challenges facing companies adopting the gig economy is managing payroll and benefits. Inspired to solve it, kyle reports that Wingspan is jumping to the rescue with a payroll platform aimed at companies that primarily employ freelancers.

Here are six more stories, including a bonus story because Haje decided to favor his own story in this section. Such preferential treatment, tut tut.

How to pitch me: 7 investors discuss what they are looking for in March 2023

Photo credit: Sean Gladwell (opens in new window) / Getty Images

It’s too early to tell if the Silicon Valley bank’s demise heralds a new era for venture capital, but based on anecdotal evidence, confidential discussions, and conversations with peers, it appears we’re going back to business as usual, where before -revenues -Startup fundraising concerns.

Prior to the SVB’s failure, Walter Thompson interviewed seven investors to learn more about where they might want to invest, their preferred approach and if they have any general advice for first-time founders:

Brian Backeen, General Partner, Lightship Capital Masha Bucher, Founder and General Partner, Day One Ventures Rebecca Liu-Doyle, Managing Director, Insight Partners Clelia Warburg Peters, Managing Partner, Era Ventures Nick Adams, Managing Partner and Co-Founder, Differential Ventures Lisa Lambert, Founder and President, National Grid Partners Elizabeth Yin, Co-Founder and General Partner, Hustle Fund

Three more from the TC+ team:

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BigTech Inc.

Via, to bolster its transportation technology offering, is delivering on its promise to make more acquisitions and has now acquired travel planning app Citymapper. Rebecca And Ingrid Note that “Citymapper has been rumored to be trying to find a buyer for years” and even wooed some big names like Google and Apple, but all fell silent until this news from Via.

Now let’s move on to Microsoft, who introduced Microsoft 365 Copilot, a suite of productivity and enterprise apps packed with artificial intelligence. kyle has more.

And we have five more for you:

Stopping the main engine: Sometimes you just have to press pause, and that’s exactly what Virgin Orbit does to conduct a search for cash, Devin reports. Delisted: Five Russia-linked internet companies, including Yandex, are officially delisted from the Nasdaq and NYSE. Paul writes. Taking a step back: After more than a decade at the helm of Twitch, CEO Emmett Shear is stepping down to pursue something else. Taylor writes. Dating in the App Age: Tinder has a whole host of new features, including some that help better define what type of relationship users are looking for, Sarah reports. The SVB crash affects everyone, including robots: brian spoke to some founders and investors to understand how the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank will affect the robotics industry.