Nvidia's GTC conference had everything: trillion dollar sales projections, graphics technology that can yassify video games, grand declarations that every company needs an OpenClaw strategy, and even a robot version of the beloved snowman Olaf from Disney's 'Frozen.' On the latest episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, TechCrunch's Kirsten Korosec, Sean O'Kane, and I recapped CEO Jensen Huang's keynote and debated what it means for Nvidia's future. And yes, a big part of our discussion focused on poor Olaf, whose microphone had to be turned off when he started rambling. Even if the demo had gone flawlessly, Sean might still have had some reservations, as he noted these presentations always focus on 'the engineering challenges' and not the 'really messy gray areas' on the social side. Anthony: [CEO Jensen Huang] was basically saying that every company needs to have an OpenClaw strategy now. I think that is just a very grand statement that's meant to be attention grabbing; I think it's also interesting coming at this kind of transitional moment for OpenClaw....

The idea is straightforward enough ' rather than giving engineers only salary, equity, and bonuses, companies would also hand them a budget of AI tokens, the computational units that power tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini. Spend them to run agents, automate tasks, crank through code. The pitch is that access to more compute makes engineers more productive, and that more productive engineers are worth more. It's an investment in the person holding them, is the idea. Jensen Huang, the leather-jacket-wearing CEO of Nvidia, seemed to capture everyone's imagination when he floated the notion at the company's annual GTC event earlier this week that engineers should receive roughly half their base salary again ' in tokens. His top people, by his math, might burn through $250,000 a year in AI compute. He called it a recruiting tool and predicted it would become standard across Silicon Valley. It isn't entirely clear where the idea was first, well, ideated. Tomasz Tunguz, a renowned VC in the Bay Area who runs Theory Ventures and focuses on AI, data, and SaaS startups ' and whose writing on all things data has garnered a loyal following over the years ' was talking about this in mid-February, writing that tech startups were already adding inference costs as a 'fourth component to engineering compensation.' Using data from the compensation tracking site Levels.fyi, he put a top-quartile software engineer salary at $375,000. Add $100,000 in tokens and you're at $475,000 fully loaded ' meaning roughly one dollar in five is now compute....

An anonymous Substack post published this week accuses compliance startup Delve of 'falsely' convincing 'hundreds of customers they were compliant' with privacy and security regulations, potentially exposing those customers to 'criminal liability under HIPAA and hefty fines under GDPR.' Delve is a Y Combinator-backed startup that last year announced raising a $32 million Series A at a $300 million valuation. (The round was led by Insight Partners.) On Friday, the startup attempted to refute the accusations on its blog, calling the Substack post 'misleading' and saying it 'contains a number of inaccurate claims.' The Substack post is credited to 'DeepDelver,' who described themselves as working at a (now former) Delve client. In response to emailed questions from TechCrunch, DeepDelver said that they and their collaborators 'chose to remain anonymous out of fear for retaliation by Delve.' In their post, DeepDelver recounted receiving an email in December claiming the startup had 'leaked a spreadsheet with confidential client reports.' While Delve CEO Karun Kaushik apparently assured customers in a subsequent email that they were in compliance and that no external party gained access to sensitive data, DeepDelver said they and other customers had become suspicious....

The Anatoly Kolodkin is carrying tens of thousands of tons of crude oil apparently meant for Cuba, which is battling a fuel shortage. But it may not reach its destination: The U.S. Navy is policing the Caribbean to choke off Havana's oil supply. The Trump administration is squeezing Cuba to a breaking point'and is seemingly willing to engage in a high-seas stand-off that has pronounced Cold War echoes. Donald Trump's goal appears to be to install more amenable leadership in Havana. Last week, he told reporters at the White House that he believes he'll have the 'honor of taking Cuba,' adding: 'Whether I free it, take it'I think I can do anything I want with it.' The White House is calculating that the island's extreme economic hardships will provide the leverage Trump needs to force Havana into submission. Cuba's president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, publicly acknowledged discussions between the two governments last week and pledged a series of reforms aimed at appeasing Washington, a concession that indicated both the urgency of the domestic crisis and the vulnerability of the regime. Cuba's economy, already hollowed out by mismanagement, communist economic ideology, sanctions, and the end of subsidized oil from Venezuela, is now tormented by island-wide blackouts and food shortages. After the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 1 million people left the island'about 10 percent of Cuba's population. Another wave could be coming if the island doesn't receive economic relief....