Perplexity, the AI search engine startup, just announced that it raised $62.7 million at a $1.04 billion valuation. But it turns out the startup is actually raising more — a lot more. Perplexity is looking to raise at least $250M at a valuation between $2.5 billion and $3 billion. Today’s TechCrunch Minute explores the latest round attempt, the massive push by investors and big tech companies to keep their AI cadence up, and the signs of weakness in the startup AI market.

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Are founders getting more fraudulent or are we just on the tail end of an overheated market? The latest founder fraudster, Manish Lachwani of HeadSpin, has just been sentenced to 18 months in prison and a $1 million fine. Lachwani is one of many founders who have been caught inflating numbers, misleading investors, or straight up lying about what their technology can do. TechCrunch’s Alex Wilhelm discusses why it seems like founder fraud is on the rise and why we’ll probably be seeing more of these cases in the quarters to come.

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Tesla is recalling every Cybertruck shipped due to an issue with the accelerator pedals that causes them to get stuck in the footwell and putting the driver at risk. Tesla is now retooling or replacing all accelerator pedals on Cybertrucks, in what has been the second recall so far for the vehicle. The announcement came at the end of a pretty tumultuous week for Tesla, with layoffs, executive exits. And this week, we’ll see what their Q1 earnings look like. TechCrunch’s Alex Wilhelm breaks down what the recall means for the EV manufacturer and if more bad news could be coming down the pike.

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