Rivian's execution challenges for R2 RoboTaxi

Jensen Huang took the stage at Nvidia's GTC conference this week in his signature leather jacket to deliver a two-and-a-half-hour keynote, projecting $1 trillion in AI chip sales through 2027, declaring that every company needs an “OpenClaw strategy,” and closing with a rambling Olaf robot that had to get its mic cut. The message was hard to miss: Nvidia wants to be foundational to everything, from AI training to autonomous vehicles to Disney parks. 

On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane break down what Nvidia's growing web of AI infrastructure partnerships actually means for startups, and more of the week's headlines. 

Listen to the full episode to hear about: 

• Travis Kalanick’s return building a "wheelbase for robots" with his new startup Atoms, and the crew has questions about Kalanick’s acquisitions along the way 

• Rivian’s partnership with Uber to build robotaxi versions of its R2 in a deal worth up to $1.25 billion, while pushing back its EBITDA target to do it 

• Frore landing a $1.64 billion valuation for its AI chip cooling systems 

• xAI rebooting, again, with only two of its original eleven co-founders still standing 

• Garry Tan's Claude Code setup went viral at SXSW (Spoiler: the crew is not impressed). 

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 

Chapters: 

00:00 Intro 

00:20 Garry Tan's Claude Code setup goes viral at SXSW 

03:37 Travis Kalanick is back with a new startup 

12:51 Uber and Rivian's $1.25B RoboTaxi deal 

20:54 Chip cooling startup Frore becomes a unicorn 

22:56 Nvidia GTC recap: $1 trillion in sales projections 

31:42 Elon Musk is rebooting xAI...again 

36:37 Outro 

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