Kanye agrees to buy Parler, Elon Musk reportedly plans mass layoffs at Twitter, and Netflix gets into cloud gaming • TechCrunch

Hey, buddies! Welcome back again to Week in Review, exactly where every Saturday we recap a handful of the leading TechCrunch stories from the previous seven days. Want it in your inbox? Get it listed here!

This week marked the in-particular person return of TechCrunch Disrupt, with our group having the present again into the actual planet soon after two years thoroughly digital. It was one particular helluva demonstrate, with appearances from people like tennis legend (turned investor) Serena Williams, comic (also turned investor!) Kevin Hart, Lyft co-founder John Zimmer, and Figma CEO Dylan Field. Congrats to Minerva Lithium for successful the Startup Battlefield competitiveness!

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Google’s Ping-Pong robot: “As if it weren’t adequate to have AI tanning humanity’s disguise (figuratively for now) at just about every board recreation in existence,” writes Devin, “Google AI has obtained one particular doing work to damage us all at Ping-Pong as nicely.”

Elon expects enormous Twitter layoffs: Musk reportedly wishes to lower up to 75% of Twitter’s workforce — approximately 5,600 positions — if/when his acquisition of the organization goes by. That quantity appears pretty absurd. Even much smaller layoffs have compounding results on things like workforce morale and efficiency — just picture the total of knowledge/perception that disappears if the greater part of a company is permit go.

Kanye West is shopping for Parler: Very well, that is a headline I hardly ever, at any time, at any time would’ve predicted. “Kanye West, the rapper who also goes by the identify Ye, has reached an agreement to invest in ‘uncancelable totally free speech platform’ Parler,” writes Manish, “in a transfer [the involved parties say] will support individuals specific their conservative thoughts freely.”

Steadiness AI raises $101 million: The firm at the rear of the AI-driven image generator Stable Diffusion and audio-building method Dance Diffusion has lifted $101 million at a reported valuation of $1 billion.

Netflix explores cloud gaming: Just as Google gives up on its cloud gaming attempts, Netflix is diving in. At Disrupt this 7 days, Netflix’s VP of Gaming reported the enterprise is “seriously exploring a cloud gaming supplying,” stating that Google’s shuttered effort and hard work was a “technical success” with “issues with the small business product.”

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Here’s what is up in TC podcast land this 7 days:

• Equity was stay and in man or woman! Immediately after a long time in pandemic manner, the Fairness crew (Alex, Natasha, and Mary Ann) kicked off Disrupt by recording a exhibit facial area-to-deal with for the 1st time.
• On Identified, Darrell and Jordan caught up with Jerrica Kirkley and Matthew Wetschler and discovered the story of Plume, their telehealth enterprise that focuses on transgender care.

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What have been TC+ members looking at most powering the paywall? Here’s a peek:

2023 VC predictions: Right after a wild several years of ups and downs, what will venture funds seem like in 2023? Opposite Cash founder Eric Tarczynski weighs in.

Ron explores Celonis and its $13 billion valuation: Celonis could not be a name that absolutely everyone recognizes…but the 11-12 months-old info-processing enterprise has managed to elevate billions of dollars in the past several many years alone. What are they doing so suitable? Ron Miller can take us on a deep dive.