Latest and Hotest Technology Updates

SpaceX raises a huge funding round, Apple launches new radio stations and we review the Samsung Galaxy Note 20. This is your Daily Crunch for August 18, 2020.

The big story: SpaceX raises its biggest round yet

The $1.9 billion round was disclosed in an SEC filing. Bloomberg had previously reported that the round was in the works and would value the Elon Musk-led space launch company at $46 billion.

This comes after SpaceX successfully completed the first-ever private human spaceflight mission to take off from U.S. soil. It’s also in the middle of what’s likely to be a capital-intensive process of deploying its massive Starlink satellite constellation.

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What leaders of tech companies need to be thinking about today

Sponsored by CohnReznick

Crisis mitigation and tax relief programs aren't the only things to consider as we struggle to face a global pandemic. We sat down with top public accounting, business, and tax advisory firm CohnReznick to get insight into what the future may hold.

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The tech giants

Amazon will add 3,500 tech and corporate jobs across six US cities — The list of cities includes Dallas, Detroit, Denver, New York, Phoenix and San Diego, accounting for around 900,000 square feet of office space in all.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra review — Brian Heater says it’s excellent hardware with a great camera, at a truly premium price.

Apple launches Apple Music Radio with a rebranded Beats 1, plus two more stations — The change more closely associates the station with the company’s subscription-based streaming music service, Apple Music.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Chamath Palihapitiya's next big Hustle — The investor tells TechCrunch that he has acquired Hustle, a startup backed by Insight Venture Partners, Google's GV and Salesforce Ventures.

Attabotics raises a $50M Series C for its warehouse fulfillment robots — The round was led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, Canada's largest pension plan.

Movable Ink raises $30M as it expands its personalization technology beyond email marketing — The company said it now works with more than 700 brands, and in the run up to the 2020 election, its customers include the Democratic National Committee.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

The 'right' way to downsize — Isaac Roth shares what he’s learned from years of working with startups.

Despite booming consumer demand, VC interest in e-commerce startups falls in 2020 — While Q2 2020 was a bit better than Q1 for e-commerce VC results, it wasn't much of a comeback.

How to diagnose and treat machine learning models afflicted by COVID-19 — The pandemic’s impact has been particularly significant on many machine learning models that companies use to predict human behavior.

(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our subscription membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

Pandemic helped drive Walmart e-commerce sales up 97% in second quarter — Walmart's investments in e-commerce, including online grocery delivery and pickup, are continuing to pay off.

Learn how COVID-19 has disrupted the startup world — Sign up today for an interactive webinar scheduled for August 19th at 1 p.m. Pacific.

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