Ever since Elon Musk closed his deal to buy Twitter he’s claimed the company, now called X, is in “a very dire situation from a revenue standpoint.” Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that banks are preparing a coordinated move to sell off some of the $13 billion in debt they loaned Musk to finance the deal. It mentions an email sent to employees this month, also confirmed by The Verge, where the Chief Twit said, “…we’ve witnessed the power of X in shaping national conversations and outcomes,” but also claimed, “Our user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we’re barely breaking even.”

Part of the reason Bank of America, Barclays, and Morgan Stanley are holding so much of the debt is from trying to avoid selling at a loss after economic conditions changed, and Musk had an extended court battle attempting to get out of the deal. While equity investors have reportedly slashed the value of their stakes by as much as 78 percent, the Journal reports, “banks hope to sell senior debt at 90-95 cents on the dollar, while retaining more-junior holdings.”

As Musk referenced in his email, the report says the banks hope to use the narrative of Musk’s link to Donald Trump, as some unnamed investors may be interested in buying based on a belief that its financials are on the way up.

However, Musk also said that the company could become cash-flow positive “within months” nearly two years ago, and it still faces over $1 billion in annual interest payments on the loans. The platform is increasingly turning into a testing ground for his AI ambitions, as we reported earlier this month, and while X has added some features, like job listings and a new video tab, there’s little sign of the service he’d said would be able to “someone’s entire financial life” by the end of 2024.

Elon Musk’s X has started expanding the rollout of its dedicated vertical video feed to users around the globe just days after its debut in the U.S., TechCrunch has exclusively learned and confirmed with the company.

On Friday, TechCrunch spotted the new feature had appeared in various regions outside the U.S., including India, Australia, and some European markets. An X spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch the global rollout of the vertical video feed was currently “underway.” The new feature is accessible through a dedicated tab in the X app, where it has a prominent placement next to the Grok button.

The spokesperson also confirmed that the rollout is specific to iOS, meaning Android users need to wait a bit longer. (The company did not share an exact timeframe for the Android launch.)

Earlier this week, X released its vertical video feed in the U.S. amid uncertainty around TikTok’s future in the market as a result of the TikTok ban. Enforcement of the ban is currently on pause as President Trump extended the deadline for TikTok to make a deal that would cede some control to a U.S. entity, if not a full divestment of its U.S. operations, to protect national security interests.

In addition to providing entertainment, the new video feature also allows X to display ads after users scroll through a few short videos. This helps the company generate additional revenue by keeping users engaged with the video content — a strategy common across social networks, including Instagram, TikTok, and others.

Video experiences have become a key focus for X in general. Last year, the platform launched a stand-alone TV app to show videos from creators and organizations. X also enabled users in 2022 to scroll through short videos by tapping on a video in the timeline and swiping it up.

• Pre-orders should go live for AMD’s RX 9070 GPUs on March 23, according to one US retailer
• There are a couple of reasons why this is likely wrong, though
• We’ve also seen more strangeness around the previously rumored January 23 launch for RDNA 4, as an ad campaign appears to have misfired

As if enough weirdness hasn’t already surrounded AMD’s RDNA 4 GPU launch – it’s been an odd affair indeed – something at Team Red appears to have misfired on the marketing side again, and we’ve also caught a mention of a possible new release date for the RX 9070 graphics cards.

However, I think the date shared by a US retailer is off the mark, and just a placeholder, so let’s deal with that first.

Microsoft is releasing a new Windows 11 Insider Preview Build today with some welcome improvements to the operating system’s battery icon – possibly sparing you the realization that you’ve chosen a dead outlet, or improperly plugged in your power adapter, or let your battery drain too much, before it’s far too late. 

Windows’ battery icon, which has traditionally been black, is being updated with three colors “designed to communicate battery status of your PC with just a quick glance,” the company writes today on its Windows Blog. A green icon will indicate your computer is charging and “in a good state,” but will turn yellow when your battery has dropped below 20 percent charge and has entered energy saving mode. A red icon indicates you have a “critically low battery” and will need to plug in your computer as soon as possible before it dies.

The new colored battery icons will appear on the taskbar’s system tray, in the quick settings flyout, and in the general Windows Settings. Microsoft says they’ll also eventually be used on the Lock screen, but that functionality is coming in a future build.

Today’s preview release includes two additional improvements to the battery icon. Microsoft has simplified overlays, such as the lightning bolt charging icon, so that they won’t block the icon’s progress bar, and added the ability to show the battery’s charge percentage next to the icon in the system tray. It can be enabled by going to Settings > Power & battery and turning on the new “Battery Percentage” setting.

Microsoft says this is a “highly requested feature by Insiders and customers” and it should be a welcome upgrade over the battery icon Windows currently uses that provides minimal information and a vague representation of a battery’s remaining charge.The colors should make it immediately obvious that a laptop has started charging when plugged in, and it’s a lot harder to ignore (or forget about) a near-dead battery when it’s bright red with a single digit charge percentage right next to it.

The battery icon updates should already be available to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel who have opted to get the latest updates as soon as they’re available. It’ll take longer to reach general release and might even get tweaks before it reaches other early adopters:Microsoft says the “experience isn’t available to all Insiders just yet as we plan to monitor feedback before pushing it out to everyone.”

Companies spent significantly more lobbying AI issues at the U.S. federal level last year compared to 2023 amid regulatory uncertainty.

According to data compiled by OpenSecrets, 648 companies spent on AI lobbying in 2024 versus 458 in 2023, representing a 141% year-over-year increase.

Companies like Microsoft supported legislation such as the CREATE AI Act, which would support the benchmarking of AI systems developed in the U.S. Others, including OpenAI, put their weight behind the Advancement and Reliability Act, which would set up a dedicated government center for AI research.

Most AI labs — that is, companies dedicated almost exclusively to commercializing various kinds of AI tech — spent more backing legislative agenda items in 2024 than in 2023, the data shows.

OpenAI upped its lobbying expenditures to $1.76 million last year from $260,000 in 2023. Anthropic, OpenAI’s close rival, more than doubled its spend from $280,000 in 2023 to $720,000 last year, and enterprise-focused startup Cohere boosted its spending to $230,000 in 2024 from just $70,000 two years ago.

Both OpenAI and Anthropic made hires over the last year to coordinate their policymaker outreach. Anthropic brought on its first in-house lobbyist, Department of Justice alum Rachel Appleton, and OpenAI hired political veteran Chris Lehane as its new VP of policy.

All told, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere set aside $2.71 million combined for their 2024 federal lobbying initiatives. That’s a tiny figure compared to what the larger tech industry put toward lobbying in the same timeframe ($61.5 million), but more than four times the total that the three AI labs spent in 2023 ($610,000).

TechCrunch reached out to OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere for comment but did not hear back as of press time.

Last year was a tumultuous one in domestic AI policymaking. In the first half alone, Congressional lawmakers considered more than 90 AI-related pieces of legislation, according to the Brennan Center. At the state level, over 700 laws were proposed.

Congress made little headway, prompting state lawmakers to forge ahead. Tennessee became the first state to protect voice artists from unauthorized AI cloning. Colorado adopted a tiered, risk-based approach to AI policy. And California Governor Gavin Newsom signed dozens of AI-related safety bills, a few of which require AI companies to disclose details about their training.

No state officials were successful in enacting AI regulation as comprehensive as international frameworks like the EU’s AI Act, however.

After a protracted battle with special interests, Governor Newsom vetoed bill SB 1047, which would have imposed wide-ranging safety and transparency requirements on AI developers. Texas’ TRAIGA bill, which is even broader in scope, may suffer the same fate once it makes its way through the statehouse.

It’s unclear whether the federal government can make more progress on AI legislation this year versus last, or even whether there’s a strong appetite for codification. President Donald Trump has signaled his intention to largely deregulate the industry, clearing what he perceives to be roadblocks to U.S. dominance in AI.

During his first day in office, Trump revoked an executive order by former President Joe Biden that sought to reduce risks AI might pose to consumers, workers, and national security. On Thursday, Trump signed an EO instructing federal agencies to suspend certain Biden-era AI policies and programs, potentially including export rules on AI models.

In November, Anthropic called for “targeted” federal AI regulation within the next 18 months, warning that the window for “proactive risk prevention is closing fast.” For its part, OpenAI in a recent policy doc called on the U.S. government to take more substantive action on AI and infrastructure to support the technology’s development.