It could be another brutal year of startup shutdowns: According to Carta, 966 startups shut down in 2024, compared to 769 in 2023. And Mary Ann Azevedo reports that we are likely to see more shutdowns in the first half of 2025 — but at least there could be a gradual decline for the rest of the year. Read more
Open source social media developer takes to Kickstarter: Daniel Supernault, who's built open source alternatives to Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp, is turning to crowdfunding to pay for further development and hiring. As Sarah Perez writes, these apps aim to expand the "fediverse" and offer an alternative for anyone disenchanted with the dominant social apps. Read more
Stargate's data centers might be powered by solar and batteries: Tim De Chant looks at new reporting around the $100 billion joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, building data centers that will apparently be powered (at least in part) by solar and batteries. That could be particularly crucial given projections that 50% of new data centers could be underpowered by 2027. Read more
X's vertical video feed goes global: Just a few days after X rolled out a vertical video feed to U.S. users, Jagmeet Singh reported that the feature has appeared in India, Australia, and some European markets. Read more
