TikTok loves e-commerce and VCs think Mistral AI will be fine (potential EU regulatory overhang or not)

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Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.

Our Monday show covers the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. Alex is a little bit sick this week, so his voice is a bit off. Not the best thing, but we didn't want to miss a show.

Here's what we got into!

• The end of earnings season: With only Adobe and Oracle from the tech world reporting this week, we have finally (mostly) wrapped up earnings season for Q4 2023, and thus the year.

• Crypto's doing things again: Recent price appreciation is driving another massive spike in trading activity.

• TikTok forms joint venture: Teaming up with Tokopedia, the ByteDance company has its eyes on the Indonesian e-commerce market. But the tie-up comes at a stiff price.

• EU & AI: Last Friday, the EU got its regulatory plan in place for AI. Criticism followed. Then on Monday, Mistral AI raised a bunch more money. So is European AI work kaput or just getting started?

• Elsewhere, don't forget that the chip war is still raging, there are more fintech unicorns being born lately than before and SumUp raised money again.

That’s it for today! More on Wednesday and Friday!

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!