Latest News from TechCrunch
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Boston Dynamics joins forces with its former CEO to speed the learning of its Atlas humanoid robot
Boston Dynamics Wednesday announced a partnership designed to bring improved reinforcement learning to its electric Atlas humanoid robot. The tie-up is with the Robotics & AI Institute (RAI Institute), earlier known as The Boston Dynamics AI Institute. Both organizations were founded by Marc Raibert, a former MIT professor who served as Boston Dynamics’ CEO for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
1 hours ago
Softbank could soon buy Renee James’ Ampere chip company for about $6.5B
And it's the latest in an ongoing saga over the company's future ownership. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
2 hours ago
Sonos lays off 200 ahead of rumored set-top box release
Sonos announced that it has laid off 200 people in a letter posted to its site Wednesday. The news follows a 100-person layoff in August. Both rounds arrive in the wake of a disastrously botched update to the Sonos app that alienated broad swaths of the premium audio hardware firm’s extremely loyal fanbase. The new […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Researchers created an open rival to OpenAI’s o1 ‘reasoning’ model for under $50
AI researchers at Stanford and the University of Washington were able to train an AI “reasoning” model for under $50 in cloud compute credits, according to a new research paper released last Friday. The model known as s1 performs similarly to cutting-edge reasoning models, such as OpenAI’s o1 and DeepSeek’s R1, on tests measuring math […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Scout Motors sued over plan to sell EVs direct to consumers
Scout Motors’ plan to eschew traditional dealerships and sell EVs directly to consumers is running into legal trouble. A group of Volkswagen and Audi dealers filed a lawsuit this week against Scout Motors, the EV that spun out of Volkswagen. The lawsuit, which was first reported by Automotive News, seeks to block Scout’s direct-to-consumer sales […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bench burned through $135 million before shutting down
A clearer picture of Bench's downfall is emerging thanks to new bankruptcy filings, which show the accounting startup burned $135 million before collapsing. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 and 2025 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
XOi raises $230M, acquires Specifx to expand its tech for field service technicians
Field service engineers may not be the first group of customers that come to mind when you think about lucrative opportunities in B2B technology. But that same blind spot speaks of the opportunity in the space for those who are stepping up and targeting “the job site.” One of the players in that space, XOi […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google ditches DEI hiring goals
Google will no longer have diversity hiring targets and will review its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, according to an email sent to employees seen by the Wall Street Journal. Google now joins other tech companies rolling back DEI practices, especially as DEI practices come under fire from conservative groups. Amazon and Meta have also […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The biggest breach of US government data is under way
Elon Musk's DOGE has taken control and accessed large swathes of Americans' private information held by the U.S. federal government. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon reportedly gears up to release next-gen Alexa
Amazon may be gearing up to release a next-gen, AI-powered Alexa experience, according to Reuters. Per the outlet’s report, Amazon plans to preview an upgraded version of Alexa, the company’s smart home assistant that runs on a number of first- and third-party devices, at an event on February 26. The revamped Alexa is said to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Paragon spyware used to target citizens across Europe, says Italian government
WhatsApp said users in several European countries were targeted with Paragon spyware, according to the Italian government. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why IQ is a poor test for AI
During a recent press appearance, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that he’s observed the “IQ” of AI rapidly improve over the past several years. “Very roughly, it feels to me like — this is not scientifically accurate, this is just a vibe or spiritual answer — every year we move one standard deviation of IQ,” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As GLP1s boom, dietician startups Berry Street, Fay each nab $50M rounds
For decades, the US healthcare system has struggled to address the diet-related chronic illnesses affecting nearly half of all adults. That changed in recent years with the discovery of Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs that help people lose weight. While insurance covers these medications, doctors frequently require patients to see a nutritionist as part of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ransomware payments dropped in 2024 as victims refused to pay hackers
Ransomware payments fell by more than one-third in 2024 as an increasing number of victims refused to negotiate with hackers. In a report published Wednesday, crypto forensics firm Chainalysis said that while ransomware gang leak sites posted more victims than in previous years during 2024, fewer victims gave in to the hackers’ demands. Chainalysis reported […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Stripe makes $1.1 billion crypto bet as it closes on Bridge acquisition
Stripe has closed on its $1.1 billion purchase of stablecoin platform Bridge – marking the payment giant’s largest acquisition to date and tangible push into crypto. Co-founded in 2022 by Coinbase and Square alumni Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, San Antonio, Texas-based Bridge built an API that helps companies accept stablecoins. The pair raised $58 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Elon Musk Act aims to ban ‘special government employees’ from having federal contracts
U.S. Democratic Representative Mark Pocan plans to introduce a bill designed to ban “special government employees” like Elon Musk from having federal contracts so they can’t steer spending towards their own self-interest. The proposed bill is called the ELON MUSK Act, which stands for Eliminate Looting of Our Nation by Mitigating Unethical State Kleptocracy. “No […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
New target of Paragon spyware comes forward
The latest target of Paragon spyware openly questions if he was targeted by the Italian government. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Workday cuts nearly 2,000 employees
Enterprise HR platform Workday is the latest tech company to announce layoffs in recent weeks. The Silicon Valley-based company laid off 1,750 employees on Wednesday, as originally reported by Bloomberg and confirmed independently by TechCrunch. That total represents approximately 8.5% of head count. Unlike many other tech companies, including Meta and Microsoft, Workday has not […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google launches new AI models and brings ‘thinking’ to Gemini
Google launched its much-anticipated new flagship AI model, Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental, on Wednesday. The announcement was part of a series of other AI model releases. The company is also making its “reasoning’ model, Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking, available in the Gemini app. Notably, Google is releasing these AI models as the tech world remains […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tickets on sale: TechCrunch All Stage 2025, formerly known as Early Stage
Founders and investors, it’s time! TechCrunch Early Stage has evolved into TechCrunch All Stage 2025, returning to Boston on July 17. Get your tickets now and save up to $310 on select ticket types, securing your spot at the best rates. Register here for your All Stage ticket at unbeatable prices. All Stage covers all […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI’s biggest stage awaits – TechCrunch Sessions: AI tickets available
AI is heating up, and we’re diving in! TechCrunch Sessions: AI is officially open for registration. Secure your spot now and save up to $300 on select tickets before prices rise From startup founders to AI investors to aspiring innovators — TC Sessions: AI is where the entire AI ecosystem comes together. Whether you’re building, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Musk moves to dismiss suit over Tesla’s alleged use of AI-generated ‘Blade Runner’ imagery
Attorneys for Elon Musk intend to move to dismiss a case that accuses the Tesla CEO, who is also the head of President Donald Trump’s DOGE organization, of using AI-generated, copyright-violating “Blade Runner”-inspired images at a Tesla press event. In a filing submitted to the U.S. District Court Central District of California, Western Division late […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cherry Ventures raises a new $500M fund for early stage and beyond, but will it be enough?
It’s sometimes said that European VC doesn’t have the firepower to compete with VCs in the U.S., which regularly raise billion-dollar+ funds these days. Perhaps further evidence of this view persists in the news that Berlin-based Cherry Ventures has closed its latest fund at $500 million, to be split between early-stage rounds and follow-on rounds […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CodeSignal wants you to practice soft skills with its AI-powered guide
Startups and big tech companies have aggressively used AI to help developers write code or learn programming better. People have used chatbots to prepare for different scenarios in life, like interviews. Tech assessment platform CodeSignal, which introduced a learning platform for technical subjects with AI assistants last year, launched soft skill courses on its platform today […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Shein hit with consumer protection action in EU as bloc unboxes strategy to tackle low-cost ecommerce risks
Chinese ecommerce and fast fashion giant Shein is facing fresh scrutiny in the European Union in relation to consumer protection rules following the launch of a coordinated action by the bloc’s Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPCN). The action is being conducted with reference to the EU’s Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Consumer Rights Directive, Unfair Contracts […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Modern Synthesis is making compostable materials that last a lifetime
Modern Synthesis’s fibers can be manipulated in ways that simple plant fibers cannot. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former Whoop exec’s new app Alma uses AI for all things nutrition
Generative AI models have demonstrated to app developers that combining a robust knowledge base with the right model can enable them to offer users services — once reliant on costly professionals like therapists or executive assistants — at a fraction of the price. Former VP of product at fitness company Whoop, Rami Alhamad, has a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Waymo just popped up on the Uber app in Austin ahead of robotaxi launch
Uber customers in Austin may notice a new offer when they open the app and hail a ride: an invitation to signal their interest in a Waymo robotaxi. For now, this doesn’t translate into a Waymo picking them up. But it will soon. The “interest list,” which launched Wednesday, is part of a partnership between […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Router maker Zyxel tells customers to replace vulnerable hardware exploited by hackers
The Taiwanese hardware maker says it has no plans patch the flaws impacting legacy router models © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
European AI startups have raised $8 billion in 2024
In just a few days, France will host the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, with heads of state flocking to Paris to meet global tech leaders. They’ll most likely announce some big investments and diplomatic agreements focused on safety or the environmental impact of artificial intelligence. Ahead of the summit, early-stage VC firm Galion.exe, growth investment […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
European AI startups raised $8 billion in 2024
In just a few days, France will host the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, with heads of state flocking to Paris to meet global tech leaders. They’ll most likely announce some big investments and diplomatic agreements focused on safety or the environmental impact of artificial intelligence. Ahead of the summit, early-stage VC firm Galion.exe, growth investment […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hitachi Ventures raises $400M fund to invest in everything from fusion to AI
The size of the new fund is a vote of confidence in a range of deep tech verticals. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google wants Search to be more like an AI assistant in 2025
Google Search is in the midst of a “journey” around AI, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said during the company’s earnings call on Tuesday. The start of that journey was AI overviews, a controversial and monumental shift in how Google delivers information to billions of Search users. But that was just the beginning. “As AI continues […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Krafton leads Cashfree’s $53M funding at $700M valuation
Cashfree, an Indian payments startup that facilitates and processes more than $80 billion for its customers each year, has raised $53 million in a new round of funding as it gears up to deepen its presence in some international markets. Krafton, maker of sleeper hit titles such as PUBG and BGMI, led Cashfree’s Series C […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Brightpick’s new warehouse robot can reach 20-foot-high shelves
Brightpick, a maker of autonomous mobile robots, on Tuesday announced a lofty addition to its current line. The appropriately named Giraffe system is notable for its large, retractable platform capable of reaching up to 20 feet (6 meters) in height to pick items from warehouse shelves. It’s a novel approach to warehouses with ceilings well […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Alphabet praises DeepSeek, but it’s massively ramping up its AI spending
Alphabet is shrugging off concerns sparked by DeepSeek over AI spending, boosting its capital expenditures to a whopping $75 billion. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snap says TikTok uncertainty benefited its business
During Snap’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, CEO Evan Spiegel said that the uncertainty surrounding TikTok’s future has positively affected its business. “We’re not trying to draw too many conclusions from some of the engagement lift we saw when [TikTok] went dark for that brief period of time. I would say that the overall environment […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A16z hires acquitted former Marine Daniel Penny as an investor
Powerhouse venture firm Andreessen Horowitz has hired Daniel Penny as an investor, its webpage confirms. Penny is the former Marine who was tried last year and found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the death of a homeless man on a New York City subway. After the man acted erratically, Penny held him in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AMD pulls up the release of its next-gen data center GPUs
AMD says that it plans to launch its next major data center GPUs, the AMD Instinct MI350 series, sooner than originally announced. During the company’s Q4 2024 earnings call Tuesday, AMD CEO Lisa Su said AMD plans to sample the MI350 with “lead customers” this quarter, and “accelerate” production shipments to “mid-year.” “So, we had […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Miist, founded by a 25-year-old, wants people to vape their way out of smoking addiction and migraines
As a university student, Dalton Signor was troubled by how many people around him smoked or vaped, including his grandmother and 14-year-old sister. Signor (pictured center) felt that existing smoking cessation medicines, whether patches, gums, or lozenges, are not very effective because they take too long to start working. “They take about 30 minutes to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google removes pledge to not use AI for weapons from website
Google removed a pledge to not build AI for weapons or surveillance from its website this week. The change was first spotted by Bloomberg. The company appears to have updated its public AI principles page, erasing a section titled “applications we will not pursue,” which was still included as recently as last week. Asked for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spyware maker Paragon confirms U.S. government is a customer
Israeli spyware maker Paragon Solutions confirmed to TechCrunch that it sells its products to the U.S. government and other unspecified allied countries. Paragon’s executive chairman John Fleming said in a statement to TechCrunch on Tuesday that, “Paragon licenses its technology to a select group of global democracies — principally, the United States and its allies.” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Okta competitor SailPoint races toward $11.5B IPO
Cybersecurity company SailPoint is hoping to sell $1 billion worth of stock in its upcoming IPO and offer another signal that IPOs will become hot again. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Figure drops OpenAI in favor of in-house models
Figure AI founder and CEO Brett Adcock announced Tuesday that the humanoid robotics firm is exiting a deal with OpenAI. The Bay Area-based robotics company has instead opted to focus on in-house AI, owing to a “major breakthrough.” Adcock was tightlipped in terms of specifics, but he promised to deliver “something no one has ever […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hugging Face researchers aim to build an ‘open’ version of OpenAI’s deep research tool
A group of developers at AI dev platform Hugging Face, including Thomas Wolf, the company’s co-founder and chief scientist, say they’ve built an “open” version of OpenAI’s deep research tool. Deep research, which OpenAI unveiled during an event Sunday, crawls the web to compile research reports on any subject. While impressive, deep research is currently […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon continues renewable energy spree with 476 MW purchase
Amazon’s power bill has been soaring lately as it adds data centers to deal with rising demand for AI and cloud services. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A review of Tapestry, an app powered by the growing open web
A new app called Tapestry, which launched Tuesday, aggregates and organizes information from across the web and social networks in a single place. It is, in some ways, like this generation’s FriendFeed, for those old enough to remember the earlier attempt from the Web 2.0 era to aggregate feeds and social media updates in a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
E-fuels startup will make diamonds before powering jet planes
Circularity’s process uses 40% less energy than competing CO2-to-fuel pathways. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TED Talks has put out an all-call for a new leader
Chris Anderson, who has run TED for 25 years, is looking to bestow the operation on anyone who has a good plan for its future, he announced in a blog post. TED is best known for its TED Talks, where ideas from tech to humor have been explored. It has featured famed tech moguls (Bill […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Challenging Bluesky, Threads now allows for public custom feeds
Meta’s Threads is doubling down on support for custom feeds as it faces challenges from the growing social network Bluesky, now with over 30 million users, which also offers custom feeds as one of its key features. On Tuesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that users can now set their custom feeds to be public […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: Billionaires talk automating jobs away
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. You might’ve noticed we skipped the newsletter last week. The reason? A chaotic AI news cycle made even more pandemonious by Chinese AI company DeepSeek’s sudden rise to prominence, and the response from practically ever corner […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
An angel investor was so intrigued by this startup, he joined as a co-founder
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week we’re looking at a startup out to help people navigate long-term care, a flurry of activity in Africa, another fintech company shutdown, and more. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. PT, subscribe here. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Okta lays off 180 employees – nearly one year after last workforce reduction
U.S. access and identity management giant Okta laid off 180 employees on Tuesday, the company confirmed to TechCrunch – just over one year after it let go of 400 workers. The company separately conducted a workforce reduction in February of 2023 that affected 300 employees. While Okta did not share how many employees it has […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
China may probe Intel for antitrust: report
Amid China’s retaliation to recently-announced U.S. tariffs, Intel may find itself in the hot seat with China’s regulators. China is apparently considering an antitrust probe into semiconductor giant Intel, according to reporting from the Financial Times. This would be in addition to the set of tariffs against the U.S. that China announced on Monday. Per […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EU puts out guidance on uses of AI that are banned under its AI Act
The first compliance deadline kicked in a couple of days ago for the European Union’s AI Act, a risk-based framework for regulating uses of artificial intelligence — banning a narrow selection of so called “unacceptable risk” use-cases of AI, such as social scoring that could lead to detrimental or unfavourable treatment; or harmful manipulation using […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 and 2025 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cruise to slash workforce by 50% after GM cuts funding to robotaxi operations
Cruise is laying off 50% of its workforce as the robotaxi program ends. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Deel unloads $300M in secondary sale, brings General Catalyst on as an investor
Fintech-turned-HR outfit Deel is trying to lay the groundwork for an IPO. On Tuesday, it said its annual revenue run rate climbed to $800 million in 2024 after growing by 70%. The startup, which helps businesses globally hire, manage and pay employees remotely, also said it has sold $300 million in secondary shares to General […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How Max Altschuler accidentally founded a VC firm that just raised another $54M
Four years after accidentally launching a VC firm, GTMfund founder Max Altschuler has raised a second oversubscribed $54 million fund. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DSTLRY, the comic books marketplace, launches new customization features for artists
DSTLRY, a venture-backed digital comic books marketplace, on Tuesday added a pair of features designed to bring customization to the platform. The first feature, dubbed Commissioned Digital Remarques, allows creators to add personalized sketches and signatures to digital comics. The second, Unlimited Digital Covers, expands platform-wide access to alternative comic book covers. Commissioned Digital Remarques […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple launches Invites, a new app for creating custom invitations
Apple on Tuesday launched a new app called “Invites” that allows users to create custom invitations for any occasion. With Invites, users can create and share invitations on their iPhone, RSVP, contribute to Shared Albums, and curate event soundtracks. To create an invitation, you need an iCloud+ subscription. However, anyone can RSVP, regardless of whether […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former Tesla engineer heading government agency reportedly outlines ‘AI-first strategy’
Thomas Shedd, the former Tesla engineer now serving as the director of Technology Transformation Services, reportedly outlined an “AI-first strategy” for the U.S. government department. According to a report from Wired citing multiple sources, the Musk ally described the plan to run the office like a “startup software company” during a Monday meeting. The New […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Deepfake videos are getting shockingly good
Researchers from TikTok owner ByteDance have demoed a new AI system, OmniHuman-1, that can generate perhaps the most realistic deepfake videos to date. Deepfaking AI is a commodity. There’s no shortage of apps that can insert someone into a photo, or make a person appear to say something they didn’t actually say. But most deepfakes […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LogicStar is building AI agents for app maintenance
Swiss startup LogicStar is bent on joining the AI agent game. The summer 2024-founded startup has bagged $3 million in pre-seed funding to bring tools to the developer market that can do autonomous maintenance of software applications, rather than the more typical AI agent use-case of code co-development. LogicStar CEO and co-founder Boris Paskalev suggests […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Two space startups have merged to create the next generation of telescopes
On a clear spring evening in Michigan, the stars aligned — just not in the way Upfront Ventures partner Nick Kim expected. He’d just led a $9.5 million seed round for OurSky, a software platform for space observational data, and was eager to see what its telescope partner PlaneWave Instruments could do. But when they […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify reports its first full year of profitability, adds 35M monthly active users
On Tuesday morning, Spotify announced its fourth-quarter earnings, marking its first full year of profitability since its inception 17 years ago. The operating income for the quarter reached a record €477 million ($509.48 million) and amounted to €1.4 billion ($1.495 billion) for the 2024 fiscal year. Spotify also reported an addition of 35 million monthly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sotira lands $2M to help brands offload and monetize their surplus inventory
An estimated 20% to 30% of all inventory in the U.S. is surplus, with much of it ending up in landfills. A startup called Sotira wants to help address this problem: It leverages AI to help companies offload and monetize their surplus inventory. Sotira partners with brands to offload millions of pounds of surplus grocery, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s Operator agent helped me move, but I had to help it, too
OpenAI gave me one week to test its new AI agent, Operator, a system that can independently do tasks for you on the internet. Operator is the closest thing I’ve seen to the tech industry’s vision of AI agents — systems that can automate the boring parts of life, freeing us up to do the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snap unveils AI text-to-image model for mobile devices
Snap has unveiled an AI text-to-image model for mobile devices that will power some of Snapchat’s features in the coming months. The company said on Tuesday that the model can produce high-resolution images in around 1.4 seconds on an iPhone 16 Pro Max. The new diffusion model runs entirely on the device, which reduces computational […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Team behind Twitterrific launches a multi-feed app called Tapestry
After Elon Musk took over Twitter, the company blocked third-party clients in 2023, including ones like Twitterrific, Tweetbot, and Fenix. Iconfactory, the company behind Twitterrifc, finally launched its multi-feed app called Tapestry on Tuesday, which allows you to add sources like RSS, YouTube, Bluesky, Podcasts, Mastodon, Reddit, Tumblr, Micro.blog, GO Comics, and more to unified […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LinkedIn amps up vertical video tools as uploads jump 36%
Video reigns supreme on social media like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. And now, video is becoming a bigger business for LinkedIn. The Microsoft-owned social network for the working world has yet to go full TikTok. But with a big boost of usage — today it said that video uploads jumped by 36% compared to last […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Walkstar is a new iOS app that pauses songs when you stop moving
There are plenty of pedometer and step counter apps in the world, but this new app has a fun twist. Walkstar, which launched Tuesday in the App Store, enhances your workout by syncing your tunes with your movement. The moment you pause, the music fades away, making it a perfect motivator for those looking to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Canada’s StackAdapt snaps up $235M for its AI-based programmatic platform
While the U.S. and Canada duke it out over tariffs between the two countries, a tech company based out of Toronto is announcing a major round of funding led by a homegrown VC. StackAdapt, a programmatic advertising startup, says that it has raised $235 million in equity funding, with Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG) — the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Archive raises $30M to solve fashion’s pollution problem with online resales
The fashion industry has concerned Emily Gittins since adolescence. The sector is, after all, one of the most polluting in the world. According to some sources, it is responsible for nearly 10% of the earth’s CO2 emissions and more than 20% of all water waste. Yet people still want more, fast. “The way we consume […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Egypt’s Khazna banks $16M for its financial super app and expansion into Saudi
A large portion of Egypt’s population lacks access to traditional banking, forcing many to rely on cash transactions and informal lending. Khazna, a fintech startup founded in 2019, is tackling this issue by offering financial services tailored for low- and middle-income workers. The company provides solutions like salary advances, digital payments, and microloans to help […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Grubhub confirms data breach affecting customers and drivers
U.S. food delivery giant Grubhub says hackers accessed the personal details of customers and drivers after breaching its internal systems. Grubhub is a popular food-ordering and delivery platform with over 375,000 merchants and 200,000 delivery providers using its platform in more than 4,000 U.S. cities. New York-based Wonder Group acquired the company last fall in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI doubles down on Asia, partners with Kakao after its big deal with SoftBank
On the heels of Chinese AI firm DeepSeek making a huge splash in OpenAI’s American backyard, OpenAI is diving into expanding in Asia, with major commercial deals that will also help it train its AI on more Asian-language content and user behavior — a gateway to doing more business in these markets in the future […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Waabi and Volvo team up to build self-driving trucks at scale
Self-driving truck startup Waabi is partnering with Volvo Autonomous Solutions to jointly develop and deploy autonomous trucks, an important milestone as it gets closer to a commercial launch. The tie up also marks Volvo’s second partnership to co-develop self-driving big rigs with a startup partner. In May 2024, Volvo teamed up with Aurora Innovation to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SoftBank-backed billionaire to invest $230M in Indian AI startup Krutrim
Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal is investing $230 million into an AI startup he founded as the country pushes to establish itself in a field dominated by U.S. and Chinese firms. Aggarwal is largely financing the investment in Krutrim through his family office, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. In a post on X […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Opera launches a mindfulness-focused browser with break reminders and soundscapes
Norway-based browser maker Opera on Tuesday launched a new browser called “Opera Air,” which focuses on mental well-being and mindfulness with features like break reminders, breathing exercises, soundscapes, and binaural beats for better focus. The company said that people use browsers for a lot of their work online, and it wanted to ship a browser […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI agents for e-commerce startup, founded by Google and DeepMind alums, raises $10M seed
AI is changing how we shop online, making our experiences more personalized. Smart assistants recommend products, negotiate deals, and even handle customer service. Big retailers and smaller businesses are using AI to improve search, supply chains, and checkout. If AI companies (and their investors) have their way, shopping will soon be focused on chatting with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Neuralk-AI is developing AI models specifically designed for structured data
Tabular data is a broad term that encompasses structured data that generally fits into a specific row and column. It can be a SQL database, a spreadsheet, a .CSV file, etc. While there has been tremendous progress on artificial intelligence applied to unstructured and sequential data, these large language models are fuzzy by design. They […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
China hits back at Trump tariffs with Google antitrust investigation
China said Tuesday it has launched an antitrust investigation into Google, part of a swift retaliation after the U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese goods. The probe by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation will examine alleged monopolistic practices by the U.S. tech giant, which has had its search and internet […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Accel backs Indian AI startup building ‘ChatGPT for presentations’
Presentations.ai has raised $3 million in a seed round led by Accel to scale its AI-powered software for generating presentations. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Adam Candeub, a vocal critic of Big Tech, will reportedly join the FCC
Adam Candeub, a known critic of Big Tech, looks poised to join the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Candeub will be general counsel of the FCC, reports Semafor, which cites direct confirmation from FCC chairman Brendan Carr. TechCrunch has reached out to the FCC for more information. Candeub has long been a vocal critic of Section […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ontario cancels, then restores, $68 million Starlink contract after protesting US tariffs
On Monday, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, one of Canada’s most populous provinces, announced on X that the province’s government would be “ripping up” its $68 million ($100 million CAD) contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service. The news came soon after President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on nearly all Canadian […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Stripe brings aboard new head of ‘startup and VC partnerships’
Asya Bradley, a former fintech founder and investor, has joined payments giant Stripe as its new head of Startup & Venture Capital Partnerships. Bradley announced the news on February 2 in a post on LinkedIn, though her bio shows that she joined Stripe back in November. Neither Stripe nor Bradley were immediately available for comment. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Naver-backed Cinamon wants to make 3D video animation easier using AI
It’s never been easier to create and publish art than it is now, and if you believe the companies building tech around AI, the production process is going to get even more efficient. That’s especially the case with video production, with companies of all sizes using large language models to build tools that let you […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
No, DeepSeek isn’t uncensored if you run it locally
DeepSeek's model is censored at both the application and training layers, a Wired investigation shows. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta says it may stop development of AI systems it deems too risky
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to make artificial general intelligence (AGI) — which is roughly defined as AI that can accomplish any task a human can — openly available one day. But in a new policy document, Meta suggests that there are certain scenarios in which it may not release a highly capable AI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DeepSeek: The countries and agencies that have banned the AI company’s tech
DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company, is raising the ire of regulators around the world. DeepSeek’s viral AI models and chatbot apps have been banned by a growing number of countries and government bodies, which have expressed concerns over DeepSeek’s ethics, privacy, and security practices. Corporations have banned DeepSeek, too — by the hundreds. The biggest […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Journalist targeted on WhatsApp by Paragon spyware: ‘I feel violated’
An Italian investigative journalist said he was the target of a spyware attack disclosed by WhatsApp. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump says new US sovereign wealth fund could purchase TikTok
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to create a U.S. sovereign wealth fund and suggested that it could be used to purchase TikTok. The fund is expected to be created in the next 12 months by the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments, though it’s not immediately clear how. Trump has said previously […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ontario cancels $100 million Starlink contract in protest at U.S. tariffs
Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, one of Canada’s most populous provinces, announced on X that the province’s government would be “ripping up” its $100 million contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service. The news comes soon after President Donald Trump announced this weekend a 25% tariff on nearly all Canadian imported goods, causing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ontario cancels $68 million Starlink contract in protest at US tariffs
Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, one of Canada’s most populous provinces, announced on X that the province’s government would be “ripping up” its $68 million ($100 million CAD) contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service. The news comes soon after President Donald Trump announced this weekend a 25% tariff on nearly all Canadian […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hot Tub, the first native iPhone porn app, arrives in EU
A native pornography app for iOS is coming to the EU via the approved alternative app store AltStore PAL, made possible by Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). On Monday, the AltStore announced the launch of Hot Tub, an aggregator that offers iOS users a way to search and play videos from a variety of adult […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
First native iPhone porn app arrives in EU
A native pornography app for iOS is coming to the EU via the approved alternative app store AltStore PAL, made possible by Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). On Monday, the AltStore announced the launch of Hot Tub, an aggregator that offers iOS users a way to search and play videos from a variety of adult […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2025: Secure your ticket at this year’s lowest rates
Missed the 2-for-1 deal for TechCrunch Disrupt 2025? No problem! Super Early Bird prices are still available, with savings of up to $1,130 on individual tickets and up to 30% on group passes. These savings are only good until the end of this month. Celebrate 20 years of TechCrunch Disrupt from October 27-29 at Moscone […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Beatles won a Grammy last night, thanks to AI
The Beatles’ AI-assisted track “Now and Then” won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance on Sunday night, marking the first time that a song of its kind has taken home the award. No, Paul McCartney did not use AI to create some creepy LennonGPT bot. Instead, he used noise reduction systems to clean up a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s new trademark application hints at humanoid robots, smart jewelry, and more
Last Friday, AI startup OpenAI filed a new application to trademark products associated with its brand — “OpenAI” — with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Normally, this wouldn’t be newsworthy. Companies file for trademarks all the time. But in the application, OpenAI hints at new product lines both nearer-term and of a more […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What PowerSchool won’t say about its data breach affecting millions of students
The hack has the potential to be one of the biggest of the year, but the edtech giant is refusing to answer important questions © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hero’s all-in-one, AI productivity app takes on Google’s Calendar and others
People often use multiple apps for notes, schedule management, and to-dos. But why not combine them all in one app? That’s the ethos behind Hero, an all-in-one productivity app with an AI assistant (of course!). The iOS app was developed by former Meta employees Brad Kowalk and Seung W. Lee. Both met while working on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What is Bluesky? Everything to know about the X competitor
Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is most certainly bluer. It’s been two years since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now X, leading people to set up shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (two of which have already shuttered operations) and Spill have been presented as potential […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Riot raises $30 million for its cybersecurity product suite focused on employees
French startup Riot has raised a $30 million Series B round after reaching $10 million in annual revenue in 2024. Originally focused on educating employees about cybersecurity risks, the company now wants to go one step further and nudge employees so that they minimize their attack surface. Left Lane Capital is leading today’s round with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung chief Jay Y. Lee cleared of all charges in 2015 merger case
A Seoul appeals court on Monday upheld the acquittal of Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee in accounting fraud and stock manipulation in a case related to a controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates, Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T. The Seoul High Court dismissed the prosecution’s appeal in the case involving Lee, who […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tana snaps up $25M, with its AI-powered knowledge graph for work racking up a 160k+ waitlist
An app that helps people and teams in the working world simplify their to-do lists — ideally by organising and doing some of the work for them — has remained one of the unsolved goals in business technology. Leaning into AI, on top of battle scars from once building Google Wave, a startup called Tana […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng receives a hero’s welcome back home
DeepSeek founder Lian Wenfeng is being hailed as a hero in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, where he grew up and reportedly returned for the Lunar New Year, joined by bodyguards. Wenfeng—who, at 40, is already a billionaire due to his hedge fund, High-Flyer—is apparently even more beloved by locals following DeepSeek’s breakthrough research, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India expands Aadhaar authentication for businesses, raising privacy concerns
India has expanded its Aadhaar authentication service to let businesses such as those in e-commerce, hospitality, and healthcare use the biometrics of individuals to authenticate their identity. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI unveils a new ChatGPT agent for ‘deep research’
OpenAI is announcing a new AI “agent” designed to help people conduct in-depth, complex research using ChatGPT, the company’s AI-powered chatbot platform. Appropriately enough, it’s called deep research. OpenAI said in a blog post published Sunday that this new capability was designed for “people who do intensive knowledge work in areas like finance, science, policy, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Dub: the copy trading app that has teens talking
Social media changed everything from news consumption to shopping. Now, Dub thinks it can do the same for investing through an influencer-driven marketplace where users can follow the trades of top investors with a few taps. Think of it as TikTok meets Wall Street. Founded by 23-year-old Steven Wang — a Harvard drop-out who began […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple reportedly launching a new event invite feature code-named Confetti
Apple will be giving iCloud users a new way to invite people to parties, meetings, and other events, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The company has code-named the service Confetti, and it could launch as early as this week, Gurman says. There aren’t many details about how it will actually work, but Confetti is reportedly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google’s X spins out Heritable Agriculture, a startup using AI to improve crop yield
Google’s X “moonshot factory” this week announced its latest graduate. Heritable Agriculture is a data- and machine learning-driven startup aiming to improve how crops are grown. As the firm noted in an announcement post published Tuesday, plants are incredibly efficient and impressive systems. “Plants are solar powered, carbon negative, self-assembling machines that feed on sunlight […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI systems with ‘unacceptable risk’ are now banned in the EU
As of Sunday in the European Union, the bloc’s regulators can ban the use of AI systems they deem to pose “unacceptable risk” or harm. February 2 is the first compliance deadline for the EU’s AI Act, the comprehensive AI regulatory framework that the European Parliament finally approved last March after years of development. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Shein app returns to India via Reliance deal
Chinese fast-fashion retailer Shein has relaunched in India through a partnership with Reliance Retail, nearly five years after it was banned amid diplomatic tensions between New Delhi and Beijing. The new Shein India Fast Fashion app, developed and launched by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail, marks the firm’s significant return to one of Asia’s largest […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Senator warns of national security risks after Elon Musk’s DOGE granted ‘full access’ to sensitive Treasury systems
U.S. senator says Musk's access to Treasury systems represents a "national security risk." © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X expands lawsuit over advertiser ‘boycott’ to include Lego, Nestlé, Pinterest, and others
X is now suing more advertisers in an antitrust lawsuit focusing on what the company’s CEO Linda Yaccarino has claimed is a “systematic illegal boycott.” The company formerly known as Twitter first filed the lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers and its brand safety initiative the Global Alliance of Responsible Media in August 2024. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Adobe exec Scott Belsky departs for indie movie studio A24
Adobe’s chief strategy officer Scott Belsky announced this week that he will be joining A24, the independent movie studio behind “Civil War,” “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” and many more titles. Belsky first joined Adobe in 2012 through the acquisition of Behance, leaving briefly in 2016 to become a VC at Benchmark but eventually returning […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DeepSeek gets Silicon Valley talking
Welcome back to Week in Review. This week we’re looking at DeepSeek’s major boost in the U.S.; Elon Musk admitting he was wrong about FSD; teens losing trust in Big Tech; and more! Let’s do it. DeepSeek went viral this week after its AI models led Wall Street analysts and technologists to question whether the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here are all the IPOs reported to be in the works for 2025
These companies have confidentially filed to go public in recent years. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here are the apps battling to be become the ‘TikTok for Bluesky’
TikTok’s potential U.S. ban has sparked a flurry of development within the open social web community. Several new applications are being built that could one day serve as a TikTok replacement for those who favor the open source, decentralized social network Bluesky and the technology that powers it, the AT Protocol. Though the TikTok ban […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Venture debt lenders will play a big role in fire sales and startup shutdown this year, experts say
When accounting startup Bench abruptly failed last month, the shutdown was forced when the company’s lenders called in the startup’s loan. In late 2023, the digital freight company Convoy faced financial challenges, leading venture lending firm Hercules Capital to assume control of the company to recover its investments. Divvy Homes, which sold for about $1 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to delete X and move on with your life
As Elon Musk’s X sees a decline in daily active users, some people are deciding to ditch the social network entirely, whether that’s for Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads, or perhaps, better yet, nothing at all. Since the Tesla and SpaceX CEO bought Twitter in 2022, numerous alternatives have cropped up, seeking to ensnare people who are […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI agents could birth the first one-person unicorn — but at what societal cost?
Thanks to the advent of cloud computing and distributed digital infrastructure, the one-person micro-enterprise is far from a novel concept. Cheap on-demand compute, remote collaboration, payment processing APIs, social media, and e-commerce marketplaces have all made it easier to “go it alone” as an entrepreneur. But what about scaling that one-person business into something meatier […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India pledges fresh billion for startups
India announced a new $1.15 billion Fund of Funds for startups on Saturday while unveiling sweeping regulatory reforms and an ambitious nuclear energy program, as New Delhi seeks to boost tech innovation and clean energy in the world’s fifth-largest economy. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, presenting the federal budget for 2025-26, said the fund builds on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Autonomous vehicle testing in California dropped 50%. Here’s why.
Tech companies developing self-driving vehicle technology have tapped the brakes on testing on California’s public roads, according to new data from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. The agency reported Friday a total of 4.5 million autonomous vehicle test miles were logged in 2024, a 50% drop from the previous year. That figure covers two […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI used this subreddit to test AI persuasion
OpenAI used the subreddit, r/ChangeMyView, to create a test for measuring the persuasive abilities of its AI reasoning models. The company revealed this in a system card – a document outlining how an AI system works – that was released along with its new “reasoning” model, o3-mini, on Friday. Millions of Reddit users are members […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sam Altman: OpenAI has been on the ‘wrong side of history’ concerning open source
To cap off a day of product releases, OpenAI researchers, engineers, and executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, answered questions in a wide-ranging Reddit AMA on Friday. OpenAI the company finds itself in a bit of a precarious position. It’s battling the perception that it’s ceding ground in the AI race to Chinese companies like […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mistral board member and a16z VC Anjney Midha says DeepSeek won’t stop AI’s GPU hunger
Midha says R1 won't stop AI from spending billions.It means they will do more with the compute power they can obtain. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MLCommons and Hugging Face team up to release massive speech data set for AI research
MLCommons, a nonprofit AI safety working group, has teamed up with AI dev platform Hugging Face to release one of the world’s largest collections of public domain voice recordings for AI research. The data set, called Unsupervised People’s Speech, contains more than a million hours of audio spanning at least 89 different languages. MLCommons says […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Hundreds’ of companies are blocking DeepSeek over China data risks
Some companies are blocking DeepSeek over concerns their data will end up with the Chinese government. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk is reportedly taking control of the inner workings of US government agencies
People working for, or with, Elon Musk are reportedly taking over the inner workings of multiple government agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management and the Treasury Department. The Washington Post reported Friday that the highest-ranking career official at Treasury is leaving the department after “a clash” with people working for Musk’s so-called Department of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Guo’s Conviction Partners adds Mike Vernal as GP, raises $230M fund
When in mid-2022 Sarah Guo left Greylock to launch her own AI-focused fund, Conviction Partners, she indicated that she was tagging the word “Partners” to the firm’s name because she would eventually bring on other GPs. Now, more than two years later, Guo is being joined by Mike Vernal, who was a partner at Sequoia […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is trying to duck a deposition in an OpenAI copyright lawsuit
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is trying to avoid being deposed in a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI, according to new court filings. In response, lawyers for the plaintiff — the Authors Guild — have filed a motion to compel testimony from Amodei and his Anthropic co-founder, Benjamin Mann. Authors Guild’s lawyers claim that Amodei and Mann, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CFPB fines fintech Wise, alleging it charged deceptive fees
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has hit UK-based remittance company Wise with about a $2 million fine for what it described as “a series of illegal actions.” Those actions include advertising inaccurate fees and failing to properly disclose exchange rates and other costs, the CFPB alleges. Specifically, the agency claims that the fintech company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple will pay $20M to settle Watch battery swelling suit, ‘denies wrongdoing’
Apple has agreed to pay $20 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit over battery swelling on the Apple Watch. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 2019, the suit alleges that the problem affected the first four Apple Watch models. Battery swelling is pretty much what it sounds like: […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta turns to solar — again — in its data center-building boom
The announcement comes as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg maintains the company’s ambitious AI strategy, which will require hefty capital investments in data centers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Stablecoins are finding product market fit in emerging markets
Five years ago, SpaceX launched Starlink, which has since grown into its biggest revenue driver, expanding to over 100 countries. But as Starlink scaled, it faced a major hurdle: accepting payments in developing markets, where traditional banking infrastructure is unreliable, slow, and prone to blocking transactions. Many local banks across Africa, Latin America and Asia […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This investor wants you to sign an NDA to build Legos together
Investor, former GitHub CEO, and all around Tech Guy™ Nat Friedman has posted a strangely enticing offer on X. His post reads, “Need volunteers to come to my office in Palo Alto today to construct a 5000 piece Lego set. Will provide pizza. Have to sign NDA. Please DM.” Thanks to the investigative reporting of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sam Altman’s ousting from OpenAI has entered the cultural zeitgeist
The lights dimmed as five actors took their places around a table on a makeshift stage in a New York City art gallery turned theater for the night. Wine and water flowed through the intimate space as the house — packed with media — sat to witness the premiere of “Doomers,” Matthew Gasda’s latest play […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI launches o3-mini, its latest ‘reasoning’ model
OpenAI on Friday launched a new AI "reasoning" model, o3-mini, the latest in the company's o1 family of reasoning models. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Swiss tax authority forced to buy Bahamas domain name after URL typo
What do you do if a web address you printed on a physical flyer contains a typo, and you send that flyer to more than 100,000 households? Well, if you’re the Swiss canton (“state”) of Basel-Stadt, you buy the domain that contains the typo, and create a redirect to the correct URL. As Swiss news […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft is forming a new unit to study AI’s impacts
Microsoft says that it’s creating a new unit, the Advanced Planning Unit (APU), within its Microsoft AI business division that will help the company understand the societal, health, and work implications of AI the company hopes to build. Microsoft AI, which encompasses Microsoft’s Copilot, Bing, and Edge products, is becoming core to Microsoft’s growth strategy […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DeepSeek: Everything you need to know about the AI chatbot app
DeepSeek has gone viral. Chinese AI lab DeepSeek broke into the mainstream consciousness this week after its chatbot app rose to the top of the Apple App Store charts (and Google Play, as well). DeepSeek’s AI models, which were trained using compute-efficient techniques, have led Wall Street analysts — and technologists — to question whether the U.S. can maintain its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Custom feed builder Graze is building a business on Bluesky, and investors are paying attention
A startup called Graze, which lets you build your own feeds for the Bluesky social network, has caught investors’ attention. In addition to offering tools to easily build, customize, publish, and manage Bluesky feeds, Graze will soon allow feed creators to monetize their efforts with advertising, sponsored posts, and subscriptions. In other words, Graze has […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WeDoSolar pivots to B2B, after stake acquired by Chinese solar giant
Last year Wind and solar energy overtook fossil fuels to provide 30% of the EU’s electricity. With that in the background, startups in the solar space have been riding a generational change in how we get our power. In 2022 we covered how a small B2C European startup planned to bring solar to homes via […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI startup Perplexity sued for alleged trademark infringement
Perplexity, the venture-backed startup building AI-powered search products, has been sued in federal court for allegedly violating another company’s trademark. In a complaint filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, attorneys representing a company called Perplexity Solved Solutions accuse Perplexity of infringing on its trademark rights by using the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A brief history of mass-hacks
Hackers are increasingly abusing bugs in popular enterprise software to target big companies in mass-hacking campaigns © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Backed by Mayo Clinic, Nutrix’s hardware monitors worker stress
Stress isn’t just bad for you — it’s also bad for your employer. Factoring in absenteeism, diminished productivity, turnover, medical costs, and accidents, the nonprofit American Institute of Stress estimates that workplace stress costs U.S. businesses over $300 billion annually. One way to measure stress is by monitoring cortisol levels. Even influencers know this, with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tata Technologies says ransomware attack hit IT assets, investigation ongoing
India's Tata Technologies has disclosed a ransomware attack affecting its IT assets. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WhatsApp says it disrupted a hacking campaign targeting journalists with Paragon spyware
The Meta-owned company said the campaign was linked to Israeli spyware maker Paragon. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2025: Last 24 hours for 2-for-1 Pass
Final hours for 2-for-1 Passes! One of the best Super Early Bird Deals for TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 will be wrapping up in just 24 hours for the rest of the year. The 2-for-1 Pass lets you bring a friend, colleague, or business partner, for nearly free. Buy one pass at the Super Early Bird rate […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The TechCrunch Cyber Glossary
This glossary includes the most common terms and expressions TechCrunch uses in our security reporting, and explanations of how — and why — we use them. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US nonprofit healthcare provider says hacker stole medical and personal data of 1M+ patients
Community Health Center (CHC), a Connecticut-based nonprofit healthcare provider, has confirmed that a hacker accessed the sensitive data of more than a million patients. In a filing with Maine’s attorney general on Thursday, CHC said it detected suspicious activity on its network on January 2 and determined that a “skilled criminal hacker” had accessed its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Intelligence will support more languages starting in April
Apple’s AI suite, Apple Intelligence, will soon be available in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and simplified Chinese, along with localized English versions for India and Singapore. During the company’s Q4 2024 quarterly results call on Thursday, CEO Tim Cook said that the company will roll out support for these additional languages in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
In another challenging year for startups, higher valuations and revenue give reason for hope
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. The aftermath of DeepSeek’s launch was arguably the biggest tech story of the week, especially for anyone keeping a close eye on public markets. But private companies, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Intel has already received $2.2B in federal grants for chip production
Semiconductor giant Intel Corporation has already received $2.2 billion in federal grants from the U.S. Department of Commerce through the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, the company shared during its Thursday earnings call. Dave Zinsner, Intel’s co-interim CEO, executive vice president, and CFO, said the Silicon Valley-based company received the first tranche of $1.1 billion […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pentagon scrambles to block DeepSeek after employees connect to Chinese servers
The Pentagon is rushing to block DeepSeek on its network after some employees used the service, which stores data in China. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple tops 1 billion subscriptions, nearly $100B in services revenue in 2024
Apple’s iPhone sales may be down, but the company’s Services division, which includes the App Store, iCloud, Music, TV+, and other subscriptions, is still soaring. The Cupertino-based tech giant reported Thursday its Services business had an all-time revenue high of $26.3 billion for the quarter ended December 28, up 14% year-over-year. Services generated nearly $100 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple CEO says DeepSeek shows ‘innovation that drives efficiency’
Apple CEO Tim Cook said DeepSeek’s AI models represent “innovation that drives efficiency” during an earnings call Thursday while fielding questions from analysts about the iPhone maker’s AI ambitions. “In general, I think innovation that drives efficiency is a good thing. And, you know, that’s what you see in that model,” said Cook, responding to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google quietly announces its next flagship AI model
Update: Some users on social media report that the changelog has been updated to remove mention of Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental. The references have disappeared for this reporter as well. A Google spokesperson told TechCrunch that an “out-of-date release note” was “published in error.” The original story follows: Google took the low-key route for the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Intel won’t bring its Falcon Shores AI chip to market
Intel is effectively killing Falcon Shores, its next-generation GPU for high-performance computing and AI workloads. The move comes as Intel tries to correct course after a number of disappointing product launches and historic losses, while competitors like AMD and Nvidia gain ground. Intel co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple quarterly revenue increases, even as China sales decline 11%
Apple’s latest earnings were a mixed bag, with slipping iPhone sales countered by rising revenue. Reporting after the bell Thursday, the iPhone maker’s overall revenue in the first quarter of 2025 beat Wall Street expectations, with a 4% bump to $124.3 billion over the same time last year. Apple reported net income of $36.33 billion, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk reveals Elon Musk was wrong about Full Self-Driving
For nearly nine years, Elon Musk has promised Tesla vehicles had the hardware needed to support a self-driving car. This week, he made his latest admission that many are not. Musk said on a conference call Wednesday evening that Tesla cars equipped with so-called Hardware 3 will need an upgrade before they can support unsupervised […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI said to be in talks to raise $40B at a $340B valuation
OpenAI may have billions of dollars in the bank. But it’s gearing up to raise billions more, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Per The WSJ, OpenAI is in talks to secure up to $40 billion in a funding round that would value the startup at $340 billion. SoftBank would lead the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Controversial genetics testing startup Nucleus Genomics raises $14M Series A
The company, founded by 25-year-old Kian Sadeghi, announced a $14 million Series A, bringing its total funding to about $32 million. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ElevenLabs has raised a new round at $3B+ valuation led by ICONIQ Growth, sources say
Companies that want to build AI voice into their products are rushing to work with ElevenLabs, the startup that develops synthetic voice technology like voice cloning and dubbing tools. Now ElevenLabs is turning up the volume on its business with a huge series C raise, just a year after a sizable series B. The New […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X expands its vertical video feed to global users
X has started expanding its dedicated vertical video feed to users outside the U.S., TechCrunch has exclusively learned and confirmed with the company. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 tickets now on sale: Lowest rates ever
We’re kicking things off earlier than ever! TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 tickets are officially on sale. Don’t miss your chance to snag them at the lowest rates of the year! Immerse yourself in the epicenter of tech innovation at Disrupt 2025! From October 27 to 29, Moscone West in San Francisco transforms into the global hub […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Waymo lobbyist activity in SF skyrocketed in 2024
Waymo lobbyists had a busy 2024. A recent review of lobbyist disclosure data by the San Francisco Examiner revealed Waymo paid lobbyists to meet with San Francisco government officials 348 times last year, more than double the 137 times it reported in 2023. The pop in lobbyist activity is in sync with Waymo’s expansion in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Open source alternatives to Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp raise funds on Kickstarter
The developer behind Pixelfed, Loops, and Sup, open source alternatives to Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp, respectively, is now raising funds on Kickstarter to fuel the apps’ further development. The trio is part of the growing open social web, also known as the fediverse, powered by the same ActivityPub protocol used by X alternative Mastodon. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Stargate will use solar and batteries to power $100B AI venture
Solar farms can be completed far faster than nuclear reactors and natural gas power plants. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
iOS 18 hits 68% adoption across iPhones, per new Apple figures
Apple released new figures Friday, highlighting user adoption of iOS 18. Released in public form back in September 2024, the mobile operating system is now installed on 68% of compatible devices. That number jumps to 78% on iPhones released in the last four years. As for the remaining iPhones out there, 19% are running iOS […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Neko Health’s unicorn-sized Series B is larger than some Series C rounds
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week was supposed to be a short one in the U.S., as it started with a holiday. But Inauguration Day kept some founders busy, and the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The EU wants to talk to US tech companies ahead of Germany’s upcoming election
The European Union will give tech and social media companies a “stress test” to see how they handle misinformation ahead of Germany’s election next month. European Commission officials have invited tech companies, including X, Meta, Snap, TikTok, Google, Microsoft, and LinkedIn, to a meeting on January 31, according to multiple news outlets. During this meeting, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The AI industry’s pace has researchers stressed
To outside observers, AI researchers are in an enviable position. They’re sought after by tech giants. They’re taking home eye-popping salaries. And they’re in the hottest industry of the moment. But all this comes with intense pressure. More than half a dozen researchers TechCrunch spoke with, some of whom requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
People are benchmarking AI by having it make balls bounce in rotating shapes
The list of informal, weird AI benchmarks keeps growing. Over the past few days, some in the AI community on X have become obsessed with a test of how different AI models, particularly so-called reasoning models, handle prompts like this: “Write a Python script for a bouncing yellow ball within a shape. Make the shape […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US users dumped RedNote after Trump paused the TikTok ban
In the days leading up to the TikTok ban in the U.S. on Sunday, U.S. users flooded the Chinese app RedNote, which offered a similar experience to their favorite short-form video app. The app, which is listed in the U.S. App Store under its Chinese name Xiaohongshu, quickly became the No. 1 free app in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
French e-bike startup Angell nears bankruptcy
Angell, a French smart electric bike startup, has announced in an email to customers that the company is declaring insolvency and approaching a court to ask for judicial liquidation. “It’s over for Angell,” said company co-founder and CEO Marc Simoncini on Instagram. (He also happens to be a judge on the French version of “Shark […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Kodiak has made its first driverless truck deliveries to customer Atlas Energy
Kodiak Robotics has officially handed off two autonomous trucks to customer Atlas Energy Solutions, marking the startup’s first commercial launch. Atlas, a provider of proppant (i.e., sand) and oilfield logistics, received its first Kodiak-equipped trucks in December and began driverless operations in an off-road environment in West Texas’s remote Permian Basin shortly after. The company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads is testing ads in the US and Japan
Meta’s X rival Threads said Friday that it is now testing ads with select brands in the U.S. and Japan. Instagram head Adam Mosseri said that the company will listen to feedback before expanding this experiment in other markets. “We know there will be plenty of feedback about how we should approach ads, and we […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sam Altman’s World now wants to link AI agents to your digital identity
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took the technology world by surprise on Thursday with the release of Operator, his company’s first AI agent that can act autonomously on the web. But OpenAI is not Altman’s only venture that’s trying to capitalize on the popularity of AI agents. Altman’s World project now wants to create tools that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Flip, the TikTok Shop rival, launches a creator fund that grants up to $100M of equity value
Flip is a social commerce app that lets shoppers become creators. They can share honest reviews and earn cash based on engagement on the platform. As Flip competes with TikTok Shop and other platforms in a highly competitive market, it has introduced a new creator fund that offers a unique opportunity to help it stand […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mark Zuckerberg says Meta will have 1.3M GPUs for AI by year-end
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company plans to significantly up its capital expenditures this year as it aims to keep pace with rivals in the cutthroat AI space. In a Facebook post Friday, Zuckerberg said that Meta expects to spend $60 billion-$80 billion on CapEx in 2025, primarily on data centers and growing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s Stargate project reportedly doesn’t have the money it needs
Stargate — the massive infrastructure project to build data centers for OpenAI in the U.S. — lacks a fully developed plan and hasn’t secured funding yet, according to a report from the Financial Times. Backed by OpenAI, SoftBank, Middle East AI fund MGX, and others, Stargate would funnel around $100 billion — and upward of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple admits next-gen CarPlay is late, but still in development
Though Apple rarely misses self-imposed deadlines, it’s done so with the next generation of CarPlay. The company originally teased the update back in 2022. With this new version, CarPlay will integrate seamlessly with the instrument cluster to provide information on speed, climate control, and other car data. Apple had promised an initial rollout for a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
JetBrains launches Junie, a new AI coding agent for its IDEs
JetBrains, the company behind coding tools like the IntelliJ IDE for Java and Kotlin (and, indeed, the Kotlin language itself), on Thursday launched Junie, a new AI coding agent. This agent, the company says, will be able to handle routine development tasks for when you want to create new applications — and understand the context […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump orders formation of working group to evaluate crypto stockpile
President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the formation of a working group to propose federal regulations for “digital assets” — including cryptocurrencies, digital tokens, and stablecoins — and evaluate a national crypto stockpile. Ex-PayPal COO and founder of VC firm Craft Ventures David Sacks, Trump’s pick for crypto an AI ‘czar,’ will lead the working […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI says it may store deleted Operator data for up to 90 days
OpenAI says that it might store chats and associated screenshots from customers who use Operator, the company’s AI “agent” tool, for up to 90 days — even after a user manually deletes them. OpenAI has a similar deleted data retention policy for ChatGPT, its AI-powered chatbot platform. However, the retention period for ChatGPT is only […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Everyone wants MrBeast on their TikTok bid, but he hasn’t committed yet
MrBeast is in talks to join a number of bids to buy TikTok, but he hasn't chosen any of them exclusively yet. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anthropic’s new Citations feature aims to reduce AI errors
In an announcement perhaps timed to divert attention away from OpenAI’s Operator, Anthropic Thursday unveiled a new feature for its developer API called Citations, which lets devs “ground” answers from its Claude family of AI in source documents such as emails. Anthropic says Citations allows its AI models to provide detailed references to “the exact […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fitbit fined $12M over Ionic smartwatch burns
Fitbit has settled with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) over a long-standing defect that caused some wearers to sustain burns. The deal finds the Google-owned fitness company paying a $12.25 million penalty for the issues surrounding its Ionic smartwatch. The issue dates back to 2018, continuing on into 2020. Fitbit agreed to recall […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads rolls out a post scheduler, ‘markup’ feature, and more
While Meta lures TikTok creators to Instagram and Facebook with cash bonuses, its X competitor Instagram Threads is now making things easier for creators, brands, and others who need more professional tools to manage their presence on the app. On Thursday, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced a small handful of new features coming to Threads, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tom Brady’s Autograph merges with digital fitness company Future
Autograph, the $3.1 billion valuation NFT company co-founded by Tom Brady, is merging with the digital fitness company Future. As part of the merger, Brady will join the board of directors of Future and serve as co-chair of the company. Brady co-founded Autograph in 2021 to find ways to connect athletes and artists with fans, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hidden Waymo feature let researcher customize robotaxi’s display
Security researcher Jane Wong found a hidden feature that let her change the top display of a Waymo robotaxi. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump’s not happy with how EU regulators have treated US tech giants
President Donald Trump isn’t happy with how European Union regulators have treated U.S.-based tech companies including: Google, Meta, and Apple. On stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump put EU regulators on blast. He said that the EU’s cases against these U.S. tech companies are “a form of taxation,” according to Bloomberg reporting. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bedrock Energy wants geothermal to make data centers cooler and offices more comfortable
To cut costs and minimize geothermal’s footprint, Bedrock drills deeper. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Epic brings third-party titles to its mobile game store
Epic Games is adding third-party games to its mobile app store, and helping developers cover associated iOS fees. The company is launching a free games program, and will cover the cost for all titles from developers that participate in the program on iOS or iPadOS devices. With this program, Epic will roll out new free games […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI and SoftBank are reportedly putting $19B each into Stargate
We may now know roughly how much money SoftBank and OpenAI are contributing toward Stargate, the massive infrastructure project to build data centers for OpenAI across the U.S. SoftBank and OpenAI each plans to commit $19 billion of capital to Stargate, according to The Information. The two companies would then both own 40% of the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Android 16’s first beta version brings iOS-style live notifications
After releasing two developer beta versions last year, Google introduced the first public beta for Android 16 on Thursday. New features include live updates on the lock screen (like Live Activities on iOS), Advanced Professional Video (APV) codec for high-quality video recording, and a framework for developers to make their apps adaptable for different screen […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Substack introduces a $20M funding guarantee to entice creators to migrate to its platform
Substack on Thursday announced the launch of its Creator Accelerator Fund, which provides a $20 million funding guarantee aimed at helping creators grow their audience and move their paid subscribers from another subscription-based platform to Substack. The company says the fund is designed to ensure that creators will retain all of their current revenue during […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X sees a jump in consumer spending on mobile, despite decline in daily active users
Social network X has grown its in-app revenue over the past year, despite a decline in active users, new data shows. Global consumer spending in the X mobile app across both iOS and Android has climbed by 76.3% year-over-year, when comparing two similar periods in January, according to data from app intelligence firm Appfigures. However, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Canoo craters and Trump comes for EVs
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! We’re just a few days into a new Trump administration, and it’s already a firehose of executive orders, declarations, and even pardons. A few have crossed into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After pivoting from crypto to payroll, Rollfi gets acquired
Kirubha Perumalsamy co-founded Rollfi during crypto’s heyday in 2021 to help companies process digital payments. When crypto crashed, Rollfi pivoted to become an embedded payroll company, partnering with financial services companies to offer payroll and benefits services to their clients. The pivot was enough of a success for Rollfi to be acquired for an undisclosed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI launches Operator, an AI agent that performs tasks autonomously
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman kicked off this year by saying in a blog post that 2025 would be big for AI agents, tools that can automate tasks and take actions on your behalf. Now, we’re seeing OpenAI’s first real attempt. OpenAI announced on Thursday that it is launching a research preview of Operator, a general-purpose […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Roli releases a 49-key educational keyboard and generative AI play
Roli on Thursday announced its latest educational product at the NAAM audio show in Anaheim. The simply named Roli Piano builds on products like the Roli Airwave and Piano M, more than doubling the latter’s key count to 49. The Piano is much like its predecessor in most ways, with MIDI keys that light up […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity launches an assistant for Android
AI-powered search engine Perplexity has launched an “agent,” of sorts, called Perplexity Assistant, which Perplexity says uses reasoning, search, and apps to help with daily tasks. Perplexity Assistant, which is available for Android devices as of Thursday in the Perplexity app, can take “multi-app actions,” the company says, like hailing a ride or searching for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spacetech Voyager is aiming for a multi-billion valuation IPO
Voyager Technologies has reportedly filed its confidential paperwork to go public, hoping for a $2 billion to $3 billion valuation. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 and 2025 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Brave will allow you to tune search results with upvotes and downvotes
Brave Search said Thursday that it is adding a new feature called Rerank that will allow users to tune search results by upvoting or downvoting certain websites. The feature, which will be available to all users, will appear on the top right of the search results page. When users open the panel, they will be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Passbolt raises $8M for its open source password manager for teams
Password managers have become commonplace at this point. But businesses often have different needs than consumers. Teams, after all, often have to share credentials to access resources, all while IT and security teams need ways to control who has access to them. Passbolt, which is announcing an $8 million seed round Thursday, aims to become […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hackers found a way to remotely unlock, start, and track millions of Subarus
As long as employees have access to such data, that information is vulnerable to evolving methods of hacking. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta’s Yann LeCun predicts a ‘new AI architectures paradigm’ within 5 years and ‘decade of robotics’
Meta’s chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, says that a “new paradigm of AI architectures” will emerge in the next three to five years, going far beyond the capabilities of existing AI systems. LeCun also predicted that the coming years could be the “decade of robotics,” where advances in AI and robotics combine to unlock a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT suffered a major outage this morning, but OpenAI says it’s back up
OpenAI’s AI chatbot platform, ChatGPT, suffered a major outage Thursday. Early this morning, ChatGPT users started reporting issues accessing ChatGPT on the web and other platforms. According to the ChatGPT status page on OpenAI’s website, OpenAI acknowledged the problem at 5:12 a.m. Pacific, and identified the root cause a little under an hour later. “[We] […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Coval evaluates AI voice and chat agents like self-driving cars
What do AI voice agents and self-driving cars have in common? Their performance can be evaluated in the same way, argues Brooke Hopkins, a former tech lead at Waymo. Coval, Hopkins’ new startup, looks to do just that. “When I left Waymo, I realized a lot of these problems that we had at Waymo were […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Method is helping fintech companies like SoFi build repayment functionality into their apps
It can be challenging for developers of fintech apps to integrate repayment, balance transfer, and bill pay functionality. Devs often have to deal with a patchwork of brittle screen-scraping APIs to extract data from users’ financial institutions — or worse, tools to process mounds of physical checks and paperwork. Three friends and entrepreneurs — Jose […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hugging Face claims its new AI models are the smallest of their kind
A team at AI dev platform Hugging Face has released what they’re claiming are the smallest AI models that can analyze images, short videos, and text. The models, SmolVLM-256M and SmolVLM-500M, are designed to work well on “constrained devices” like laptops with under around 1GB of RAM. The team says that they’re also ideal for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snap launches a new way to reward AR creators, rolls out student pricing for Spectacles
Snap announced on Thursday that it’s introducing a new “Challenge Tags” rewards program for AR developers to win cash prizes for submitting Lenses. The company also announced that it’s launching educational pricing and a student discount for Spectacles, its developer-focused AR glasses. The theme of the first Challenge Tag is humor and is open through […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Y Combinator grad Spacium raises oversubscribed $6.3M for space re-fueling
The company raised a $6.3 million seed round led by Initialized Capital © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tive’s tools help companies track the status of their shipments in real time
The global supply chain is under strain, and one of the reasons is a lack of visibility into how shipments are being transported around the world. According to one recent survey, nearly half of the organizations polled reported having little-to-no visibility into their upstream supply chains. In search of a remedy, Krenar Komoni, who’d for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fundraise Up claims its AI can boost nonprofit donations
Many nonprofits are stuck with outdated, expensive, and limited tech that hinders their ability to fund their mission or cause. While most consider adopting tech to be a priority, they’re faced with a number of blockers, including siloed data and issues with integration. Peter Byrnes, the co-founder of Fundraise Up, a Brooklyn-based fundraising platform for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Quantum VC QDNL hits €25M first-close on new fund
VC investment into Quantum computing declined by 50% last year according to the ‘State of Quantum 2024’ report, dropping from $2.2bn in 2022 to $1.2bn, with funds switching in favour of Generative AI. However, government spending on quantum was predicted to hit $40 billion over the next decade. Now a new VC European fund hopes […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Everstone acquires bootstrapped Indian startup Wingify for $200M
Private equity firm Everstone has reached a deal to acquire a majority stake in Wingify, one of India’s earliest bootstrapped software-as-a-service success stories, for about $200 million, three sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The deal, finalized this week, marks a significant exit for Wingify’s founder Paras Chopra, who built the SaaS startup without […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
African fintech Moniepoint gets Visa backing, plans to work on contactless payments
Visa has joined African fintech Moniepoint as a new investor. The business banking and payments platform confirmed to TechCrunch that it received a “strategic investment” from the global payments giant as both companies look to drive financial inclusion and support the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Africa. Sources close to the deal […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI may preview its agent tool for users on the $200 per month Pro plan
We may see OpenAI’s agent tool, Operator, released sooner rather than later. Changes to ChatGPT’s code base suggest that Operator will be available as an early research preview to users on the $200 Pro subscription plan. The changes aren’t yet publicly visible, but a user on X who goes by Choi spotted these updates in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK probes Apple and Google over ‘mobile ecosystem’ market power
The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is launching so-called “strategic market status” (SMS) investigations into the mobile ecosystems of Apple and Google. The investigations constitute part of the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA) which passed last year and came into effect in January. The Act includes provisions for digital markets regulation […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WhatsApp wins reprieve in India over user data sharing
An Indian tribunal on Thursday suspended restrictions that would have barred WhatsApp from sharing user data with its parent company Meta, delivering a significant victory for Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire in its largest market by users. The ruling by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal temporarily lifts a five-year ban imposed by India’s antitrust […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Neko, the body-scanning startup co-founded by Spotify’s Daniel Ek, snaps up $260M at a $1.8B valuation
Stockholm startup Neko Health has made a big bet on consumers wanting to learn about their state of health and how to prevent things going wrong. Now, investors are making a big bet on Neko. The startup has raised a fresh $260 million in funding, a Series B that values Neko at $1.8 billion post-money, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Someone bought the domain ‘OGOpenAI’ and redirected it to a Chinese AI lab
A software engineer has bought the website “OGOpenAI.com” and redirected it to DeepSeek, a Chinese AI lab that’s been making waves in the open source AI world lately. Software engineer Ananay Arora tells TechCrunch that he bought the domain name for “less than a Chipotle meal,” and that he plans to sell it for more. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google buys part of HTC’s XR business for $250 million
Google has agreed to acquire a part of HTC’s extended reality (XR) business for $250 million, expanding its push into virtual and augmented reality hardware following the recent launch of its Android XR platform. The deal involves transferring some of the HTC VIVE engineering staff to Google and granting non-exclusive intellectual property rights, according to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Some shareholders of a16z-backed Divvy Homes may not see a dime from $1B sale
The $1 billion acquisition of rent-to-own startup Divvy Homes, which was announced Wednesday, is expected to leave some shareholders without a payout, according to sources familiar with the deal. The terms — and Divvy’s journey from buzzy startup to acquisition target — reflects the rollercoaster ride the proptech industry has endured over the past decade. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Raymond Tonsing’s Caffeinated Capital seeks $400M for fifth fund
Caffeinated Capital, a San Francisco venture firm started by a solo capitalist Raymond Tonsing, is raising a fifth fund of $400 million, according to a regulatory filing. The firm, an early investor in software company Airtable and defense startup Saronic, has already raised $160 million toward the fund. If Caffeinated hits its target, it will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ati Motors raises $20M as India’s robotics industry grows
Ati Motors, an Indian startup building AI-powered autonomous mobile robots, has raised $20 million in a Series B round. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft’s head of venture has resigned
Chris Young, Microsoft's head of of business development and its venture unit, M12, resigned from his role on Wednesday, the company said. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nearly 10 years later, Tumblr TV launches to all as a TikTok alternative
In 2015, the blogging site Tumblr launched a GIF discovery feature called Tumblr TV as an experimental product. Now, with the U.S. TikTok ban leaving the fate of the short-form video app uncertain, Tumblr has decided it’s finally time to launch Tumblr TV, which has since evolved to support video, to all its users as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nearly 10 year later, Tumblr TV launches to all as a TikTok alternative
In 2015, the blogging site Tumblr launched a GIF discovery feature called Tumblr TV as an experimental product. Now, with the U.S. TikTok ban leaving the fate of the short-form video app uncertain, Tumblr has decided it’s finally time to launch Tumblr TV, which has since evolved to support video, to all its users as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Scale AI is facing a third worker lawsuit in about a month
In this suit, workers are claiming they suffered PTSD from disturbing content. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to delete Facebook, Instagram, and Threads
In the wake of Meta’s decision to remove its third-party fact-checking system and loosen content moderation policies, Google searches on how to delete Facebook, Instagram, and Threads have been on the rise. People who are angry with the decision accuse Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg of cozying up to the Trump administration at the expense of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rent-to-own startup Divvy Homes selling to Brookfield for about $1 billion
After a turbulent few years for proptech, Divvy Homes announced Wednesday that it is selling to a division of Brookfield Properties for about $1 billion. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI cracked when it hired Mustafa Suleyman, rival Marc Benioff says
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said that the two AI leaders, Sam Altman and Mustafa Suleyman do not care for each other. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AngelList, CoinList partner to help crypto startups raise and manage funds
Crypto is making such a big comeback that AngelList and CoinList are launching a way to help raise capital for crypto-specific founders using crypto coins. They are teaming up to launch Crypto special purpose vehicles (SPVs) and Crypto roll-up vehicles (RUVs), the companies shared with TechCrunch exclusively on Wednesday. The partnership, they said, will give […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung Unpacked: Samsung teased an extra-thin S25 model at Unpacked
Samsung Unpacked’s “one more thing” was a bit of a weird one. After the presentation ended, the company rolled a brief pre-packaged video of the Galaxy Edge — not to be confused with the “Star Wars” theme park of the same name. Though limited, the reveal was confirmation of earlier rumors that the hardware giant […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Researchers develop a way to power wearables through human skin
The dream of battery-free devices has taken an unlikely turn, as Carnegie Mellon researchers debuted Power-Over-Skin. The technology allows for electrical currents to travel through human skin in a bid to power things like blood sugar monitors, pacemakers, and even consumer wearables like smartglasses fitness trackers. Researchers note the tech is still in “early stages.” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung Unpacked: Samsung’s Galaxy S25 will support Content Credentials to identify AI-generated images
Another tidbit just dropped following Wednesday’s Samsung Unpacked event. This one comes courtesy of Adobe, which notes that the new Galaxy S25 line will be the first handsets to support the Content Credentials standard, aimed at labeling AI-generated content as such. The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) group — of which Samsung is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: OpenAI gains an invaluable infrastructure advantage
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. OpenAI is making gains at the expense of its chief rivals. On Tuesday, the company announced the Stargate Project, a new joint venture involving Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, Oracle, and others to build AI infrastructure for OpenAI in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Streaming service Plex gets more social with public profiles and reviews
Streaming service Plex has long since grown beyond its original focus of being a home for personal media to offer a more comprehensive solution for discovering, streaming, and sharing content across services, including Plex’s own ad-supported free TV and movies. More recently, the company added social networking features, which it’s today expanding with its rollout […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zombie nuclear reactors could be revived thanks to AI data center demand
Hoping to capitalize on the data center power boom, state-owned utility Santee Cooper is looking for partners to finish construction on two incomplete reactors. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung Unpacked 2025: Samsung Galaxy S25 line compared
Samsung revealed three new additions to its Galaxy smartphone line at Samsung Unpacked 2025 on Wednesday. The news didn’t bring too many surprises, as the line maintains its usual tiered system with the Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25+, and Galaxy S25 Ultra. The news finds the hardware in line with the rest of the mobile industry […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung Unpacked: Samsung’s Galaxy S25 arrives with a better Google Gemini
At Samsung’s Unpacked 2025 on Wednesday, the company unveiled the Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25+, and Galaxy S25 Ultra. Google marked the occasion with a slew of Android updates, including key updates to its AI assistant, Gemini. Starting Wednesday, users can access an improved Gemini, which integrates into apps and services across a device. In a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung Unpacked: Google makes Circle to Search more helpful
At Samsung Unpacked 2025 on Wednesday, Google announced that it’s updating Circle to Search to make it easier for users to find information and get things done. The feature, which launched last year, allows people to search from anywhere on their phone by using gestures like circling, highlighting, scribbling, or tapping. Now Google is expanding […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung Unpacked: The Samsung Galaxy S25’s side button fires up Google Gemini
A new day has dawned for the Samsung side button. At Samsung Unpacked 2025 on Wednesday, the company announced a small — but meaningful — tweak arriving on the Galaxy S25 line. As it continues to focus more efforts on mobile AI, Samsung is offering up easier access to Google Gemini, by way of the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung Unpacked 2025: Samsung’s AI-focused Galaxy S25 Ultra ships February 7 for $1,300
Samsung on Wednesday announced the latest additions to its Galaxy S flagship smartphone line at the company’s annual Samsung Unpacked 2025. As suspected, the defining characteristic of the Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra is the company’s continued focus on mobile AI — a fact that hardly distinguishes the consumer electronics giant from the rest […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung Galaxy S25 line compared
Samsung revealed three new additions to its Galaxy smartphone line at Samsung Unpacked 2025 on Wednesday. The news didn’t bring too many surprises, as the line maintains its usual tiered system with the Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25+, and Galaxy S25 Ultra. The news finds the hardware in line with the rest of the mobile industry […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung’s Galaxy S25 arrives with a better Google Gemini
At Samsung’s Unpacked 2025 on Wednesday, the company unveiled the Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25+, and Galaxy S25 Ultra. Google marked the occasion with a slew of Android updates, including key updates to its AI assistant, Gemini. Starting Wednesday, users can access an improved Gemini, which integrates into apps and services across a device. In a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google makes Circle to Search more helpful
At Samsung Unpacked 2025 on Wednesday, Google announced that it’s updating Circle to Search to make it easier for users to find information and get things done. The feature, which launched last year, allows people to search from anywhere on their phone by using gestures like circling, highlighting, scribbling, or tapping. Now Google is expanding […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung Unpacked 2025: Google is bringing improved hearing aid features
Alongside a slew of announcements tied to Samsung’s Galaxy S25 launch at Samsung Unpacked 2025 on Wednesday, Google announced a pair of accessibility improvements for Android. This includes improvements to the screen reader, along with hearing aid functionality. The hearing aid updates arrive after Google expanded the offering as part of its Android 15 rollout. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Samsung Galaxy S25’s side button fires up Google Gemini
A new day has dawned for the Samsung side button. At Samsung Unpacked 2025 on Wednesday, the company announced a small — but meaningful — tweak arriving on the Galaxy S25 line. As it continues to focus more efforts on mobile AI, Samsung is offering up easier access to Google Gemini, by way of the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung’s AI-focused Galaxy S25 Ultra ships February 7 for $1,300
Samsung on Wednesday announced the latest additions to its Galaxy S flagship smartphone line at the company’s annual Samsung Unpacked 2025. As suspected, the defining characteristic of the Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra is the company’s continued focus on mobile AI — a fact that hardly distinguishes the consumer electronics giant from the rest […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung’s SmartThings to introduce AI features that simplify your daily routines
On Wednesday, Samsung unveiled how SmartThings, its smart home platform, will introduce AI features that allow users to simplify their everyday life through ambient sensing technology and generative AI. At Samsung Unpacked 2025, the company said the upcoming “Home AI” features will gather insights from a user’s everyday life to create personalized experiences. Samsung shared […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk and Sam Altman take to social media to fight over Stargate
Billionaire Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are fighting on X about Stargate, the enormous infrastructure project to build data centers for OpenAI across the U.S. Stargate, announced Tuesday during a press conference at the White House, would funnel as much as $500 billion from investors including SoftBank and Middle East AI fund MGX […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung Unpacked 2025: Here’s how to watch and what we expect
The biggest reveal from CES press conference may well have been another press conference. The hardware giant closed out the main event by teasing the company’s upcoming show. The next Samsung Unpacked event is set for today at 10 a.m. PT, 1 p.m. ET. As with all recent Unpacked events, the big show will be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Livestream app Favorited, a new TikTok alternative, gets backing from a16z
This month, drama unfolded across mainstream social media platforms like TikTok, which briefly went dark in the U.S. before a rapid return. Instagram recently faced backlash after ending its third-party fact-checking program. At the same time, startups like Favorited are attracting attention from investors, creators, and viewers. On Wednesday, the livestream app announced its $1.3 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump administration fires members of cybersecurity review board in “horribly shortsighted” decision
The Department of Homeland security told members of the Cyber Safety Review Board that their membership was terminated. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Dewey launches a solution to save your TikTok favorites … just in case
TikTok is back online in the U.S. for the time being, but its future remains uncertain. While many apps have been scrambling to attract TikTok users and creators, a bookmarking backup service called Dewey has launched a solution that saves your favorite TikTok videos and allows you to access them at any time — even […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 tickets now on sale: Lowest rates ever
We’re kicking things off earlier than ever! TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 tickets are officially on sale. Don’t miss your chance to snag them at the lowest rates of the year! Immerse yourself in the epicenter of tech innovation at Disrupt 2025! From October 27–29, Moscone West in San Francisco transforms into the global hub for technology […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube launches speed controls and high-quality audio tests for Premium users
YouTube said Wednesday that it is adding new experimental features for Premium users, including high-quality audio, faster playback speed option on mobile, and the ability to “jump ahead” on the web to skip to the more intriguing part of the video. The company routinely tests new features that users can activate from youtube.com/new. The company said […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anthropic reportedly secures an additional $1B from Google
Anthropic has reportedly raised around $1 billion from Google as the AI company looks to deliver a number of major product updates this year. First reported by the Financial Times, Google’s fresh investment brings the tech giant’s total stake in Anthropic to around $3 billion. Google poured $2 billion into Anthropic late last year. Anthropic, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Conduent confirms outage was due to a cybersecurity incident
U.S. government contractor Conduent, which provides technology to support services such as child support and food assistance, has confirmed that a recent outage was caused by a cybersecurity incident. Conduent confirmed the disruption, which left some U.S. residents without access to support payments, to TechCrunch on Tuesday but declined to say whether the outage was […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI apps saw over $1 billion in consumer spending in 2024
Demand for generative AI help drive consumer spending on apps to $150 billion globally in 2024, up 13% from the prior year. According to an annual “State of Mobile” report from app intelligence provider Sensor Tower (which acquired Data.ai, the original report’s author, last March), AI apps saw a surge of interest over the past […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump open to Elon Musk or Larry Ellison buying TikTok
President Donald Trump has said he would be open to Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Oracle chairman Larry Ellison buying TikTok as part of join venture with the U.S. government. Trump was asked at a press conference on Tuesday if he was open to “Elon buying TikTok.” He responded that he would be, and added: […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Databricks closes $15.3B financing at $62B valuation, Meta joins as ‘strategic investor’
Data analytics platform Databricks has confirmed that it has closed a previously announced $10 billion in Series J equity financing at a $62 billion valuation. The San Francisco-based company also added a further $5.25 billion in debt financing, funded by JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, among other “leading financial institutions and alternative […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What PowerSchool isn’t saying about its ‘massive’ student data breach
The hack has the potential to be one of the biggest of the year, but the edtech giant is refusing to answer important questions © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Postman launches an AI agent builder on top of its API platform
Since it was founded in 2014, India-based Postman has made a name for itself as one of the most popular platforms for building and using APIs, with 500,000 organizations now using the service. Like with so many other SaaS services, though, its valuation today is reportedly down from its $5.6 billion high in 2021. But […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ramp encroaches into digital bank territory with new treasury product
Over the years, Ramp has built a name for itself in the corporate card and expense management space. It’s branched out into travel, bill pay, and more, while raising over $1.2 billion in venture funding. Today, the six-year-old fintech startup is announcing a different kind of expansion — one that takes it into more of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sales knowledge automation platform 1up gets a third of its customer leads from memes
When George Avetisov was the founder and CEO of cybersecurity startup HYPR, he spent a lot of time in the trenches with the company’s sales team. He quickly realized that regardless of how good his sales team was, they were consistently pulling in other departments to answer customer questions or fill out technical questionnaires. “They […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Doti gives enterprises a flexible AI-powered search experience to unlock their data silos
As enterprises look at how they can best leverage AI to increase their employees’ productivity, search is an obvious use case. In most companies, after all, data lives in multiple disconnected silos and the combination of large language models, retrieval augmented generation (RAG) and enterprise-grade integration services now makes it easier than ever to not […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lindus Health raises $55M to ‘fix the broken clinical trial industry’
A four-year-old London startup backed by Peter Thiel has raised a $55 million Series B round as it sets about “fixing the broken clinical trial industry.” The announcement comes as artificial intelligence is shaping up to revolutionize drug discovery and development, in turn spurring demand for a streamlined clinical trial process to help get new […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google hit with $12.6M fine in Indonesia for monopolistic practices in payment system
Indonesia’s antitrust agency KPPU fined Google 202.5 billion Rupiahs, equivalent to $12.6 million, on Wednesday for antitrust violation related to its payment system services for the Google Play Store. The KPPU ordered the search giant to cease the mandatory use of Google Play Billing in the Google Play Store. It also asked Google to let […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hindustan Unilever acquires Peak XV-backed Minimalist for over $340M
Hindustan Unilever has agreed to acquire beauty startup Minimalist for about $342 million, marking its latest push to expand in India’s fast-growing premium skincare market. The consumer goods giant will initially acquire a 90.5% stake in the four-year-old direct-to-consumer brand through secondary buyouts and primary investment, with the remaining 9.5% to be purchased from founders […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK appoints ex-Amazon executive Doug Gurr as interim chair of antitrust body
The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has a new interim chairman: former Amazon executive Doug Gurr (pictured above). The announcement comes as the U.K. seeks to position itself as a pro-growth, pro-tech nation by cutting red-tape and bureaucracy, with artificial intelligence (AI) taking center stage. The country is also nearing the end of a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Indian fintech Jar turns cash flow positive
Indian fintech Jar has turned cash flow positive, an executive at the Tiger Global-backed startup confirmed on Wednesday, as it gears up to deepen its offerings. The three-year-old startup, which offers its users the ability to start their savings and investment journey, achieved the milestone while still growing by more than 10 times last year, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Vertice raises $50M for its AI-powered SaaS spend platform
Vertice has made a name for itself over the years in the crowded world of expenditure management by focusing on applying AI to optimize an area where businesses are sinking hundreds of billions of dollars annually: software and cloud spend. The London-based startup’s business has grown 13x in the three years since its inception (similar […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Truecaller brings real-time caller ID to iPhone users
Truecaller for iOS has been updated with live caller ID support for its premium iPhone users. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump pardons Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht
President Trump on Tuesday pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the infamous dark web exchange Silk Road, which was best known as a once-thriving online marketplace for illegal drugs. Trump announced the news in a Truth Social post, saying the pardon was in honor of Ulbricht’s mother and the Libertarian movement. In 2015, a federal […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MrBeast is reportedly now among those trying to buy TikTok
An unlikely group, including Mr Beast and Bench acquirer Employer.com, has submitted a bid to buy TikTok. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg sanctioned by judge for allegedly deleting emails
A Delaware judge has sanctioned Sheryl Sandberg, Meta’s former COO and board member, for allegedly deleting emails related to the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal. The decision arises from a case Meta shareholders brought against Sandberg and another former Meta board member, Jeff Zients, late last year. The plaintiffs alleged that Sandberg and Zients used personal […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft is no longer OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider
Microsoft was once the exclusive provider of data center infrastructure for OpenAI to train and run its AI models. No longer. As part of Stargate, the company’s massive new infrastructure deal with SoftBank, Oracle, and others, Microsoft says that it has signed a new agreement with OpenAI that gives it “first right of refusal” on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI teams up with SoftBank and Oracle on $500B data center project
OpenAI says that it will team up with Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and with Oracle, along with others, to build multiple data centers for AI in the U.S. The joint venture, called The Stargate Project, will begin with a large data center project in Texas and eventually expand to other states. The companies expect to commit $100 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang has published an open letter lobbying Trump to invest in AI
Scale AI's CEO Alexandr Wang has five recommendations for President Trump to keep the US ahead of China on AI. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amperesand targets data centers as the next big customer for its solid-state transformers
Amperesand’s technology replaces the iron cores that define old transformers with silicon carbide. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Startup founders flooded inauguration parties hopeful for dealmaking
All throughout America’s capital, founders enjoyed the fruits of their industry’s political jockeying. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta is building Oakley smart glasses for athletes: report
Meta’s Reality Labs is expanding its lineup of AI smart glasses with a new pair of Oakley-branded spectacles targeted at athletes, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Bloomberg reports the new smart glasses, with which Meta seeks to capitalize on the Ray-Ban Meta’s success, will be based on Oakley’s Sphaera glasses, and will shift the camera […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity launches Sonar, an API for AI search
Perplexity on Tuesday launched an API service called Sonar, allowing enterprises and developers to build the startup’s generative AI search tools into their own applications. “While most generative AI features today have answers informed only by training data, this limits their capabilities,” Perplexity wrote in a blog post. “To optimize for factuality and authority, APIs […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump targets EV charging funding programs Tesla benefits from
President Donald Trump is trying to halt the flow of funding for EV charging infrastructure from two programs that Tesla has benefitted from — the latest example of how Elon Musk’s political interests seem to be at odds with his car company’s goal of advancing sustainable energy. It’s not a given that Trump’s gambit will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Govtech giant Conduent won’t rule out cyberattack as outage drags on
At least four states reported being affected by the outage, which Conduent says is ongoing. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify’s educational audio courses could be coming to US
Spotify is expanding its streaming service to now include educational courses in addition to music, podcasts, and audiobooks. The company on Tuesday referenced one of its newer features called courses, which allow users to learn about topics in areas like business, tech, lifestyle, music, and more. The feature is initially being piloted in the U.K., […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump moves to sink offshore wind
President Trump signed an executive order that halted federal leases for offshore wind development on the outer continental shelf. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta lures TikTok creators with $5K bonuses, content deals, free verification
Meta is luring TikTok creators over to its platforms with the promise of cash bonuses, content deals, and support to grow their communities. The company announced on Tuesday that eligible TikTok creators will be able to earn “up to” $5,000 in bonuses over three months for posting Reels on Facebook and Instagram. These creators will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Funding to fintechs continues to decline, but at a slower pace
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at just how much fintech startups raised in 2024, a slew of fundraising deals, Plaid’s reported revenue growth last year, and more! To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. PT, subscribe here. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Stripe is laying off 300 people, but says it still plans to hire in 2025
Fintech giant Stripe is laying off 300 people, according to a leaked memo reported on Tuesday by Business Insider. The affected employees are “largely in product, engineering, and operations roles,” the memo said. Despite the layoffs, Chief People Officer Rob McIntosh said that Stripe intends to still grow its headcount by 17% “to land at […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Forum software NodeBB joins the fediverse
Before there was social media, there were internet forums. Millions of forum sites continue to operate, which is why it’s notable that one top forum software provider, NodeBB, is now joining the fediverse, also known as the open social web. The fediverse today includes apps like decentralized X rival Mastodon, Instagram alternative Pixelfed, an open […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung Unpacked 2025: Here’s how to watch and what we expect
The biggest reveal from last week’s Samsung CES press conference may well have been another press conference. The hardware giant closed out the main event by teasing the company’s upcoming show. The next Samsung Unpacked event is set for Wednesday at 10 a.m. PT. As with all recent Unpacked events, next week’s big show will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta will soon let you link your WhatsApp account with Instagram and Facebook
Meta announced on Tuesday that users will soon be able to add their WhatsApp account to their Accounts Center, a hub where users can manage connected experiences across their Facebook, Instagram, and Meta Quest accounts. With this integration, users will be able to cross-post their WhatsApp Status as Stories on Instagram and Facebook, getting rid […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
IMDb founder steps down as CEO after 35 years
IMDb, the Amazon-owned online database that provides information on movies, TV shows, and celebrities, announced on Tuesday that its founder, Col Needham, is stepping down as CEO. Nikki Santoro, who has served as the Chief Operating Officer since 2021, has been appointed as his successor. Santoro’s appointment is significant, as she is the first woman […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anthropic plans to release a ‘two-way’ voice mode for Claude
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says that the company plans to release a “two-way” voice mode for its chatbot, Claude, as well as a memory feature that lets Claude remember more about users and past conversations. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Amodei also revealed that Anthropic expects to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK plans ‘digital wallet’ for driver’s licenses and other ID, plus a chatbot powered by OpenAI
Alongside its big public push for AI investments, the U.K. government is also playing a virtual card to catapult itself into the 21st century. Today it announced plans to launch a secure digital wallet to manage government-issued credentials, alongside a chatbot — built in collaboration with OpenAI — to interact with the main GOV.UK portal. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mistral AI plans IPO
French AI lab, Mistral, is working toward an initial public offering, co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Mistral is “not for sale,” Mensch said, adding that the company plans to open an office in Singapore to focus on the Asia-Pacific region and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Toronto school district says 40 years of student data stolen in PowerSchool breach
Canada’s largest school board says hackers may have accessed some 40 years’ worth of student data during the recent PowerSchool breach. In a letter sent to parents this week, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) said that the data breach affected all students enrolled in the district between September 1985 and December 2024. The school […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Qomodo raises $13.9M to expand BNPL for Italy’s main-street retailers
Payments and financial solutions are two-a-penny at this point, but mostly for online e-commerce. What about physical stores? In 2023 Qomodo, a Milan-based “all-in-one” payment methods aggregator for physical merchants, came out with a €34.5 million ($36.9 million) pre-seed round (mostly debt), which we covered, to expand the BNPL model into other categories. It’s now […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
HPE investigating security breach after hacker claims theft of sensitive data
A well-known hacker claims to have stolen source code and user data from the enterprise IT giant © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MoneyHash, which provides single access to payment services in MENA, banks $5.2M
When merchants or companies launch online, they typically start by partnering with one or two payment processors. But as they grow and expand into new regions, they often need to onboard additional payment partners to meet different customer (and sometimes regulatory) needs, a process that comes with some hurdles. That’s given rise to companies to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Karmen secures $9.4 million for its revenue-based financing products
French startup Karmen has secured a small funding round so that it can improve its instant financing products. The company offers short-term loans to small companies facing a working capital crunch. It’s a €9 million equity-and-debt round ($9.4 million at today’s exchange rates) with Seventure Partners buying a stake in the small startup. Financière Arbevel […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
President Trump signs exec order to make Musk’s DOGE commission more official
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an advisory commission spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk recommending deep cuts to federal agencies, could soon become more official, should an executive order signed by President Donald Trump pass legal muster. On Monday evening, Trump signed an order that renames the U.S. Digital Service, which was created in 2014 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump signs exec order delaying TikTok enforcement action for 75 days
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at restoring TikTok service in the U.S. The order instructs relevant government agencies to “pursue a resolution” that “protects national security” while “saving [TikTok.]” Via the order, Trump is instructing the U.S. Attorney General not to take any action for 75 days to enforce the Protecting Americans […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
President Trump repeals Biden’s AI executive order
During his first day in office, President Donald Trump revoked a 2023 executive order signed by former President Joe Biden that sought to reduce the potential risks AI poses to consumers, workers, and national security. Biden’s executive order directed the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to author guidance that helps companies […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK to unveil ‘Humphrey’ assistant for civil servants with other AI plans to cut bureaucracy
A week after the U.K. government announced a sweeping plan to make big investments into AI, it’s laying out more details around how this will take shape in the public sector. On the agenda: AI assistants to speed up public services; data sharing deals across siloed departments; and a new set of AI tools — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s agent tool may be nearing release
OpenAI may be close to releasing an AI tool that can take control of your PC and perform actions on your behalf. Tibor Blaho, a software engineer with a reputation for accurately leaking upcoming AI products, claims to have uncovered evidence of OpenAI’s long-rumored Operator tool. Publications including Bloomberg have previously reported on Operator, which […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Friend delays shipments of its AI companion pendant
Friend, a startup creating a $99, AI-powered necklace designed to be treated as a digital companion, has delayed its first batch of shipments until Q3. Friend had planned to ship devices to pre-order customers in Q1. But according to co-founder and CEO Avi Schiffman, that’s no longer feasible. “As much as I would liked to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US safety regulators expand Ford hands-free driving tech investigation
A U.S. federal safety regulator has “upgraded” its investigation into Ford’s hands-free advanced driver assistance system known as BlueCruise — a required step before a recall can be issued. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation launched a probe into Ford BlueCruise last April after the agency confirmed the system was active […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
At the Microsoft Excel World Championship, selfies and a ‘hype’ tunnel
An arena. A hype tunnel, the kind through which NBA players typically streak. A competitor dressed in a jersey patterned with a six-pack abs. In a new piece, The New York Times takes readers to an event that organizers call the Microsoft Excel World Championship, a 40-minute, Las Vegas-based competition featuring 12 contestants — all […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Flipboard’s new app Surf adds its own video feed, too
After the TikTok ban went into effect on Sunday, social network Bluesky launched a custom feed for videos on its platform. Now, Flipboard’s newest app, Surf, which is dedicated to browsing the open social web and decentralized services like Mastodon and Bluesky, is taking advantage of that move to introduce a video feed of its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DeepSeek claims its reasoning model beats OpenAI’s o1 on certain benchmarks
Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has released an open version of DeepSeek-R1, its so-called reasoning model, that it claims performs as well as OpenAI’s o1 on certain AI benchmarks. R1 is available from the AI dev platform Hugging Face under an MIT license, meaning it can be used commercially without restrictions. According to DeepSeek, R1 beats […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
RedNote, Flip, Clapper and Likee claim the top of the App Store as TikTok comes back online
TikTok may be back, but that hasn’t prevented other Chinese competitors from gaining users. In the lead up to a ban on TikTok — which kicked off Sunday and lasted a day — a number of other video apps rose through the ranks and now dominate the App Store’s Top Charts. The Chinese app RedNote […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta confirms it will keep fact-checkers outside the U.S. ‘for now’
Meta says it plans to keep its fact-checking program in place outside the U.S. for the time being, though it could eventually expand it elsewhere. “We’ll see how that goes as we move it out over the years,” Meta’s head of global business Nicola Mendelsohn told Bloomberg in a report from Davos on Monday. “So […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here are the types of AI companies enterprise VCs want to back in 2025
The AI startup market is sprawling, from companies looking to develop new chips, to those using AI to build robots, to others looking to use AI to create niche solutions for industry-specific workflows. There are a lot of potential areas for venture capitalists to invest in, but there are clearly a few subsectors they are […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI vision startup Metropolis is buying Oosto (formerly known as AnyVision) for just $125M, sources say
The general hype around all things AI is not lifting all boats: Certain startups continue to struggle and are looking for exits. In one of the latest developments, TechCrunch has learned from a reliable source that Metropolis, an AI-powered parking platform, is buying Oosto, the controversial computer vision company that used to be known as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Blinkit signals costly battle ahead in Indian quick commerce market
Zomato’s quick commerce unit Blinkit is accelerating its expansion and expects continued losses as competition intensifies in India’s instant delivery market. Blinkit now aims to reach 2,000 dark stores – small warehouses in residential areas that exclusively service online orders – by December 2025, a year ahead of its previous guidance, after exceeding 1,000 stores […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X is rolling out a dedicated vertical video feed for US users
Social network X is trying to capitalize on the removal of ByteDance apps like TikTok and Lemon8 from U.S. app stores by launching a dedicated vertical video feed. The company is adding a video tab in the app’s bottom bar for users in the U.S. to let them quickly access video content on the platform. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How African VC firm Oui Capital returned its first fund with Moniepoint’s unicorn exit
At a recent investor meeting, early-stage African investor Oui Capital informed limited partners that it had returned its $4 million debut fund following the sale of some shares in the business banking platform Moniepoint. The African fintech unicorn has so far proven to be a standout investment for five-year-old Oui Capital. When it launched its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky launches a custom feed for vertical videos
It is the product shipping time for all social networks with TikTok’s services in the restoration phase, and the app still unavailable in the App Store and the Play Store. Bluesky said Sunday that it is launching a custom feed for vertical video in its app. Users can see a trending videos section in the explore tab […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to stream Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day 2025
Donald Trump will take the presidential oath of office on Monday in front of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., once again. The event takes place at noon ET and is expected to attract considerable attention from both supporters and opponents. How to stream Trump’s inauguration You can watch the inauguration live with cable or […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
From recruiting for Palantir to landing a plane on Highway 85: meet defense tech’s wildest power broker
Peter Conway has recruited for some of the buzziest defense and hard tech firms in Silicon Valley over the last decade, like Palantir and Mach Industries. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI benchmarking organization criticized for waiting to disclose funding from OpenAI
An organization developing math benchmarks for AI didn’t disclose that it had received funding from OpenAI until relatively recently, drawing allegations of impropriety from some in the AI community. Epoch AI, a nonprofit primarily funded by Open Philanthropy, a research and grantmaking foundation, revealed on December 20 that OpenAI had supported the creation of FrontierMath. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Pentagon says AI is speeding up its ‘kill chain’
Leading AI developers, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, are threading a delicate needle to sell software to the United States military: make the Pentagon more efficient, without letting their AI kill people. Today, their tools are not being used as weapons, but AI is giving the Department of Defense a “significant advantage” in identifying, tracking, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta announces a new CapCut rival called Edits
Meta today announced a new video editing app called Edits, after ByteDance’s video editing app CapCut was removed from Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store as part of the TikTok ban. Instagram head Adam Mosseri (pictured above) said on Threads that the app will launch next month on iOS, with an Android version […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok is restoring service in the US
Barely more than 12 hours after TikTok went dark in the United States, the video-sharing app is coming back online. “In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service,” the company said in a statement. “We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok is restoring service in the US
Barely more than 12 hours after TikTok went dark in the United States, the video-sharing app is coming back online. “In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service,” the company said in a statement. “We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok goes dark in the US
TikTok has gone dark in the U.S., the result of a federal law that bans the popular short-form video app for millions of Americans — at least for now. TikTok users began receiving a message about the ban around 10:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturday evening, and the app also disappeared from the Apple and Google […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump says he will delay TikTok ban, suggests a joint venture with US ownership
TikTok went dark for users in the US on Saturday night, but it may not be gone for long. President-elect Donald Trump posted on Truth Social this morning that he will issuing an executive order Monday that will “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Employees of failed startups are at special risk of stolen personal data through old Google logins
As if losing your job when the startup you work for collapses isn’t bad enough, now a security researcher has found that employees at failed startups are at particular risk of having their data stolen. This ranges from their private Slack messages to Social Security numbers and, potentially, bank accounts. The researcher who discovered the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI isn’t very good at history, new paper finds
Top LLMs performed poorly on a high-level history test, a new paper has found. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple lists all apps it removed alongside TikTok in the U.S.
Amid the TikTok shutdown, in a rare move, Apple published a statement and a support document listing all affected apps that are inaccessible in the U.S. The iPhone maker typically doesn’t publish information for when it blocks apps. Notably, other ByteDance apps, including CapCut, Lemon8 — which surged in the last few months — and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok goes dark in the US
TikTok has gone dark in the U.S., the result of a federal law that bans the popular short-form video app for millions of Americans — at least for now. TikTok users began receiving a message about the ban around 10:30 p.m. Eastern. As of Saturday evening, the app was also no longer available in the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity AI submits bid to merge with TikTok
With a TikTok ban looming in the United States, Perplexity AI is the latest bidder hoping to give the video app a new corporate home. CNBC first reported on Perplexity’s interest. A source with knowledge of the offer confirmed to TechCrunch that Perplexity (whose CEO Aravind Srinivas is pictured above) has submitted a bid to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FTC says partnerships like Microsoft-OpenAI raise antitrust concerns
The Federal Trade Commission said in a staff report issued Friday that there are potential competitive issues in partnerships between big tech companies and generative AI developers — specifically, Microsoft’s backing of OpenAI and Amazon and Alphabet/Google’s partnerships with Anthropic. “The FTC’s report sheds light on how partnerships by big tech firms can create lock-in, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What we know about the TikTok ban
Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re looking at the impacts of the looming TikTok ban in the U.S., including the “TikTok refugees” moving to Chinese app RedNote, the surge of English speakers learning Mandarin on Duolingo, and more! Let’s get into it. The Supreme Court upheld the law that will effectively ban […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Once high-flying proptech startups Divvy Homes and EasyKnock are the latest to struggle
Many proptech startups, born and funded during the low-interest-rate heydays, are in the throes of struggle. With investments into U.S.-based real estate startups falling from $11.1 billion in 2021 to $3.7 billion last year, according to PitchBook data, some are selling themselves off, while others are closing shop. The two most recent examples are the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DOJ confirms arrested US Army soldier is linked to AT&T and Verizon hacks
The alleged hacker claimed to have access to huge amounts of call records, including VP Kamala Harris and President Trump. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok says it will go dark Sunday unless Biden offers ‘definitive statement’
It remains unclear whether TikTok will still be available in US app stores Sunday, with the company claiming that President Joe Biden’s outgoing administration needs to offer “definitive” assurances that it won’t enforce the ban. On Friday, the Supreme Court upheld a law that would effectively ban TikTok in the United States if the app’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How victims of PowerSchool’s data breach helped each other investigate ‘massive’ hack
School workers say they resorted to crowdsourcing help among each other following PowerSchool's breach, fueled by solidarity and the slow response from PowerSchool. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EV startup Canoo files for bankruptcy and ceases operations
Seven-year-old electric vehicle startup Canoo has filed for bankruptcy and will “cease operations immediately.” The company is liquidating its assets in a Chapter 7 proceeding in the Delaware Bankruptcy Court. The company said in a press release published late Friday that it was “in discussions with foreign sources of capital” that proved unsuccessful, and also […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon suspends US drone deliveries following crash at testing facility
Amazon has paused testing of its delivery drones following a crash involving two of its models, according to Bloomberg. It’s the latest setback for Amazon’s beleaguered Prime Air program, which aims to deliver around 500 million packages a year to customers by the end of the decade. Bloomberg reports two Amazon drones crashed in rainy […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT’s head of product will testify in the US government’s case against Google
The U.S. government has picked Nick Turley, ChatGPT's head of product, to testify in its antitrust case against Google. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Netradyne snags $90M at $1.35B valuation to expand smart dashcams for commercial fleets
Distracted driving is one of the leading causes of car accidents and a major reason why auto insurance premiums are expected to increase in 2025. For commercial fleets, that’s a nightmare. But for California-based startup Netradyne, it’s a tailwind. Netradyne provides fleet owners, including big names like Amazon, with AI-enabled dashcams that collect vehicle data […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity acquires Read.cv, a social media platform for professionals
Read.cv, a social media platform for professionals that competed with LinkedIn, has been acquired by AI-powered search engine Perplexity. As part of the deal, Read.cv will begin to wind down operations Friday. Users will be able to export their data, including their profiles, posts, and messages, until May 16. “We’ve long admired Perplexity and believe […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok ban: How to download your videos and data
The Supreme Court has upheld a ban on TikTok. Before the app goes dark on Sunday, you’re probably wondering how to back up the dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of videos you may have on the platform. Whether you want to save your favorite videos or videos you posted yourself, here’s how to do it. And […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI startup Character AI tests games on the web
Character AI, a startup that lets users chat with different AI-powered characters, is now testing games on its desktop and mobile web apps to increase engagement on its platform. The games are available to Character AI’s paid subscribers and a limited set of users on the free plan. For this initial release, the company developed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky saw 17x increase in moderation reports in 2024 after rapid growth
Bluesky on Friday published its moderation report for the past year, noting the sizable growth the social network experienced in 2024 and how that affected its Trust & Safety team’s workload. It also noted that the largest number of reports came from users reporting accounts or posts for harassment, trolling, or intolerance — an issue […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT’s newest feature lets users assign it traits like ‘chatty’ and ‘Gen Z’
Update: OpenAI officially announced this feature one week after some users reported the arrival, and then disappearance, of the new options. It’s possible they went live prematurely. OpenAI is introducing a new way for users to customize their interactions with ChatGPT, the company’s AI-powered chatbot. On Friday, OpenAI announced it is rolling out a new […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok CEO responds to Trump, thanks him for trying to solve US ban
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew responded to comments made by Donald Trump regarding Friday’s Supreme Court ruling to ban the app in the U.S. In a video posted on TikTok, Chew said, “On behalf of everyone at TikTok and all our users across the country, I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX and Blue Origin must investigate this week’s big rocket tests, FAA says
The Federal Aviation Administration is requiring Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to investigate what went wrong on their respective mega-rocket test flights this week. The regulator said both companies must perform what’s known as a “mishap investigation.” These probes involve the companies and the FAA working together to understand what went wrong, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI is trying to extend human life, with help from a longevity startup
OpenAI says it trained a new AI model called GPT-4b micro with Retro Biosciences, a longevity science startup trying to extend the human lifespan by 10 years, according to the MIT Technology Review. Retro, which is backed by Sam Altman, has been working with OpenAI for roughly a year on this research, according to the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon bought more renewable power last year than any other company
Amazon added around 100 new renewable projects last year. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As TikTok faces a US shutdown, here are some alternative apps to check out
TikTok has warned of a looming shutdown in just six days, as the Supreme Court is currently weighing the law that would ban the app. So we thought it’s time to take a look at other platforms that may be able to fill the TikTok-shaped hole in our lives. The law gives TikTok parent company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Big Tech expands its reach with new startup acquisitions and investments
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week’s newsletter is about startups, but it is also about Big Tech companies expanding their reach, both through acquisitions and through investments. Most interesting startup stories […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google begins requiring JavaScript for Google Search
Google says it has begun requiring users to turn on JavaScript, the widely-used programming language to make web pages interactive, in order to use Google Search. In an email to TechCrunch, a company spokesperson claimed that the change is intended to “better protect” Google Search against malicious activity, such as bots and spam, and to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Treasury sanctions Salt Typhoon hacking group behind breaches of major US telecom firms
The US government has also sanctioned the hacker responsible for December's US Treasury hack © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Malware stole internal PowerSchool passwords from engineer’s hacked computer
The theft of a PowerSchool engineer's passwords prior to the breach raises further doubts about the company's security practices. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd to reclaim CEO position in March
Bumble announced today that founder Whitney Wolfe Herd is returning as CEO after stepping down from the position in 2023. Wolfe Herd will succeed Lidiane Jones, the company’s current CEO who has left for “personal reasons,” Bumble explained. Jones, the former CEO of Slack, will continue her role at Bumble until the transition takes effect […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instagram Reels adds new features as TikTok is banned in the U.S.
Instagram announced a timely update to its video feature Reels this morning, alongside the news that the Supreme Court upheld the law that will ban TikTok in the U.S. on January 19. The update, says Meta, will make it easier for users to discover the content that friends and followers are liking on the platform […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump comments on TikTok ban: ‘stay tuned’
Just ahead of today’s Supreme Court ruling — which saw the nation’s highest court uphold the law banning TikTok in the U.S. as of January 19 — Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he had a “very good” phone call with China’s President Xi Jinping, which included discussion of TikTok. In addition, the president-elect […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump comments on TikTok ban
Just ahead of today’s Supreme Court ruling — which saw the nation’s highest court uphold the law banning TikTok in the U.S. as of January 19 — Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he had a “very good” phone call with China’s President Xi Jinping, which included discussion of TikTok. In addition, the president-elect […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump spoke to China’s President Xi about TikTok just ahead of Supreme Court ruling
Just ahead of today’s Supreme Court ruling — which saw the nation’s highest court uphold the law banning TikTok in the U.S. as of January 19 — Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he had a “very good” phone call with China’s President Xi Jinping, which included discussion of TikTok. Though the U.S. president-elect […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rivian finalizes $6.6B loan for its Georgia factory
Rivian and the Department of Energy have finalized a $6.6 billion loan announced in November with just a few days left until Donald Trump’s inauguration. The company will use the loan to help build out its planned factory in Georgia, east of Atlanta, with construction beginning in 2026. The first R2 SUVs are scheduled to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instabase raises $100M to help companies process unstructured document data
Instabase, a company that creates software for extracting processing unstructured data from myriad document types, has raised $100 million in a Series D round of funding. The announcement comes as companies struggle under a deluge of data — data that can unlock key business insights. Indeed, most of the data that companies generate is “unstructured,” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban
The Supreme Court has upheld the law that will effectively ban TikTok on Sunday, January 19. The decision marks the end of TikTok’s months-long legal fight against a law that essentially forces the ByteDance-owned app to shut down unless it divests its US operations. As of Sunday, it will be illegal for app stores and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ken Howery: the tech mogul at the center of Trump’s Greenland ambition
Surprise! Donald Trump’s big, audacious ambition to buy Greenland from Denmark has a tech angle. Ken Howery, named by U.S. President-elect Trump’s pick to be the next ambassador to the country (and thus chief broker of any deal), is one more part of the rich seam of tech people running through Trump’s upcoming administration. Part […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Europe orders Elon Musk’s X to submit documents on its recommendation algorithms
The European Commission (EC) says it has requested information from Elon Musk’s X related to the algorithms that determine the content it recommends to users. The EC wants to determine how those algorithms may or may not be compliant with the Digital Services Act (DSA), which imposes key obligations on online platforms operating across the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GM banned from sharing driving and location data with insurance companies
The order bans the automaker from selling consumers' information to data brokers for five years. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nord Security founders launch Nexos.ai to help enterprises take AI projects from pilot to production
A new AI orchestration startup from the founders of Lithuanian unicorn Nord Security is setting out to help enterprises put their AI projects into production, with an initial focus on bringing greater visibility, security and adaptability to large language models (LLMs). Nexos.ai, as the startup is called, is the handiwork of Tomas Okmanas (pictured above) […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple brings Store app to Indian market
Apple launched its dedicated Apple Store app in India on Friday, deepening its retail presence in the world’s most populous country as the iPhone-maker seeks to capitalize on growing consumer demand. The app, available for download on India’s App Store, lets customers purchase Apple products directly while receiving personalized shopping recommendations, the company said in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FAA had to divert flights because of SpaceX Starship explosion
The Federal Aviation Administration has told TechCrunch that it had to “briefly” slow and divert a number of aircraft near the area where debris was seen falling after SpaceX’s Starship exploded during a test flight Thursday. Multiple flights could be seen entering holding patterns or completely changing course in the airspace near Puerto Rico shortly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX catches Starship booster a second time, loses ship to an ‘anomaly’ in space
SpaceX caught the Starship rocket’s Super Heavy booster for a second time, after it launched the upper stage into space on Thursday during a seventh test flight of the system. Soon after the successful catch, SpaceX representatives reported the ship was lost after the company lost contact about eight and half minutes into the flight. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Despite VCs investing $75B in Q4 , it’s still hard for startups to raise money, data proves
After two years of relatively muted investment activity, it seems that VCs are starting to pour capital into startups at pandemic-era levels once again. But a closer look shows that they aren’t really. In the fourth quarter of last year, investors funneled $74.6 billion into U.S. startups, a substantial increase from the average of $42 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
New York powerhouse VC Insight Partners nabs another $12.5B after $8B in exits
Insight Partners closed another giant flagship fund after big returns in 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Failed fintech startup Bench racked up over $65 million in debt, documents reveal
Canadian Fintech Bench had over $65 million in debt but less than $3 million in cash, documents reveal. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple pauses AI notification summaries for news after generating false alerts
Apple is pausing AI notification summaries for news and entertainment apps after facing backlash for generating inaccurate news alerts. In addition, the company is introducing changes to notification summaries as a whole to allow for greater transparency. With the latest round of developer previews for iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS Sequoia 15.3, Apple is disabling […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads might let you add music to your posts in the future
Meta’s Threads is internally prototyping the ability to add music to posts, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The option to add music to posts is already available on Meta’s other social apps, Instagram and Facebook. It looks like the company is now thinking about bringing the feature to Threads, its X competitor. The feature isn’t […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump administration might give a boost to deep-sea mining for critical minerals
A string of nominees all previously said that they support the practice A string of nominees all previously said that they support the controversial practice. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Climate tech matured in 2024 as investors favored bigger rounds, later stages
Climate tech may have had a down year in 2024, but new data also shows a maturing sector with larger deal sizes. Venture investment in the climate tech sector was down 7% to $12.9 billion, $1 billion shy of 2023’s tally, according to data in a new PitchBook report. The report found that round size […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia releases more tools and guardrails to nudge enterprises to adopt AI agents
Nvidia is releasing three new NIM microservices, or small independent services that are part of larger applications, to help enterprises bring additional control and safety measures to their AI agents. One of these new NIM services targets content safety and works to prevent an AI agent from generating harmful or biased outputs. Another works to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mark Cuban is ready to fund a TikTok alternative built on Bluesky’s AT Protocol
Entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban is ready to fund a TikTok alternative built on Bluesky’s AT Protocol, he shared in a TikTok video posted on Wednesday. In anticipation of the coming U.S. TikTok ban, which will go through on Sunday unless paused by the Supreme Court, users have been fleeing to other video platforms, including […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A rising EV startup star snags $100M and Tesla’s win-lose federal funding moment
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Before we move into the news of this week, we have one more roundup of transportation tech at CES 2025. As I noted last week, autonomous vehicle […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trading platform eToro said to be eyeing $5B US IPO in 2025
Trading platform eToro has reportedly filed confidentially for a US IPO that could value the company at over $5 billion. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instagram Threads won’t share a timeline for account portability
Will Instagram Threads truly integrate with the fediverse, also known as the open social web, to allow its users not only to interact with people on other services like Twitter alternative Mastodon but also to move their account elsewhere if they decide that Meta’s policies are no longer to their liking? Today that answer remains […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok ban poised to be delayed as Trump explores ways to extend deadline
The U.S. ban on TikTok is poised to be delayed as the deadline falls on a holiday weekend and President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration intends to find a way to extend the deadline, Bloomberg reports. Biden officials sees the issue as one for Trump’s incoming administration, as the current administration doesn’t plan to intervene before the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon tells startups to reconsider going public
Goldman Sachs is one of the biggest investment banker “book runners” for IPOs – where banks are paid many millions of dollars for each listing they underwrite. Yet CEO David Solomon told attendees of the Cisco AI Summit in Palo Alto that startups should reconsider the idea of going public, reports the Financial Times. Solomon […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This MIT spinout wants to spool hair-thin fibers into patients’ brains
You can’t start a company without a healthy dose of daring, and that’s certainly the case with NeuroBionics. The MIT-spinout thinks it could one day improve the lives of millions of people who live with neurological conditions like depression, epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease. Famed investor Steve Jurvetson of Future Ventures said that if everything goes […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Symbotic set to take over Walmart’s robotics business
Walmart and Symbotic announced a deal Tuesday that would find the Massachusetts robotics firm taking control of the mega-retailer’s automation business. Symbotic is paying $200 million in cash for the program, plus up to $350 million in “additional contingent consideration,” depending on how the deal shakes out. The relationship is more partnership than straight acquisition, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anduril to build its billion-dollar weapons megafactory in Ohio
Today, Anduril announced it is building their massive weapons factory, Arsenal-1, in Columbus, Ohio, confirming TechCrunch’s earlier reporting. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Polestar digs in for another grim year
Volvo spinoff Polestar had a rough 2024, and 2025 looks like it could be just as difficult. The EV maker announced Thursday that it expects to generate less revenue in fiscal year 2024 than it did in 2023, after previously estimating sales would stay the same. That’s thanks to “fewer than expected Polestar 3 and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Netradyne snags $90M at $1.25B valuation to expand smart dashcams for commercial fleets
Distracted driving is one of the leading causes of car accidents and a major reason why auto insurance premiums are expected to increase in 2025. For commercial fleets, that’s a nightmare. But for California-based startup Netradyne, it’s a tailwind. Netradyne provides fleet owners, including big names like Amazon, with AI-enabled dashcams that collect vehicle data […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Teal Health raises $10M to create at-home cervical cancer screenings
The process of getting screened for cervical cancer is quite intimidating. It’s the once-a-year, sometimes life-changing treatment, that involves the bright lights of a doctor’s office and an uncomfortable insertion that always seems to last too long. It’s no wonder why Kara Egan and Dr. Avnesh Thakor saw the potential to make this process more […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok CEO plans to attend Trump inauguration
As TikTok’s fate hangs in the balance, TikTok CEO, Shou Chew, is planning to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, The New York Times reports. The executive will join Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk on the dais, which is where former presidents and important guests are traditionally seated. Although Trump initiated calls […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What is Bluesky? Everything to know about the X competitor
Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is most certainly bluer. It’s been two years since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now X, leading people to set up shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (two of which have already shuttered operations) and Spill have been presented as potential […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Clop ransomware gang names dozens of victims hit by Cleo mass-hack, but several firms dispute breaches
The Russia-linked ransomware group is threatening to leak data stolen from almost 60 Cleo Software customers if ransoms aren't paid © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nintendo teases Mario Kart as first Switch 2 title
A console is only as good as its games. While Nintendo didn’t reveal anything in the way of specs for the forthcoming Switch 2 platform, the gaming giant showed off what appears to be the first game confirmed for the hybrid platform: a new take on the racing classic, Mario Kart. After all, it wouldn’t […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nintendo unveils the Nintendo Switch 2
Nintendo shared the first images of the Nintendo Switch 2 in a video posted on YouTube. The successor to the widely popular game console will be simply called the Switch 2. As the name suggests, it shares the same design philosophy with a modular form factor. Right out of the gate, the video shows the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Dub.co is an open-source URL shortener and link attribution engine packed into one
In the last few weeks, PayPal-owned Honey, which claims to find you the best coupon codes for a deal, has been at the center of controversy. Allegedly, the tool sneakily earned affiliate money by changing attributes of product links creators posted on their videos. At the center of it, the problem was how affiliate links […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Blue Origin successfully launches New Glenn rocket into space
Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company Blue Origin launched its new mega-rocket, called New Glenn, into orbit for the first time. The rocket lifted off at 2:03AM ET on January 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and crossed the official boundary into space a few minutes later. Shortly after, a second-stage burn placed the rocket’s upper section into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mistral signs deal with AFP to offer up-to-date answers in Le Chat
Just a day after Google inked a deal with The Associated Press, Mistral is also announcing a content deal with the Agence France-Presse (AFP) to improve the accuracy of answers in Le Chat, Mistral’s chatbot product. This is the first deal of this kind for the Paris-based artificial intelligence company. And it indicates that Mistral […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Prepaid payments platform Recharge raises €45M to go on M&A spree
With inflation still stubbornly high in comparison to previous years, and the siren voices of subscription services like Netflix and Spotify continuing to lure, consumers have understandably turned to alternative forms of payment to manage their household bills. As a result, online prepaid payment platforms have benefited. That’s the bet being laid today by Recharge, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google strikes world’s largest biochar carbon removal deal with Indian startup Varaha
Google has agreed to purchase 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide removal credits from Indian startup Varaha. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hyperline secures $10 million for its automated billing platform
French startup Hyperline wants to build the next-generation Chargebee. Over the past two years, the startup has built a new billing platform that can be used for recurring subscriptions, one-off purchases, usage-based billing and more. Hyperline raised an initial €4 million funding round from Index Ventures back in 2023 ($4.1 million at today’s exchange rate). […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon to acquire Indian fintech Axio in credit push
Amazon has agreed to acquire Indian buy now pay later startup Axio, deepening its push into financial services in one of its fastest-growing markets as it seeks to expand credit access to millions of underserved customers. The US technology group, which has held an equity stake in Axio for six years, signed the acquisition agreement […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
In AI copyright case, Zuckerberg turns to YouTube for his defense
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears to have used YouTube’s battle to remove pirated content to defend his own company’s use of a data set containing copyrighted e-books, reveals newly released snippets of a deposition he gave late last year. The deposition, which was part of a complaint submitted to the court by plaintiffs’ attorneys, is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Chinese AI company MiniMax releases new models it claims are competitive with the industry’s best
Chinese firms continue to release AI models that rival the capabilities of systems developed by OpenAI and other U.S.-based AI companies. This week, MiniMax, an Alibaba- and Tencent-backed startup that has raised around $850 million in venture capital and is valued at more than $2.5 billion, debuted three new models: MiniMax-Text-01, MiniMax-VL-01, and T2A-01-HD. MiniMax-Text-01 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hindenburg Research, a short seller that targeted tech and EV companies, is closing up shop
When Hindenburg Research posts a blog on its website, it often means a company’s final days are near. Today, that company is Hindenburg Research. Nate Anderson announced Wednesday he has shut down short-selling firm Hindenburg Research, after a seven-year run issuing damning reports about high-profile companies, including many of the technology world’s giants and buzzy […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Reusable rocket startup Stoke raised another massive round: $260M
Y Combinator alum Stoke has an ambitious goal to build the first fully reusable rocket and VCs have opened their wallets wide. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Governments call for spyware regulations in UN Security Council meeting
Several governments participated in a meeting on the proliferation of commercial spyware at the United Nations Security Council. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As TikTok faces a US shutdown, here are some alternative apps to check out
TikTok has warned of a looming shutdown in just six days, as the Supreme Court is currently weighing the law that would ban the app. So we thought it’s time to take a look at other platforms that may be able to fill the TikTok-shaped hole in our lives. The law gives TikTok parent company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
More teens report using ChatGPT for schoolwork, despite the tech’s faults
Younger Gen Zers are embracing OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT, for schoolwork, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. But it’s not clear that they’re fully aware of the tech’s pitfalls. In a follow-up to its 2023 poll on ChatGPT usage among young people, Pew asked ~1,400 U.S.-based teens ages 13 to 17 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S25 on January 22 — here’s what we expect
The biggest reveal from last week’s Samsung CES press conference may well have been another press conference. The hardware giant closed out the main event by teasing the company’s upcoming show. The next Samsung Unpacked event is set for January 22 at 10 a.m. PT. As with all recent Unpackeds, next week’s big show will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Duolingo sees 216% spike in U.S. users learning Chinese amid TikTok ban and move to RedNote
TikTok U.S. users have been learning Chinese on Duolingo in increasing numbers amid their adoption of a Chinese social app called RedNote ahead of the TikTok ban. The U.S. law, scheduled to go into effect on January 19, unless halted by the Supreme Court, will see TikTok removed from U.S. app stores and will stop […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta adds 200 megawatts of solar to its 12 gigawatt renewable portfolio
The news comes as tech companies ramp up their AI ambitions, adding data centers at a breakneck pace and boosting demand for power. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These tech companies are donating to LA wildfire relief efforts
Numerous tech companies have pledged millions in donations to help LA recover from wildfires that caused widespread devastation and forced thousands to evacuate the region. Those offering aid include YouTube/Google, Meta, Snap, Amazon, Netflix, and Sony. Here’s an overview of what each company is doing to aid relief efforts in the region: YouTube and Google: […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Loft Orbital lands a fresh $170 million after logging over $500 million of bookings
Loft Orbital has raised $170 million in Series C funding to grow its satellite and space missions as a service. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok owner ByteDance powered an e-reader’s unhinged AI assistant
The AI embedded in a popular e-reader was spouting Chinese propaganda. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI is bankrolling Axios’ expansion into four new markets
OpenAI is getting into the local news game. Newsletter-based media organization Axios announced a partnership with OpenAI on Wednesday. As part of this three-year deal, the AI giant will fund Axios’ expansion of its local newsletters into four new cities: Pittsburgh; Kansas City, Missouri; Boulder, Colorado; and Huntsville, Alabama. While OpenAI has inked content-sharing and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla to split $100M award for electric truck charging corridor in Illinois
Tesla, along with three other industry partners, quietly backed an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency application that won $100 million in funding to build electric truck charging stations across the state, TechCrunch has learned. The award was the biggest given out by the Biden Administration’s Federal Highway Administration last week in the second round of what’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Biden administration adds 14 additional Chinese firms to trade blacklist
Days after pushing for sweeping AI chip export restriction, the Biden administration has added an additional 14 Chinese companies to its restricted trade list. This brings the full list up to 25 names, according to reporting from The Associate Press. Sophgo is, perhaps, the highest profile addition. An entity of Bitmain, the firm sparked international […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to stream Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day 2025
Donald Trump will take the presidential oath of office on Monday in front of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., once again. The event takes place at noon ET and is expected to attract considerable attention from both supporters and opponents. How to stream Trump’s inauguration You can watch the inauguration live with cable or […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI researcher François Chollet founds a new AI lab focused on AGI
François Chollet, an influential AI researcher, is launching a new startup that aims to build frontier AI systems with novel designs. The startup, Ndea, will consist of an AI research and science lab. It’s looking to “develop and operationalize” AGI. AGI, which stands for “artificial general intelligence,” typically refers to AI that can perform any […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump’s DOT pick wants EV owners to pay to use roads
Sean Duffy, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Department of Transportation, thinks owners of electric vehicles should pay to use roads. “How to do that, I think, is a little more challenging,” Duffy said at his confirmation hearing Wednesday before the Senate Commerce Committee. The former Republican lawmaker is correct that it would […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: Will Biden’s AI actions survive the Trump era?
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. This week was something of a swan song for the Biden administration. On Monday, the White House announced sweeping new restrictions on exporting AI chips — restrictions that tech giants, including Nvidia, loudly criticized. (Nvidia’s business […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky is getting its own photo-sharing app, Flashes
More good news for those looking to exit Meta’s social app ecosystem in favor of a more open alternative: An independent developer is building a photo-sharing app for Bluesky called Flashes. The soon-to-launch app is powered by the same technology that underpins Bluesky, the AT Protocol, and has been built using code from the developer’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google inks deal with The Associated Press to bring more real-time info to Gemini
In a bid to make its Gemini chatbot app more of one-stop shop, Google says it’s working with The Associated Press to build “a feed of real-time information” in Gemini. Jaffer Zaidi, Google’s VP of global news partnerships, said that the goal is to “further enhance the usefulness of results” in the Gemini experience. “As […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google raises the price of Workspace plans, includes its AI features for free
Google announced on Wednesday that all AI features in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Meet are now available to Workspace customers at no extra charge, though the plan will see a $2 per month increase per user. This change simplifies access to Workplace AI tools, including email summaries, automated note-taking, chatting with the Gemini bot, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Colossal Biosciences raises $200M at $10.2B valuation to bring back woolly mammoths
Colossal Biosciences wants to bring back the woolly mammoth and has raised $200 million at a $10.2 billion valuation to do it. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As Gen Z job applicants balloon, companies are turning to AI agent recruiters
According to some of the latest statistics, employers are swamped by job applications. In the UK alone, employers running graduate training schemes received an average of 140 applications for each job in 2024, 59 per cent more than in 2023, according to the Institute of Student Employers. And despite some trepidations amongst a few recruiters, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fast-growing South African venture FARO raises $6M to source, refurbish and sell surplus clothing
Global fashion brands grapple with excess inventory. ASOS, for instance, had over £1.2 billion of unsold products in 2022. Mostly, these brands avoid reselling in core markets like the UK and the U.S. to prevent market cannibalization. Meanwhile, emerging markets like Africa heavily rely on secondhand clothing imports, but 30% to 40% of these items […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI tests phone number-only ChatGPT signups
OpenAI has begun testing a feature that lets new ChatGPT users sign up with only a phone number — no email required. Thea addition was spotted by software engineer, Tibor Blaho. The feature is currently in beta in the U.S. and India. There are, however, some restrictions. Users who create an account using their number […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
PowerSchool data breach victims say hackers stole ‘all’ historical student and teacher data
A trove of information on current and former students and teachers was accessed during the December cyberattack, sources say © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rockfish is helping enterprises leverage synthetic data
For years, Vyas Sekar would call up Muckai Girish, an old friend from undergrad, to talk through potential startup ideas and get Girish’s opinion. The two usually talked through an idea and ended the conversation at that. When Sekar called Girish with an idea involving synthetic data in early 2022, the conversation didn’t just end […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LinkedIn adds free AI tools for job hunters and recruiters
If you’ve ever applied or thought of applying for a job via LinkedIn, you’ll know that the experience can be immediately disheartening: Openings that look interesting typically can see hundreds or thousands of applications in a matter of hours — data that LinkedIn, a social network for the world of work, proudly exposes in its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft’s newest Copilot plan for business is pay-as-you-go
Microsoft is launching a pay-as-you-go plan for corporate customers that bundles together several, but not all, of the company’s existing AI-powered productivity features for Microsoft 365. The new plan, Copilot Chat — not to be confused with Microsoft’s Copilot Business Chat or GitHub Copilot Chat — is underpinned by OpenAI’s GPT-4o AI model and lets […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UnitedHealth hid its Change Healthcare data breach notice for months
The ransomware attack on Change Healthcare affected over 100 million Americans, the health giant told regulators. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hinge’s new AI feature determines if your prompt response is too basic
Hinge today launched a new AI-powered feature called “Prompt Feedback,” which aims to improve your dating profile by analyzing how you answer prompts and assessing if it needs to be more specific or authentic. Powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o mini, Prompt Feedback evaluates each response and offers personalized advice tailored to help you share interesting details […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SoftBank veteran hunts for profits in payments infrastructure plumbing
Former SoftBank exec Akshay Naheta's startup, Distributed Technologies Research, is trying to bridge the gap between banking and blockchain tech. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Creator of Gas and tbh makes an app for disappearing photos via iMessage
Nikita Bier, creator of popular apps like the anonymous polling app tbh (acquired by Facebook) and the anonymous compliments app Gas (acquired by Discord), has created a new app called Explode, which focuses on disappearing messages on iMessage. Explode works as a mini app for Apple’s Messages app. It helps you send disappearing messages to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Synthesia snaps up $180M at a $2.1B valuation for its B2B AI video platform
As the world continues to work through how to handle the explosion of deepfake content online, it seems that not all AI-created videos are stirring controversy. Synthesia, a London startup building products around highly realistic AI avatar technology, says it’s a big hit with enterprises, with some 60,000 of them — 1 million users — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nelly raises $51 million to digitalize medical practices across Europe
Nelly wants to become the biggest fintech startup in the healthcare industry. The Berlin-based startup is already working with more than 1,200 medical practices in a handful of European countries. But there are thousands more that could benefit from an upgrade for their administrative workflows. That’s why Nelly recently raised €50 million in funding (around […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SEC sues Elon Musk for allegedly failing to disclose Twitter acquisition on time
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk on Tuesday over an alleged securities violation relating to his acquisition of Twitter, now called X. The SEC claims Musk failed to disclose his 5% ownership stake of Twitter in a timely manner, violating federal securities law, according to a complaint filed in federal […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia backs MetAI, a Taiwanese startup that creates AI-powered digital twins
Nvidia has been doubling down on the opportunity to build robotics and other industrial AI applications, with the launch of its Omniverse platform, and most recently Mega, an Omniverse Blueprint framework to create digital twins to operate these applications. It’s also investing in digital twin startups to get the effort off the ground. Taiwan’s MetAI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Accel doubles down on Sarla Aviation’s ambition to develop electric air taxis in India
Accel has backed Indian startup Sarla Aviation for its aim to develop flying taxis for mass mobility in the country. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk tweets so much, people bet over $1M weekly to guess how many posts
Will Elon Musk post more than 400 tweets this week? With Polymarket, this to be one of the silliest ways people spend their money on the internet. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Biden admin’s final rule banning Chinese connected cars also bars robotaxi testing on U.S. roads
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced a final rule Tuesday that would ban the sale or import of connected vehicles from China and Russia due to national security concerns. The rule would also bar Chinese car companies, such as WeRide and Pony AI, from testing self-driving cars on U.S. roads. “China is trying to dominate […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 was a big year for OpenAI, from its partnership […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nintendo Switch 2 could be announced this week: The rumors (and facts) so far
With CES 2025 finally in the rearview, it’s time to move on to the next round of big hardware announcements. Rumors have emerged over the last few weeks, pointing to an imminent announcement for the next-generation of Nintendo’s wildly successful hybrid Switch console. In particular, word from industry stalwart Eurogamer (among others) pegs a January […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Intel spins off its corporate venture arm, Intel Capital, into a standalone fund
Intel says that it plans to spin off its corporate venture arm, Intel Capital, into a standalone fund, with Intel as an “anchor investor.” In a press release on Tuesday, Intel said that the move will “[enable] greater autonomy” and “the flexibility to attract external capital.” Intel expects Intel Capital to begin operating independently in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta execs obsessed over beating OpenAI’s GPT-4 internally, court filings reveal
Executives and researchers leading Meta’s AI efforts obsessed over beating OpenAI’s GPT-4 model while developing Llama 3, according to internal messages unsealed by a court on Tuesday in one of the company’s ongoing AI copyright cases, Kadrey v. Meta. “Honestly… Our goal needs to be GPT-4,” said Meta’s VP of Generative AI, Ahmad Al-Dahle, in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hackers are exploiting a new Fortinet firewall bug to breach company networks
Security researchers say "tens" of Fortinet devices have been compromised so far as part of the weeks-long hacking campaign. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google’s NotebookLM had to teach its AI podcast hosts not to act annoyed at humans
NotebookLM's viral AI podcast hosts sounded annoyed at human callers and required "friendliness tuning," Google says. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Flights delayed by SpaceX’s falling rocket debris
Qantas has been forced to delay several flights to South Africa due to last minute warnings about SpaceX rocket debris falling from the sky. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google-backed Pixxel launches India’s first private satellite constellation
Pixxel, an Indian space tech startup backed by Google, has successfully launched the first three hyperspectral satellites of its commercial constellation Firefly. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DJI Flip is a $439, fully foldable camera drone
Four short months after introducing the truly palm-size Neo, DJI is back with another pint-sized consumer drone. The Flip continues the drone giant’s interest in foldable form factors, with a quartet of propeller guards that essentially stack up, for maximum portability. The new Flip continues to blur the lines in DJI’s existing consumer portfolio, combing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI appoints BlackRock exec to its board
OpenAI has appointed an executive at investment firm BlackRock to its board of directors. Adebayo “Bayo” Ogunlesi, a senior managing director at BlackRock and CEO of Global Infrastructure Partners, an infrastructure investing platform, has joined OpenAI’s board, OpenAI announced on Tuesday. In a statement, OpenAI board chairman Bret Taylor said that Ogunlesi has “an exceptional […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Substack rolls out livestreaming for all publishers
After testing live video features in the fall, newsletter platform Substack announced on Tuesday that it is now making livestreaming available to all publishers. This new feature allows creators to engage with their viewers and collaborate with other publishers. The introduction of livestreaming indicates that Substack is following in the footsteps of other platforms like […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok users’ attempted migration to Chinese app RedNote isn’t going too well
American TikTok users have been thumbing their collective noses at the U.S. government’s decision to ban TikTok by spitefully joining another Chinese social media app, Red Note (aka Xiaohongshu), sending it to the top of the U.S. App Store on Monday. Unfortunately, many of those who already made the transition have faced problems with having […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CBRE buys remainder of co-working company Industrious at an $800M valuation
Real estate giant CBRE announced Tuesday that it is acquiring the rest of co-working startup Industrious, in which it already had a sizable investment, at a valuation of over $800 million. Founded in 2013, New York-based Industrious raised a total of $522 million in funding from investors including Riverwood Capital and Fifth Wall Ventures. Its last […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Biden administration opens up federal land to AI data centers
With less than a week left in office, President Joe Biden is not done leaving his mark on the AI industry. President Biden issued an executive order on Tuesday that will allow private sector AI companies to lease federal sites owned by the Department of Defense and Department of Energy in order to build AI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why some former Bench customers are not happy
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at the latest with embattled fintech Bench, Robinhood’s $45 million settlement, a couple of M&A deals, some cool fundraises, and more. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. PT, subscribe here. The big […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT now lets you schedule reminders and recurring tasks
Paying users of OpenAI’s ChatGPT can now ask the AI assistant to schedule reminders or recurring requests. The new beta feature, called tasks, will start rolling out to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users around the globe this week. With tasks, users can set simple reminders with ChatGPT such as, “Remind me when my passport […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 and 2025 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta to cut roughly 5% of its workforce based on performance
Meta is reducing its workforce by about 5% through performance-based terminations, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The company plans to hire new people to fill the roles, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an internal memo to staff. “I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” Zuckerberg said in the note. “We […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple joins consortium to help develop next-gen AI data center tech
Apple has joined a consortium creating next-gen technology to link together chips in AI data centers. The consortium, the Ultra Accelerator Link Consortium, is developing a standard called UALink, which connects the AI accelerator chips found within a growing number of server farms. As of Tuesday, Apple is a member of the consortium’s board, along […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A 24-year-old who exited his first company to Coinbase raises $3M for his next venture
At 24 years old, Pryce Yebesi already has one exit: selling his crypto invoicing company Utopia Labs to Coinbase for an undisclosed amount. Some founders don’t just have one company in them. On Monday, Yebesi announced the launch of his new company, Open Ledger, which embeds automated accounting software into products that enterprises and small […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WhatsApp is adding a way to turn selfies into stickers
WhatsApp is adding new features including creating new stickers from selfies, sharing sticker packs, and adding new camera effects. Stickers and camera effects are good engagement ploys to keep users interacting with their contacts. The chat app added the ability to create custom stickers from photos last year. Now, the company is adding an option […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI quietly revises policy doc to remove reference to ‘politically unbiased’ AI
OpenAI has quietly removed language endorsing “politically unbiased” AI from one of its recently published policy documents. In the original draft of its “economic blueprint” for the AI industry in the U.S., OpenAI said that AI models “should aim to be politically unbiased by default.” A new draft, made available Monday, deletes that phrasing. When […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
With $30 million in new funding, SEEQC thinks chips are key to building useful quantum computing
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang may have said that “very useful quantum computers” are probably still 20 years away, but his company is also hedging its bets beyond classical chips with investments and partnerships in that very space. Now one of the companies that Nvidia partners with in quantum development is announcing funding. SEEQC, a quantum […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Data center power demand will double over the next five years
Data centers are expected to continue growing at a breakneck pace, doubling their power demand by 2029, according to a new report from JLL. The industry’s expansion, fueled by the rapid growth of AI alongside the continued expansion of cloud-based services, is testing the limits of the energy sector. Some experts think that half of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Aurora takes feds to court over safety rules as it nears self-driving truck launch
Aurora Innovation is taking federal safety regulators to court in a case that could have far-reaching implications for self-driving truck companies operating in a regulatory environment designed around humans. The fight centers around the rather commonplace practice of placing physical warning triangles around semi trucks stopped along highways. The court denied Aurora’s request to be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DOJ confirms FBI operation that mass-deleted Chinese malware from thousands of US computers
The FBI says it was authorized to mass-remove “PlugX” malware from more than 4,000 compromised machines in the United States © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EV startup Harbinger’s obsession with simplicity fuels $100M Series B
It’s not an easy time to raise money for an electric vehicle startup, especially given how many have failed or are close to failing. But Los Angeles-based Harbinger has pulled it off by taking an hyper-focused approach to electrifying commercial trucking. The reward is a $100 million Series B, co-led by early Tesla investor Capricorn […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Decentralized Instagram alternative Pixelfed launches mobile apps
Pixelfed, a decentralized alternative to Instagram, has launched its official mobile apps. The service today runs on the same ActivityPub protocol that powers an open source X alternative Mastodon, a YouTube competitor PeerTube, and other decentralized social apps, now including Meta’s Threads and Flipboard (plus its newer app, Surf), that are part of a growing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Massachusetts senator seeks to extend deadline for TikTok ban
Senatory Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is planning to introduce legislation to extend the TikTok ban deadline by 270 days. TikTok has warned of a looming shutdown in just five days, but the new legislation, officially called the Extend the TikTok Deadline Act, would give TikTok more time to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance, if approved by Congress. TikTok […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s AI reasoning model ‘thinks’ in Chinese sometimes and no one really knows why
Shortly after OpenAI released o1, its first “reasoning” AI model, people began noting a curious phenomenon. The model would sometimes begin “thinking” in Chinese, Persian, or some other language — even when asked a question in English. Given a problem to sort out — e.g. “How many R’s are in the word ‘strawberry?'” — o1 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Boardy AI raises $8M seed round months after closing pre-seed
Months after announcing a $3 million pre-seed, the AI networking startup Boardy is back with an $8 million seed announcement led by Creandum. The company connects users with other people when they call an AI agent who chats with them for a bit and then connects them with others it thinks they ought to know. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Kayak founder returns with Steppin, an app that locks you out of social media until you go for a walk
App stores are filled with different services that are designed to help you cut down on your screen time and count your steps. A new iOS app called Steppin combines these two ideas to help users do both at the same time to bridge the gap between physical and mental health. Steppin blocks your social […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Thoras helps companies reach reliability without overspending on cloud costs
For years, twin sisters Nilo Rahmani and Jen Rahmani swapped stories — and commiserated — over the pain points they were facing in their respective engineering jobs. Nilo told TechCrunch that a frequent topic of conversation was about frustrations over the reliability platforms they were using at work. When they noticed the reliability landscape starting […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS pledges to spend $5B in Mexico, launches new Mexico server region
In an announcement Tuesday, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing division, said it plans to invest $5 billion in Mexico over the next 15 years as a part of a “long-term commitment” in the region. A portion of that investment is a new server region launching today, AWS Mexico (Central) Region, that will allow […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Powerset gives founders $1 million to invest in other startups
Powerset, founded in late 2022, is an investment program with a simple hypothesis: what if the best investors aren’t venture capitalists but other founders, scribbling off checks in between late night coding sessions and board meetings? © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
North Korea stole over $659M in crypto heists during 2024, deploys fake job seekers
A joint international statement provides the first official confirmation that North Korea was behind the $235M hack of WazirX, India's largest cryptocurrency exchange. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK plans to ban public sector organizations from paying ransomware hackers
The Home Office has proposed a 'targeted ban' on ransom payments following a wave a cyberattacks targeting the UK © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Venture funding remains stable in France thanks to AI startups
Alex Dewez, a partner at 20VC, just released its highly anticipated State of the French tech ecosystem report. This is a nice followup to Atomico’s State of European Tech report, with a more granular view on French startups in particular. As a reminder, the bottom line of Atomico’s report is that European startups raised $45 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK’s CMA slaps Google Search and its 90%+ market share with an antitrust investigation
The Competition and Markets Authority — the U.K.’s antitrust watchdog — is wasting no time in lodging its first official investigation of 2025 under its new rules that came into effect this month. It’s looking into the market dominance of Google in Search, including the new work it’s doing in AI search as well as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bioptimus raises $41M to develop a ‘GPT for biology’
A fledgling French AI startup has raised $41 million to develop a foundational AI model for biology. Just as OpenAI’s ChatGPT has taken the world by storm for a super-smart generative AI tool capable of natural language conversation in text form, Bioptimus is taking that concept but training its model specifically for downstream biological applications […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LemFi moves remittances further into Asia and Europe with $53M in new funding
For many emerging market economies, remittances have become a lifeline. Inflows surpassed $669 billion in 2023, according to World Bank research, and they now represent significant portions of GDP in these countries, often outpacing foreign direct investment as the primary source of foreign exchange. Traditional banks and agents maintain a firm grip on the remittance […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How Barcelona became an unlikely hub for spyware startups
Barcelona's mix of affordable cost of living and quality of life has helped create a vibrant startup community — and become a hotbed for the creation of surveillance technologies. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
China is reportedly open to Elon Musk acquiring TikTok US
Chinese government officials have reportedly discussed a scenario where ByteDance sells TikTok’s United States arm to Elon Musk, should the Supreme Court uphold the law banning the app on January 19. Bloomberg reports that China would strongly prefer for TikTok to stay under ByteDance’s ownership, but says government officials have considered a sale to Musk […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As TikTok faces a US shutdown, here are some alternative apps to check out
TikTok has warned of a looming shutdown in just six days, as the Supreme Court is currently weighing the law that would ban the app. So we thought it’s time to take a look at other platforms that may be able to fill the TikTok-shaped hole in our lives. The law gives TikTok parent company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Robinhood agrees to pay $45M in SEC settlement
Robinhood has agreed to fork out $45 million to settle an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission over several alleged violations, reported the Wall Street Journal on Monday. The settlement is being made via two of Robinhood’s brokerage units. One of the violations relates to Robinhood’s November 2021 confirmation that it was hacked “with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft forms new internal dev-focused AI org
Microsoft has created a new engineering organization aimed at accelerating AI infrastructure and software development within the company. According to Bloomberg, Jay Parikh, previously VP and global head of engineering at Meta, will lead the new division. He’ll report to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and oversee groups, including the company’s AI platform and developer teams. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The CIA’s first CTO, Nand Mulchandani, prepares for the Trump administration
In April 2022, the CIA decided to swipe right on Nand Mulchandani, appointing him as its first-ever Chief Technology Officer. It was a good look for the CIA. Mulchandani, who previously served as the CTO and acting director of the Defense Department’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, is something of a rare breed in Washington. Before […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI presents its preferred version of AI regulation in a new ‘blueprint’
OpenAI on Monday published what it’s calling an “economic blueprint” for AI: a living document that lays out policies the company thinks it can build on with the U.S. government and its allies. The blueprint, which includes a forward from Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s VP of global affairs, asserts that the U.S. must act to attract […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are slamming Meta over its fact-checking policy
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have joined the ranks of those displeased with Meta’s changes to fact-checking and have released a statement saying that the changes “directly underminds free speech.” “Meta’s changes to its ‘Hateful Content Policies’ do not protect free expression but instead foster an environment where abuse and hate speech silence and threaten […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Top New York VC Ben Lerer says more mid-sized VC firms are heading for failure
Ben Lerer, managing partner of one of New York’s most prestigious seed-stage venture firms, Lerer Hippeau, shared some predictions with Fortune’s Leo Schwartz. He believes venture firms will continue to see a bifurcation as money pours mostly into top funds like Thrive and a16z, as well as into smaller more bespoke funds. “Where you go […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The first AI chip startup to go public in 2025 will be Blaize
Blaize, an AI chip manufacturer founded by former Intel engineers, is set to IPO on the NASDAQ on January 14. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Free Our Feeds’ campaign aims to billionaire-proof Bluesky’s tech
As Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg continue to reshape the social media space, a group of international tech entrepreneurs and advocates has launched a campaign to protect social media from the control and influence of billionaires. The initiative, Free Our Feeds, aims to protect Bluesky’s underlying technology, the AT Protocol, and leverage it to create […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A new campaign aims to safeguard social media from billionaires using Bluesky’s underlying tech
As Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg continue to reshape the social media space, a group of international tech entrepreneurs and advocates has launched a campaign to protect social media from the control and influence of billionaires. The initiative, Free Our Feeds, aims to protect Bluesky’s underlying technology, the AT Protocol, and leverage it to create […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Raspberry AI raises $24M from a16z to accelerate fashion design
The world of fashion is moving at a faster pace each year. Most retailers introduce new styles each season, and fast-fashion companies like Shein, H&M and Zara update their collections continuously. To keep pace with the rapid demand for new styles, brands and manufacturers have been turning to tech to accelerate their design process. Raspberry […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A 24-year-old who exited his first company to Coinbase, raises $3M for his next venture
At 24 years old, Pryce Yebesi already has one exit: selling his crypto invoicing company Utopia Labs to Coinbase for an undisclosed amount. Some founders don’t just have one company in them. On Monday, Yebesi announced the launch of his new company, OpenLedger, which embeds automated accounting software into products enterprises and small businesses already […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Clearwater agrees to buy investment management platform Enfusion for $1.5B
Clearwater Analytics, a company developing accounting, compliance, and risk reporting tools for asset managers, said on Monday it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire investment management platform Enfusion for $1.5 billion. Clearwater, which says it has obtained an $800 million loan to fund the transaction, along with a $200 million revolving line of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Biden administration proposes sweeping new restrictions on exporting AI chips
With a week left in office, President Joe Biden introduced a new set of guidelines and restrictions for exporting U.S.-made AI chips. On Monday the administration announced its Interim Final Rule on AI diffusion. This ruling is meant to “provide clarity to allied and partner nations about how they can benefit from AI” and streamline […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Biden admin snubs Tesla’s $100 million big-rig charging funding request — again
The Department of Transportation announced Friday another $636 million in funding that will be awarded to 49 applicants for electric vehicle charging infrastructure — and Tesla’s application for nearly $100 million to fund a big rig charging corridor was once again passed over. Tesla’s name was not among the list of recipients released, and its partner […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Xiaohongshu, China’s answer to Instagram, hits no. 1 on the App Store as TikTok faces US shutdown
On the heels of TikTok’s looming shut down on January 19 over its ownership in the U.S. (unless the Supreme Court intervenes), it looks like another Chinese app is catching some attention. American users are flocking Chinese short-form video app Xiaohongshu (known as RedNote in English). The app today surged to the number-one spot for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Blue Origin delays launch of New Glenn mega-rocket
Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin postponed the inaugural launch of its first orbital rocket, New Glenn, early Monday morning after experiencing an unspecified issue with one of the vehicle’s subsystems. While delays like this happen all the time in spaceflight, this one once again puts the timing of the much-anticipated launch in question. According […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Moody’s agrees to acquire Cape Analytics, which develops geospatial AI for insurance providers
Financial services firm Moody’s announced on Monday that it has agreed to acquire Cape Analytics, a geospatial AI startup, for an undisclosed sum. The deal, which is expected to close in Q1, subject to customary closing conditions, will give Moody’s access to Cape’s geospatial AI analytics technology for insurance underwriting. With the tech, Moody’s plans […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
eBay acquires Caramel to reduce risk and complexity of online car sales
E-commerce giant eBay has announced plans to acquire Caramel, a startup that helps car sellers and buyers complete the final steps of the transaction — including verification, financing, paperwork, ownership transfer, insurance, and more. As eBay has grown through the years, it has had to evolve to remain competitive — last year, for instance, the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sonos CEO Patrick Spence is leaving following bungled app update
Speaker manufacturer Sonos is seeing some significant changes. Patrick Spence, the company’s chief executive officer (pictured above), is leaving the company after eight years in the job. Tom Conrad, the co-founder of Pandora and a Sonos board member, is stepping in as interim CEO starting today. Last year was complicated for the speaker manufacturer. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Float Financial, which aims to be the Brex of Canada, lands US$48.5M Series B
Float Financial, an expense management and corporate card startup focused on the Canadian market, has raised $48.5 million in a Series B funding round. The Toronto-based fintech likens itself to U.S.-based fintech giants Brex and Ramp but says it is different in that its sole focus is on Canadian SMBs, which CEO and co-founder Rob […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A breach of a data broker’s trove of location data threatens the privacy of millions
The company confirmed the breach after a hacker posted millions of location data records online. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK domain giant Nominet confirms cybersecurity incident linked to Ivanti VPN hacks
Nominet, the U.K. domain registry that maintains .co.uk domains, has experienced a cybersecurity incident that it confirmed is linked to the recent exploitation of a new Ivanti VPN vulnerability. In an email to customers, seen by TechCrunch, Nominet warned of an “ongoing security incident” under investigation. Nominet said hackers accessed its systems via “third-party VPN […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
More money comes to AI healthcare: Qventus nabs $105M at a $400M+ valuation
Healthcare is proving to be one of the more lucrative industries when it comes to building AI solutions to speed up how work is carried out across clinical, research and administrative operations. Today comes one of the latest examples of how that is playing out in terms of venture funding. Qventus, a startup that builds […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CoreWeave’s first international data centers are now live in the UK
Coreweave, the $19 billion cloud computing company that provides companies with AI compute resources, has formally opened its first two data centers in the U.K. — its first outside its domestic U.S. market. CoreWeave opened its European headquarters in London last May, shortly after hitting a $19 billion valuation off the back of a $1.1. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mastodon announces transition to non-profit structure
Decentralized social network organization Mastodon said Monday that it is planning to create a new non-profit organization in Europe and hand over ownership of entities responsible for key Mastodon ecosystem and platform components. This means one person won’t have control over the entire project. The organization is trying to differentiate itself from social networks controlled […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mastodon announces transition to nonprofit structure
Decentralized social network organization Mastodon said Monday that it is planning to create a new nonprofit organization in Europe and hand over ownership of entities responsible for key Mastodon ecosystem and platform components. This means one person won’t have control over the entire project. The organization is trying to differentiate itself from social networks controlled […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK throws its hat into the AI fire
In 2023, the U.K. made a big song and dance about the need to consider the harms of AI, giving itself a leading role in the wider conversation around AI safety. Now, it’s whistling a very different tune: today, the government announced a sweeping plan and a big bet on AI investments to develop what […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Groww, India’s biggest trading app, prepares for IPO
Groww, India’s largest retail stockbroker, is positioning itself to file for an IPO in 10-12 months and is seeking a valuation between $6 billion to $8 billion, sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch, in what would be a landmark listing for the country’s fintech sector. The Bengaluru-headquartered’s listing would be the first IPO by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK in-home healthcare provider Cera raises $150M to expand its AI platform
Around the world, public healthcare systems have struggled to reset post-pandemic, and in particular, the increasingly aged populations in Western countries are putting pressure on services, not least in the UK where ‘NHS in crisis’ is a regular headline in the media. As a result, private companies, many powered with technology, see a gap in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Watch Duty was downloaded 2 million times during this week’s LA fires
Fire-tracking app Watch Duty has become a crucial source of information for Los Angeles residents threatened by the ongoing wildfires. As TechCrunch’s Maxwell Zeff explained, the app relies on a network of active and retired firefighters, first responders, official government reports, and volunteer reporters who monitor radio scanners to offer real-time updates on active wildfires. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CES 2025: Self-driving cars were everywhere, plus other transportation tech trends
Even before CES 2025 kicked off a few trends began to emerge — or more accurately, some gaps appeared. All U.S. and some European automakers that have helped turn CES into an auto show were absent. Several Chinese automakers filled that void, notably Zeekr, the EV brand owned by China’s Geely Holdings. Wey, a premium […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here are the five best pieces of founder advice I learned as a host of Found
After more than two years — and nearly 100 episodes — as a host of TechCrunch’s recently ended Found podcast, I have learned a lot about how founders approach building their startups. I’ve heard stories about how founders know when it is the right time to expand from their core product, to how startups approach […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple may add an iPhone Air to its lineup
Apple’s next major iPhone upgrade will include a new model called the iPhone 17 Air, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. This seems like an obvious way to expand the lineup, given Apple’s success with the Air moniker for thinner MacBooks and iPads (I’m currently typing these words on my MacBook Air), and could be more […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to turn off Apple Intelligence-powered notification summaries
With iOS 18, Apple rolled out Apple Intelligence, which includes an AI-powered feature for summarizing notifications. When you get a bunch of notifications from one app, the feature summarizes the content of all notifications in one card that appears on the lock screen. You can dismiss the stack after you have read the summary, or […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Open source licenses: Everything you need to know
Open source makes the technology world go ’round, forming as much as 90% of the modern software stack via frameworks; libraries; databases; operating systems; and countless standalone applications. The benefits of open source software are well understood, promising greater control and transparency. However, there’s a perennial struggle between the open source and proprietary realms, leading […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained
This story has been updated throughout with more details as the story has developed. We will continue to do so as the case and dispute are ongoing. The community around WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. At the core is a fight […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple board opposes proposal to abolish DEI programs
Apple’s board of directors has come out in opposition to a proposal seeking to end the company’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. In a proxy filing, the company said the National Center for Public Policy Research (a conservative think tank) is submitting a proposal for Apple to “consider abolishing its Inclusion & Diversity program, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Researchers open source Sky-T1, a ‘reasoning’ AI model that can be trained for less than $450
So-called reasoning AI models are becoming easier — and cheaper — to develop. On Friday, NovaSky, a team of researchers based out of UC Berkeley’s Sky Computing Lab, released Sky-T1-32B-Preview, a reasoning model that’s competitive with an earlier version of OpenAI’s o1 on a number of key benchmarks. Sky-T1 appears to be the first truly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What’s behind ballooning video game budgets?
Why does it cost some companies hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a popular video game? A couple weeks ago, The New York Times blamed the never-ending quest to deliver more photo-realistic graphics— and it suggested the industry is beginning to see diminishing returns, leading to layoffs and studio closures. However, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Everything you missed at CES 2025
Welcome back to Week in Review. I missed you! This week, we’re diving into all the gadgets and announcements out of this year’s CES, Meta’s decision to roll back its fact-checking program, TikTok’s response to employees affected by the California wildfires, and more! Let’s do this. CES 2025 came and went this week. The event […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
I got soaked driving the Arc Sport electric boat
I did not go to CES 2025 with the goal of getting drenched by Lake Mead’s chilly January waters. But when I discovered Los Angeles-based boat startup Arc had brought its new sport boat to Las Vegas, I figured it was worth the risk. It was. The Arc Sport was a joy to drive, even […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Matt Mullenweg deactivates WordPress accounts of contributors planning a fork
Automattic CEO and WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg has deactivated the accounts of several WordPress.org community members, some of whom have been spearheading a push to create a new fork of the open source WordPress project. While community criticism of WordPress’s governance isn’t new, the latest brouhaha kicked off back in September when Mullenweg publicly chastised WP […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia’s AI empire: A look at its top startup investments
Over the last two years, Nvidia has used its ballooning fortunes to invest in over 80 AI startups. Here are the giant semiconductor's largest investments. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snappy aquires swag-gifting startup Covver as it seks to roll-up players
It’s now broadly accepted that customers and employees who receive corporate gifts end up appreciating the brand much more, and for not a lot of outlay. The market for this has thus exploded. One market player, the New York-based Snappy, which has raised over $125 million to date, is now acquiring Covver, a corporate merchandise […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft accuses group of developing tool to abuse its AI service in new lawsuit
Microsoft has taken legal action against a group the company claims intentionally developed and used tools to bypass the safety guardrails of its cloud AI products. According to a complaint filed by the company in December in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, a group of unnamed 10 defendants allegedly used […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mark Zuckerberg defends Meta’s latest pivot in three-hour Joe Rogan interview
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended his decision to scale back Meta’s content moderation policies in a Friday appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Zuckerberg faced widespread criticism for the decision, including from employees inside his own company. “Probably depends on who you ask,” said Zuckerberg when asked how Meta’s updates have been received. The key updates […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These startups are making smarter canes for people with visual impairments
The white cane for the 21st century. While many tech companies have increasingly worked to make technology more accessible for the blind and visually impaired, canes haven’t benefitted much from these advances. London-born WeWalk takes a more traditional approach to the white cane. Beyond the bulkier handle, not much sets the company’s product apart visually […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A drone punched a hole into an LA firefighting plane
A drone collided with a 'Super Scooper' firefighting plane. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bench customers are now being forced to hand over their data or risk losing it, they say
After accounting startup Bench abruptly shut down on December 27 and was bought in a fire-sale by Employer.com, Bench customers are now learning they can’t easily just take their financial data and leave. And some are very unhappy about it, three customers told TechCrunch. To recap: When Bench, a startup based in Canada that raised […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon curbs some DEI programs
Amazon is now the latest company to curb some of its DEI programs, Bloomberg reports, after Meta announced that it, too, is ending its diversity efforts earlier on Friday. An internal memo that was sent to staffers said that the company was looking to wind down outdated programs and materials as part of a review […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok ban: How both sides made their case to the Supreme Court and what the justices asked
On Friday, the nation’s highest court heard arguments on whether to uphold or block a law that could effectively ban TikTok in the U.S. The bill, signed into law by President Biden in April 2024, gives TikTok’s parent company ByteDance until January 19 to divest its U.S. operations or face a ban in the country. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
New OpenAI job listings reveal its robotics plans
OpenAI disbanded its robotics department. Then, it brought it back. Now, through a social media post from its hardware director and newly published job descriptions, OpenAI is revealing more about its plans for the revived team. In a post on X on Friday, Caitlin Kalinowski, who joined OpenAI to lead hardware last November from Meta’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How OpenAI’s bot crushed this seven-person company’s web site ‘like a DDoS attack’
OpenAI was sending “tens of thousands” of server requests trying to download Triplegangers' entire site which hosts hundreds of thousands of photos. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VCs say AI companies need proprietary data to stand out from the pack
AI companies across the globe raised more than $100 billion in venture capital dollars in 2024, according to Crunchbase data, an increase of more than 80% compared to 2023. It encompasses nearly a third of the total VC dollars invested in 2024. That’s a lot of money funneling into a lot of AI companies. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lenovo’s latest form factors prove PCs can still be fun
Large corporations aren’t known for taking risks. This is as true in the world of consumer hardware as anywhere. Annual updates are largely incremental, with small changes to things like screen resolution or image quality. It’s a phenomenon that Lenovo is more than happy to buck when it showcases the latest updates to its PC […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to delete Facebook, Instagram, and Threads
In the wake of Meta’s decision to remove its third-party fact-checking system and loosen content moderation policies, Google searches on how to delete Facebook, Instagram, and Threads have been on the rise. People who are angry with the decision accuse Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg of cozying up to the incoming Trump administration at the expense […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Riding in a Zoox robotaxi at CES 2025: Everything that went right and wrong
A construction zone. A car crash. A double-parked truck. A motorcycle cop with its red, white, and blues deployed. My one-hour trip along the Las Vegas Strip in a custom-built Zoox robotaxi during CES 2025 wasn’t a dull one. A second, shorter ride the following evening proved less eventful. And in both rides, the Zoox […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hugging Face settles suit with AI startup FriendliAI, which had accused it of patent infringement
Hugging Face, the AI developer platform, has settled a lawsuit against Korean AI startup FriendliAI, which had accused Hugging Face of infringing on one of its patents. Per a filing on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Delaware, FriendliAI reached a “confidential agreement” with Hugging Face on January 8 and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meet the Chinese ‘Typhoon’ hackers preparing for war
U.S. intelligence say these China-backed hackers among laying the groundwork for future conflict with the United States. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Shein is still looking to IPO
Shein is still looking to IPO, Reuters reports. The company is looking to list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and could complete its IPO as early as April. The push for London comes after the company stopped trying to list in the U.S. as lawmakers raised concerns over the company’s connections to China and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta eliminates DEI programs
Axios reports that Meta is eliminating its biggest DEI efforts, effective immediately, including ones that focused on hiring a diverse workforce, training, and sourcing supplies from diverse-owned companies. Its DEI department will also be eliminated. In a memo leaked to the outlet, Meta said it was making these changes because the “legal and policy landscape […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
January almost had its first pentacorn, and other startup news
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. The second week of the year is usually a busy one for startup news, and 2025 is no exception. From CES product launches to M&As and funding […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EU approves $35B Synopsys and Ansys merger, subject to divestment conditions
The European Commission (EC) has given the greenlight for Synopsys to acquire Ansys, though the companies must sell-off various software products as part of the proposed remedies. Chip design software maker Synopsys revealed last January its plans to acquire Ansys, a simulation software developer that helps engineers model and analyze the physical behavior of products, such as chips, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Overhaul raises another $55M to help companies like Dyson and Microsoft fight supply chain theft
Businesses dependent on the physical supply chain — the network of facilities and transportation systems used to move materials from one location to another — chain face a number of challenges, from staff shortages to increasing customer expectations. The pressures aren’t easing up. According to a survey from Prologis, a real estate investment trust, two-thirds […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The new Atari handheld knows its market
CES isn’t much of a gaming show. Every year, however, a few notable products slip through the news deluge. Created in collaboration with My Arcade, Gamestation Go fits the bill. The handheld sports a 7-inch display and comes preloaded with north of 200 titles from various Atari generations. Of course, simply being a portable game […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok pleads its case against sell-or-ban law before Supreme Court
A lawyer for TikTok argued before the Supreme Court on Friday that a ban on the social network would violate TikTok’s and Americans’ First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court this morning heard arguments on whether to overturn or delay a law that could effectively ban TikTok in the U.S. The bill, officially titled the Protecting […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US government charges operators of crypto mixing service used by North Korea and ransomware gangs
Three Russian citizens were charged with money laundering for their role in operating Blender.io and Sinbad.io crypto mixing services. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
China hacked US Treasury’s CFIUS, which reviews foreign investments for national security risks
The hackers targeting the Treasury are dubbed Silk Typhoon, and previously mass-hacked thousands of corporate email servers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cannabis company Stiiizy says hackers accessed customers’ ID documents
A ransomware gang took credit for the breach, claiming to have stolen over 400,000 government-issued identity documents from customers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gumloop, founded in a bedroom in Vancouver, lets users automate tasks with drag-and-drop modules
Developers Max Brodeur-Urbas and Rahul Behal think that AI has the potential to automate lots of business-relevant tasks, but that many of the AI-powered automation tools on the market today are unreliable and costly. Part of the problem is that users expect too much of AI, Brodeur-Urbas told TechCrunch — for instance, they assume that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Automattic says it will reduce its contribution to WordPress core project to match WP Engine
It’s a new year, but drama in the WordPress community keeps going. Automattic, the company that runs WordPress.com, said that it would reduce its contribution to WordPress core, the open-source project that acts as the backbone of most of Automattic’s products and ensures the longevity of WordPress as a technology and community. Automattic CEO and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Beams secures $9M Series A to digitize UK home renovation market
Home renovation projects can be unpredictable for both customers and builders. Meanwhile, small contractors barely use modern software and home renovation giants, like IKEA, tend to trundle on with dated legacy software. UK startup Beams thinks it can solve this conundrum and has now raised a $9 million Series A funding round to crack the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s payment push is cutting out Visa and Mastercard
As global regulators increase their scrutiny on Visa and Mastercard over merchant fees, India has chosen a different path: creating rival payment networks that are increasingly sidelining international card networks. The strategy builds on India’s Unified Payments Interface, known as UPI, a nine-year-old system that now processes more than 13 billion real-time transactions monthly, or […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X says it is rolling out labels for parody accounts
Elon Musk-owned social network X said today that it is rolling out labels for parody or satire accounts to differentiate them from other accounts. In the past, users, including news presenters, have mistaken posts from parody accounts as authentic statements made by real people or entities. The company’s safety account on the platform said that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Every smartphone in LA accidentally received a wildfire evacuation alert
As wildfires rage for the third consecutive day through parts of Los Angeles, now including the Hollywood Hills, several neighborhoods have been forced to evacuate for safety purposes. But on Thursday afternoon, a wildfire evacuation alert was mistakenly sent to the smartphone of every resident in Los Angeles County, a region with more than 9 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This security system shoots paintballs at intruders
Doorbell cameras are standard fare these days. More and more people have invested in connected security systemss, as the technology has become both cheaper and more user friendly. There’s one important thing these system won’t do, however: shoot people and animals with paintballs. That is, however, pretty much the Eve PaintCam’s whole M.O. Carrying the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla launches new-look Model Y in China
Tesla has revealed a new-look Model Y meant for the Chinese and other Asian-Pacific markets, marking the first major update to the SUV since its launch in 2020. The redesign comes as Tesla finished 2024 having delivered fewer vehicles than it did in 2023. It was the first year-over-year drop since the company started selling […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hippocratic AI raises $141M for creating patient-facing AI agents
Hippocratic AI, a startup building AI solutions that can handle non-diagnostic patient-facing tasks, secured a massive $141 million Series B at a valuation of $1.64 billion led by Kleiner Perkins, the company announced Thursday. The funding comes nine months after Hippocratic AI raised a $53 million round from General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz and five […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia’s AI avatar sat on my computer screen and weirded me out
Nvidia unveiled a prototype AI avatar at CES 2025 that lives on your PC’s desktop. The AI assistant, R2X, looks like a video game character, and it can help you navigate apps on your computer. The R2X avatar is rendered and animated using Nvidia’s AI models, and users can run the avatar on popular LLMs […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ICON, a builder of 3D printed homes last valued around $2 billion, cuts about 25% of staff
ICON Technologies Inc., which builds homes using 3D printing, is laying off 114 people, according to a WARN letter filed with the Texas Workforce Commission. A spokesperson for the company confirmed the news to TechCrunch, providing a statement that ICON had “recently made a difficult decision to re-align” its team and team size “to focus […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Defense startup Epirus in talks to raise over $150M, potentially cutting valuation
The round could give the company a valuation of about $1 billion, a decrease from the company’s previous $1.35 billion valuation. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apptronik’s Apollo humanoid robot gets to work at CES 2025
CES 2025 has been a mixed bag for humanoid robots. The form factor had a watershed moment, as images of the top players flanked NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang during his Monday keynote. Of these, Agility’s Digit also showed up alongside a miniature conveyer belt at a closed access NVIDIA booth. It was a nice return […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok tells LA staff impacted by wildfires to use personal/sick hours if they can’t work from home
Wildfires are currently devastating the greater Los Angeles area, burning over 45 square miles, torching over 1,300 structures, and putting nearly 180,000 people under evacuation orders as of Thursday. And yet, TikTok’s LA-based employees are being told to either continue their work from home or use their personal/sick days if that’s not possible, while the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT’s newest feature lets user assign it traits like ‘chatty’ and ‘Gen Z’
Update: Some users report that the new options have disappeared. It’s possible they went live prematurely. OpenAI is introducing a new way for users to customize their interactions with ChatGPT, the company’s AI-powered chatbot. Some users on X on Thursday reported that ChatGPT’s existing custom instructions menu on the web has been revamped with new […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Autonomous vehicles are having a moment and other vibes from CES 2025
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Hey hey, it’s a new year! I’ve missed you these past two weeks. But I’m back, and in Las Vegas for CES 2025. As always, announcements from […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CES 2025: Where have all the US automakers gone?
The old chestnut passed around by industry watchers for the past decade was that CES — one of the world’s largest consumer tech trade events — had turned into an auto show. Maybe even the most important auto show of the year. And there was ample evidence of that. GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google folds more AI teams into DeepMind to ‘accelerate the research to developer pipeline’
As it looks to accelerate the pace of its AI development, Google is further streamlining the teams building its AI services, platforms, and tools. On Thursday, Logan Kilpatrick, who leads product for Google’s AI Studio developer platform, said in a post on X that Google’s AI Studio team and the team developing the API for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google folds more teams into DeepMind to ‘accelerate the research to developer pipeline’
As it looks to accelerate the pace of its AI development, Google is further streamlining the teams building its AI services, platforms, and tools. On Thursday, Logan Kilpatrick, who leads product for Google’s AI Studio developer platform, said in a post on X that Google’s AI Studio team and the team developing the API for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Scale AI hit by its second employee wage lawsuit in less than a month
Scale AI just got hit by another lawsuit alleging widespread wage violations and misclassification of its workers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Y Combinator scored a surprise win when Larry Page came to speak
Y Combinator is maybe only two-degrees of separation from anyone in tech. Even Larry Page. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These are CES 2025’s least repairable and sustainable gadgets, according to iFixit
The Razzies, the Darwins — not all awards are good. Sure, CES is a time to celebrate the year’s weirdest and most wonderful consumer electronic, but thankfully we’ve got iFixit around to throw a little cold water on the fair. As we enter the penultimate day of the event, the repair stalwart presents its “Worst […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DoorBox debuts its new and improved smart delivery box at CES 2025
Millions of packages stolen each year. DoorBox aims to change how packages are delivered with its smart package box that features a theft-proof design with live camera feeds and an alarm that activates automatically if the box is tampered with. After selling 2,000 units of its initial version, which offered manual functionality, the startup unveiled […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mark Zuckerberg gave Meta’s Llama team the OK to train on copyrighted works, filing claims
Counsel for plaintiffs in a copyright lawsuit filed against Meta allege that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave the green light to the team behind the company’s Llama AI models to use a data set of pirated ebooks and articles for training. The case, Kadrey v. Meta, is one of many against tech giants developing AI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Facebook awards researcher $100,000 for finding bug that granted internal access
A security researcher found a bug in a Facebook ad platform, which gave him access to the company’s internal infrastructure. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Scout Motors CEO Scott Keogh says modern cars have become ‘dystopian’ and ‘disconnected’
Volkswagen-backed startup Scout Motors broke cover just a few months ago, and at this week’s CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada, they hold the honor of being one of the only American automakers with a presence at the show. That’s not the only thing that stands out about Scout being here, though. In a sea […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CES 2025: The weirdest tech products and claims from this year’s event
CES 2025 is in full swing. While the conference features reveals from tech powerhouses like Nvidia, Samsung, and Toyota, there are also some very strange product concepts and announcements circulating on the show floor. We’ve compiled the weirdest, silliest, and most eyebrow-raising products from CES 2025. A robotic cat that cools down your coffee for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Comcast and other TV streamers are now chasing YouTube’s ad dollars instead of the other way around
TV providers and streamers’ real competition isn’t each other, it’s social video. Or at least that’s what the president of Comcast Advertising, James Rooke, said during an interview on Wednesday at CES 2025 in Las Vegas. The ad exec was speaking about the company’s Monday launch of “universal ads,” a solution that lets marketers buy […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google searches for deleting Facebook, Instagram explode after Meta ends fact-checking
Google searches for how to cancel and delete Facebook, Instagram, and Threads accounts have seen explosive rises in the U.S. since Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company will end its third-party fact-checking system, loosen content moderation policies, and roll back previous limits to the amount of political content in user feeds. Experts see […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Watch Duty surpasses ChatGPT as top free app on App Store as California fires spread
Watch Duty, an app to track wildfires with live maps and alerts, has become the No. 1 free app in Apple’s App Store as of Wednesday morning. The fire-tracking app surpassed the ChatGPT app for the No. 1 spot as devastating fires continue to rage across Southern California. ChatGPT had been in the No. 1 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
PowerSchool says hackers stole students’ sensitive data, including Social Security numbers, in data breach
In an FAQ obtained by TechCrunch, PowerSchool confirms it negotiated with the threat actors responsible for the breach. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google’s Daily Listen AI feature generates a podcast based on your Discover feed
Google is testing a new “Daily Listen” feature that automatically generates a podcast based on your Discover feed. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that Daily Listen is a personalized AI-powered audio experience that is designed to help you stay up to date on the topics you care about. The feature is currently rolling out on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Doublepoint launches free Apple Watch app to control devices with hand gestures
Finnish startup Doublepoint launched its free app, WowMouse, for the Apple Watch this week at CES 2025. The app uses the wearable’s sensors, compass, and accelerometer to turn your hand into a mouse that can control devices through hand gestures. The Apple Watch already uses a similar technology for the double tap feature it released […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Video editing app Captions switches to a freemium model to boost growth
Video editing app Captions is looking to cash in on uncertainty around TikTok and ByteDance’s video editing app CapCut’s future in the U.S. by turning to a freemium model. The app, backed by Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz, has been a paid-only app until now. However, the company is changing its course to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
PrettyDamnQuick snaps up $25M to speed up online checkout
A startup hoping to provide a credible alternative to Amazon has picked up funding to double down on the gap in the market. PrettyDamnQuick (PDQ) provides tech to retailers to let them customize and test different shipping and checkout flows, and now it has picked up a deal of its own: a $25 million Series […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Innovaccer aims to become healthcare’s AI powerhouse with $275M Series F
Innovaccer has raised a $275M Series F from investors including B Capital Group, Banner Health, Danaher Ventures, Generation IM, Kaiser Permanente, and M12. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla directors to pay up to $919 million to settle claims they overpaid themselves
A Delaware judge has approved a settlement that will see Tesla directors – including Chair Robyn Denholm, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Kimbal Musk, and James Murdoch – return up to $919 million to the automaker, officially resolving allegations that they overpaid themselves, per Reuters. The settlement concludes a 2020 lawsuit by the Police and Fire […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rounded is an AI orchestration platform that lets anyone build an AI voice agent
French startup Rounded believes AI voice agents are going to become the default way customers interact with companies, so instead of building AI voice agents that are ready to use, the company is building an orchestration platform that lets companies build their own voice agent. Rounded started off working on a web3 product before shifting […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Biosphere zaps germs with UV light to make biomanufacturing cheaper
Using LEDs has the potential to bring down the cost of biomanufacturing, allowing such processes to make materials that previously would have been too expensive. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hackers are exploiting a new Ivanti VPN security bug to hack into company networks
Mandiant says a Chinese cyberespionage group has been exploiting the critical-rated vulnerability since at least mid-December. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Xocean raises $119M to capture ocean data with uncrewed surface vessels
Xocean, an Irish marine robotics startup that provides ocean data to the energy and hydrography industries using uncrewed surface vessels (USVs), has raised €115 million ($119 million) as it looks to expand coverage to additional sectors. Founded in 2017, Xocean has built a fleet of remotely-controlled USVs that can remain offshore for long periods of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VLC tops 6 billion downloads, previews AI-generated subtitles
VLC media player, the popular open-source software developed by nonprofit VideoLAN, has topped 6 billion downloads worldwide and teased an AI-powered subtitle system. The new feature automatically generates real-time subtitles — which can then also be translated in many languages — for any video using open-source AI models that run locally on users’ devices, eliminating […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple might be working on a new ‘Invites’ app
The year has just begun, and Apple might already be in “Sherlocking” mode to create a new app for iOS called Invites. Details are still thin on what this app might look like, but it could potentially be a competitor to Evite or Partiful. According to findings in iOS 18.3 beta 2 code by 9to5Mac, Apple […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Grand Games, the Turkish gaming startup behind pouring game Magic Sort, drinks up $30M
Gaming startups — specifically those building casual mobile games — are very hot in Turkey right now, and today another one is announcing a sizeable round just nine months into its existence. Grand Games, the publisher behind Magic Sort and Car Match, has picked up $30 million in funding — money that it will use […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Defiant is a new European VC firm that uses data and products to make better investments
Defiant is a new early stage VC firm focused on B2B SaaS and fintech coming out of stealth today. Joseph Pizzolato (pictured right) and Cam Rail (pictured left), the duo at the helm of the firm who met when they were six years old, have already secured $30 million and plan to raise as much […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
xAI is testing a standalone iOS app for its Grok chatbot
Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, is testing out a standalone iOS app for its chatbot, Grok, which was available only to X users until now. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Flipkart taps Dunzo founder to lead quick commerce push
Flipkart has hired Kabeer Biswas, co-founder of Indian delivery startup Dunzo, as the Walmart-owned e-commerce group expands its quick commerce business in the world’s most populous nation. Biswas will lead Flipkart’s quick commerce business, called Flipkart Minutes, a source familiar with the situation told TechCrunch. The move follows Flipkart engaging with Biswas over a potential […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk agrees that we’ve exhausted AI training data
Elon Musk concurs with other AI experts that there’s little real-world data left to train AI models on. “We’ve now exhausted basically the cumulative sum of human knowledge …. in AI training,” Musk said during a live-streamed conversation with Stagwell chairman Mark Penn streamed on X late Wednesday. “That happened basically last year.” Musk, who […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
We talked to the guy who was stuck in a Waymo robotaxi on a dizzying loop
A month ago, a video circulated around social media of a Waymo robotaxi stuck in a roundabout loop – an isolated incident with no passengers in the vehicle, according to Waymo. Apparently, it wasn’t a one-time thing. Around the same time, in another Waymo robotaxi headed for the Phoenix airport, Mike Johns, founder and CEO […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The U.S. has a new cybersecurity safety label for smart devices
The White House this week announced a new label for internet-connected devices, the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark, intended to help consumers make more-informed decisions about the cybersecurity of products they bring into their homes. To earn the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark, which is being administered by the Federal Communications Commission, companies have to test their […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The LiberLive C1 stringless instrument isn’t a guitar, and that’s fine
I’m old enough to remember musicians getting angry over Guitar Hero. But they always seemed to be missing the point. Nobody was seriously suggesting that a video game controller would replace an instrument that’s been going strong since the 15th century. Guitar Hero was a fun game, and if it persuaded a new generation to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CES 2025 was full of IRL AI slop
It’s 2025, and companies still don’t know what AI is good for. That’s the impression I got from this year’s CES, which featured AI-powered kitchen appliances, baby cribs, and other products that really weren’t calling for AI. See: Spicerr, an “intelligent” touchscreen-equipped spice dispenser that learns your taste as you cook to recommend unique recipes. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CES 2025: The weirdest tech products and claims from this year’s event
CES 2025 is in full swing. While the conference features reveals from tech powerhouses like Nvidia, Samsung, and Toyota, there are also some very strange product concepts and announcements circulating on the show floor. We’ve compiled the weirdest, silliest, and most eyebrow-raising products from CES 2025. A robotic cat that cools down your coffee for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pickpad addresses the chaos of restaurant takeout
There was a time when baristas just had to write a customer’s name on a cup and call it out. They wouldn’t always get the name right, but more often than not, it went to the right person. The prospect of picking up takeout has, however, become considerably more dicey in this post-pandemic era dominated […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Astrohaus launches a mechanical keyboard for writers
Astrohaus has cornered a very specific niche. The Michigan-based startup builds hardware for writers looking to eliminate distractions. It’s really tough finishing up that novel when Instagram exists, after all. While the company has made its name bucking most tech trends, however, its latest offering has found a bandwagon to jump onto. Announced at CES […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Grok may soon get an ‘Unhinged Mode’
Last April, Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, teased a mysterious “Unhinged Mode” for X’s AI-powered chatbot, Grok. Nearly a year later, xAI, the Musk-owned company behind Grok, has updated an FAQ page on its website that sheds light on the new mode. Grok in Unhinged Mode will provide responses “intended to be objectionable, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Halliday’s $489 smart glasses beam a tiny screen to your eye
Walk up to someone wearing a pair of Halliday’s smart glasses, and you might not notice they’re looking at smartphone notifications, live language translations, or advice from an AI assistant. The only giveaway is the tiny green dot of light on their eyeball. Wearables startup Halliday launched a pair of smart glasses at CES 2025 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This $1,500 iPad bundle will Rickroll your family after you die
It’s only the second day of CES 2025, and we’ve already reached the point where it’s difficult to distinguish real products from elaborate pranks. In Case of Death currently leads that race by a country mile. Produced by Zugu, the product is designed as a kind of dead man’s switch for your digital life. It […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Flock Safety quietly hired a sitting California mayor. Now he’s suing Flock
Last year, police surveillance startup Flock Safety hired the mayor of a California city with over 200,000 residents to promote its products. But the mayor, Ulises Cabrera of Moreno Valley, now claims Flock wrongfully terminated him, partly because he refused to use his position as mayor to benefit Flock, according to a lawsuit Cabrera filed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI researcher François Chollet is co-founding a nonprofit to build benchmarks for AGI
Former Google engineer and influential AI researcher François Chollet is co-founding a nonprofit to help develop benchmarks that’ll probe AI for “human-level” intelligence. The nonprofit, the ARC Prize Foundation, will be led by Greg Kamradt, an ex-Salesforce engineering director and founder of the AI product studio Leverage. Kamradt will serve as president and a member […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Watch Duty surpasses ChatGPT as top free app on App Store as California fires spread
Watch Duty, an app to track wildfires with live maps and alerts, has become the number one free app in Apple’s App Store as of Wednesday morning. The fire tracking app surpassed the ChatGPT app for the number one spot as devastating fires continue to rage across Southern California. Watch Duty has been around since […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mastodon CEO calls Meta’s moderation changes ‘deeply troubling,’ warns users cross-posting from Threads
Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko has spoken out about the significant moderation changes announced by Meta on Tuesday, which will see the social networking giant removing fact-checking across its apps in favor of a crowdsourced community notes feature, similar to X’s. The Mastodon founder, whose app competes with X and Meta’s X rival, Instagram Threads, called […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gamers can’t fathom how 6x CEO Elon Musk found time to best Diablo IV
On October 16 and November 20, Elon Musk tweeted videos of himself clearing the highest level of the Diablo IV video game in about 2 minutes. While Diablo IV has been out since mid-2023, the latest “season,” called The Pit, launched on October 7. Many asked: How did he find the time to do it […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This basketball robot uses AI to rebound the ball after you shoot
Like anything in life, the secret to becoming Steph Curry or Sabrina Ionescu is practice, practice, and more practice. You practice when it’s too hot, too cold, you’re tired, or you’re sick. Finding a willing one-on-one partner through all of that is, however, another question entirely. The good news is that later this year, you […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gridware’s boxes literally listen to power lines to find outages
Gridware's sensors listen for sounds that the company’s software has been trained to identify as different hazards to the grid. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 and 2025 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ukrainian hackers take credit for hacking Russian ISP that wiped out servers and caused internet outages
The Russian ISP blamed the Ukrainian hackers for causing a "complete failure" across its internet infrastructure. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: More capable AI is coming, but will its benefits be evenly distributed?
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. The AI news cycle didn’t slow down much this holiday season. Between OpenAI’s 12 days of “shipmas” and DeepSeek’s major model release on Christmas Day, blink and you’d miss some new development. And it’s not slowing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Triller launches a tool to back up users’ TikToks ahead of the U.S. ban deadline
Triller, a would-be competitor to TikTok, is hoping to capitalize on the potential for a TikTok ban in the U.S. by pitching to creators to move their content from the popular short-form video app to its own. The company has now launched a website, SaveMyTikToks.com, which promises to back up all your TikTok videos by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tonal’s new strength training system arrives with refreshed hardware and new workouts
The post-pandemic years haven’t been especially kind to connected fitness. As bigger names like Peloton and Mirror have struggled, however, plenty of smaller firms like Tonal are still going strong. At CES 2025 on Wednesday, the Bay Area firm announced the arrival of its new strength training system, fittingly named Tonal 2. At its core, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Boston Dynamics settles patent suit with military robotics firm Ghost
Roughly two and a half years after their patent battle began, Boston Dynamics and Ghost Robotics have settled the dispute on reasonably amicable terms. The robotics firms on Wednesday issued a joint release announcing the end of the dispute. “We are pleased to resolve this dispute on mutually advantageous terms,” Boston Dynamics Chief Legal Officer […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former Huami employees launch SATELLAI, a satellite pet tracker, at CES 2025
With the smart pet wearable market estimated at $1.72 million in 2024, a new startup in the pet tech space is entering the scene with a dog tracker and collar that can directly link with satellite tracking without needing an LTE signal. At CES 2025, SATELLAI presented its pet tracker and smart collar, which include […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Japan says Chinese hackers targeted its government and tech companies for years
The years-long hacking spree targeted government organizations as well as companies across Japan. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Omi, a competitor to Friend, wants to boost your productivity using AI and a ‘brain interface’
San Francisco startup Based Hardware announced the launch of a new AI wearable, Omi, to boost productivity during the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas this week. The device can be worn as a necklace where Omi’s AI assistant can be activated by saying “Hey Omi.” The startup also claims Omi can be attached to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Grove cuts clinical trial enrollment time with AI
Tran Le was an engineering student at Stanford University when she tried to enroll in a clinical trial for her chronic condition. Although she identified several promising trials, she found the sign-up process daunting — she had to have extensive email exchanges with clinical sites and complete lengthy 20-page forms. All that paperwork was so […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft rolls back its Bing Image Creator model after users complain of degraded quality
Ahead of the holidays, Microsoft said it was upgrading the AI model behind Bing Image Creator, the AI-powered image editing tool built into the company’s Bing search engine. Microsoft promised that the new model — the latest version of OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 model, code-named “PR16” — would allow users to create images “twice as fast […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former CEO of MoviePass’ parent company pleads guilty to fraud over ‘unlimited’ plan
The former chief executive of the parent company of MoviePass, Theodore Farnsworth, pleaded guilty to charges of securities fraud and conspiracy after being accused of misleading investors over the service’s “unlimited plan.” Farnsworth also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud as the chief executive of Vinco Ventures, a publicly traded company. Helios & […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Facebook Marketplace to display eBay listings to appease EU regulators
Meta is set to start displaying eBay listings in its own Facebook Marketplace classifieds platform, in an effort to appease European regulators. Back in November, Meta was hit with a €798 million fine by the European Commission (EC) in Europe for breaching antitrust rules. The EC contended that Meta created “unfair trading conditions” by connecting […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Healthcare analytics platform H1 has acquired Ribbon, backed by a16Z and General Catalyst
H1, a healthcare data analytics platform serving the pharmaceutical industry with data on over 10 million healthcare professionals, has acquired Ribbon, a startup that helps patients find doctors that are supported by their insurance. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. The last time that Ribbon — founded in 2016 and a Y […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Edtech giant PowerSchool says hackers accessed personal data of students and teachers
The Bain Capital-owned edtech giant says hackers accessed its customer support portal using a "compromised credential." © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Vay expands driverless car-sharing fleet in Las Vegas
Vay is hitting the accelerator on its driverless car-sharing service in Las Vegas. The Berlin-based startup, which uses teleoperations technology that lets humans pilot empty vehicles to customers, has been operating a small commercial fleet of retrofitted Kia e-Niro vehicles in certain parts of Las Vegas since January 2024. When customers open the Vay app […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EU court fines European Commission for breaching its own data privacy laws
The EU court said the bloc's executive authority violated a citizen's rights by transferring some of his personal data to the U.S. without proper safeguards. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Livestream shopping app Whatnot raises $265M, pinning valuation at nearly $5B
Whatnot, the platform that allows users to sell items such as trading cards, comics, and sneakers through live videos, announced on Wednesday that it has secured $265 million in a Series E funding round, a significant investment for a livestream shopping platform. This round puts Whatnot’s valuation at $4.97 billion. The investment marks an important […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SteamOS expands to other gaming handhelds with the Lenovo Legion Go S
SteamOS is slowly becoming an alternative to Windows for handheld gaming devices. After launching the Steam Deck with SteamOS, its own operating system, Valve is now partnering with third-party manufacturers so that they can release gaming handhelds with SteamOS support. On Tuesday, Lenovo unveiled the Legion Go S at CES 2025. Unlike its predecessor, the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Casio says hackers stole personal data of 8,500 people during October ransomware attack
The Japanese electronics giant says it did not negotiate with the hackers responsible for the attack. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Siren secures strategic funding for its socks that detect diabetic foot ulcers
After studying burn victims and war veterans, entrepreneur Ran Ma hand-made a sock that contained sensors to detect foot ulcers. Now, her company, Siren, has secured $9.5 million, with an $8 million check from lead investor Mölnlycke Health Care to further the development and adoption of its diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) prevention product. It’s now […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UN aviation agency confirms hacker breached recruitment database to access thousands of records
ICAO says compromised data includes job applicants' names, email addresses and employment history © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft backs its $3B AI push in India with public and private sector deals
Microsoft announced a sweeping series of artificial intelligence partnerships across India’s core sectors on Wednesday, a day after pledging to invest $3 billion in the country over the next two years as it intensifies competition with rivals Google and Amazon. The tech giant’s chief executive Satya Nadella (pictured above) unveiled agreements with five major organizations […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nomupay raises $37M on a $200M valuation to build payment rails in underserved markets across Asia
Wirecard, a German fintech that raised hundreds of millions of dollars only to collapse in 2020 in a sea of scandal and insolvency, still makes headlines today as lawsuits continue against different entities and people once connected to the business. Meanwhile, a Dublin-based startup called Nomupay that was formed in 2023 out of some of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Report: VC in emerging markets plummeted by over 40% last year
8th January at 9:30 am Dubai VC investments in emerging markets such as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) plummeted by over 40% compared to 2023, according to a new report. The data mirrors the wider global trend of reduced VC funding in the last two years, especially for non-AI companies. The total raised […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Indian government websites are still redirecting users to scam sites
Some Indian government websites are still redirecting to links planted by scammers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Delta SkyMiles members can now earn miles riding with Uber, ending its deal with Lyft
Uber announced during CES 2025 a multi-year exclusive partnership with Delta Air Lines that allows SkyMiles members to earn miles when they ride with Uber or order delivery through Uber Eats in the United States. The deal means an end of Delta’s partnership with Lyft. The Uber partnership will launch in the spring, giving Uber […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Delta SkyMiles members can now earn miles riding with Uber
Uber announced during CES 2025 a multi-year exclusive partnership with Delta Air Lines that allows SkyMiles members to earn miles when they ride with Uber or order delivery through Uber Eats in the United States. The deal means an end of Delta’s partnership with Lyft. The partnership will launch in the spring, giving Uber customers […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sam Altman’s family responds to lawsuit alleging he sexually assaulted his sister
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to sexual assault accusations from his estranged younger sister on Tuesday, calling the claims “entirely untrue.” According to the Saint Louis Post Dispatch, in a new lawsuit filed Monday, Annie Altman alleges her older brother sexually assaulted her over a nine-year period in the 1990s and 2000s. The suit echoes […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Delta Air Lines announces an AI-powered assistant in its mobile app and free onboard YouTube Premium and Music at CES 2025
Over the last few years, Delta Air Lines’ presence has become a staple of CES, with the airline regularly hosting splashy keynotes. This year, the company has rented out the Sphere to announce its latest slate of updates. These include (can you guess it?) an AI-powered assistant in its app, as well as an updated […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zeekr RT, the robotaxi built for Waymo, has the tiniest wipers
For the autonomous vehicle-obsessed, the Waymo-Zeekr robotaxi is nothing new. In 2021, Waymo and Zeekr announced a partnership. Waymo first showed a concept of the purpose-built robotaxi in late 2022 and began testing prototype versions on public roads in San Francisco last year, even as it began rolling out its commercial fleet of Jaguar I-Pace […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia CEO says his AI chips are improving faster than Moore’s Law
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says the performance of his company’s AI chips is advancing faster than historical rates set by Moore’s Law, the rubric that drove computing progress for decades. “Our systems are progressing way faster than Moore’s Law,” said Huang in an interview with TechCrunch on Tuesday, the morning after he delivered a keynote […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CES 2025 Day 1: Honda, BMW, X’s victory lap, and the first show floor gadget reveals
CES 2025 is officially underway in Las Vegas. Monday’s press day saw keynotes from Samsung, Nvidia, Toyota, and Sony, among others, while Tuesday was all about the exciting new gadgets on the show floor. TechCrunch reporters are on the ground giving you the latest reveals at the conference. Below, you’ll find a list of the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X hires former WSJ editor and bureau chief to lead news group
X, formerly Twitter, wants to make its platform a home to the future and news and journalism. On that front, the company has now hired John Stoll, a former editor and Detroit bureau chief at The Wall Street Journal to lead its news group and partnership team at X. The hiring news was announced on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This pool cleaning company made a robot turtle to track water quality
Beatbot makes robotic pool cleaners. In fact, the company is showing off a new one with a docking station this week at CES 2025. What really caught our eye on the show floor, however, is RoboTurtle, because, well, it’s a robot that looks like a turtle. The turtle, sadly, seems to very much be in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Silicon Valley is so dominant again, its startups devoured over half of all global VC funding in 2024
For all the chatter about the decline of San Francisco, the data repeatedly shows that the area is still the best place for venture-backed startups. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This baseball radar gun plugs into an iPhone
Tucked away in the recesses CES 2025’s Eureka Hall startup showcase, CaiqueTech showed off a novel take on the tried-and-true baseball radar gun. After building a standalone device, the Korean firm has created a modular version that plugs directly into a phone via the USB-C port. The PI SpeedGun module has radar built in. While […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Feds investigate Tesla’s ‘Actual Smart Summon’ after several crashes
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation into 2.56 million Tesla vehicles after several crashes involving the automaker’s “Actual Smart Summon” remote parking feature. Tesla released Actual Smart Summon, or ASS for short, via software update in September. It allows Tesla owners to use their app to command the vehicle drive itself […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS says it’ll invest ‘at least’ $11B to expand data center infrastructure in Georgia
On Tuesday, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing division, said that it plans to invest “at least” $11 billion in Georgia to expand its infrastructure to support various cloud computing and AI technologies. AWS estimates that its investment will create roughly 550 jobs in the state. “AWS is proud to expand our operations in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FTC accuses gig work app Handy of misleading ads and opaque fees for workers
The FTC and New York’s attorney general have accused Handy, the gig app customers can use to book cleaners, handymen, and more, of making deceptive claims about how much workers could earn through its platform. In a complaint filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the FTC […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
You can plug a second mic into Shure’s new MV7i
Announced in 2022, the MV7 is hands down one of the best podcaster mics on the market. Last April, Shure updated the line to include the MV7+, which has USB-C connect and a few new tricks designed to get a cleaner sound. At CES 2025 on Tuesday, the audio company added yet another entry to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nuclear startup Deep Fission plans to bury micro-reactors to power data centers
Deep Fission's small modular reactors would be lowered on cables down a 30-inch, one-mile deep borehole. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Chinese VCs are hounding failed founders to claw back their investments
In the U.S., it’s accepted that most startups fail — and when that happens, VCs (generally) accept their losses and move on. But that’s not the case in China, where VCs are trying to claw back their investments in failed startups by pursuing the personal assets of their founders in court, The Financial Times reports. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads prototypes custom display names and cover images for profiles
Instagram Threads is developing new features that would bring its user experience more in line with that of X (formerly Twitter) and the social network Bluesky. The Meta-owned company is internally prototyping the ability to set a display name and add a cover image to profiles. A spokesperson for the company confirmed to TechCrunch on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anthropic reportedly in talks to raise $2B at $60B valuation, led by Lightspeed
OpenAI rival Anthropic is in talks to raise $2 billion in new capital in a funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, according to The Wall Street Journal. The round, which The Journal reports would value Anthropic at $60 billion, would bring Anthropic’s total raised to $15.7 billion, going by Crunchbase’s data. It would also […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Xpeng Aero HT unveils ‘flying car’ that’s part-van, part-eVTOL at CES 2025
Xpeng Aero HT, the aerospace company under Chinese EV startup Xpeng, unveiled at CES 2025 its “modular flying car,” the so-called Land Aircraft Carrie. It’s ssentially an electric minivan with a small folding eVTOL (vertical takeoff and landing vehicle) tucked in the back, which can be rolled out and launched into flight. The company says […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
South Park Commons is raising $40M for an India-specific fund
South Park Commons is raising $40 million for its India-specific fund over six months after announcing its outpost in Bengaluru. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Telegram reports spike in sharing user data with law enforcement
The messaging app handed over user data on thousands of Telegram users to U.S. authorities over 2024, the data reveals. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Honda reveals its futuristic ‘0 SUV’ prototype at CES 2025
Honda is adding to its so-called 0 Series of EVs with a new SUV it just revealed at CES 2025. The company showed off a mid-size SUV prototype dubbed, surely enough, the 0 SUV, which will join the 0 Saloon that Honda showed off at last year’s show. A production version of the SUV will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Panasonic unveils an AI-powered wellness coach, powered by Anthropic’s Claude, at CES 2025
At CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Panasonic unveiled its upcoming digital assistant, Umi, which offers families a personalized, AI-powered wellness coach. Created in partnership with Anthropic, Umi uses the Claude AI model to help families “care, coordinate, and connect” with each other, the company said. More specifically, this involves an AI assistant that focuses on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
HR software startup OnPay was inspired by the founder’s family payroll business
In 2007, Jesse Burgess joined his family’s payroll business. He quickly noticed that the business’ six payroll clerks were getting bogged down by repetitive, monotonous tasks. So he sought to streamline those tasks by creating workflow automation tools. Several years later, Burgess sensed an opportunity to bring the tools he developed for his family’s business […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
BMW’s new UI puts widgets on the windshield at CES 2025
BMW is totally revamping its in-car user interface, starting with the Neue Klasse sedan later this year and ultimately spreading to all models, the company announced at CES 2025. Some of it looks and feels familiar, but the big change is a widget-based system that lets users customize the layout — including on the car’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
At CES 2025, Uber teams up with Nvidia to scale autonomous driving faster
Uber will use Nvidia’s new generative world model simulation tool, Cosmos, and cloud-based AI supercomputing platform, DGX Cloud, to support the development of autonomous vehicle technology, the companies announced at CES 2025. Cosmos is being marketed to robotics and autonomy companies as a tool that generates physics-based videos from a variety of inputs, including 9,000 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What the heck happened at fintech Bench?
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! It’s good to be back. This week, we’re looking at the wild ride that was Bench’s shutdown and acquisition; dozens of companies that are hiring in the fintech space; lawsuits against PayPal; an IPO update; and more! This edition is a bit longer than normal since we were on a hiatus […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google puts $1M into 3D design app Rooms after more than 1 million ‘rooms’ created
3D design app Rooms just landed more funding. Launched into beta in 2023, the app from ex-Google employees allows users to build and code interactive 3D rooms and mini-games using a library of more than 10,000 items, which can be further edited using the programming language Lua. Now, Google itself has invested $1 million into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US government set to launch its Cyber Trust Mark cybersecurity labeling program for internet-connected devices in 2025
The cybersecurity consumer labeling program will launch in 2025, the Biden administration confirmed, after initially slated for last year. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
RadioShack is back (kind of) at CES 2025
The 21st century has not been kind to RadioShack. The once-dominant electronics component retailer simply couldn’t compete with big box stores like Best Buy and online retail juggernaut Amazon. February 2015 saw the company delisted from the New York Stock Exchange before declaring bankruptcy the same month. Later that year, RadioShack began the process of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
RadioShack is back (kind of)
The 21st century has not been kind to RadioShack. The once-dominant electronics component retailer simply couldn’t compete with big box stores like Best Buy and online retail juggernaut Amazon. February 2015 saw the company delisted from the New York Stock Exchange before declaring bankruptcy the same month. Later that year, RadioShack began the process of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump announces $20B plan to build new data centers in the US
The data centers will primarily support AI and cloud technologies, the president-elect said. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meticulous shows off its smart espresso machine at CES 2025
Meticulous is showcasing its smart espresso maker, which it says is the world’s first robotic lever espresso machine, at CES 2025 in Las Vegas this week. The prototype has raised nearly $5 million in funding on Kickstarter and another $1.6 million million on Indiegogo. The company’s first batch of espresso machines is set to ship […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Employer.com offers to buy failed fintech Level, a week after it makes offer for Bench
Employer.com has offered to acquire Level, a fintech startup that just last week abruptly shut down after failing to find a buyer, according to The Information. But Level is still mulling over the offer, its Employer.com CMO Matt Charney told TechCrunch. “It’s with legal,” he said. Founded in 2018 by early Square employee Paul Aaron, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Peacock is experimenting with mini-games and short videos
As Peacock continues to trail behind major players in the entertainment industry like Netflix, TikTok, and YouTube, the streaming service is adopting strategies similar to its rivals with two new initiatives: mini-games and a short-form vertical video feed. The company previewed these experiments at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Monday. Starting this […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta to phase back in political content on Facebook, Instagram and Threads
As a part of a significant overhaul of its content moderation policies announced on Tuesday, Meta admitted that its approach to limiting political content across its platforms had been “pretty blunt” and would now be addressed. The company said it would once again phase in political content into Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, allowing people who […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK confirms plans to criminalize the creation of sexually explicit deepfake content
The U.K. is forging ahead with plans to make the act of creating sexually explicit “deepfake” images a specific criminal offence. A deepfake refers to manipulated media, often video or audio, created using AI to make someone appear to say or do something they didn’t. The U.K. had already made sharing — and the threat […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ultrahuman stakes a claim to luxury smart rings with trio of 18K gold and pt950 platinum bands
Smart ring maker Ultrahuman took the wraps off a trio of extra shiny high-tech trinkets at CES 2025 on Tuesday, adding a premium jewelry collection to its range of wellness wearables. It’s given the Ring line the brand name Rare, a neat verbal echo of the company’s mainstream smart ring, the Ring Air. The Indian […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Reddit intros new trends tools for businesses and an AMA ad format
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Reddit unveiled new trends tools aimed at businesses and a new ad format for its Ask Me Anything (AMA) Q&A sessions. The announcements come after a record fiscal quarter for Reddit. In Q3 2024, the social network reported over 100 million daily active users for the first […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Serve Robotics raises additional $80M as it scales sidewalk delivery robots
Nvidia and Uber-backed Serve Robotics has raised $80 million in a direct offering of 4.2 million shares of common stock. This is on top of the $86 million in gross proceeds Serve raised collectively December 2024 through a combination of a previously filed at-the-market facility and exercise of warrants. The sidewalk delivery robot company, which […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Alta Resource breaks down e-waste for rare earth metals that electronics need
Nvidia, Apple, and the Pentagon want more rare earth metals. Alta says it can capture more of the critical minerals from low-grade sources than other methods. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
German Bionic’s new exoskeleton supports 80-pound lifts
At CES 2025, German Bionic announced the Apogee Ultra, a new robotic exoskeleton it claims is the “world’s most powerful.” What did the system do to earn such a lofty title? It offers up to 80 pounds of dynamic lift assistance. That mean a payload of 70 pounds feels more like 9 to 11 pounds […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Withings launches BPM Vision, a $130 home blood pressure monitor, at CES 2025
Withings has made a name for itself by making clinical grade health technologies accessible to consumer. This week at CES 2025, the firm revealed two new products that fit the description nicely, one hardware and one software. BPM Vision is the more notable. It’s a travel size home blood pressure monitor, complete with interchangeable arm […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fermata uses computer vision to detect diseases and pests in plants
When Valeria Kogan started her Ph.D. program in bioinformatics, the scientific field that uses computation and software to analyze biological data, in 2017, she imagined her career would always be within the fields of mathematics, medicine, or biology. But after the first AI boom in the late 2010s, she got an intriguing opportunity in a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Razer’s concept gaming chair will heat your butt up before cooling it down
Razer is always a source for good, weird fun during CES week. The gaming peripheral giant kicked off CES 2025 with a handful of Monday morning announcements, including a new take on its mesh chair. Built around the company’s well-received Razer Fujin Pro, Project Arielle adds heating and cooling to the mix. As the chair’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UN aviation agency ‘investigating’ security breach after hacker claims theft of personal data
ICAO says the incident was allegedly linked to a hacker 'known for targeting international organizations' © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Getty Images and Shutterstock to merge to form $3.7 billion stock photo giant
Getty Images has announced plans to merge with its rival Shutterstock in a cash-and-stock deal. The combined entity is expected to be valued at $3.7 billion based on yesterday’s closing share prices. This announcement confirms earlier reporting from Bloomberg. Both companies offer stock photos and video footage that can be licensed and reused. This content […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Segway dropped two e-bikes at CES that are stylish and packed with tech for under $3000
Micromobility giant Segway launched two new e-bikes at CES 2025 that are designed to make the experience of riding a bike easier, safer, more convenient, and more accessible. The new bikes – the Xyber that’s giving dirt bike energy, and the classic-looking Xafari – are available for pre-order now, with expected delivery in February, according […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Kombu is changing the way we make our ‘booch’ with its modern kombucha brewer
Kombucha, a fermented tea that has been around for thousands of years and was once considered a niche health drink, is currently experiencing a surge in popularity as more consumers look for gut-friendly beverages. However, this fizzy drink isn’t exactly cheap, and home brewing can be messy, overly complicated, and time-consuming. Additionally, the supplies needed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Petcube’s new water fountain aims to protect your cat’s urinary health
Dehydration is a major cause of illness in cats and affects millions of them each year. To address this issue, Petcube, a pet tech company known for its smart cameras and treat dispensers, introduced its first pet water fountain at CES 2025 on Tuesday. This fountain gives pets access to clean, safe water when their […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Acer’s new gaming handheld is ridiculously large
Acer unveiled two new gaming handhelds at CES 2025. The company clearly believes that bigger always means better, as it is pushing the physical limits of gaming handhelds with an enormous 10.95-inch display. Named the Nitro Blaze 11, the device comes with an AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS processor — a CPU originally designed for laptops […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta drops fact-checking, loosens its content moderation rules
Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, today announced a major overhaul of its content moderation policies, taking off some guardrails that it had put in place over several years in response to criticism that it had helped spread political and health misinformation. In a blog post called “More speech, fewer mistakes”, Meta’s new […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
May Mobility reveals electric autonomous minibus at CES 2025
May Mobility, an autonomous vehicle technology startup, unveiled at CES 2025 the next vehicle in its portfolio: an electric, autonomous minibus made in partnership with European electric bus manufacturer Tecnobus. Ann Arbor-based May Mobility offers on-demand and fixed-route autonomous shuttles on campuses and in planned communities. Today its fleet consists of 40 Toyota Sienna minivans that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
NXP to buy automotive safety software firm TTTech Auto for $625M
Dutch semiconductor giant NXP on Tuesday said it plans to acquire TTTech Auto, an Austrian company specializing in safety software for autonomous vehicles, in an all-cash transaction valued at $625 million. TTTech Auto spun out of TTTech Group in 2018, with some $78 million in backing from the likes of AUDI, Samsung and GE Ventures. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Just Eat Takeaway completes Grubhub sale to Wonder for a modest $650M
After looking for a buyer for more than two years, Just Eat Takeaway.com has finally closed the menu on Grubhub. On Tuesday, the Dutch food delivery giant said it completed the sale of the U.S. business to Wonder, the food startup founded and led by e-commerce veteran Marc Lore. The deal has an enterprise value […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft to pump $3 billion into cloud and AI push in India
Microsoft plans to invest $3 billion to expand capacity for its artificial intelligence and cloud Azure services in India and also upskill an additional 10 million people in the country with AI, the software giant’s chief executive said Tuesday. “The investments in infrastructure and skilling we are announcing today reaffirm our commitment to making India […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple to label notification summaries to indicate use of AI
Apple said on Monday it would release an update to better indicate that its notification summaries are generated by artificial intelligence. “A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia’s Project Digits is a ‘personal AI supercomputer’
At CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Nvidia unveiled Project Digits, a “personal AI supercomputer” that provides access to the company’s Grace Blackwell hardware platform in a compact form factor. “[Project Digits] runs the entire Nvidia AI stack — all of Nvidia software runs on this,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said onstage during a press conference […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia is helping humanoid robots learn through Apple Vision Pro instruction
Robotics have been a foundational element of Nvidia’s stratospheric growth in recent years. When the chip maker announced GR00T in March of last year, it was heralded as a watershed moment from humanoid robotics. Most of the category’s biggest names were available from launch, including, 1X Technologies, Agility Robotics, Apptronik, Boston Dynamics, Figure AI, Fourier […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Toyota’s next-generation cars will be built with Nvidia supercomputers and operating system
Toyota announced at CES 2025 that its next-generation vehicles will have automated driving capabilities powered by Nvidia’s Drive AGX Orin supercomputer and safety-focused operating system, DriveOS. TechCrunch has reached out to Toyota to learn more about the automaker’s plans to deploy vehicles with autonomous capabilities. DriveOS is the operating system for Nvidia’s autonomous vehicle platform […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia details Mega, a fleet manager for warehouse robots
Nvidia continues its expansion into robotics software with Mega an Omniverse Blueprint designed specifically for robotic fleet management at scale. The offering, announced at CES Monday, specifically targets warehouses, a space that saw massive robotics adoption during the pandemic. Even so, most still lack significant automation. Companies like Locus Robotics have made significant headway in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia releases its own brand of world models
Nvidia is getting into world models — AI models that take inspiration from the mental models of the world that humans develop naturally. At CES 2025 in Las Vegas, the company announced that it is making openly available a family of world models that can predict and generate “physics-aware” videos. Nvidia is calling this family Cosmos […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia unveils $2,000 RTX 5090 GPU
As anticipated, Nvidia Monday kicked off its CES 2025 keynote by unveiling the new RTX Blackwell family of GPUs. The centerpiece of the line is the RTX 5090. The card bears a striking resemblance to its predecessor, but now sports, 92 billion transistors, 4,000 AT TOPS, 380 ray-tracing TFLOPS, and 1.8 TB/s bandwidth. The 5090 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sony-Honda’s Afeela EV will start at $89,900
Sony has been trickling out details of the Afeela brand it launched with Honda, ever since it unveiled the EV in 2023. But it’s held back one big detail — until today. Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida announced Monday at CES 2025 that the four-door Afeela EV would have a starting price of $89,900. The Sony-Honda […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sony’s CES 2025 press conference: How to watch
Sony knows how to put on a show at CES 2025. The company’s pressers are high-octane, star-studded affairs, as these things go. In addition to standard Sony fare like TVs and audio systems, there’s always a curve ball or two, be it a car, a drone, or a “Gran Turismo” movie. That’s one of the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anker shows off its solar beach umbrella at CES 2025
At CES 2025, Anker unveiled its first solar umbrella, designed to charge electronic devices — like coolers or phones — while outdoors. The new umbrella is part of Anker’s SOLIX lineup, which includes energy-efficient products like portable power stations and solar generators intended for powering home appliances during blackouts and emergencies. Though many solar-powered beach […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CES 2025 Press Day: Everything Nvidia, Sony, Toyota, Samsung announced, and more
CES 2025, the annual consumer tech conference held in Las Vegas, is here. TechCrunch reporters are on the ground giving you the latest announcements and reveals at the conference. Today is Press Day, which features keynotes from the biggest players, including Samsung, Nvidia, Toyota, Sony, and more. Below, you’ll find a list of the biggest […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S25 on January 22
In what was an otherwise uneventful CES 2025 press conference, Samsung on Monday announced January 22 as the date for its next Unpacked event. The timing lines up with earlier reporting. The event, which is being livestreamed through Samsung’s site, will almost certainly serve as a launching pad for the company’s latest flagship phone, the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Toyota is ‘exploring rockets’ and has made its first investment into Interstellar Technologies
Japanese automaker Toyota is “exploring rockets,” chairman Akio Toyoda announced on stage at CES 2025 on Monday, while hinting at the idea of moving people through space. The rocketry mention on the CES 2025 stage came while Toyoda was in the middle of explaining how he views his company’s myriad technologies as “invention by kakezan,” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The US just added Tencent — which backs US startups — to its list of ‘Chinese military’ companies
While the Chinese internet giant Tencent is best-known for its super-app WeChat, it’s also a major investor in U.S. tech companies and startups. Some of its most notable and still active investments include Reddit, Snap, and Fortnite creator Epic Games. Things might get a little awkward, though, because Tencent was designated a “Chinese military company” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Consumer tech spending will break records in 2025 if Trump’s tariffs don’t squash it, CTA predicts
AI is leading US consumers towards a tech spending bonanza this year if tariffs don't materialize, new research from the Consumer Technology Association finds. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Toyota’s Woven City is open for business and looking for startups
Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda revealed Monday at CES 2025 his vision for a living laboratory chock full of startups and technology. His message: Woven City — a prototype city on a 175-acre site at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan — is open for business and searching for inventors. “Today, I say to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Toyota is ‘exploring rockets’
Japanese automaker Toyota is “exploring rockets,” chairman Akio Toyoda just announced on stage at CES 2025, while hinting at the idea of moving people through space. Toyoda did not offer any details explaining what he meant. But he showed a rendering on stage of a rocket designed by Interstellar Technologies, a private Japanese spaceflight company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Washington sues T-Mobile over 2021 data breach that spilled 79 million customer records
The 2021 breach affected at least 2 million Washington state residents, and tens of millions more customers around the United States. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta appoints UFC’s president to its board
Meta has appointed three new members to its board of directors, the company announced Monday: UFC president and CEO Dana White, European investment company Exor CEO John Elkann, and tech investor and entrepreneur Charlie Songhurst. In a press release, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that White, Elkann, and Songhurst “will add a depth of expertise […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Toyota is teaching robot arms to fold t-shirts the Japanese way
Monday’s Toyota CES press conference was all about Woven City, the carmaker’s planned community at the base of Mt. Fuji. Robotics will undoubtedly play a major role in the company’s bid to automate as much of the 2,000-person city as possible, including autonomous cars and drones designed to chaperone people back home after dark. One […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice steps down, CNBC reports
Tom Vice, the CEO of private space technologies company Sierra Space, has left the company, according to a CNBC report. Vice held the position for three and a half years, overseeing the VC-backed company’s $290 million fundraise at a $5.3 billion valuation in 2023 and securement of a military satellite contract in early 2024. Despite […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Goodbye, Dell XPS
In a bid to streamline, Dell is dropping some of its most iconic laptop brands. At CES 2025 on Monday, the PC company announced that XPS, Inspiron, and Latitude are moving to a farm upstate. In their stead come Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max. The move is a bid to create “unified branding” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Flying Flea electric motorcycles will feature connected services powered by Qualcomm
Flying Flea is the latest electric two-wheeler manufacturer to embrace the connected vehicle trend. At CES 2025, Flying Flea shared plans to integrate some of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon products into its upcoming line of motorcycles, bringing connected capabilities like voice assistance, smartphone-enabled keys, and customizable ride modes. Indian motorcycle manufacturer Royal Enfield introduced the Flying Flea […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CISA says ‘no indication’ of wider government hack beyond Treasury
U.S. Treasury officials confirmed a cyberattack on its systems in early December 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AMD unveils new chips for laptops, desktops, and gaming handhelds at CES 2025
At CES 2025 in Las Vegas, AMD unveiled a slew of new chips destined for devices ranging from desktops to gaming handhelds. AMD is riding high coming into this year’s CES. The company commanded a 28.7% share of the desktop CPU segment in Q3 2024, up 9.6 percentage points compared to the same quarter the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky bump from X exodus is slowing down, data shows
Social network and X competitor Bluesky’s massive growth slowed in December in the U.S., after having surged from 9+ million in September to north of 20 million users in November. The slowdown is based on an analysis of web traffic and mobile app daily active users by analytics firm Similarweb, which found that Bluesky grew […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google unveils an AI-powered TV that summarizes the news for you at CES 2025
Long gone are the days of simply watching the news. Google unveiled the latest version of its TV operating system at CES 2025 on Monday. It uses the company’s Gemini AI assistant to summarize the biggest news of the day for you. By asking Gemini to play your “News Brief,” the AI assistant will scrape […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trucks VC launches $70M fund to find the next great batch of transportation startups
Trucks Venture Capital co-founder Reilly Brennan has spent more than a decade looking for — and investing in — entrepreneurs building the future of transportation, including autonomous vehicle tech, electric air taxis, EV charger maintenance, mobility data platforms, and more. Now, Brennan along with partners Jeffrey Schox, Kathryn Schox, and Puneeth Meruva, are on the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meet the Chinese ‘Typhoon’ hackers preparing for war
Dubbed Volt, Flax and Salt Typhoon, U.S. intelligence says these China-backed hackers are laying the groundwork for future conflict. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google is forming a new team to build AI that can simulate the physical world
Google is forming a new team to work on AI models that can simulate the physical world. Tim Brooks — one of the co-leads on OpenAI’s video generator, Sora, who left for Google’s AI research lab, Google DeepMind, in October — will lead the new team, he announced in a post on X. It’ll be a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bosch is making e-bike batteries lockable via an app to deter theft
German conglomerate Bosch announced on Monday at CES 2025 a new layer of theft prevention for its e-bike batteries: the ability to lock a battery through the company’s Flow+ app. With the feature activated, batteries will automatically digitally lock when owners turn off their Bosch e-bike. If a thief somehow steals one of these batteries […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung says its home robot, Ballie, will roll out this year
Tech companies love rolling a robot out onstage. These systems serve as shorthand for consumer electronics brands branching out into more bleeding-edge category. On occasion we get an Amazon Astro or Sony Aibo that actually hit in the market in some form. More often than not, however, the robots only exist in the land of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
John Deere’s new robot lawnmower is coming for landscapers’ jobs
John Deere has a bunch of new products that it just showed off at CES 2025, including an electric robot lawnmower meant for commercial-grade landscaping. Powered by a 21.4kWh battery — roughly a quarter the size of what you’d find on a passenger EV — the company says the mower is supposed to be able […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pawport’s upgraded smart pet door debuts at CES
Pawport, a pet tech startup based in Phoenix, is back at CES 2025 to unveil its upgraded Smart Pet Door, which now features an additional exterior door for added security. If you’re tired of bugs or, worse, raccoons and other critters sneaking into your home through traditional pet doors, Pawport may have the solution. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Will.i.am is flogging electronics again
Will.i.am’s history with consumer tech has been — let’s just say “spotty.” The musician/entrepreneur loves gadgets, this much we can say for certain. For his latest trick, the Black Eyed Pea is returning at LG’s “Experiential Architect” in conjunction with CES 2025. What does such a role entail? Suggesting ideas for Bluetooth speakers and headphones, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Space: New year, new milestones
Hi, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. Happy New Year! And…surprise!: This will be the last edition of TechCrunch Space for the foreseeable future. I know, it’s a bummer. But fear not: We’ll still be reporting on space startups, so I hope you’ll stay tuned. And there will certainly be a lot to cover. This […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pebble reveals its EV travel trailer designed for digital nomads
Three years ago, Bingrui Yang founded Pebble to bring electrification, automation, and the usability of an iPhone to the RV world. The public got its first glimpse Monday at CES 2025 of what that looks like: a production-ready all-electric travel trailer loaded with tech designed to make towing and camping stress free. The 25-foot all-electric […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Online spending grew 3% to a record $1.2T over holiday period, says Salesforce
Online spending rose 3% to a record $1.2 trillion globally over the holiday period, with U.S.-sales, specifically, growing 4% to $282 billion. That’s according to a new report from Salesforce, which aggregated data from across its various cloud services, including Agentforce, Commerce Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Service Cloud, to garner insights into spending activity spanning […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Therabody launches Coach, an AI-powered digital recovery app
Therabody, the maker of popular massage guns and other wellness devices, announced at CES 2025 that it’s launching an AI-powered digital recovery app called Coach by Therabody. While Therabody’s flagship app is designed to give you easy-to-follow proprietary routines, Coach takes recovery and wellness a step further by using data to understand users’ current needs. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
RoboForce raises $10 million to create a robot workforce
“These are the kind of jobs that we shouldn't need people to do anymore," founder Leo Ma said about dangerous factory jobs. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK uses AI to tackle ‘bid-rigging’ collusion in public procurement contracts
The U.K’s competition authority already has a lot on its plate in terms of tackling Big Tech’s growing reach across the technological spectrum, but closer to home it’s dealing with a different kind of anti-competitive threat — one it reckons AI is well-equipped to address. As per a Financial Times’ report this week, the Competition […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Qualcomm brings its Snapdragon X chips to mid-range Windows laptops and desktops
Qualcomm is making a move for the mid-range PC market with a new system-on-chip. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Qualcomm unveiled Snapdragon X, the latest chip in its Snapdragon X Series of PC processors. The company claims that the chip, built on a 4nm fabrication process, delivers up to “multi-day” battery life […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia’s CES 2025 keynote: How to watch
Nvidia will no doubt have the biggest CES 2025. After all, the company has pretty much the biggest everything nowadays. The chip giant is sporting a $3.4+ trillion market cap, due largely to its foundational position in the ongoing AI boom. Companies like OpenAI and Meta have purchased Nvidia processors by the boatload, and that’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Full Nature Farms launches smart irrigation system at CES 2025 to reduce agricultural water waste
Agriculture, which consumes about 70% of global freshwater, is grappling with increased water scarcity and inefficient irrigation systems. Traditional methods of irrigation not only lead to wasted water and nutrients, but also contribute to lower crop yields, food insecurity, and unnecessary carbon emissions. Hong-Kong based agriculture technology startup Full Nature Farms thinks there’s a better […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to watch CES 2025’s press conferences
CES 2025 kicks off January 7, but many of the biggest events and reveals actually begin today through a series of live streams and press conferences. The annual Las Vegas event sets the tone for the year’s consumer electronics and automotive industries. As always, TechCrunch will be there, sniffing out stories from the most exciting […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Disney to merge Hulu Live TV with Fubo in groundbreaking deal
In a surprising deal announced on Monday, Disney is set to combine its Hulu Live TV business with Fubo, the live TV streaming service known for its extensive sports coverage. Under the terms of the deal, Disney will own about 70% of Fubo, which will continue to be available to viewers as a separate offering. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lucid meets production target with 9,029 EV deliveries in 2024
Luxury electric vehicle startup Lucid produced and delivered a record number of electric vehicles in the fourth quarter and full year of 2024. Lucid produced 3,386 vehicles and delivered 3,099 in Q4. On a full-year basis, the company produced 9,029 vehicles and delivered 10,241 vehicles in 2024, meeting its previously announced target to produce roughly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bird Buddy expands into insects with Wonder line
Bird Buddy’s smart bird feeders are a perfect confluence of different consumer technologies. Breakthroughs in security cameras, AI, and solar charging have converged into a terrific little product that has captured public imagination. At CES 2025, the startup’s creators announced an expansion into another wing of the animal kingdom. Wonder is a new sub-brand bringing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Soliddd is building smart glasses for people with macular degeneration
For the past several years, the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center have been lousy with AR/VR/XR smart glasses. While the some of the biggest names in tech, like Apple and Google, have struggled to gain traction in the category, accessible tech remains relatively unexplored. There’s a lot of work to be done in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Kidde’s new smoke detectors have Ring technology built in
Amazon announced a partnership with Kidde at CES 2025 on Monday that brings its Ring technology to the home safety stalwart’s smoke alarms. There will be multiple versions of the hybrid smoke and CO2 detectors, ranging in price from $55 to $75. As a longtime owner of a Nest Protect, I can confidently say that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Intel shows off its latest chip lineup at CES 2025
Fresh off of its worst year since going public in 1971, Intel is announcing new chips at CES 2025 that it hopes will turn its fortunes around. The product announcement is Intel’s largest since the company’s board of directors forced out CEO Pat Gelsinger. That’s not the only reason stakes are high. Intel’s 13th- and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Avataar releases new tool to create AI-generated videos for products
Generative AI models have reached a baseline capability of producing at least a passable video from a single image or short sentence. Companies building products around these models are claiming that anyone can make a snazzy promo video if they have some images or recordings — and videos usually perform better than static images or […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung’s CES 2025 press conference: How to watch
Samsung’s CES presser is always an odd duck. The Korean electronics giant generally keeps its powder dry when it comes to consumer electronics. After all, it’s expected to announce its latest flagship handset — the Galaxy S25 — toward the end of January. CES 2025 is going to continue the company’s tradition of TVs and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elvie unveils an app-controlled smart bouncer that transforms into a bassinet at CES 2025
Elvie, a female-founded hardware startup, has unveiled a new app-controlled smart bouncer that gently transforms into a bassinet — while the baby is still in it. With the new Elvie Rise, announced at CES 2025 on Monday, parents and caregivers don’t have to move their baby between soothing, sleep, and play products. The startup is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AMD’s CES 2025 press conference: How to watch
AMD has its work cut out for it at CES 2025. Competitor Nvidia has been sucking the oxygen out of every room it graces, as the chipmaker remains at the forefront of the AI boom. So, how will AMD compete with Nvidia’s reported RTX 5000 announcement? The company should show off its own next-gen GPU. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI is losing money on its pricey ChatGPT Pro plan, CEO Sam Altman says
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says that the company is currently losing money on its $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro plan because people are using it more than expected “I personally chose the price,” Altman wrote in a series of posts on X, “and thought we would make some money.” OpenAI launched ChatGPT Pro toward the end of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Kirin offers a taste of its electric salt spoon at CES 2025
On the first night of CES 2025, Kirin Holdings, a Japanese company known for its beer and beverages, showed off its new electronic spoon that makes your food taste saltier. The company says its spoon uses a weak electric current to concentrate sodium ion molecules in your food, adding a stronger umami and salt flavor […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Withings’ Omnia is a full-size body-scanning health mirror
The Omnia is still very much in concept mode — a phenomenon popular in the automotive world that has since spilled over into consumer electronics. That is to say that Withings’ splashiest product of CES 2025 may never be a product. Among other things, a body-scanning smart mirror would likely be cost prohibitive for consumers. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung’s new TVs can find recipes for dishes in shows
Have you ever watched a food scene on TV and thought, wow, I wish I could cook that at home? Maybe it was the il timpano in “Big Night,” or the beef bourguignon in “Julie & Julia.” Whatever your show-inspired craving, you’re in luck — if you buy a 2025 Samsung TV, that is. During […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung brings live translate to its TVs at CES 2025
At CES 2025, Samsung announced that it’s bringing a popular feature from the company’s phones and tablets to its TVs. Live Translate does what it says on the box, offering users real-time translation for live broadcasts. The feature will work in seven different languages — though it’s not entirely clear which at the time of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI is beginning to turn its attention to ‘superintelligence’
In a post on his personal blog, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that he believes OpenAI “know[s] how to build [artificial general intelligence]” as it has traditionally understood it — and is beginning to turn its aim to “superintelligence.” “We love our current products, but we are here for the glorious future,” Altman wrote in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Birdfy sees your smart bird feeder and raises you a smart birdbath
Smart bird feeders are very 2020. Smart birdbaths are clearly where it’s at. This week at CES 2025, Birdify is showcasing the Bath Pro, taking a cue from products like the Bird Buddy and applying them to a big saucer of water with a solar-powered fountain in the middle. Two versions of the product will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This tiny robot cat will blow on your coffee to cool it off
Yukai Engineering’s parade of weird animal robots at CES 2025 continues with Nékojita FuFu. The little cat mounts to the side of a mug or bowl, blowing air to help cool it off. The Tokyo-based firm says the robot combines a fan and “special algorithm” — or a “Fuing System — to blow at random […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Circular unveils its next gen Ring 2 with ECG functionality and AFib detection at CES 2025
Smart ring maker Circular announced its next-gen Ring 2 with ECG (electrocardiogram) functionality and AFib (atrial fibrillation) detection at CES 2025 Unveiled on Sunday in Las Vegas. The wearable is set to go on sale in February or Mach for $380. The ring’s ECG capability and FDA-cleared AFib detection will gives users the ability to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Timekettle’s new earbuds offer real-time translation on calls
Timekettle unveiled its latest earbuds, the W4 Pro, this week at CES 2025 in Las Vegas. The product aims to up the ante on the startup’s focus by bringing real-time two-way translation to phone and video calls. The earbuds will automatically begin translating calls in 40 different languages, without any input from the user. Predictably, there […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This fuzzy, purse-mounted robot is designed to ‘delight bystanders’
Best known for its Qooba cat pillow, Yukai Engineering has made a name for itself with some of the strangest little robots around. Who could forget, for example, Amagami Ham Ham, whose sole purpose is to gnaw on fingers, offering a “somewhat pleasing sensation.” At CES 2025, Yukai unveiled its latest, Mirumi, and it follows […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Accel could raise billions for India, but it’s sticking to $650 million
Accel has maintained its India fund size at $650 million for its eighth vehicle, even as other venture firms in the region are racing to raise increasingly larger pools of capital. The firm had ample opportunity to raise “multi-billion dollars,” said Shekhar Kirani, partner at Accel, in an interview with TechCrunch. But unlike peers who […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sam Altman has choice words for the OpenAI board members who fired him
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has strong words for the former board members who abruptly fired him late last November. “[A]ll those people that I feel, like, really f—ed me and f—ed the company were gone, and now I had to clean up their mess,” he told Bloomberg in a wide-ranging interview. Just over a year […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Toyota’s CES 2025 press conference: How to watch
Five years ago, Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda went to CES to share with the world his “personal field of dreams” — a plan to build a prototype city on a 175-acre site at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan, where people would live and work amongst all of Toyota’s projects, including autonomous vehicle technology, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTuber LegalEagle sues PayPal over ‘sleeping leech’ Honey extension
A new lawsuit alleges that the PayPal-owned browser extension Honey is cheating creators out of money. Honey, which PayPal acquired for $4 billion in 2019, works by automatically presenting users with relevant coupon codes as they shop. However, in a video posted last month, YouTuber MegaLag described Honey as a “scam” that’s “stealing money from […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Roborock’s Roomba competitor gets a robot arm
iRobot’s on-going financial crisis aside, the world of robot vacuums is still humming along. At CES Sunday, Roborock announced the Saros Z70. The Roomba competitor showcases what the company believes will be the next big step in robovac evolution: an arm. The idea of mounting a a manipulator is no doubt as old as robot […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bad news for Adrian Dittman/Elon Musk truthers
After days of speculation that X owner Elon Musk was secretly posting under an account named Adrian Dittman, there’s new evidence suggesting that Dittman is, in fact, a real person living in Fiji. Attempts to connect Dittman and Musk go back at least to 2023; Dittman frequently makes fawning posts about Musk, and his voice […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung’s CES 2025 press conference: How to watch
Samsung’s CES presser is always an odd duck. The Korean electronics giant generally keeps its powder dry when it comes to consumer electronics. After all, it’s expected to announce its latest flagship handset — the Galaxy S25 — toward the end of January. CES 2025 is going to continue the company’s tradition of TVs and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
United Airlines accelerates its Starlink rollout, with first commercial flight planned for spring
A few months ago, United Airlines announced its deal with Starlink to offer in-flight internet access for its passengers. At the time, the airline said it would start testing the new service in early 2024 and then offer it on passenger flights later in the year. United has now accelerated this timeline a bit, with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sony’s CES 2025 press conference: How to watch
Sony knows how to put on a show at CES 2025. The company’s pressers are high-octane, star-studded affairs, as these things go. In addition to standard Sony fare like TVs and audio systems, there’s always a curve ball or two, be it a car, a drone, or a “Gran Turismo” movie. That’s one of the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AMD’s CES 2025 press conference: How to watch
AMD has its work cut out for it at CES 2025. Competitor Nvidia has been sucking the oxygen out of every room it graces, as the chipmaker remains at the forefront of the AI boom. So, how will AMD compete with Nvidia’s reported RTX 5000 announcement? The company should show off its own next-gen GPU. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
From forced landings to stuffed animal heads, headhunter Peterson Conway is defense tech’s wildest power broker
Conway has recruited for some of the buzziest defense and hard tech firms in Silicon Valley over the last decade, like Palantir and Mach Industries. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tenable CEO Amit Yoran dies
Longtime entrepreneur and cybersecurity executive Amit Yoran passed away Friday after a battle with cancer. Cybersecurity company Tenable, where Yoran was CEO and chairman, announced his death in a press release. Before becoming Tenable’s CEO in 2016, he held a number of roles including president of RSA, founding CEO of NetWitness, and CEO of In-Q-Tel. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lyft will credit NYC riders for congestion fee throughout January
New York City’s congestion pricing is scheduled to take effect Sunday — but for the first month, Lyft said it will be crediting riders who pay the fee. New York’s program, which is supposed to reduce traffic in lower Manhattan while also raising funding for mass transit, was paused by Governor Kathy Hochul in June, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What will this year bring in VC? We asked a few investors
A new year brings with it hope for a better tomorrow — kind of, at least. In the world of venture capital, nothing is quite predictable. The number of firms in the U.S. has taken a sharp dip as risk-averse institutional investors splash money on only the biggest names in Silicon Valley, as reported by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
New ship, new year: SpaceX to deploy model Starlink satellites on next Starship launch
SpaceX is significantly upping the ante of its Starship test flight program, with the next rocket launch expected to demonstrate payload deployment for the first time. The payload in question will be 10 Starlink “simulators” that will be similar in size and weight to the next-gen satellites SpaceX plans to use Starship to deploy in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi resigns from self-driving truck startup Aurora’s board
Dara Khosrowshahi is resigning from the board of autonomous vehicle technology company Aurora Innovation, citing a desire to focus on his ongoing responsibilities as CEO of Uber and reduce external board commitments, according to a Friday regulatory filing. Khosrowshahi’s resignation was effective as of Tuesday. Aurora says Khosrowshahi’s decision to leave the board was not […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Inside the wild fall and last-minute revival of Bench, the VC-backed accounting startup that imploded over the holidays
Friday, December 27, was supposed to be the start of a relaxing holiday weekend. But it was chaos for thousands of small business owners who use Bench, an accounting and tax startup based in Canada that raised $113 million from investors like Bain Capital Ventures and Shopify. That morning, they found themselves unable to log […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These fintech companies are hiring in 2025 after a turbulent year
While the rapid pace of funding has slowed, many fintechs are continuing to see growth and expand their teams. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Scout Motors EVs will have satellite connectivity
Volkswagen offshoot Scout Motors is getting a jump-start on CES 2025 next week, with some good news for people who plan to take the company’s EVs way, way outdoors: The forthcoming Traveler SUV and Terra pickup will have a built-in satellite connection. Scout Motors isn’t saying where it’s sourcing the satellite linkup hardware from, or […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 was a big year for OpenAI, from its partnership […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Generative AI funding reached new heights in 2024
If there was any doubt, the generative AI bubble didn’t burst in 2024. Investments in generative AI, which encompasses a range of AI-powered apps, tools, and services to generate text, images, videos, speech, music, and more, reached new heights last year. According to data from financial tracker PitchBook compiled for TechCrunch, generative AI companies worldwide […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft to spend $80 billion in FY’25 on data centers for AI
Microsoft has earmarked $80 billion in fiscal 2025 to build data centers designed to handle artificial intelligence workloads, according to a company blog post. Specifically, the tech giant plans to build out AI-enabled data centers “to train AI models and deploy AI and cloud-based applications around the world.” Of that $80 billion allocation, more than […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Turo CEO: Attackers had clean records, so background checks wouldn’t have stopped them
Two individuals rented cars from Turo, a peer-to-peer car-sharing platform, and used them to perform acts of violence earlier this week. First, a military veteran driving a Ford F-150 Lightning drove into a crowd of people, killing at least 15. Then, an active-duty Green Beret rented a Tesla Cybertruck, parked it in front of the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FTC orders AI accessibility startup accessiBe to pay $1M for misleading advertising
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has fined accessiBe, a startup that claims to make websites more compatible with the screen readers blind people rely on to access the internet, for false advertising and compensating reviewers without disclosing that it sponsored the reviews. In a proposed order, the FTC would require accessiBe to pay $1 million […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Turo taps national security and counterterrorism experts after Cybertruck explosion
Two individuals rented cars from Turo, a peer-to-peer car-sharing platform, and used them to perform acts of violence earlier this week. First, a military veteran driving a Ford F-150 Lightning drove into a crowd of people, killing at least 15. Then, an active-duty Green Beret rented a Tesla Cybertruck, parked it in front of the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bench saved by the bell, and other last-minute deals that closed 2024
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Welcome to 2025! The first half of the week was relatively quiet in terms of startup announcements, but activity is already starting to pick up. We’re also […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hydrogen tax credit rules give startups clarity while boosting nuclear and carbon capture
Hydrogen startups are widely seen as a promising way to eliminate fossil fuels from heavy industry and long-haul transportation. But they have been stuck in limbo for the last couple years, waiting for official guidance from the U.S. Treasury on lucrative tax credits. The wait ended today, with the Treasury announcing final rules for hydrogen […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Venture fund founder sues PayPal, alleging racial discrimination
Andav Capital's founder claims PayPal's program was discriminatory as it sought to exclusively focus on Black and Hispanic-led enterprises. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US sanctions Chinese cyber firm linked to Flax Typhoon hacks
U.S. officials say the sanctioned Chinese firm provided botnet infrastructure for the China-backed hacking group Flax Typhoon © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple TV+ is free to stream this weekend
Apple is allowing anyone to access its Apple TV+ streaming service for free from Friday through Sunday. The company announced the weekend of free streaming earlier this week alongside a short video featuring its most popular TV shows, including “Severance,” “Slow Horses,” “Shrinking,” and more. It’s worth noting that this is the first time that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These MagSafe earbuds snap on to the back of an iPhone
We’ve seen a handful of AirPod-charging iPhone battery cases come and go over the years. Artronic’s new earbuds take a different approach, with a slim charging case that snaps directly to the back of MagSafe-compatible phones. The Komutr buds were announced on Friday, a few days ahead of their CES 2025 debut. In a sea […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Electra found a cheap, clean way to purify iron, and it’s raising $257M to make it happen
Electra has raised $76.3 million to clean up the dirty ironmaking industry, TechCrunch has learned. The startup has developed a novel method of using electricity to coax pure iron out of low-grade ores, opening the door to cleaner steel. The new funding round, which was disclosed in a regulatory filing, seeks to raise a total […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Online gift card store exposed hundreds of thousands of people’s identity documents
The gift card store secured the public cloud storage server containing customer ID documents, which was not protected with a password. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rivian wraps 2024 with more than 50,000 EVs delivered
Rivian finished last year having delivered 51,579 electric SUVs, trucks, and vans, more than triple the number it shipped to customers in 2023. The company announced Friday that it also built 49,476 EVs in 2024. That’s about 8,000 fewer than it expected to manufacture as recently as July. Rivian was forced to lower its expectations, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hindustan Unilever in talks to acquire Peak XV-backed Minimalist for up to $350M
Consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever is in advanced talks to acquire four-year-old direct-to-consumer startup Minimalist for up to $350 million, according to two people familiar with the matter. An acquisition would add to the Unilever subsidiary’s buying spree in India, where it expanded into the health and wellbeing category by acquiring Oziva and Wellbeing Nutrition […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cloudflare’s VPN app among half-dozen pulled from Indian app stores
More than half-a-dozen VPN apps, including Cloudflare’s widely-used 1.1.1.1, have been pulled from India’s Apple App Store and Google Play Store following intervention from government authorities, TechCrunch has learned. The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs issued removal orders for the apps, according to a document reviewed by TechCrunch and a disclosure made by Google to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia’s CES 2025 keynote: How to watch
Nvidia will no doubt have the biggest CES 2025. After all, the company has pretty much the biggest everything nowadays. The chip giant is sporting a $3.4+ trillion market cap, due largely to its foundational position in the ongoing AI boom. Companies like OpenAI and Meta have purchased Nvidia processors by the boatload, and that’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Peter Thiel-backed venture debt firm Tacora raises $268.7M for new fund
Tacora Capital has raised its second fund, after Peter Thiel backed its first fund with $250 million. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to watch CES 2025’s press conferences
CES 2025 kicks off January 7. The annual Las Vegas event sets the tone for the year’s consumer electronics and automotive industries. As always, TechCrunch will be there, sniffing stories from the most exciting startups and tech giants. If you really want a piece of the action without paying for the hotel and flight, many […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
KoBold used AI to find copper — now investors are piling in to the tune of $537M
The Bill Gates-backed startup uses AI to comb through massive data sets in an attempt to find more critical minerals. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
xAI’s next-gen AI model didn’t arrive on time, adding to a trend
The list of flagship AI models that missed their promised launch windows continues to grow. Last summer, billionaire Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of AI company xAI, said that Grok 3, xAI’s next major AI model, would arrive by “end of year” 2024. Grok, xAI’s answer to models like OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Google’s Gemini, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These 55 robotics companies are hiring
From the looks of things, companies in the category — including Agility Robotics and Formlogic — can’t hire quickly enough. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These 55 robotics companies are hiring
From the looks of things, companies in the category — including Agility Robotics and Formlogic — can’t hire quickly enough. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta policy chief Nick Clegg steps down
The president of Meta’s Global Affairs team, Nick Clegg, is stepping down from his position at the company, the executive announced in a tweet on Thursday. Clegg, Meta’s politically centrist policy chief since 2018, will be replaced by one of the company’s most prominent Republican executives, Joel Kaplan. Clegg noted on X that Kaplan is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
New details emerge in Cybertruck explosion outside Trump hotel in Vegas that left 1 dead, 7 injured
A Tesla Cybertruck that exploded and burst into flames Wednesday morning just outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas has left one person dead and seven people injured, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD). Matthew Alan Livelsberger, a 37-year-old man who was an active duty U.S. Army Green Beret from Colorado Springs, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CES 2025: What to expect from the year’s first and biggest tech show
CES 2025 officially kicks off in Las Vegas on Tuesday morning, running through the end of the day on January 10. The “official” dates are specific to when the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center is open to attendees, and ultimately belie the show’s true duration. A pair of press days kick off Sunday […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify’s partner program for podcast hosts is now available
Spotify announced Thursday the launch of its new “Partner Program” that lets popular podcast hosts monetize their video content. Spotify’s new program gives qualifying creators on its platform opportunities for extra income beyond just advertising revenue, such as video payouts. The program was initially announced back in November and is officially available in the U.S., […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Thomson Reuters acquires tax automation company SafeSend for $600M
Thomson Reuters has acquired tax automation company SafeSend in an all-cash transaction valued at $600 million.Founded in 2008, Ann Arbor, Michigan-based SafeSend serves a cloud-based platform designed to streamline the processing and sharing of sensitive financial documents.This includes tools for delivering tax returns, gathering e-signatures, collecting payments, automating workflows, meeting compliance obligations, and […]
Tesla Cybertruck fails to boost 2024 sales as annual deliveries fall for first time
Tesla delivered fewer cars last year than it did in 2023, marking its first year-to-year drop and signaling that the company is struggling to reach new buyers. That means Tesla’s Cybertruck, which is the company’s first true new model since 2020, did little to boost the company’s growth in its first full year of sales. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apheris rethinks the AI data bottleneck in life science with federated computing
AI is fundamentally dependent on data, but the vast majority of health data goes unused for understandable reasons — chiefly patient privacy, regulation and IP protection. “This is the core underlying problem” of building AI solutions for life sciences and related areas like pharmaceutics, said German entrepreneur Robin Röhm. And not only that: collaboration when […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
2025 will be the year climate tech learns to love AI
As 2025 dawns, it’s a good time to look at the trends that are likely to define the coming 12 months. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Telegram rolls out third-party account verification, filters
Telegram has rolled out its first update of the year, adding a new account verification method powered by third-parties, new message search filters, and the ability to turn gifts into NFTs. The chat app already had a program to verify public figures and organizations on the platform, and it has now launched a new project […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Chinese government hackers reportedly targeted US Treasury’s sanctions office during December cyberattack
Chinese government hackers targeted the U.S. Treasury’s highly sensitive sanctions office during a December cyberattack, according to reports.According to The Washington Post, the state-sponsored hackers targeted the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a government department that imposes economic and trade sanctions against countries and individuals, to potentially access information on Chinese organizations that […]For personal use only.
Police investigating Cybertruck fire outside Trump hotel in Vegas
A Tesla Cybertruck that caught fire Wednesday morning just outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas is being investigated by local law enforcement. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a post on social media site X that the fire was out and being investigated. The fire was reported around 8:40 a.m. PT, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Toyota’s CES 2025 press conference: How to watch
Five years ago, Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda went to CES to share with the world his “personal field of dreams” — a plan to build a prototype city on a 175-acre site at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan, where people would live and work amongst all of Toyota’s projects, including autonomous vehicle technology, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
People are playing a new DOOM-themed CAPTCHA
CAPTCHA programs that are used to determine whether a site visitor is a person or a bot come in pretty standard formats. Think text distortion (where users type the characters they see in a box amid other squiggles); image recognition (you’re selecting, say, all the squares in a grid with a bicycle image); and checkbox […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Internal SpaceX documents show the sweet stock deals offered to investors like a16z, Gigafund
Like many highly valued startups, SpaceX sometimes allows its employees to cash out some of their shares by selling to company-authorized outside investors. TechCrunch has gotten a peek at an internal SpaceX document about such a tender offer from May 2022. Musk posted on X last month that SpaceX holds such sales for employees about […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Robinhood, already a ‘comeback’ stock, has even more aggressive plans for 2025
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev has a lot to celebrate this holiday season. After a bumpy few years following Robinhood’s 2021 IPO — a period during which shares of the commission-free trading app plummeted by more than 90% after it abruptly restricted trading in some meme stocks — the 12-year-old company was just declared Yahoo Finance’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI failed to deliver the opt-out tool it promised by 2025
Back in May, OpenAI said it was developing a tool to let creators specify how they want their works to be included in — or excluded from — its AI training data. But 7 months later, this feature has yet to see the light of day. Called Media Manager, the tool would “identify copyrighted text, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Silicon Valley stifled the AI doom movement in 2024
For several years now, technologists have rung alarm bells about the potential for advanced AI systems to cause catastrophic damage to the human race. But in 2024, those warning calls were drowned out by a practical and prosperous vision of generative AI promoted by the tech industry – a vision that also benefited their wallets. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Accel closes $650 million for new India fund
Accel has raised $650 million for its eighth India fund as the U.S. venture firm expands its investment strategy in the South Asian market. The new fund follows the firm’s seventh India fund secured in March 2022. Accel — which has backed companies including e-commerce group Flipkart, food delivery platform Swiggy and software group Freshworks […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Judge allows California’s ban on addictive feeds for minors to go into effect
Late Tuesday evening, a federal judge blocked tech lobbying group NetChoice’s challenge to California’s recently enacted law, SB 976, which prohibits companies from serving “addictive feeds” to minors. The effect of this decision is that beginning Wednesday, companies will be prohibited from serving an addictive feed to a California-based user they know to be a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s pro-Trump critics claim they’re being censored on X
Conservative activists claim X is censoring them for being critical of its owner, Elon Musk. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Will Smith eating spaghetti and other weird AI benchmarks that took off in 2024
When a company releases a new AI video generator, it’s not long before someone uses it to make a video of actor Will Smith eating spaghetti. It’s become something of a meme as well as a benchmark: Seeing whether a new video generator can realistically render Smith slurping down a bowl of noodles. Smith himself […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A look back on my favorite episodes of TechCrunch’s Found podcast
TechCrunch’s Found podcast, which has brought listeners the stories behind the startups since April 2022, released its final episode today. I’ve been one of the hosts of Found since November 2022 and in that time have spoken to more than 75 founders about the startups they are building. These founders hail from many different backgrounds […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Investigation exposes pedophilia in the child-influencer industry
A New York Times investigation found that dozens of potential pedophiles have prolifically exploited the child influencer industry. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s promises for Tesla in 2024, from robotaxis to Optimus bots
Elon Musk had an eventful 2024, what with his hard push into right-wing politics and leveraging his X social media platform and considerable influence to help Donald Trump win the presidential election. Putting politics aside for a moment, it’s worth focusing on another Musk pastime: making promises for Tesla. The Tesla CEO’s promises — and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A Waymo robotaxi and a Serve delivery robot collided in Los Angeles
On December 27, a Waymo robotaxi and a Serve Robotics sidewalk delivery robot collided at a Los Angeles intersection, according to a video that’s circulating on social media. The footage shows a Serve bot crossing a street in West Hollywood at night and trying to get onto the sidewalk. It reached the curb, backed up […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tech services firm WWT acquires Canadian IT provider Softchoice in all-cash deal
One last mega-deal closed out an eventful 2024. On Tuesday, World Wide Technology (WWT), a tech services company based in St. Louis, announced it has agreed to acquire Canadian IT provider Softchoice in a deal that values the latter at C$1.8 billion (~$1.25 billion). The deal, which is all-cash, was unanimously approved by Softchoice’s board, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The online moments that defined 2024
Ah, 2024: the year we debated how to pronounce “hawk tuah,” pondered the health benefits of eating rocks, and held space for a Broadway showstopper. It was a year when the discourse could feel shockingly pure and joyful — at least for a few minutes, before we all came tumbling back down to reality. Online […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These were the badly handled data breaches of 2024
Blaming victims, months of silence, and suing security researchers all featured in cybersecurity in 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US telco Lumen says its network is now clear of China’s Salt Typhoon hackers
Lumen says there is 'no evidence' that customer data was accessed during the intrusion © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After ups and down, food delivery startup Epicery closes shop
French food delivery startup Epicery will cease operations Tuesday, after one last holiday season hurrah for its clients and the local food businesses that were using the platform during its nine years in business in exchange for a 25% commission. In a message announcing the decision to customers earlier this month, Epicery’s team said that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
New Year’s cybersecurity resolutions that every startup should keep
These simple cybersecurity resolutions can help keep your startup protected from most malicious hackers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India again delays rules to break PhonePe-Google Pay duopoly
India has once again pushed back a contentious plan to limit big technology companies’ control of the nation’s digital payments system, extending a regulatory uncertainty that has weighed on the sector for years. The National Payments Corporation of India said on Tuesday it would extend the deadline for implementing a 30% cap on any individual […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India lifts WhatsApp payment curbs
India has removed restrictions on WhatsApp’s payments service in a significant victory for Meta in its largest market by users as it seeks to compete with entrenched fintech rivals. The National Payments Corporation of India, the payments body overseeing the popular UPI payments rail, said Tuesday that WhatsApp can now roll out WhatsApp Pay to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gupshup investor cuts value of its stake again, implying new valuation of $486M
Asset management firm Fidelity slashed the estimated worth of its stake in business messaging platform Gupshup by another 7.7% last month, lowering the value of its holding in the SaaS startup by a total of more than 65% since its investment in mid-2021. One of the funds operated by the U.S. asset manager valued its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung pays $181M to become largest shareholder of Rainbow Robotics
Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday that it has become the largest shareholder of South Korea-based robotics maker Rainbow Robotics, increasing its stake from 14.7% to 35% for KRW 267 billion (about $181 billion). The electronics giant, which paid KRW 86.8 billion for the 14.7% stake in 2023, said it is acquiring the stake to bolster […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ByteDance appears to be skirting US restrictions to buy Nvidia chips: report
TikTok parent company ByteDance has big plans to buy Nvidia chips in 2025 — despite U.S. restrictions. ByteDance plans to spend $7 billion on the chips in 2025, according to reporting from The Information, citing inside sources. If ByteDance follows through, it will become one of the world’s top owners of Nvidia chips, despite U.S. efforts […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This MagSafe iPhone wallet doubles as a stand and offers Find My functionality
For a number of years now, Moft has offered some of the most innovative gadget accessories. They’re always interesting, if not necessarily useful. This new combination Find My wallet and stand manages to tick both boxes. The accessory was announced a couple of weeks out from CES, where it will be shown off for the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US Treasury says China accessed government documents in ‘major’ cyberattack
Treasury officials attributed the December theft of unclassified documents to China. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
From AI agents to enterprise budgets, 20 VCs share their predictions on enterprise tech in 2025
While AI is lauded by some as the biggest technological breakthrough since the industrial revolution, enterprises — arguably the tech’s biggest potential customer base — have been slow to adopt AI. While some investors predicted that 2024 would be the year we’d start to see more AI adoption by enterprises, that didn’t play out as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Blue Origin looks to take on SpaceX dominance with New Glenn launch days away
Nearly a quarter century after its founding, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is gearing up to launch an orbital rocket for the first time — and finally enter the competitive launch industry that is currently dominated by SpaceX. Company executives have maintained that they are planning to launch the towering rocket, called New Glenn, before the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Volkswagen leak exposed precise location data on thousands of vehicles across Europe for months
The data was found exposed on an Amazon cloud server, and contained precise location data on thousands of vehicles. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nonprofit group joins Elon Musk’s effort to block OpenAI’s for-profit transition
Encode, the nonprofit organization that co-sponsored California’s ill-fated SB 1047 AI safety legislation, has requested permission to file an amicus brief in support of Elon Musk’s injunction to halt OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit company. In a proposed brief submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Friday afternoon, counsel for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple TV+ will be free to stream this weekend
Apple is allowing anyone to access its Apple TV+ streaming service for free this weekend, January 4 and 5. The company made the announcement on Monday alongside a short video featuring its most popular TV shows, including “Severance,” “Slow Horses,” “Shrinking,” and more. It’s worth noting that this is the first time that Apple has […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bench to be acquired after abruptly shutting down
Bench, the VC-backed accounting startup that left thousands of customers locked out of their accounts after it suddenly shut down last week, will be acquired by Employer.com for an undisclosed price in a last-minute deal, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. The San Francisco-based HR tech company Employer.com focuses on payroll and onboarding, in contrast to Bench, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia completes acquisition of AI infrastructure startup Run:ai
Nvidia has completed its acquisition of Run:ai, an Israeli startup that helps manage and optimize AI hardware infrastructure. As part of the merger, Run:ai said its software, which currently only works with Nvidia products, will be open sourced, meaning Nvidia rivals like AMD and Intel will be able to adapt it for their hardware. “We […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK antitrust watchdog launches review of IBM’s HashiCorp takeover
The Competition and Markets Authority, the U.K.’s antitrust watchdog, has opened an investigation into whether IBM’s planned acquisition of cloud software vendor HashiCorp would affect competition. The CMA said Monday it was inviting comment on the merger from interested parties by January 16. The regulator set a provisional February 25 deadline to decide whether to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Backed by a16z and QED, Brazilian startup Carecode puts AI agents to work on healthcare
AI holds huge promise for healthcare, but not just on the medical side; many startups are convinced machine learning-based systems can do a lot of good on adjacent tasks such as appointment scheduling and confirmations. Brazilian startup Carecode is among these AI believers. It’s coming out of stealth with an ambition to reduce healthcare costs […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mercedes-backed Volocopter files for bankruptcy
German electric air taxi company Volocopter has filed for bankruptcy protection, the latest in a string of similar startups to hit financial turbulence. The company plans to keep operating while it searches for new investors. “We are ahead of our industry peers in our technological, flight test, and certification progress. That makes us an attractive […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Calo raises $25 million to expand its ready-to-eat meal service beyond the Middle East
A business built around increasingly customized ready-to-eat meals has netted Middle Eastern startup Calo a sizeable funding injection as it looks to expand both what it can offer its time-strapped customers and where it delivers its growing range of just-heat-to-eat dishes. The meal delivery market in the Middle East will hit $11.2 billion by 2030, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Verizon says it has secured its network after breach by China-linked Salt Typhoon group
U.S. telecom giant Verizon says it has secured its network after being targeted by the China-linked Salt Typhoon cyberespionage group. In a statement given to TechCrunch on Sunday, Verizon spokesperson Richard Young said the company has “contained the cyber incident brought on by this nation-state threat actor,” and that it has not detected any threat actor […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia’s next move: powering humanoid robots
The chipmaking giant Nvidia is leaning more heavily into robotics in 2025. More specifically, it’s launching a new generation of compact computers for humanoid robots, called Jetson Thor, in the first half of the new year, confims the Financial Times. The move, which was expected, is part of an evolving, years-long strategy. Back in March, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI data centers could be ‘distorting’ the US power grid
The proliferation of data centers aiming to meet the computational needs of AI could be bad news for the US power grid, according to a new report in Bloomberg. Using the 1 million residential sensors tracked by Whisker Labs, along with market intelligence data from DC Byte, Bloomberg found that more than half of the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s mobile payments dilemma
India’s payments regulator is set to decide as early as Monday whether to curb the dominance of Walmart’s PhonePe and Google in the nation’s fast-growing mobile payments market, a move that could reshape how its billion-plus population moves money. The decision centers on UPI, or Unified Payments Interface, a network backed by more than 50 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Crypto industry groups sue IRS over broker reporting rule
Three crypto industry groups — the DeFi Education Fund, the Blockchain Association, and the Texas Blockchain Council — are suing the Internal Revenue Service to block new regulations that require decentralized finance (DeFi) entities to report customer information. The IRS has been finalizing crypto tax regulations as part of the Biden Administration’s Infrastructure Investment and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Africa’s newest fintech unicorns are winning by keeping their feet on the ground
Africa’s tech ecosystem just got a boost of attention, with South Africa’s TymeBank and Nigeria’s Moniepoint both raising funds in recent weeks at valuations of over $1 billion and joining the coveted unicorn pantheon. But those valuations don’t just reflect investor confidence. They signal the success they’ve had in taking disruptive fintech models originally developed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Permira’s Brian Ruder talks AI, Squarespace acquisition, and the value of co-leadership
It has been a busy year in the private equity realm, with countless big-money acquisitions unfolding. The take-private space specifically has seen some sizable transactions, with private equity firms spearheading more than a dozen billion-dollar deals for public tech companies. London-headquartered Permira was a key protagonist, joining Blackstone to acquire European online classifieds group Adevinta […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google CEO says AI model Gemini will the company’s ‘biggest focus’ in 2025
CEO Sundar Pichai reportedly told Google employees that 2025 will be a “critical” year for the company. CNBC reports that it obtained audio from a December 18 strategy meeting where Pichai and other executives put on ugly holiday sweaters and laid out their priorities for the coming year. “I think 2025 will be critical,” Pichai […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump asks Supreme Court to pause imminent TikTok ban
Attorneys representing President-elect Donald Trump have asked the Supreme Court to pause a law that would force TikTok-owner ByteDance to sell the short-form video app or see it banned from the United States. If the app isn’t sold, the ban is set to take effect in just a few weeks, on January 19. ByteDance is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Best iPad apps for unleashing and exploring your creativity
There are a number of iPad apps that can help you explore and express your creativity. Although the iPad started off as a simple device that could be used to stream content or browse the web on the go, Apple has essentially turned its iPads into powerful machines that can be used to do things […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to watch CES 2025’s press conferences
CES kicks off January 7. The annual Las Vegas event sets the tone of the year’s consumer electronics and automotive industries. As always, TechCrunch will be there, sniffing stories from the most exciting startups and tech giants. If you really want a piece of the action without paying for the hotel and flight, many of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Revisiting the biggest moments in the space industry in 2024
We are at the dawn of a new space age. If you doubt, simply look back at the last year: From SpaceX’s historic catch of the Super Heavy booster to the record-breaking number of lunar landing attempts, this year was full of historic and ambitious missions and demonstrations. We’re taking a look back at the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bench shuts down, leaving thousands of businesses without access to accounting and tax docs
Bench, a Canada-based accounting startup that offered software-as-a-service for small and medium businesses, has abruptly shut down, according to a notice posted on its website. “We regret to inform you that as of December 27, 2024, the Bench platform will no longer be accessible,” the notice reads. “We know this news is abrupt and may […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nonprofit group joins Elon Musk’s effort to block OpenAI’s for-profit transition
Encode, the nonprofit org that co-sponsored California’s ill-fated SB 1047 AI safety legislation, has requested permission to file an amicus brief in support of Elon Musk’s injunction to halt OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit. In a proposed brief submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Friday afternoon, counsel for Encode […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon will face fraud charges in the US
Do Kwon, the co-founder of collapsed cryptocurrency startup Terraform Labs, will be extradited from Montenegro to the U.S. to face federal fraud charges, as first reported by Bloomberg. Kwon faces charges in both the U.S. and South Korea; Terraform Labs’ TerraUSD and Luna cryptocurrencies crashed in 2022, causing investors to lose over $40 billion. Terraform […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The trends that shaped EVs, robotaxis, and electric flight in 2024
If there was one phrase that captured the vibe and theme of 2024 — at least in the transportation sector — it was business whiplash. Legacy automakers changed direction on their all-EVs-or-bust strategy, startups pivoted, and some Silicon Valley VCs and executives adjusted their views to a changing political landscape, in which they now are […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cyberhaven says it was hacked to publish a malicious update to its Chrome extension
The data-loss startup says it was targeted as part of a "wider campaign to target Chrome extension developers." © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why DeepSeek’s new AI model thinks it’s ChatGPT
Earlier this week, DeepSeek, a well-funded Chinese AI lab, released an “open” AI model that beats many rivals on popular benchmarks. The model, DeepSeek V3, is large but efficient, handling text-based tasks like coding and writing essays with ease. It also seems to think it’s ChatGPT. Posts on X — and TechCrunch’s own tests — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lyft says San Francisco overcharged it $100M in taxes
Lyft is suing the city of San Francisco, claiming the city unfairly charged the rideshare company over $100 million in taxes. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LG mounts planters on a lamp for apartment growing
LG may have the earliest big press conference of CES, but the Korean electronics giant still can’t help announcing a bunch of products ahead of the show. As ever, the pile of news is a mixed bag with a few interesting additions. These plant lamps undoubtedly qualify as the latter. Details on the products — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Watch this four-legged robot adapt to tricky situations like an animal
Researchers at the University of Leeds recently demonstrated a framework for a quadruped robot with a design inspired by the bio-mechanics of four-legged animals. The versatile robot is able to navigate complex environments, maintain stability on uneven ground, and recover after a fall — all without the use of extra-perceptive sensors. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Best iPad apps to boost productivity and make your life easier
There are many iPad apps to help you organize recipes; sync tasks across devices; be more productive; and manage your notes. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Want a cheap EV? Hertz is handing out discounts to renters
Hertz has been contacting people who are in the middle of renting electric vehicles recently to offer them the option to buy the car instead of returning it, reports The Verge. And the offers are pretty sweet, according to some renters who shared the offers on Reddit. One renter was reportedly offered a 2023 Chevy […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI lays out its for-profit transition plans
OpenAI says its corporate structure must evolve to advance its mission of ensuring artificial general intelligence (AGI) — AI that can complete most tasks humans can — benefits all humanity. OpenAI currently has a for-profit org controlled by a nonprofit, with a “capped profit” share for investors and employees. But in a blog post published […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Record-breaking ransoms and breaches: A timeline of ransomware in 2024
From LoanDepot to Evolve Bank and Blue Yonder, these ransomware attacks affect tens of millions of people. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI sales rep startups are booming. So why are VCs wary?
When you really probe venture capitalists about investing in AI startups, they’ll tell you that businesses are experimenting wildly but are very slow to add AI solutions into their ongoing business processes. But there are some exceptions. And one of them appears to be an area known as AI sales development representatives, or AI SDRs. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Watch this robotic ‘Superman Suit’ rotate around a gymnastics bar
Scientists at the Suzumori Endo Robotics lab in Tokyo have developed the Superman Suit: a suit powered by hydraulic artificial muscles that allows it to perform superhuman tasks. In this video, the suit demonstrates the ability to complete 15 rotations around a bar, making anyone into a great gymnast. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT Search can be tricked into misleading users, new research reveals
ChatGPT's new search feature can be told to generate entirely positive product summaries thanks to hidden code, new research finds. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT and Sora went down for the second time this month
ChatGPT, Sora, and OpenAI’s developer-facing API were down on Thursday for more than four hours. OpenAI says it started experiencing a major outage at 11 a.m. PT, but now says its services are slowly coming back online as of 3:16 p.m. PT. Frequent users of ChatGPT may recall that the service went down earlier this […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT and Sora are down for the second time this month
ChatGPT, Sora, and OpenAI’s developer-facing API went down Thursday for an hour and counting. OpenAI says it started experiencing a major outage at 11 a.m. PT, and the services still appear to be down at the time of publishing this article, around 12:40 p.m. PT. Frequent users of ChatGPT may recall that the service went […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DeepSeek’s new AI model appears to be one of the best ‘open’ challengers yet
DeepSeek V3 can handle a range of text-based workloads and tasks, like coding, translating, and writing essays and emails from a descriptive prompt. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The fall of EV startup Fisker: A comprehensive timeline
Here is a timeline of the events that led fledgling automaker Fisker to file for bankruptcy. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft and OpenAI have a financial definition of AGI: report
Microsoft and OpenAI have a very specific, internal definition of artificial general intelligence (AGI) based on the startup’s profits, according to a new report from The Information. And by this definition, OpenAI is many years away from reaching it. The two companies reportedly signed an agreement last year stating OpenAI has only achieved AGI when […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Executive assistants, high salaries, and other ways early-stage founders will trigger a seed VC
While most seed investors believe founders should spend their raised cash however they want to, those VCs will still be judging founders’ cash management. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s jets made 355 trips in 2024, including 31 to or from the Mar-a-Lago area
Elon Musk’s jets took over 355 flights this year, with 31 of those flights heading to or from near Mar-a-Lago. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These were the badly handled data breaches of 2024
Blaming victims, months of silence, and suing security researchers all featured in cybersecurity in 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
PharmEasy’s $5.6 billion value shrinks to $456 million, investor data shows
Indian online pharmacy PharmEasy’s valuation now stands at about $456 million, according to disclosures from its investor Janus Henderson, a 92% drop from its peak valuation of $5.6 billion. The British American global asset firm’s Global Research Fund values its holding of 12.9 million shares in PharmEasy at $766,043, according to its latest filing for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky starts testing a trending topics feature
Social network Bluesky said on Christmas day that it launched trending topics feature in beta. The trending topics are available on both desktop and mobile apps of the social network. On the desktop, you can see trending topics on the right sidebar, and on the mobile apps, you can tap on the search button to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s xAI lands $6B in new cash to fuel AI ambitions
xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, has raised $6 billion in a Series C financing round. The company announced this week that Andreessen Horowitz , Blackrock, Fidelity, Lightspeed, MGX, Morgan Stanley, OIA, QIA, Sequoia Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Nvidia, AMD, and others participated. Kingdom Holdings, the Saudi conglomerate holding company, invested roughly $400 million […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
$132K – $149K, here’s what seed-stage founders pay early employees, based on data
Once a startup has raised its seed round, the perennial question becomes how much should the founders pay themselves and their first few employees? Kruze Consulting, a CPA firm that specializes in venture-backed startups, recently analyzed average salary ranges for over 450 seed-stage startups and shared that data with TechCrunch. The following averages are based […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GV, the VC team backed by Google, has a broad remit, but it can’t do one thing
David Krane is in an enviable position. As the CEO of GV, the venture firm that is funded entirely by Google to the tune of $1 billion a year, his team of roughly 100 gets to make a lot of bets — with just a couple of notable restrictions. During a TechCrunch StrictlyVC event in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AMD’s CES 2025 press conference: How to watch
AMD has its work cut out for it at CES 2025. Competitor Nvidia has been sucking the oxygen out of every room it graces, as the chipmaker remains at the forefront of the AI boom. So, how will AMD compete with Nvidia’s reported RTX 5000 announcement? The company should show of its own next-gen GPU. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Home for the holidays? Share this top cybersecurity advice with friends and family
Sharing security advice can go a long way in protecting your loved ones from the most common and damaging online threats. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Onyx Motorbikes is back, one year after its owner died leaving the company in shambles
A year after Onyx Motorbikes owner James Khatiblou died suddenly, leaving customers with unfulfilled orders and millions in unpaid debts, the brand has been revived by its original founder. “I’m excited to announce I have resurrected my original brand Onyx with incredible backers!” founder Tim Seward wrote in a LinkedIn post on Monday. “Onyx is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sony’s CES 2025 press conference: How to watch
Sony knows how to put on a show at CES. The company’s pressers are high octane, star-studded affairs, as these things go. In addition to standard Sony fare like TVs and audio systems, there’s always a curve ball or two, be it a car, a drone, or a “Gran Turismo” movie. That’s one of the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI ‘considered’ building a humanoid robot: report
OpenAI has recently explored building its own humanoid robot, according to The Information. The report cites “two people with direct knowledge” of those conversations. The ChatGPT maker has been involved in the space for some time now, by way of financial backing. It has thus far invested in Figure and 1X, along with the “general […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The promise and perils of synthetic data
Is it possible for an AI to be trained just on data generated by another AI? It might sound like a harebrained idea. But it’s one that’s been around for quite some time — and as new, real data is increasingly hard to come by, it’s been gaining traction. Anthropic used some synthetic data to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Samsung’s CES 2025 press conference: How to watch
Samsung’s CES presser is always an odd duck. The Korean electronics giant generally keeps its powder dry when it comes to consumer electronics. After all, it’s expected to announce its latest flagship handset — the Galaxy S25 — toward the end of January. CES 2025 is going to continue the company’s tradition of TVs and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google is using Anthropic’s Claude to improve its Gemini AI
Contractors working on Google Gemini are comparing its responses to Claude's, according to internal correspondence seen by TechCrunch. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Revenue-based financing startups continue to raise capital in MENA, where the model just works
In an era where it’s become tougher to raise venture capital, many companies have turned to non-dilutive, Revenue-Based Financing (RBF) as an alternative. As a result, plenty of startups have risen to meet that challenge, none more so than in the MENA region, which has taken to the model like a duck to water. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Watch Boston Dynamics’ electric Atlas do a backflip
A little early holiday surprise from Boston Dynamics this week, as Santa suit-wearing electric Atlas performs a backflip. The feat occurs about 13 minutes into a new video, showcasing yet another trick in the humanoid robot’s arsenal. It’s worth noting that – unlike with humans – a robot performing a backflip isn’t necessarily more complicated […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Clop ransomware gang takes credit for latest mass hack that breached dozens of companies
The prolific ransomware gang says it hacked at least 66 companies by exploiting a bug in tools made by Cleo Software. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Shuttered electric air taxi startup Lilium may be saved after all
A consortium of investors has resurrected Lilium just days after the electric air taxi startup ceased operations and laid off about 1,000 employees. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These are the cybersecurity stories we were jealous of in 2024
The very best work from our friends at competing publications. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla Superchargers: GM, Ford, Rivian, and other EV brands with access
EV owners of GM vehicles like the Chevrolet Silverado EV and Cadillac Lyriq will now officially have access to Tesla’s Superchargers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Proton’s device aims to help those with kidney disease, and cut heart failure risks
People with chronic kidney disease, or those at risk of heart failure, are greatly affected by potassium imbalances in the body. These can even be life-threatening. While wearable glucose monitors are now commonplace and have transformed the lives of diabetes patients, potassium monitoring is in its infancy as it’s hard to do. Now, startups are […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Halide’s next version will come with new film filters, HDR
Lux, which makes the iPhone camera app Halide, published a roadmap on Monday detailing the app’s next version, called Halide Mark III, to be released sometime next year. The company said Halide Mark III will ship with two new features: Color Grades, and its own take on HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos. The company plans […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hyundai is giving away free Tesla NACs adapters to its EV customers
Hyundai said Monday it will send customers who have bought or leased an EV before January 31 a free charging adapter that will let them access Tesla’s supercharging network. The Hyundai-authorized adapter will give CCS-port-equipped Hyundai EV drivers access to more than 20,000 Tesla Superchargers in the United States, according to Hyundai. Free adapters will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s o3 suggests AI models are scaling in new ways — but so are the costs
Last month, AI founders and investors told TechCrunch that we’re now in the “second era of scaling laws,” noting how established methods of improving AI models were showing diminishing returns. One promising new method they suggested could keep gains was “test-time scaling,” which seems to be what’s behind the performance of OpenAI’s o3 model – […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s xAI lands $6B in new cash to fuel AI ambitions
xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, has raised $6 billion, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. Investors gave a minimum of $77,593, per the filing (97 participated, but the document doesn’t reveal their identities). xAI later announced (confirming some earlier reporting) that Andreessen Horowitz , Blackrock, Fidelity, Kingdom Holdings, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Venture capitalists continue to play musical chairs
From Keith Rabois to Matt Miller, a lot of VCs have switched firms or spun out of storied VC institutions this year. These employment changes are surprising because unlike in many other fields, venture capitalists don’t traditionally move around very much — especially those who reach the partner or general partner level. VC funds have […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia’s CES 2025 keynote: How to watch
Nvidia will no doubt have the biggest CES 2025. After all, the company has pretty much the biggest everything nowadays. The chip giant is sporting a $3.4+ trillion market cap, due largely to its foundational position in the ongoing AI boom. Companies like OpenAI and Meta have purchased Nvidia processors by the boatload, and that’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
An investigation finds that Google Maps fails users in the West Bank
A Wired investigation found that Google Maps can be near impossible to use in the West Bank, especially since the start of the war. Users told the publication that the navigation app would direct them into walls, fail to account for time-consuming checkpoints, or steer them onto restricted roads leading to Israeli settlements, which can […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI startups attracted 25% of Europe’s VC funding
Venture funding into Europe is heading for a flat year, but this may obfuscate the fact that European AI startups are thriving. According to VC firm Balderton Capital and Dealroom, 25% of VC funding into the region — approximately $13.7 billion — went to AI startups this year, compared to 15% four years ago, resulting […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Coralogix acquires AI observability platform Aporia
Coralogix, the well-funded observability platform, on Monday announced that it has acquired Aporia, a startup that focuses on giving businesses tools to observe and secure their AI workloads, as well as set guardrails for them to avoid hallucinations or unintended disclosures. As part of this acquisition, Coralogix will launch a dedicated AI research center, Coralogix […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CES 2025 is coming: TechCrunch wants to meet your hardware startup
According to the calendar, we’re a mere weeks out from CES — the perfect gift for your gadget blogger who has everything. The massive consumer electronics and automotive event kicks off in Las Vegas on January 7. TechCrunch is returning to the future home of the Oakland Athletics for the event, and — as always […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Eero’s Outdoor 7 long-distance mesh unit solved our yearslong Wi-Fi quandary in 10 minutes
So far in life, I haven’t needed be a “mesh guy.” A well chosen and carefully placed Wi-Fi router has worked fine in our modest abodes, but one particular situation has resisted simple solutions until Eero put out a device in November seemingly made exactly for the purpose. This won’t be a thorough examination of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instagram tests a way to show you Story Highlights you didn’t get a chance to see
Instagram is testing a way for you to see content from friends that you might have missed. The social network has started displaying unseen Story Highlights from a user’s mutual followers at the end of the Stories tray, which is the area at the top of your feed where you see Stories from your friends. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Juniper Ventures spins out of Climate Capital to invest in synthetic biology for the climate
The first Juniper fund is $10.6 million and is oversubscribed. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A popular technique to make AI more efficient has drawbacks
One of the most widely used techniques to make AI models more efficient, quantization, has limits — and the industry could be fast approaching them. In the context of AI, quantization refers to lowering the number of bits — the smallest units a computer can process — needed to represent information. Consider this analogy: When […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Yoast CEO calls for a ‘federated’ approach to WordPress repository
Days after web hosting provider WP Engine won a preliminary injunction against WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg and rival hosting provider Automattic, Mullenweg announced that WordPress.org is taking a holiday break. WordPress.com — a site that provides access to WordPress plug-ins, themes, and other artifacts to the community — will take a break from providing free […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Yoast’s former CEO calls for a ‘federated’ approach to WordPress repository
Days after web hosting provider WP Engine won a preliminary injunction against WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg and rival hosting provider Automattic, Mullenweg announced that WordPress.org is taking a holiday break. WordPress.org — a site that provides access to WordPress plug-ins, themes, and other artifacts to the community — will take a break from providing free […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Electric aircraft startup Lilium ceases operations, 1,000 workers laid off
The company's co-founder confirmed the shutdown in a LinkedIn post. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Honda and Nissan plan major merger focused on ‘intelligence and electrification’
Japanese car giants Honda and Nissan are working out the details of a major merger that could create the world’s third-largest automaker, as the companies look to survive in an industry faced with uncertainty. The Tesla-led shift towards electric vehicles, and China’s increased importance in the automotive market, have companies like Honda and Nissan feeling […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The TechCrunch Cyber Glossary
This glossary includes the most common terms and expressions TechCrunch uses in our security reporting, and explanations of how — and why — we use them. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Prosus buys Despegar for $1.7B, taking a bite out of Latin America’s travel sector
Yet another major investment is going down in the travel sector, underscoring its ongoing rebound after the Covid-19 pandemic. Prosus, the tech conglomerate controlled by Naspers, is paying $1.7 billion to acquire Despegar, one of the biggest online travel agencies in Latin America, to scale up its operations in the region. Despegar’s board of directors […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pavel Durov says Telegram is now profitable
Telegram founder Pavel Durov said Monday that the company is now profitable. Durov said the chat app’s total revenue surpassed $1 billion in 2024. The company, which launched its premium subscription service in 2022, now has 12 million paid users. Durov also said that the app is finishing the year with more than $500 million […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WhatsApp scores historic victory against NSO Group in long-running spyware hacking case
A US judge ruled that the Israeli spyware maker breached hacking laws by using WhatsApp to infect devices with Pegasus © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
xAI is testing a standalone iOS app for its Grok chatbot
Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, is testing out a standalone iOS app for its chatbot, Grok, which was available only to X users until now. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X jacks up Premium+ prices 37.5%, hits some markets harder
X is raising prices for its top-tier subscription service by 37.5%, marking the largest price increase since the platform’s acquisition by Elon Musk in 2022. The Premium+ service will cost $22 monthly in the U.S., up from $16, effective December 21, according to a company statement. Annual subscriptions will increase to $229 from $168. X […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sriram Krishnan named Trump’s senior policy advisor for AI
Incoming president Donald Trump has confirmed reports that Sriram Krishnan, until recently a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), will serve as senior policy advisor for AI at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Trump said in a statement that Krishnan will “help shape and coordinate AI policy across government, working with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Palantir and Anduril reportedly building a tech consortium to bid on defense contracts
Two big defense tech players, Palantir and Anduril, are talking to tech companies including SpaceX, OpenAI, Saronic, and Scale AI about forming a consortium to bid on Pentagon contracts, according to a report in the Financial Times. The goal, the FT says, is to challenge the dominance of “prime” defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump says he wants to keep TikTok around ‘for a little while’
With a US TikTok ban scheduled to take effect in less than a month, President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday that he’d like to keep the app around, according to Reuters. “We’re going to have to start thinking because, you know, we did go on TikTok, and we had a great response with billions of views, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI trained o1 and o3 to ‘think’ about its safety policy
OpenAI announced a new family of AI reasoning models on Friday, o3, which the startup claims to be more advanced than o1 or anything else it’s released. These improvements appear to have come from scaling test-time compute, something we wrote about last month, but OpenAI also says it used a new safety paradigm to train […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The biggest flops and fizzles in 2024 transportation, from Apple Car to Fisker
Autonomous vehicle technology and electrification startups were once the darlings of the VC and corporate world. The two technologies promised billions of dollars in revenue — and a new pathway for automakers to make money beyond building and selling cars. Those VC-money-printing days have been over for AVs for a while now, with a few […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple might be working on a smart doorbell
There’s been a lot of reporting in recent months around Apple’s efforts to expand its footprint in customers’ homes with in-development products like a wall-mounted smart home hub. According to a new report in Bloomberg, that strategy could also include a smart doorbell. This doorbell would use Apple’s FaceID technology to scan people’s faces as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tetsuwan Scientific is making robotic AI scientists that can run experiments on their own
LLM models are already capable of diagnosing scientific outputs, but, until now, had “no physical agency to actually perform" experiments. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s GPT-5 reportedly falling short of expectations
OpenAI’s efforts to develop its next major model, GPT-5, are running behind schedule, with results that don’t yet justify the enormous costs, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal. This echoes an earlier report in The Information suggesting that OpenAI is looking to new strategies as GPT-5 might not represent as big […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI announces new o3 model — but you can’t use it yet
Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re looking at OpenAI’s last — and biggest — announcement from its “12 Days of OpenAI” event; Apple’s potential entrance into the foldable market; and why Databricks is choosing to wait to go public. Let’s get into it. P.S. We’re off for the holidays! Week in Review […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google pushes back against DOJ’s ‘interventionist’ remedies in antitrust case
Google has offered up its own proposal in a recent antitrust case that saw the US Department of Justice argue that Google must sell its Chrome browser. US District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled in August that Google had acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search, with the DOJ then proposing a number […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
If climate tech is dead, what comes next?
Climate tech is about a decade old, and people are itching for a rebrand. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hollywood angels: Here are the celebrities who are also star VCs
Becoming a venture capitalist has become the latest status symbol In Hollywood. Everyone from Olivia Wilde to Emma Watson is investing in startups. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meet Skyseed, a VC fund and incubator backing the Bluesky and AT Protocol ecosystem
On November 15, Peter Wang posted a message requesting ideas for a new incubator and fund to support experimental projects built on the burgeoning Bluesky/AT Protocol ecosystem. Four weeks later, Skyseed emerged with an initial commitment of $1 million. This turnaround, a speed underscored by the fact that the fund doesn’t even have a website […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sam Altman disputes Marc Andreessen’s description of AI meetings with Biden administration
Sam Altman dismissed what he called a "conspiracy theory" from a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EV startup Canoo places remaining employees on a ‘mandatory unpaid break’
Struggling electric van startup Canoo has placed its remaining employees on what it’s calling a “mandatory unpaid break” through at least the end of the year, according to an email obtained by TechCrunch. The company told employees they are being locked out of Canoo’s systems at the end of the day Friday, according to the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After causing outrage on the first day of Y Combinator, AI code editor PearAI lands $1M seed
On the first day of Y Combinator the founders of PearAI got “cancelled." They used the hate to launch a new product, raise $1 million. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Third member of LockBit ransomware gang has been arrested
LockBit is believed tobe responsible for at least $500 million in ransom payments alone. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Feds clear the way for robotaxis without steering wheel and pedals
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday proposed a new national framework that could make it easier for companies to deploy at scale autonomous vehicles without traditional manual driving controls – like steering wheels, pedals, and sideview mirrors. The guidelines also require AV companies to share a whole lot more safety data with the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 has been a big year for OpenAI, from its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The year is coming to a close, but startup news keeps rolling in
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week was full of news, likely because it is also the last “real” week of 2024. Which is another way for us to say goodbye for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VCs pledge not to take money from Russia or China, and Databricks raises a humongous round
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week was full of news, likely because it is also the last “real” week of 2024. Which is another way for us to say goodbye for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia clears regulatory hurdle to acquire Run:ai
Chip company Nvidia gets the green light from the European Union to complete its acquisition of Run:ai. The EU came to a unanimous decision today that Nvidia could go ahead with its acquisition of Israeli GPU orchestration platform Run:ai, according to reporting from Bloomberg. The European Commission determined that if the merger went through other […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google is expanding Gemini’s in-depth research mode to 40 languages
Google said Friday that the company is expanding Gemini’s latest in-depth research mode to 40 more languages. The company launched the in-depth research mode earlier this month, allowing Google One AI premium plan users to unlock an AI-powered research assistant of sorts. The in-depth function works in a multi-step method, from creating a research plan […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here’s the full list of 49 US AI startups that have raised $100M or more in 2024
In the first half of 2024 alone, more than $35.5 billion was invested into AI startups globally. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI announces new o3 models
OpenAI saved its biggest announcement for the last day of its 12-day “shipmas” event. On Friday, the company unveiled o3, the successor to the o1 “reasoning” model it released earlier in the year. o3 is a model family, to be more precise — as was the case with o1. There’s o3 and o3-mini, a smaller, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI 2024 event: How to watch new ChatGPT product reveals and demos
OpenAI is in the holiday spirit, it seems. The ChatGPT series of reveals, called “12 Days of OpenAI,” will be streamed live at 10 a.m. PT each weekday through December 20. So far, we’ve seen the launch of ChatGPT Pro, OpenAI’s $200 per month subscription plan; the full version of its “reasoning” o1 model; the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Swizzle Ventures raises $5M for inaugural fund addressing women’s health and wealth
There is a new venture fund in town. Swizzle Ventures, founded by Jessica Kamada, former COO of the marketing agency Bamboo, has raised just over $5 million for its Fund I, according to an SEC filing. There was no target raise amount. The firm, which quietly opened in 2023, is an early-stage firm looking to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Swizzle Fund raises $5M for inaugural fund addressing women’s health and wealth
There is a new venture fund in town. Swizzle Fund, founded by Jessica Kamada, former COO of the marketing agency Bamboo, has raised just a little more than $5 million for its Fund I, according to an SEC filing. There was no target raise amount. The firm, which quietly opened in 2023, is an early-stage […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lerer Hippeau files to a raise Fund IX
Lerer Hippeau, one of New York's most prolific and A-list VC firms, has filed to raise its ninth fund, according to an SEC filing made Wednesday. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Arizona’s getting an online charter school taught entirely by AI
The newest online-only school greenlighted by the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools comes with a twist: the academic curriculum will be taught entirely by AI. Charter schools — independently operated but publicly-funded — typically get greater autonomy compared to traditional public schools when it comes to how subjects are taught. But Unbound Academy’s application, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ransomware attack on health giant Ascension hits 5.6 million patients
The cyberattack on Ascension ranks as the third-largest healthcare-related breach of 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rivian executives accused of harassment in previously unreported lawsuits
Four employees have sued Rivian in separate lawsuits this year over allegations they were harassed, in some cases by top executives, and that the company’s leadership did little to address their concerns, according to a TechCrunch review of court records. Rivian has also reached settlements in three other harassment and discrimination cases, TechCrunch has learned. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why Apple sends spyware victims to this nonprofit security lab
Before the elections, the cybersecurity team of U.S. vice president and then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris reached out to Apple asking for help, according to Forbes, after a tool that’s designed to detect spyware on iPhones flagged anomalies on two devices belonging to campaign staffers. Apple declined to forensically analyze the phones, per Forbes. The company’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Energy Revolution Ventures’ $18M fund lays a bet on ‘new chemistry’ startups in energy and hydrogen
What happens when a chemical engineer, who’s previously built a hydrogen-powered drone, becomes a venture capitalist? Energy Revolution Ventures, that’s what. The VC has now closed an $18 million Seed and Series A fund to invest in deeptech, such as energy storage, carbon capture, and, yes, hydrogen technologies. Marcus Clover, Co-Founder and Partner at ERV […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Genius Girl’ goes from inspiring a Korean TV show character to raising a $100 million AI fund
Principle Venture Partners will write early-stage checks anywhere from $100,000 to “single digit millions.” © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky adds mentions tab in the notifications screen and username squatting protection
Social network Bluesky has released a new update to its app that includes a separate mentions tab in notifications, protections against username squatting, and new controls for replies sorting. The company announced that it is adding a new mentions tab with the v1.96 rollout to let you see those posts separately. Until now, all notifications […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Uzbekistan’s mobile bank TBC bags $37M to expand with new AI and insurance products
Uzbekistan's mobile-exclusive bank, TBC Bank Uzbekistan, has raised $37 million to bolster its footprint in the Central Asian nation. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
British university spinoff Mindgard protects companies from AI threats
AI creates a dilemma for companies: Don’t implement it yet, and you might miss out on productivity gains and other potential benefits; but do it wrong, and you might expose your business and clients to unmitigated risks. This is where a new wave of “security for AI” startups come in, with the premise that these […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
European Solo GP Robin Capital closes first fund with €15M to play with
Robin Capital — the Germany-based, Solo GP-led VC fund by former entrepreneur Robin Haak — has hit its final close of ‘Robin Fund One’ at €13 million. Combined with its additional growth-focused investment vehicle of €2m, the fund now has a total of €15 million to play with. In the realm of European Solo GPs, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sequoia’s Matt Miller is exiting the firm after making headlines earlier this year
The writing was on the wall, seemingly. Sequoia Capital partner Matt Miller announced on Wednesday that he’s leaving the powerhouse outfit after a 12-year career to build his own new firm focused on European founders. He added he will remain a venture partner with Sequoia and maintain his board seats while fleshing out the “specifics […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s Rapido exposed user and driver data through leaky website feedback form
Rapido restricted access to the exposed portal soon after TechCrunch contacted the company. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sam Altman once owned some equity in OpenAI through Sequoia
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sat before Congress in 2023 to testify about the dangers of AI. He told American lawmakers at the time that he owns no equity in OpenAI, something he’s said many times, claiming he just runs the company because he loves it. However, Altman recently said he actually did have some equity […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity has reportedly closed a $500M funding round
AI-powered search engine Perplexity has reportedly closed a $500 million funding round, valuing the startup at $9 billion. Bloomberg, citing sources familiar, reports that the round was led by Institutional Venture Partners, and that it closed earlier in December. In an email to TechCrunch, a Perplexity spokesperson declined to comment. The mammoth tranche comes as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Boon raises $20.5M to build agentic AI tools for fleets
Logistics is the name of the game during the holiday season: Companies that can seal the deal and get people and things to the places they need to be, on time, rake it in this time of year. But behind that demand lies a huge amount of inefficiency and fragmentation. Are logistics businesses ready for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A bad experience with an accounting firm spurred this founder to start Aiwyn
Accounting firms are struggling to adopt high-tech solutions. That’s according to a survey earlier this year from Rightsworks, which found that, while 88% of firms believe tech has had a positive impact on their efficiency, 60% are suffering from disconnected systems, inconsistent processes, and a lack of standardized workflows. Startups like Aiwyn are trying to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meet the robot with two Guinness World Records for basketball
A team of engineers at Toyota have spent years iterating on CUE6, the basketball shooting robot. CUE6 uses machine learning to adjust his posture and arm movement in order to take the perfect shot nearly every time. The robot holds the Guinness World Record for most consecutive basketball free throw by a humanoid robot after […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TuSimple pivot from self-driving to AI animation is complete with CreateAI rebrand
TuSimple has completed its pivot away from autonomous trucking to AI animation and gaming with a rebrand. The company shall henceforth be known as CreateAI. The rebrand comes as TuSimple is embroiled in controversy over the company’s plans to move its remaining U.S. assets to China to fund the new business, which it initially announced […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ex-Twitch CEO Emmett Shear is founding an AI startup backed by a16z
Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch, is launching a new AI startup, TechCrunch has learned. The startup, called Stem AI, is currently in stealth. But public documents show it was incorporated in June 2023, and filed for a trademark in August 2023. Shear is listed as CEO on an incorporation document filed with the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Real estate VC Fifth Wall is raising $500M for a new fund
Real estate venture firm Fifth Wall is raising a new $500 million fund called Fifth Wall React, according to a regulatory filing. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
In just 4 months, AI coding assistant Cursor raised another $100M at a $2.5B valuation led by Thrive, sources say
Anysphere, the developer of AI-powered coding assistant Cursor, raised $100 million Series B at a post-money valuation of $2.6 billion, according to sources with knowledge of the deal. The round is being led by returning investor Thrive Capital, the person said. This new funding comes just four months after Anysphere raised its $60 million Series […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Backed by a16z and NEA, Backflip raises $30M Series A to turn text into AI-generated designs
Led by Markforged veterans and backed by a16z, Backlip has raised $30M to democratize product design thanks to AI. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tapestry, a new app for tracking social media, news, blogs, and more, will launch in ‘early 2025’
A new app called Tapestry promising to unify social media, news, and RSS in one place, is nearing completion. Designed by Iconfactory, the same team that created the third-party Twitter client Twitterific back in the day, Tapestry was unveiled at the beginning of the year as a tool that could better organize today’s fragmented online […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Waymo fills the Cruise void overseas and a salute to icon Jean Jennings
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. This will be the last newsletter of 2024! But don’t worry, we’ll be back in 2025 — sign up here to get it in your inbox every week. Thank you for reading and your emails. I love […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instagram teases AI tools for editing appearances, backgrounds in videos using prompts
Instagram head Adam Mosseri is teasing upcoming generative AI features for the social app that will allow creators to “change nearly any aspect” of their videos using text prompts. The editing tools will be powered by Meta’s Movie Gen AI model, and are expected to launch on the social network sometime next year, Mosseri said […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Over 20 venture firms pledge to not take money from China, Russia
Founders now have a way to ensure that their investors haven’t taken money from countries like China, Russia, Iran or Cuba. Over 20 venture firms have signed the Clean Capital Certification, attesting that they have not and will not take money from foreign adversaries. Some of the firms that have signed include Marlinspike Partners, Humba […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google releases its own ‘reasoning’ AI model
Google has released what it’s calling a new “reasoning” AI model — but it’s in the experimental stages, and from our brief testing, there’s certainly room for improvement. The new model, called Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental (a mouthful, to be sure), is available in AI Studio, Google’s AI prototyping platform. A model card describes […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
$25 billion valuation Chime takes another step toward an IPO
Digital bank Chime has reportedly filed its confidential IPO paperwork with the SEC, with an eye toward a 2025 debut. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
World(coin) must let Europeans comprehensively delete their data, under privacy order
It took a lot more than the initially slated few weeks to arrive, but a pivotal privacy decision that’s been hanging over Sam Altman’s World (aka Worldcoin) for months has finally landed, via a late December decision from the Bavarian data protection authority enforcing the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a comprehensive privacy framework […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI 2024 event: How to watch new ChatGPT product reveals and demos
OpenAI is in the holiday spirit, it seems. The ChatGPT series of reveals, called “12 Days of OpenAI,” will be streamed live at 10 a.m. PT each weekday through December 20. So far, we’ve seen the launch of ChatGPT Pro, OpenAI’s $200 per month subscription plan; the full version of its “reasoning” o1 model; the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla is courting Texas cities to test its promised robotaxi service
Tesla is evaluating multiple Texas cities where it wants to test a long-promised robotaxi service, including Austin, according to emails obtained by Bloomberg News. An employee has apparently been in touch with Austin officials since May, and recently held an event in December to “train first responders on how to best work with Tesla’s autonomous […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
K2 Space will fly its extra-large satellite for the first time in 2026
K2 Space is betting that the future of space hardware will be big — really big. The startup is building massive spacecraft under the assumption that launch costs will continue to drop as SpaceX’s Starship and other heavy-lift vehicles come online. It looks like the Space Force is taking up their side of that bet, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hotel booking platform Safara raises $14M, acquires rival Skipper
Doug Schuessler has always been a founder. This passion, which has been with him since childhood, saw him launch two startups, move to San Francisco, and take a job at Square to see what a “real rocket shop looked like.” He later became chief revenue officer at restaurant booking platform Resy, before becoming a founder once […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Culina Health nabs $7.9M to provide virtual access to registered dietitians
As a dietitian, Vanessa Rissetto’s main goal is to help people stay healthy. She also knew that there were some roadblocks to achieving that. For example, the Black community deals with pressing health concerns, in addition to a disproportionate lack of access to care. More than 80% of registered dietitians in the U.S. are white, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Decart nabs $32M at $500M+ valuation to build AI tech and ‘open world’ apps
A young startup that emerged from stealth less than two months ago with big-name backers and bigger ambitions is returning to the spotlight. Decart is building what its CEO and co-founder Dean Leitersdorf (pictured above, right) describes as “a fully vertically integrated AI research lab,” alongside enterprise and consumer products based on the lab’s work. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US government urges high-ranking officials to lock down mobile devices following telecom breaches
The move to urge Americans to use end-to-end encrypted apps comes as China-backed gangs are hacking into phone and internet giants. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Oura closes $200M round, bringing its valuation to $5.2B
Smart ring maker Oura announced on Thursday that it has closed a $200 million Series D funding round, bringing the company’s valuation to $5.2 billion. The round included participation from Fidelity Management and glucose device maker Dexcom. Oura says the new capital will allow it to expand its product offerings and further invest in product, science, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
With Neverless, former Revolut execs want to make meme coins easy to buy
There’s an ocean of meme coins beyond Dogecoin, and a new startup called Neverless wants to make it easier to get started with trading crypto, with a particular focus on providing access to small-cap tokens. This is an interesting new crypto startup, founded by three former executives at Revolut, the London-based fintech juggernaut. Phuc To […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Menlo Ventures and Anthropic have picked the first 18 startups for their $100M fund
Just five months after launching a $100 million fund, Menlo Ventures and Anthropic have backed their first 18 startups. And are looking for more. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon Fire TV introduces ‘Dual Audio’ feature for simultaneous listening via hearing aids and TV speakers
Amazon announced on Wednesday new accessibility features for Fire TV, including a notable “Dual Audio” capability for the newly launched Fire TV Omni Mini-LED Series, which was unveiled in November. The new feature allows one user to listen through a hearing aid while others in the same room can enjoy audio through the TV’s built-in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rivian EVs finally get YouTube, Google Cast, and SiriusXM
Rivian has released a new software update to its vehicles that brings some long-awaited apps to its in-vehicle experience. Owners who update their R1S SUV or R1T pickup truck can now use YouTube (while parked) or SiriusXM (with a subscription). The company is also adding Google Cast functionality. That also can only be used while […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
California can ban new gas cars starting in 2035, EPA says
California’s phase out would begin in 2026, when the state will require 35% of automakers’ sales to be zero emissions vehicles. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
With 25M users, Bluesky gets a $1M fund to take on social media and AI
The fund will offer grants to those building on BlueSky’s open source AT Protocol. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tracker firm Hapn spilling names of thousands of GPS tracking customers
A security researcher found customer names and workplace affiliations spilling directly from Hapn's servers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instagram Threads adds ‘Use media’ feature for resharing photos and videos
Threads is introducing a new way to reshare photos and videos on its social network. Instead of quote-posting the original post and then adding commentary, Threads users will instead be able to click a new option, “Use media,” allowing them to just reshare the photo or video directly to a new post where they can […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity acquires Carbon to connect AI search to your work files
Perplexity acquired a small Seattle-based startup called Carbon which specializes in connecting AI systems to external data sources, the companies announced on Wednesday. CEO Aravind Srinivasan says this will allow Perplexity to search through your files and work messages in Notion, Google Docs, Slack, and other enterprise applications sometime in early 2025. Carbon specializes in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
App downloads decline 2.3% in 2024, but consumer spending grows to $127B
The global app economy continued to recover in 2024, after an earlier slowdown in 2022 — at least in terms of consumer spending. In 2024, global consumer spending in mobile apps and games reached $127 billion across the App Store and Google Play, up 15.7% from the prior year. However, those increases were driven by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Wing and DoorDash launch drone deliveries in Dallas-Fort Worth
Alphabet’s Wing announced on Wednesday that it’s expanding its partnership with DoorDash to bring drone delivery to customers in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Customers in the area will now be able to order food from 50 merchants located in Stonebriar Centre in Frisco and Hulen Mall in Fort Worth. Wing says its drones can “deliver […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft bought nearly 500,000 Nvidia Hopper chips this year
Microsoft bought more than twice as many Nvidia Hopper chips this year than any of its biggest rivals. The tech giant bought 485,000 Nvidia Hopper chips across 2024 according to reporting from the Financial Times, which cited data from tech consultancy Omdia. To compare, Meta bought 224,000 of the same, flagship Nvidia chip this year. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI brings ChatGPT to your landline
ChatGPT is coming to phones. No, not smartphones — landlines. Call 1-800-242-8478 (1-800-CHATGPT), and OpenAI’s AI-powered assistant will respond as of Wednesday afternoon. “[Our mission at] OpenAI is to make artificial general intelligence beneficial to all of humanity, and part of that is making it as accessible as possible to as many people as we […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Who wants ‘Her’-like AI that gets stuff wrong?
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, smash the link and sign up here. Last week, OpenAI launched Advanced Voice Mode with Vision, which feeds real-time video to ChatGPT, allowing the chatbot to “see” beyond the confines of its app layer. The premise is that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GitHub launches a free version of its Copilot
Microsoft-owned GitHub announced on Wednesday a free version of its popular Copilot code completion/AI pair programming tool, which will also now ship by default with Microsoft’s popular VS Code editor. Until now, most developers had to pay a monthly fee, starting at $10 per month, with only verified students, teachers, and open source maintainers getting […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI startup Odyssey’s new tool can generate photorealistic 3D worlds
Odyssey, a startup founded by self-driving pioneers Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke, is developing an AI-powered tool that can transform text or an image into a 3D rendering. The tool, dubbed Explorer, is similar in some ways to the so-called world models recently demoed by DeepMind, World Labs, and Israeli upstart Decart. Given a caption like “a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX gets green light for 7th Starship mission
Regulators have given SpaceX the go-ahead to launch Starship for the seventh time, although the company has not yet announced when that mission might take place. While the exact launch date is unclear, SpaceX engineers have been as busy as ever at the company’s massive launch site near Boca Chica, Texas. In recent days, the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sustainable Ocean Alliance marks 10 years with ocean-friendly startup label and a new batch of ‘ecopreneurs’
Over the last decade, the Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA) has graduated from dorm room activism to a thousands-strong global network of experts, investors, and “ecopreneurs” — all of whom believe the best way to save the ailing oceans is to embrace innovation. Founder Daniela Fernandez has steered the ship the whole time, and the SOA […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI 2024 event: How to watch new ChatGPT product reveals and demos
OpenAI is in the holiday spirit, it seems. The ChatGPT series of reveals, called “12 Days of OpenAI,” will be streamed live at 10 a.m. PT each weekday through December 23. So far, we’ve seen the launch of ChatGPT Pro, OpenAI’s $200 per month subscription plan; the full version of its “reasoning” o1 model; the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hauler Hero wants to bring waste-management software into the 21st century
After nearly four years of working in sales at tradesperson software company ServiceTitan, Mark Hoadley (pictured above) was looking for a change and to potentially start something of his own in a similar industry. Hoadley’s brother-in-law and now co-founder, Ben Sikma, was working on M&A in the waste-management space at the time. Sikma discovered how […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Supreme Court to hear arguments over TikTok sell-or-ban law
The Supreme Court said on Wednesday that it will hear ByteDance and TikTok’s challenge to a law that would ban the social network in the U.S. unless the social network divests from Chinese ownership by January 19. On January 10, the Supreme Court justices will hear arguments about whether the sell-or-ban law violates the First Amendment. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How the ransomware attack at Change Healthcare went down: A timeline
A hack on UnitedHealth-owned tech giant Change Healthcare likely stands as one of the biggest data breaches of U.S. medical data in history. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Flipboard launches Surf, a new app for browsing the open social web
Social magazine app maker Flipboard is reinventing itself for the new era of the open social web. While the company’s original app allowed users to collect content from blogs, news websites, and traditional social media services like Facebook and Twitter in order to create curated magazines, its new app called Surf, launching into invite-only beta […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI is burying company web sites in search results, but Otterly.AI thinks it can help
Many sites saw their organic traffic decline in 2024, in big part due to the rise of AI-generated search results. Many queries no longer lead to click-throughs, and even when users click, it is hard for companies to get more context on searches made within apps like ChatGPT or Perplexity. The answer to this problem […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads is testing a post scheduling feature
Meta’s social network Threads is experimenting with a feature that will let you schedule posts, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said. Users who will get to test this feature won’t be able to schedule replies. “We want to balance giving people more control to plan their Threads posts while still encouraging real-time conversations,” he said. People […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘It’s dumb to IPO this year’: Databricks CEO explains why he’s waiting to go public
Databricks just closed one of the largest funding rounds ever, raising a staggering $10 billion in fresh capital. Naturally, technology investors were quick to ask what this means for the company’s highly anticipated IPO. During an event in San Francisco on Tuesday night, Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi explained why he’s waiting until at least 2025 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s MobiKwik surges 82% in market debut
Shares of digital payments firm MobiKwik surged 82% to ₹507.5 ($6) on their first day of trading as The Indian fintech’s $69 million IPO comes amid fierce competition from larger rivals, and it pushes MobiKwik’s market value to $464 million, well above its initial target of $250 million. This remains substantially lower than the $924 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The DOJ wants a Perplexity executive to testify in its Google antitrust case
The US government is calling on a Perplexity executive to help make its case that Google is a monopolist. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Insight VC describes Databricks’ wild $10B deal and the bad advice the CEO ignored
It’s been a wild week for investors clawing their way into Databricks' record-breaking $10 billion fund raising, one of the VCs told TechCrunch. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Salesforce plans to hire 2,000 people to sell its AI products
Cloud software giant Salesforce is looking to hire thousands of new salespeople to sell its AI tools to customers. The company plans to hire 2,000 new sales representatives, according to CNBC, which cited remarks from CEO Marc Benioff at a company event Tuesday. This doubles the hiring plans that Benioff shared with Bloomberg last month. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI says it has no plans for a Sora API — yet
OpenAI says it has no plans to release an API for Sora, its AI model that can generate reasonably realistic videos when provided with a text description or reference image. During an AMA with members of OpenAI’s dev team, Romain Huet, head of developer experience at OpenAI, said that a Sora API isn’t in the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Grubhub to pay $25M for ‘deceptive’ practices against customers, drivers
Grubhub will pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul over unlawful practices, including misleading customers about delivery costs, deceiving drivers about potential earnings, and listing restaurants on its platform without their permission. The agencies claim that Grubhub hid the true cost of its delivery […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI boom masks fundraising struggles for non-AI startups
Earlier this year, IVP general partner Tom Loverro proclaimed that the post-pandemic downturn is over, and companies that made it this far should prioritize growth over cost-cutting. Yet, the companies still struggling to raise their next round of financing at a higher valuation or survive altogether could still be in the thousands, according to Brian […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bob Lee verdict: Cash App creator’s killer found guilty of second-degree murder
A San Francisco jury has found Nima Momeni guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing of Bob Lee, the Cash App creator and former CTO of Block, according to NBC Bay Area on Tuesday. The jury found Momeni not guilty of first-degree murder, meaning jurors decided the murder of Lee was not premeditated. Lee was […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems just picked its first commercial site partly because of its proximity to Washington, DC
The fusion startup intends to hook the power plant up to the grid in the early 2030s. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bridgy Fed, a project to connect the open social web, is now becoming a nonprofit
Bridgy Fed, which is working to connect the social network Bluesky with the wider fediverse (i.e., the open social web), which includes sites like Mastodon and others, will be the first app incubated within a new nonprofit called A New Social. The organization, announced Tuesday, aims to bring together developers, researchers, startups, and industry leaders […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This fintech processed $1B in payments through word-of-mouth
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re diving into: P.S. We’re taking time off for the holidays! TechCrunch Fintech scribe Mary Ann Azevedo will be back in your inbox on January 7. ❄️ The big story How stablecoin technology can power billions in cross-border transactions Juicyway is an African fintech that’s leveraging stablecoin technology to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Grammarly acquires productivity startup Coda, brings on new CEO
Grammarly is acquiring productivity startup Coda, the company announced on Tuesday. As part of the deal, Coda’s CEO and co-founder Shishir Mehrotra will become the new CEO of Grammarly. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition will help turn Grammarly’s AI assistant into an “AI productivity platform” thanks to the addition […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI brings its o1 reasoning model to its API — for certain developers
OpenAI is bringing o1, its “reasoning” AI model, to its API — but only for certain developers, to start. Starting Tuesday, o1 will begin rolling out to devs in OpenAI’s “tier 5” usage category, the company said. To qualify for tier 5, developers have to spend at least $1,000 with OpenAI and have an account […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI 2024 event: How to watch new ChatGPT product reveals and demos
OpenAI is in the holiday spirit, it seems. The ChatGPT series of reveals, called “12 Days of OpenAI,” will be streamed live at 10 a.m. PT each weekday through December 23. So far, we’ve seen the launch of ChatGPT Pro, OpenAI’s $200 per month subscription plan; the full version of its “reasoning” o1 model; the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Stephen Curry’s Penny Jar Capital files to raise a Fund II
Penny Jar Capital is the early-stage firm founded by Bryant Barr and Richard Scudellari and where basketball star Stephen Curry serves as a special advisor. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google joins $90M investment into Cassava to bolster Africa’s digital infrastructure
With cloud spend continuing to surge, tech companies are scrambling to meet demand for the necessary infrastructure, with the growing need for AI compute only adding fuel to the fire. By way of example, Microsoft and BlackRock have created a $30 billion fund to support new data centers and energy infrastructure for the burgeoning AI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple’s Vision Pro might add support for PlayStation VR controllers
Apple is looking to make its Vision Pro mixed reality device more attractive to gamers and game developers, according to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The Vision Pro has been pitched as more of a productivity and media consumption device than something aimed at gamers, due in part to relying on eye and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UCLA offers comp lit course developed by AI
In winter 2025, a comparative literature class at UCLA will feature a textbook, homework assignments, and TA resources generated by AI. The class in question is a survey of literature from the Middle Ages to the 17th century, while the materials are generated by Kudu — an “evolved” textbook platform founded by Alexander Kusenko, a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple sued over abandoning CSAM detection for iCloud
Apple is being sued over its decision not to implement a system that would have scanned iCloud photos for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The lawsuit argues that by not doing more to prevent the spread of this material, it’s forcing victims to relive their trauma, according to The New York Times. The suit describes […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lead Edge is increasingly steering its 700+ investors away from VC deals
Mitchell Green worked variously in investment banking, as an analyst with Bessemer Venture Partners, and for a hedge fund backed by Tiger Management before striking out on his own in 2011. Going it alone was seemingly the right move. Green now manages money for more than 700 individuals who have committed $5 billion to his […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Queer-founded brand discovery platform Famm launches a LinkedIn for the LGBTQ+ community
Famm, the discovery platform for queer-owned brands, was created by BIPOC queer married couple Cat Perez and Marianna Di Regolo to help users find LGBTQ-owned businesses. Now it’s launching a new social networking app for LGBTQ+ professionals and business owners to connect and collaborate. Famm Connect, now available on iOS and Android devices, includes common […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google says its new AI model outperforms the top weather forecast system
Google’s DeepMind team unveiled an AI model for weather prediction this week called GenCast. In a paper published in Nature, DeepMind researchers said they found that GenCast outperforms the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts’ ENS — apparently the world’s top operational forecasting system. And in a blog post, the DeepMind team offered a more […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI bets you’ll pay $200 a month for ChatGPT
Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re diving into OpenAI’s surprise 12 days of reveals, an underwhelming Spotify Wrapped, and an app that tells you when you’ll die. 😰 Let’s get into it. OpenAI is getting into the holiday spirit. In a surprise “12 Days of OpenAI” event, the company will livestream updates […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google pushes back against federal supervision of its payment arm
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Friday that it was placing Google’s payment arm under federal supervision. In response, Google filed a lawsuit seeking to block the move. Such supervision would subject Google to the same inspections that the bureau conducts with major banks and other financial institutions for potential violations of the law. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s X gains a new image generator, Aurora
X, the Elon Musk-owned social network previously known as Twitter, has added a new image generator to its Grok assistant. Just like the first image generator X added to Grok in October, this one, called Aurora, appears to have few restrictions. Accessible through the Grok tab on X’s mobile apps and the web, Aurora can […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As YC retreats from Africa, alumni launch accelerators to fill the gap
The influential accelerator Y Combinator made a splash in Africa in 2020 when it shined its light on the market and began to accept startups from the region into its cohorts. The move was huge: in this nascent market, startups especially rely on programs like these to find their feet and connect with investors, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
New York’s top VCs under 30
The next generation of New York City investors are already making their mark in the Big Apple. They come from big-name venture firms like Female Founders Fund and Lerer Hippeau and smaller ones like Chai Ventures. They work in areas like growth, consumer, and health. They canoe, hike, and play pickleball on the weekends. We […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The four startups from YC’s Fall batch that enterprises should pay attention to
Notable Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator held a Demo Day for its inaugural Fall cohort this week. The 95 startups in this latest batch looked quite similar to recent YC cohorts in the sense that it includes many AI startups. If I did my math right, 87% of the startups in this batch are […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As Australia bans social media for kids under 16, age-assurance tech is in the spotlight
Age assurance, an umbrella term that refers to technologies for verifying, estimating, or inferring an internet user’s age, is being thrust into the global spotlight thanks to a blanket ban on social media use for people under 16 in Australia. The law, which is expected to come into force in Australia in November 2025, will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Paytm sells PayPay stake to SoftBank for $279.2 million
Paytm has agreed to sell its stake in Japanese payments firm PayPay to SoftBank for $279.20 million, as the Indian firm sheds non-core assets following a bruising regulatory clampdown earlier this year. The sale of Paytm’s stake in PayPay, which it received through acquisition rights under a 2018 partnership, follows months of restructuring that saw […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Silicon Valley hitters take over Trump transition team: “a dozen Musk allies”
About a “dozen Musk allies” have put a pin in their daily routines to serve as unofficial advisers to the Trump transition effort, says the New York Times. Among them, reports the outlet: Jared Birchall, the head of Elon Musk’s family office, has interviewed a few candidates for jobs at the State Department; Marc Andreessen […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Grok is now free for all X users
The AI chatbot within X, Grok, is now free for all users - but with some limits. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Will people really pay $200 a month for OpenAI’s new chatbot?
On Thursday, OpenAI released what’s effectively a $200-a-month chatbot — and the AI community didn’t know quite what to make of it. The company’s new ChatGPT Pro plan grants access to “o1 pro mode,” which OpenAI says “uses more compute for the best answers to the hardest questions.” A souped-up version of OpenAI’s o1 reasoning […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
If you can make this AI bot fall in love, you could win thousands of dollars
If you can be the first person to get an AI bot named Freysa to say ‘I love you,’ you’ll win anywhere from $3,000 to tens of thousands of dollars. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snyk hits $300M ARR but isn’t rushing to go public
Several factors indicate that Snyk, most recently valued at $7.4 billion, could IPO soon. But the CEO told us why it might not. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta’s Nick Clegg says Elon Musk has potential to be a political ‘puppet master’
Meta’s Nick Clegg talked about how Musk is “playing an outsized role in both the election and now the formation of the new US administration.” © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rivian’s EVs ranked last on Consumer Reports reliability list
Consumer Reports has put out its annual automaker reliability list, and the top spot is relatively unsurprising: Subaru. What may come as a surprise to some is that Rivian’s EVs are dead last, especially considering the company topped a different Consumer Reports survey from earlier this year about the “most loved” auto brands. The consumer […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instagram locks out developers of third-party consumer apps
A change to Meta’s developer tools is impacting third-party consumer apps that had previously integrated with Instagram. Among those affected by the changes are the Match-owned dating apps Tinder and Hinge, which had allowed their users to link their Instagram profiles to their accounts to display their posts to potential matches. Day One, the journaling […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hopeful hearts and other startup news
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. The week after Thanksgiving is usually rich in announcements, and this year was no exception. Blame it on the holiday season, but we would even go as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A16z-backed Toka wants to help US agencies hack into security cameras and other IoT devices
An Israeli startup specializing in penetrating IoT devices says it's hiring to "support new business growth" in the US government market. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI 2024 event: How to watch new ChatGPT product reveals and demos
OpenAI is in the holiday spirit, it seems. The ChatGPT creator announced “12 Days of OpenAI,” a series of reveals that will be livestreamed at 10 a.m. PT for the next 12 weekdays. Day one of the event saw the launch of ChatGPT Pro, OpenAI’s $200 per month subscription plan, and the full version of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta unveils a new, more efficient Llama model
Meta has announced the newest addition to its Llama family of generative AI models: Llama 3.3 70B. In a post on X, Ahmad Al-Dahle, VP of generative AI at Meta, said that Llama 3.3 70B delivers the performance of Meta’s largest Llama model, Llama 3.1 405B, but with far better cost efficiency. “By leveraging the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Y Combinator alum Nowadays, founded by sisters, raises $2M to automate event planning
Nowadays is a seed-stage company doing something really useful with AI. It automates large event planning from emails to phone calls. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk donated more than $260 million to elect Donald Trump
Fresh campaign financing data shows that Elon Musk poured more than $260 million into political groups in 2024 that helped Donald Trump win the presidential election and, consequently, secured a position for himself as the co-head of government efficiency, according to the Federal Election Commission. The New York Times reported that Musk and the entities he […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US appeals court upholds TikTok ban
A federal appeals court has unanimously voted to uphold a law that could ban TikTok in the U.S. unless the social network’s parent company, ByteDance, sells it to an American owner. The decision comes seven months after TikTok filed a lawsuit against the federal government over the ban. The ruling rejects TikTok’s claims that the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI considers ditching provision that would prevent AGI from being used for commercial gain
According to the Financial Times, OpenAI is considering ditching a provision that would shut Microsoft, a major partner and investor, out of its most advanced technology when OpenAI achieves artificial general intelligence (AGI). Exactly when OpenAI creates AGI, which the startup defines as “highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work,” is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google Photos launches a ‘2024 Recap’ for a look back at this year’s memories
Spotify Wrapped isn’t the only service offering a year-end recap these days. In addition to the year-end reviews from other streamers and social apps, you can also count Google Photos among the apps providing users with a look back at key moments throughout the past year. In this case, Google Photos’ “2024 Recap,” as the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former LA Lakers star launches VC firm
Former NBA Lakers star Metta Sandiford-Artest (formerly known as Metta World Peace), has teamed up with Stephen Stokols, the former CEO of Boost Mobile, to launch Tru Skye Ventures, a firm looking to invest in sports and health tech, according to Sportico. The firm wants to raise $100 million and cut its first formal check […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Heartcore Capital closes $180M fund to pivot towards infrastructure, synthetic biology, climate
Back in the heady days of 2021, Heartcore Capital planned to focus on consumer technology with a $200 million fund. Fast-forward to 2024, and its latest fund will now ‘leaven the bread’ of that thesis, with a fresh $180 million (€170M) to go broader and more generalist than that earlier thesis. Some 17-years into the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Uber and WeRide launch robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi
Ride-hail giant Uber and Chinese autonomous vehicle technology company WeRide have launched a commercial robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi.The launch marks Uber’s first international autonomous vehicle offering.Uber has been snatching up partnerships with autonomous vehicle companies across sectors, including ride-hail, delivery, and trucking.
Fly Ventures sets its eyes on technical founders with a fresh €80M fund
Fly Ventures, the Berlin-based VC that invests in seed-stage European startups within enterprise and deep tech, has launched its third fund at €80 million. The firm raised its last €53 million fund in 2020. Aiming at technical founders, the firm claims Fund III was oversubscribed and raised in a single closing. Meanwhile, the small increase […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MobiKwik slashes valuation by 73% in India IPO
MobiKwik, an Indian financial services startup, has cut its planned IPO size for the third time, setting a price band of 265-279 Indian rupees ($3.1-3.3) that values it at $250 million — down sharply from its $924 million private valuation in 2021. The Gurugram-based fintech, backed by Peak XV and ADIA, is seeking to raise […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GitLab names Bill Staples as its new CEO
GitLab, the popular developer and security platform, has named a new CEO, Bill Staples, effective immediately. Staples, who’s also been appointed to the company’s board of directors, succeeds CEO Sid Sijbrandij, who’s battling a rare form of cancer. Sijbrandij will transition to executive chair of the board. “I believe [Bill’s] passion for software, commitment to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s o1 model sure tries to deceive humans a lot
OpenAI finally released the full version of o1, which gives smarter answers than GPT-4o by using additional compute to “think” about questions. However, AI safety testers found that o1’s reasoning abilities also make it try to deceive humans at a higher rate than GPT-4o — or, for that matter, leading AI models from Meta, Anthropic, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ex-PayPal COO David Sacks is Trump’s new crypto and AI ‘czar’
Incoming President Donald Trump has a new crypto and AI “czar”: ex-PayPal COO David Sacks. Trump announced Sacks’ appointment Thursday in a post on Truth Social, Trump’s social networking platform. “[Sacks] will work on a legal framework so the Crypto [sic] industry has the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zopa, the UK neobank, snaps up $85M at a $1B+ valuation, eschewing the IPO route
Some believe Klarna’s planned IPO in 2025 could set the stage for other fintech startups to go public. But with the tech IPO market still sluggish, one of the candidates hotly tipped to follow suit has instead just announced a fundraise, and its CEO says going public is “not a priority.” Zopa, the UK neobank […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Planet A Foods nabs $30M to make tons more cocoa-free chocolate
Turning sunflower seeds into sustainable, cocoa-free chocolate has netted Munich-based B2B foodtech startup Planet A Foods (formerly QOA) a $30 million Series B funding round. Now, the Y Combinator alum is gearing up for industrialization, with the funds set to be deployed to scale its production capacity by around 7.5x. The round fast follows a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Uber will need to fingerprint drivers in California to transport teens
Uber has 30 days to require certain drivers to get fingerprinted if the ride-hail giant intends to continue transporting unaccompanied teens in California. The California Public Utilities Commission issued a ruling Thursday that requires taxi and ride-hail drivers who are carrying unaccompanied minors in the state to pass a fingerprint background check. The ruling also […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky CEO Jay Graber on the need for social to recapture the open web’s spirit at StrictlyVC SF
Bluesky’s rapid growth in the past few weeks has put a ton of eyeballs on the social platform, but as its CEO Jay Graber told us at the most recent StrictlyVC event, their goal is not just to recreate Twitter. Throughout her conversation with TechCrunch reporter Maxwell Zeff, Graber highlighted her belief that “people need […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lucid Motors completes its first Gravity SUV
The first Lucid Motors Gravity SUV has rolled off the company’s production line in Casa Grande, Arizona, according to a post on X. The company will now set its aim on ramping up production of the new electric vehicle and making the first deliveries — though the company is staying quiet about when it will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon CTO Werner Vogels on fighting misinformation, tech addiction, and small nuclear reactors
In what has become a bit of an annual tradition, I sat down with Amazon CTO Werner Vogels at AWS re:Invent this week. Another annual tradition now is that Vogels, who joined Amazon in 2004, publishes a series of predictions for the next year. It’d be easy to think that this year’s predictions are all […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amp Robotics raises $91M to build more robot-filled waste sorting facilities
Recently, Amp Robotics changed its business model to focus on running entire facilities that sort recyclables. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI wants to pair online courses with chatbots
If OpenAI has its way, the next online course you take might have a chatbot component. Speaking at a fireside on Monday hosted by Coeus Collective, Siya Raj Purohit, a member of OpenAI’s go-to-market team for education, said that OpenAI might explore ways to let e-learning instructors create custom “GPTs” that tie into online curriculums. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s xAI lands billions in new cash to fuel AI ambitions
xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, has raised $6 billion, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Valor Equity Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz were expected to contribute to the round, along with Qatar Investment Authority, Qatar’s sovereign-wealth fund. The new cash […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies. That growth has propelled OpenAI itself into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Holiday app Festivitas puts Xmas lights on your Mac
Getting into the holiday spirit but still stuck at work? A cute new macOS called Festivitas can help you decorate your Mac computer screen with twinkling, holiday lights that are strung up from your menu bar and illuminate your dock. This whimsical holiday treat was dreamed up by software developer Simon B. Støvring, the maker […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads tests a feature that lets users see how well specific posts performed
Threads is testing the ability for users to see how well their individual posts performed on the social network. Up until now, Threads’ “Insights” feature only showed you aggregated metrics for all of your posts. Now, the feature can show you metrics for each post. If you’re in the test, you can sort posts by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Delaware judge rules against Elon Musk’s $56B pay package again
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Your usual host Kirsten is out this week, so I’ll be taking you through the last couple weeks’ worth of mobility news. Top of mind this week […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI confirms new $200 monthly subscription, ChatGPT Pro, which includes its o1 reasoning model
OpenAI has launched a new subscription plan for ChatGPT, its AI-powered chatbot platform — and it’s very, very expensive. Confirming leaks this morning, OpenAI announced ChatGPT Pro, a new $200-per-month subscription tier that provides unlimited access to all of OpenAI’s models, including the full version of its o1 “reasoning” model. Unlike most AI, o1 and other reasoning models […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI 2024 event: How to watch new ChatGPT product reveals and demos
OpenAI is in the holiday spirit, it seems. The ChatGPT creator announced “12 Days of OpenAI,” a series of reveals that will be livestreamed starting December 5, 2024 at 10 a.m. PT and continue for the next 12 weekdays. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the company event will feature announcements ranging from new demos to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google says its new AI models can identify emotions — and that has experts worried
Google says its new AI model family has a curious feature: the ability to “identify” emotions. Announced on Thursday, the PaliGemma 2 family of models can analyze images, enabling the AI to generate captions and answer questions about people it “sees” in photos. “PaliGemma 2 generates detailed, contextually relevant captions for images,” Google wrote in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rivian opens its first charging station other EVs can use
Rivian has opened a new charging station in Joshua Tree, California, that is open for other EV owners can use — a first for the company. It’s part of a plan to build out a much larger interoperable charging network across the U.S., though the company is still very early in that process. The new […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fitness startup Ladder comes after Peloton for allegedly copying their app
Ladder, an Austin, Texas-based fitness startup that makes a popular strength-training app, is accusing Peloton of ripping off its work with the launch of Peloton’s new Stength+ app, which exited beta on Wednesday. After receiving feedback from Peloton’s beta testers that the app looked, felt, and functioned much like Ladder’s own, the company says it […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ARX launches firestick-like platform to make military trucks autonomous
A startup with founders who previously served in the German military has created a product akin to an Amazon Firestick for legacy defense equipment, complete with a software stack. ARX Robotics claims its system can turn old equipment into AI-driven devices, such as autonomous-driving trucks. Back in June this year ARX raised a €9 million […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta eases up on issuing strikes for Facebook users and Instagram creators
Days after Meta admitted that it’s been over-moderating its content, with mistakes impacting creators, the company announced an expansion of a new policy that will help to keep creators from being penalized after violating Meta’s Community Standards when they mess up for the first time. On Thursday, Meta said that the policy, which launched in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Copilot Vision, Microsoft’s AI tool that can read your screen, launches in preview
Microsoft’s AI can now read your screen — or rather, the websites you’re browsing. On Thursday, the company began rolling out a limited, U.S.-only preview of Copilot Vision, a tool that can understand and respond to questions about sites you’re visiting using Microsoft Edge. Gated behind Copilot Labs, an opt-in program for experimental AI capabilities, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Women in AI: Tamar Eilam is helping IBM build sustinable computing
To give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch is launching a series of interviews focusing on remarkable women who’ve contributed to the AI revolution. Tamar Eilam has worked at IBM for the past 24 years. She’s currently an IBM fellow, serving as chief scientist for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google’s latest feature drop includes new Gemini extensions and accessibility features
Google said Thursday it is introducing multiple updates for Pixel and Android devices as part of the December feature drop. These features include new Gemini extensions, an updated Pixel Screenshots app, expressive captions, and accessibility enhancements. Android Google is introducing new Gemini extensions, including Spotify, Messaging, Calling, and Smart Home. This will enable users to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nectir lets teachers tailor AI chatbots to provide their students with 24/7 educational support
Over a hundred colleges and high schools are turning to a new AI tool called Nectir, allowing teachers to create a personalized learning partner that’s trained on their syllabi, textbooks, and assignments to help students with anything from questions related to their coursework to essay writing assistance and even future career guidance. The company announced […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI may be planning a ChatGPT Pro plan for $200 per month
OpenAI’s “12 days of shipmas” event doesn’t kick off for a few hours, but the first big announcement might’ve been revealed early. A staging page on a website used by OpenAI refers to a “ChatGPT Pro” plan that includes all the benefits of ChatGPT Plus, as well as new goodies. Recall that ChatGPT Plus is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok partners with Nielsen to track cross-media ad campaign performance
TikTok has formed a partnership with Nielsen that will allow advertisers and agencies to directly compare ad performance on TikTok across all screens, including digital, CTV, and linear. Nielsen says the partnership will allow advertisers to get a better understanding of TikTok’s contribution to audience reach, while also helping them better place their ads across […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple to shell out $1 billion on a manufacturing plant in Indonesia
Negotiating with one of the largest companies in the world doesn’t sound easy, but that’s precisely what Indonesia has been doing for the past few weeks with iPhone maker Apple. The backstory here is that after the country required smartphones which are sold domestically to be made of at least 40% locally manufactured parts, Indonesia […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK tribunal green-lights $2.7B Facebook collective action antitrust lawsuit
As Meta faces off with antitrust regulators in the U.S. and Europe, a £2.1 billion+ Facebook U.K. class action-style competition lawsuit, which takes Meta’s market dominance as a given, is moving ahead after the social media giant lost a bid to have the litigation thrown out. The suit is seeking damages worth a minimum of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Waymo outsources fleet operations to African fintech Moove in Phoenix and Miami
Waymo is partnering with Moove, an African mobility fintech that offers vehicle financing to gig workers, to handle fleet management operations for its robotaxi service in Phoenix and, soon, Miami. The partnership marks several firsts, like Waymo’s entry into Miami. It’s also the first time Moove will enter the U.S. market and work with autonomous […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is reshaping social media, but advertising isn’t off the table
Bluesky has blown up this year thanks to a vibrant community of posters, user customization choices, and a decentralized protocol that doesn’t lock users into the choices of a billionaire CEO. But one question mark hanging over Bluesky is how the platform will eventually make money, and whether it will use the most common business […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Twos is a to-do app that uses AI to suggest actions to complete your tasks
The overarching promise of companies working on AI-powered productivity tools is to build solutions that would do a task for you. Some of the early demos that we have seen don’t really fare well in fulfilling those promises. A to-do list app called Twos is approaching this problem differently. When you add a task, it […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity expands its publisher program
Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine, is expanding its publisher program, with the LA Times, Adweek, Mexico News Daily, and a dozen other news outlets signing up. Publishers will share in revenue generated by ads on Perplexity, and receive metrics to track their content’s performance — as long as they don’t withdraw. “We would not be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After selling his startup to IBM, this founder wants to bring ‘agentic memory’ to enterprise data
Not everyone agrees on what an “AI agent” actually is, but they are all still the rage. At a broad level, these so-called “agents” promise to go several steps beyond a mere chatbot, making decisions and taking actions on people’s behalf. Some might help you do your online shopping; others might make factories more efficient […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ai Pin maker Humane demos AI software for cars, phones and smart speakers
When Humane released its Ai Pin, the San Francisco-based gadget maker envisioned a world with dedicated AI devices — something that you would carry with you in addition to the smartphone in your pocket. However, reviews and sales haven’t been great — returns reportedly begun to outpace unit sales at one point. And Humane recently dropped […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EU puts TikTok on watch over election security
The European Commission has responded to widespread concerns swirling around the impact of TikTok on elections in Romania by announcing it’s stepping up monitoring of the platform’s compliance with the bloc’s online governance framework, the Digital Services Act (DSA). This follows the shock emergence of Călin Georgescu, an independent, far-right, pro-Russian nationalist, as the lead […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Chainalysis permanently parts ways with its founding CEO
Michael Gronager, the co-founder of Chainalysis, has agreed to leave the company permanently, two months after taking a temporary personal leave of absence. Chainalysis, a buzzy 10-year-old, New York-based blockchain data platform, will now be led by co-founder Jonathan Levin, he told TechCrunch, explaining that on Tuesday, its board of directors gave him Gronager’s job. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Time4 is a new Daphni-backed fund dedicated to French entrepreneurs with diverse backgrounds
France’s startup ecosystem has grown significantly over the last decade, thanks to public support and private investment. However, capital isn’t evenly distributed. Most venture-backed startups are Paris-based, with founders who come from the same handful of universities and schools. This is what VC firm Daphni is hoping to change with Time4, a fund with a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Myntra enters India’s quick-commerce race with 30-minute apparel delivery
Fashion e-commerce firm Myntra on Thursday launched “M-Now,” its quick-commerce offering that promises to deliver apparel and other lifetstyle accessories within 30 minutes. Retailers in India are rushing to meet changing consumer behavior and expectations, particularly fast deliveries of groceries, beauty and lifestyle products within an hour. Myntra said M-Now will offer customers access to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Russian programmer says FSB agents planted spyware on his Android phone
Security researchers confirmed the programmer's phone had spyware, likely during a spell in Russian detention. The programmer told his story to TechCrunch. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Vodafone and Three’s $19B merger cleared by UK regulators – with conditions
The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has greenlighted the longstanding planned merger between two of the country’s biggest telecommunication operators. Vodafone and Three constitute two of the U.K.’s four infrastructure-owning mobile network operators (MNOs), alongside O2 and EE. As such, when the duo revealed plans to merge in a $19 billion transaction last June, it was always likely […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lawhive raises $40M to go after ‘Main Street’ US lawyers
U.K.-based legal tech startup Lawhive, which allows small, ‘Main Street’ law firms to run their affairs through an AI-based SaaS platform, is on something of a tear. In April it raised an $11.9 million Seed round. It’s now raised a $40million in Series A funding to expand in the US. The round was co-led by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bitcoin zooms past $100,000 mark for the first time
Bitcoin prices have been on the rise this year and the cryptocurrency has reached the mark of $100,000 price point for the first time on Wednesday. The cryptocurrency’s price has jumped more than 5% in the last 24 hours. The latest rally began with the election of Donald Trump as president, as he promised a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cleerly raises $106M from Insight Partners for AI heart health early detection
Although heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, a significant portion of people who experience heart attacks are unaware that they have the underlying condition. Cleerly, a cardiovascular imaging startup, hopes to fix this. By analyzing CT scans of the heart, the company’s AI software aims to identify early stage […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A billionaire private astronaut and SpaceX supporter may be the next NASA head
Incoming President Donald Trump has nominated Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur and private astronaut, to lead NASA through what could be one of the most consequential periods in the agency’s history. During the four years of Trump’s second term, NASA will need to navigate a number of significant changes and challenges, including the ongoing Artemis […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
It’s the Senate’s last chance to pass the PRESS Act
The PRESS Act, which would protect a journalist's sources, gained unanimous bipartisan support when passed by the House in January. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI inks deal to upgrade Anduril’s anti-drone tech
OpenAI plans to team up with Anduril, the defense startup, to supply its AI tech to systems the U.S. military uses to counter drone attacks. The Wall Street Journal reports that Anduril will incorporate OpenAI tech into software that assesses and tracks unmanned aircraft. Anduril tells the publication that OpenAI’s models could improve the accuracy […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Non-profit 1863 Ventures has closed, reborn into for-profit New Majority Ventures
The nonprofit organization 1863 Ventures, which focused on providing capital and mentorship to early-staged underrepresented founders, will close and become a for-profit entity called New Majority Ventures, according to its founder Melissa Bradley. The new organization will rely on a fiscal sponsor and is said to be in talks with The Tide Foundation for this […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LLMs may have a killer enterprise app: ‘digital labor’ — at least if Salesforce AgentForce is any indicator
Marc Benioff says that Salesforce has become the "largest supplier of digital labor, and this is just the beginning.” © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Key leaders behind Google’s viral NotebookLM are leaving to create their own startup
Core members of Google's NotebookLM team are exiting to launch a startup, sharing some details exclusively with TechCrunch. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Khloé Kardashian and Kris Jenner are raising money for a new consumer startup
Khloé Kardashian and Kris Jenner are looking to raise $10 million for a new business called Khloud, according to an SEC filing. Per the filing, which was listed on Tuesday, the company started raising last month and has already raised $4.49 million. Trademark filings show that earlier this year, trademarks affiliated with Khloud were filed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Khloe Kardashian, Kris Jenner are raising money for a new consumer startup
Khloe Kardashian and Kris Jenner are looking to raise $10 million for a new business called Khloud, according to an SEC filing. Per the filing, which was listed on Tuesday, the company started raising last month and has already raised $4.49 million. Trademark filings show that earlier this year, trademarks affiliated with Khloud were filed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Heirloom Carbon raises $150M to remove CO2 from the air using rocks
The startup is betting that by building bigger and capturing more carbon, it can bring down the cost to remove each metric ton of CO2. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Pope gets his first electric Popemobile from Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz has delivered the first all-electric Popemobile to the Vatican: A modified version of the German automaker’s G-Class SUV. Some of the biggest changes from the standard G-Class involve using the four electric motors at each wheel to carefully control the vehicle at low speeds as it travels around the Vatican grounds. There is also […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify users are disappointed by an underwhelming Wrapped this year
After weeks of anticipation, some Spotify users are left underwhelmed by the streamer’s personalized year-in-review feature, Spotify Wrapped — with many even going so far as to call it “boring” or a “flop.” Chief among the complaints are that Spotify prioritized the inclusion of an AI podcast for Wrapped over the other, clever and creative […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
See Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs generate 3D environments from a single picture
World Labs has announced a new AI feature that turns 2D images into tiny worlds. This tool, the first from Fei-Fei Li’s highly hyped startup, takes a prompt or 2D reference image and spits out a fully navigable 3D environment. By generating in 3D, World Labs can avoid some of the the control and consistency […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS pledges $100M in cloud credits to help education organizations build learning tools
AWS, Amazon’s cloud computing unit, today announced the Education Equity Initiative, which aims to provide “education organizations with technologies to build digital learning innovations for underrepresented communities.” AWS is committing $100 million in cloud credits to this effort over the next five years. Tom Berry, who leads the education work within AWS’s Social Impact and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads users can now follow profiles from other fediverse servers
A new update from Meta’s X competitor Instagram Threads allows users to connect more with the fediverse, which is also called the open social web and includes services like Flipboard, Mastodon, Pixelfed, PeerTube, and more. On Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that users can now follow profiles from other fediverse servers. Starting today, users […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS brings prompt routing and caching to its Bedrock LLM service
As businesses move from trying out generative AI in limited prototypes to putting them into production, they are becoming increasingly price conscious. Using large language models isn’t cheap, after all. One way to reduce cost is to go back to an old concept: caching. Another is to route simpler queries to smaller, more cost-efficient models. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
$132 – $149K, here’s what seed-stage founders pay early employees, based on data
Once a startup has raised its seed round, the perennial question becomes how much should the founders pay themselves and their first few employees? Kruze Consulting, a CPA firm that specializes in venture-backed startups, recently analyzed average salary ranges for over 450 seed-stage startups and shared that data with TechCrunch. The following averages are based […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says it’d be ‘un-American’ for Elon Musk to wield political influence to harm rivals
During an interview at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit on Wednesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that it’d be “profoundly un-American” for Elon Musk, the CEO of X and Tesla, to wield political influence to “hurt competitors” and “advantage [his] own businesses.” “I don’t think people would tolerate that,” he said, per Bloomberg. Musk, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Senators say U.S. military is failing to secure its phones from foreign spies
Senators Ron Wyden and Eric Schmitt are demanding the Department of Defense to do more to secure its telecommunications. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EU could target ultra low-cost e-tailers like Shein and Temu with package handling fee or import tax
The European Union is drowning under cheap packages coming from Asian online retailers, starting with ultra low-cost e-tailers AliExpress, Shein and Temu. The Financial Times has learned that the EU is considering a crackdown on such imported goods due to safety and counterfeiting concerns. The issue is there are currently no custom duties on goods […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Frère’s fashion brand is upgrading the ‘tech bro’ look
What do Tim Cook, Jay Z, and Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase, all have in common? That would be their interest in Frère, a bespoke ready-to-wear clothing brand that has attracted names all over the tech world. The brand, which only launched in March, is opening its first store in New York’s SoHo. Frère is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS makes its SageMaker HyperPod AI platform more efficient for training LLMs
At last year’s AWS re:Invent conference, Amazon’s cloud computing unit launched SageMaker HyperPod, a platform for building foundation models. It’s no surprise then that at this year’s re:Invent, the company is announcing a number of updates to the platform, with a focus on making model training and fine-tuning on HyperPod more efficient and cost-effective for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS brings third-party apps to its SageMaker AI platform
SageMaker has long been AWS’s fully managed platform for building, training and deploying machine learning and generative AI models. Over time, however, an ecosystem of applications has sprung up around AI and ML models for performing tasks like managing experiments, evaluating model quality and security. Those always lived outside of SageMaker and had to be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta jumps aboard the nuclear-powered data center bandwagon
Meta wants nuclear power developers to help it build 1 to 4 gigawatts of new electricity generating capacity. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads tests a way to hide your replies from your profile
Instagram Threads, Meta’s competitor to Elon Musk’s X, is testing a way to make your replies to others’ posts less visible on the platform. The company is adding a new privacy feature that allows you to customize your profile to remove the tab that displays your replies. This leaves only the two tabs that show […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies. That growth has propelled OpenAI itself into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instagram now lets creators enable replies in Broadcast Channels
Meta is updating its Broadcast Channels feature on Instagram in an effort to make it easier for creators to collaborate with their followers, the company announced on Wednesday. Up until now, viewers could not respond to a creator’s post in a Broadcast Channel, and were limited to emoji reactions. Now, the company is giving creators […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FBI recommends encrypted messaging apps to combat Chinese hackers
U.S. government officials urged Americans to use encrypted messaging apps to avoid having their communications tapped by Chinese spies. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US government says Chinese hackers are still lurking in American phone networks
U.S. government officials urged Americans to use encrypted messaging apps to avoid having their communications tapped by Chinese spies. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson shot and killed in New York
Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot in Midtown Manhattan early Wednesday morning while walking toward the New York Hilton Midtown for his company’s annual investor conference. According to emerging media reports, Thompson was fired on from roughly 20 feet away by a masked gunman who appeared to be waiting for Thompson and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok adds new ways for creators to raise money for charities
TikTok is rolling out new ways for creators to raise money for charities and causes they’re passionate about. The company is partnering with Goodstack, a fintech company that manages charitable donations, to enable creators to support organizations from its validated database of nonprofit partners, including the American Red Cross and Save the Children. TikTok is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DeepMind’s Genie 2 can generate interactive worlds that look like video games
DeepMind, Google’s AI research org, has unveiled a model that can generate an “endless” variety of playable 3D worlds. Called Genie 2, the model — the successor to DeepMind’s Genie, which was released earlier this year — can generate an interactive, real-time scene from a single image and text description (e.g. “A cute humanoid robot […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Superhuman launches availability sharing as it thinks about building a calendar app
Email startup Superhuman launched an availability-sharing feature for its built-in calendar, allowing users to share their free slots and schedule a meeting quickly. The company’s CEO, Rahul Vohra, said the company is thinking about building out its calendar offering and possibly releasing a standalone app as well. Availability sharing in the calendar is not a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ransomware hackers target NHS hospitals with new cyberattacks
Two NHS trusts in England have been hacked in recent weeks, the latest attacks to hit the national health service. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Revel to install 24 fast EV chargers at JFK airport
Revel is adding to its electric vehicle charging empire in New York City. The startup that began as an e-moped sharing service before launching an all-electric ride-hail platform and building NY’s first EV charging hub announced Wednesday that it has broken ground on the installation of 24 EV fast chargers at John F. Kennedy International […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After you check out your Spotify Wrapped, explore these copycats
Spotify’s annual Wrapped feature just dropped, giving listeners a fun, personalized summary of their listening habits, and it has gained immense popularity over the years. As a result, many companies have seized the opportunity to create similar year-in-review experiences, offering users a recap of their habits, preferences, or interactions from the past year. Here are […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Business leaders among Pegasus spyware victims, says security firm
The mobile security company said it detected Pegasus spyware attacks on seven iPhone owners, including government officials and a business leader. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Axiado claims its chip can prevent cyberattacks
Cyberattacks are on the rise. In Q1 2024, organizations experienced an average of around 1,300 attacks per week. The cost of attacks is climbing, as well. Per Statista, cybercrime-related losses could surge to over $13 billion by 2028. Software is one way to combat these attacks. Hardware is another. Startup Axiado is a proponent of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LatAm startup Vambe sees ARR skyrocket after pivot to conversational AI
After Vambe pivoted to building conversational AI agents for small and medium-sized businesses, its ARR increased five-fold to $1 million. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Linux Foundation report highlights the true state of open-source libraries in production apps
There are many metrics to track the prevalence of open-source components, such as GitHub stars and downloads, but they don’t paint the full picture of how they’re being used in production codebases. Census III of Free and Open Source Software: Application Libraries leans on more than 12 million data points from software composition analysis (SCA) […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify Wrapped 2024 adds an AI podcast powered by Google’s NotebookLM
Spotify Wrapped, the streamer’s highly anticipated annual listening recap, has arrived. In addition to its usual personalized summary detailing your favorite artists, songs, podcasts, and more, the company this year is introducing two new features, including most notably, an AI-powered podcast of your 2024 Wrapped created with Google’s AI summarization tool, NotebookLM. Spotify is also […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tuskira unifies and optimizes disparate cybersecurity tools
Cyberattacks are on the rise, and the victims are high-profile. According to a KPMG survey, close to half of companies with $1 billion or more in annual revenue recently suffered a security breach. Surprisingly, an overabundance of security tools may be contributing to the problem. In a separate poll, 43% of businesses said their teams […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google’s Gradient backs Cake, a managed open-source AI infrastructure platform
A new company is emerging from stealth today with backing from Google’s AI-focused venture fund to help businesses compile their open-source AI infrastructure and reduce their engineering overheads. Cake integrates and secures more than 100 components for enterprises, including data source adapters (e.g. Apache Hadoop), data ingestion (e.g. Apache Kafka), data labelling (e.g. Label Studio), […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Growl is building the Peloton of boxing
There’s a new connected fitness device in town and it’s called Growl. Inspired by hardware companies like Peloton and Tonal, Growl is building a boxing bag that you can attach to your wall at home. Users can then start immersive, gamified boxing classes from the comfort of their home. It also looks like they were […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Data resilience firm Veeam scores $15B valuation in $2B secondary sale
Veeam, which helps its users secure and recover their data, has seen its valuation spike in a recent secondary sale that was aimed at bolstering the company’s cap table before an eventual IPO. The Insight Partners-backed company said on Tuesday it had raised $2 billion in a secondary share sale that valued it at $15 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This ex-Scale AI leader built a platform to automatically extracts insights from customer feedback
In this hyperconnected world we live in, it’s easier than ever to send feedback to the companies we patronize. But just because businesses offer more ways to get in touch doesn’t mean they’re poring over every comment. According to a 2020 survey from Productboard, 90% of companies fail to successfully capture feedback from all channels […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Surreal Elderhood’ using OpenAI’s text-to-video model, Sora
Katsukokoiso.AI is a project from professional photographer Eugenio Marongiu, an alpha tester on OpenAI’s text-to-video model Sora. Marongiu used the unreleased Sora model to create a piece titled “Surreal Elderhood,” which aims to balance absurdity and striking realism. Earlier users of Sora pointed out the system can be tricky to work with and can’t be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
HuggingFace CEO has concerns about Chinese open source AI models
HuggingFace's CEO warns that open source Chinese AI models risk spreading censorship worldwide. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The abject weirdness of AI ads
“I’m trying to find holiday gifts for my sisters. I open a bunch of tabs, I want my wife’s advice.” That’s CEO of the Browser Company, Josh Miller, in his company’s latest ad for its new AI browser, Dia. Consulting your spouse to find gifts for your siblings is a pure – and dare I […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ServiceTitan’s IPO keeps getting weirder
ServiceTitan made a few interesting disclosures about what it will do with the money from its IPO and who it will sell the stock to. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX mulls tender offer at $350B valuation
SpaceX’s valuation continues to rise at an eye-popping pace, with the company reportedly in talks to sell insider shares at a price that would value it at around $350 billion, Bloomberg reported. It would mark an enormous increase from the $255 billion price that was circulating last month, and a doubling since shares were sold […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Biden administration races to approve clean energy loans before Trump takes over — here’s who’s benefitting
The Department of Energy appears to be on a loan-approval spree in the lead up to President-Elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, and the winners are all companies manufacturing clean energy solutions on U.S. soil. Trump has promised to cancel any unspent federal dollars under President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, a bipartisan climate law that allocated […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Brian Singerman to take a step back from Founders Fund
Today longtime Founders Fund partner Brian Singerman announced on X he would be transitioning from partner to partner emeritus. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why does the name ‘David Mayer’ crash ChatGPT? OpenAI says privacy tool went rogue
Users of the conversational AI platform ChatGPT discovered an interesting phenomenon over the weekend: the popular chatbot refuses to answer questions if asked about a “David Mayer.” Asking it to do so causes it to freeze up instantly. Conspiracy theories have ensued — but a more ordinary reason is at the heart of this strange […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US says Chinese hackers are still lurking in American phone networks
The China-backed hackers are reportedly still inside the networks of some of America's largest phone and internet companies, weeks after the hacks were disclosed. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon teams up with Orbital to remove CO2 from the air at one of its datacenters
The system should remove more carbon dioxide than the electricity used by the datacenter would produce. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon SageMaker gets unified data controls
It’s been close to a decade since Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing division, announced SageMaker, its platform to create, train, and deploy AI models. While in previous years AWS has focused on greatly expanding SageMaker’s capabilities, this year, streamlining was the goal. At its re:Invent 2024 conference, AWS unveiled SageMaker Unified Studio, a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon’s Q Business AI agents gets smarter
A year ago, AWS announced Q, its AI assistant platform for business users and developers. Q Developer is getting a wide range of updates today and so is Q Business. The focus for Q Business is on new integrations that can help businesses bring in more data from third-party tools, the ability for third-party platforms […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS wants Amazon Q to become your buddy for the entire software development lifecycle
At its re:Invent conference, AWS today announced a series of updates to Q Developer, its coding assistant platform that competes with the likes of GitHub Copilot. The focus here is on going beyond code completion and to help developers with a wider range of routine tasks involved in the end-to-end software lifecycle. The service, which […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Walmart completes $2.3B acquisition of Vizio to help grow its ad business
Walmart just closed its acquisition of popular television maker Vizio in an effort to boost its advertising business. The acquisition was initially reported back in February; however, it took a few months to complete due to the waiting period under federal regulations. The all-cash deal is valued at $2.3 billion. With this strategic move, Walmart […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS and GitLab team up to bring Amazon Q agents to GitLab’s Duo Assistant
GitLab, the popular developer and security platform, and AWS, the popular cloud computing and AI service, today announced that they have teamed up to combine GitLab’s Duo AI assistant with Amazon’s Q autonomous agents. The goal here, the two companies say, is to accelerate software innovation and developer productivity, and unlike so many partnerships in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Clarifai introduces vendor-agnostic orchestration capabilities
Clarifai, once known as the young computer vision startup working with the Pentagon on its controversial Project Maven, has distanced itself from its early years of espousing questionable ideas on AI ethics, its interest in building autonomous weapons — years before Silicon Valley warmed up to defense tech — and its potential cyberbreach from Russia. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon announces Nova, a new family of multimodal AI models
At its re:Invent 2024 conference, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing division, announced a new family of generative AI, multimodal models called Nova. There’s four text-focused models in total: Micro, Lite, Pro, and Premier. Micro, Lite, and Pro are available today for AWS customers, while Premiere will launch in Q1 2025, Amazon CEO Andy […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS’ new service tackles AI hallucinations
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing division, is launching a new tool to combat hallucinations — that is, scenarios where an AI model behaves unreliably. Announced at AWS’ re:Invent 2024 conference in Las Vegas, the service, Automated Reasoning checks, validates a model’s responses by cross-referencing customer-supplied info for accuracy. AWS claims in a press […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS announces Aurora DSQL, a new distributed SQL database that promises virtually unlimited scalability
At its re:Invent conference, Amazon’s AWS cloud computing unit today announced Amazon Aurora DSQL, a new serverless, distributed SQL database that promises high availability (99.999% for multi-region availability), strong consistency, PostgreSQL compatibility, and, the company says, “4x faster reads and writes compared to other popular distributed SQL databases.” AWS argues that Aurora DSQL will offer […]© 2024 TechCrunch.For personal use only.
Celeb greetings app Cameo pivots to creators
Celeb greetings app Cameo is pivoting to creators with a new product called CameoX. The company became a pandemic hit, as people stuck at home marked various celebrations, like birthdays and graduations, with celebrity shout-outs. It became a tech unicorn valued at $1 billion, but as life returned to normal, Cameo was hit with multiple […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ex-Microsoft employees get $4M from Accel to build an AI tool for product presentations
Product teams often have tons of screen recordings and screenshots that end up unused. Video production using those screen recordings has been time-consuming and expensive. That’s why two former Microsoft employees started to build Lica, which is an AI tool that easily creates tutorials and product videos out of screenshots and screen recordings. The startup was […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ThredUp fashion marketplace offloads its European business, Remix
Fashion resale marketplace ThredUp has divested its European business to focus on its core domestic U.S. market. ThredUp expanded into Europe in 2021 with the acquisition of Remix, a Bulgarian startup that operates across a handful of central and eastern European markets. Back in May, ThredUp announced a new general manager, Florin Filote, to lead […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpinLaunch raises $11M but hoped to raise much more, source says
Space startup SpinLaunch is fundraising again, though a source tells TechCrunch that it was exploring raising a significantly more ambitious sum earlier this year. The company has closed an $11.5 million round out of a planned $25 million, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SpinLaunch confirmed funding to TechCrunch, but […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS’ Trainium2 chips for building LLMs are now generally available, with Trainium3 coming in late 2025
At its re:Invent conference, AWS today announced the general availably of its Trainium2 (T2) chips for training and deploying large language models (LLMs). These chips, which AWS first announced a year ago, will be four times as fast as their predecessors, with a single Trainium2-powered EC2 instance with 16 T2 chips providing up to 20.8 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI comes to software reviews as Stackfix raises $3M
Marketplaces for software and services based on reviews are starting to reach their sell-by date. The user-generated reviews on sites like G2 and Capterra (one of Gartner’s three software directories) have often been accused of being paid for by software vendors. In fact, 8 out 9 of the reviews on the first page of G2’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What is Bluesky? Everything to know about the X competitor
Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is most certainly bluer. It’s been two years since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now X, leading people to set up shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (two of which have already shuttered operations) and Spill have been presented as potential […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify Wrapped 2024 is almost here, but first let’s explore all the copycats
Spotify’s annual Wrapped feature — which is coming out soon — provides listeners with a fun, personalized summary of their listening habits, and it has gained immense popularity over the years. As a result, many companies have seized the opportunity to create similar year-in-review experiences, offering users a recap of their habits, preferences, or interactions […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lenovo’s next PC gaming handheld glimpsed in online leak
When Valve released the Steam Deck, PC manufacturers realized there could be a new market for small, handheld computers that are capable of running games. Lenovo released the Legion Go and Asus released the ROG Ally. Windows Central managed to get hold of the first official renders of Lenovo’s upcoming gaming handheld, the Legion Go […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FTC bans two data brokers from collecting and selling Americans’ sensitive location data
US-based Gravy Analytics and Mobilewalla must also delete historic data collected on millions of Americans. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cyber Monday: $49.7B spent online globally, Cyber ‘Week’ totalled $314.9B
The figures are now in for spend on Cyber Monday, the third big online spending day — alongside Thanksgiving and Black Friday — in the first, critical week of the holiday shopping season. Overall, as many U.S. consumers returned to work after the long weekend, online shopping continued to power ahead spurred by big discounts […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta says AI content made up less than 1% of election-related misinformation on its apps
At the start of the year, there were widespread concerns about how generative AI could be used to interfere in global elections to spread propaganda and disinformation. Fast forward to the end of the year, Meta claims those fears did not play out, at least on its platforms, as it shared that the technology had […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon Music launches “2024 Delivered,” its take on Spotify Wrapped
Amazon Music announced on Tuesday the launch of “2024 Delivered,” a new personalized yearly recap feature inspired by Spotify’s popular Wrapped experience. The feature delivers a summary of your listening habits, including your top artists, songs, genres, and more. To see your 2024 Delivered, open the Amazon Music app on your iOS or Android device […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies. That growth has propelled OpenAI itself into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hypelist wants to break lists out of silos and put recommendations first
There are plenty of services that let you build lists to track and discover new books, movies, and songs, but often, these lists end up getting siloed. Former Squarespace employee Alfonso Cobo wanted to bring all kinds of lists together, and he’s trying to do that with Hypelist. Cobo said the ethos behind creating Hypelist […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google’s video generator comes to more customers
Google’s video generator is coming to a few more customers — Google Cloud customers, to be precise. On Tuesday, Google announced that Veo, its AI model that can generate short video clips from images and prompts, will be available in private preview for customers using Vertex AI, Google Cloud’s AI development platform. Google says that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Music’s 2024 Replay rolls out to all users
As users around the world await their Spotify Wrapped stats, Apple Music’s answer to the popular feature is now available to everyone. The Spotify Wrapped-like feature, called Apple Music Replay, gives users a look back at their year in music by highlighting their top songs, artists, and albums. This year’s Replay includes additional highlights, including […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FireDome’s autonomous launcher is gunning to protect acres of land from wildfire
Inspired by Israel's Iron Dome, the startup's automated system hopes to protect everything from neighborhoods to vineyards in coming fire seasons. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Yurts raises $40 million to be the DoD’s AI Chatbot
Yurts has raised a $40 million Series B led by XYZ Venture Capital to provide the DoD with gen AI. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FireDome launches projectiles filled with fire retardants to stop wildfires
Inspired by Israel's Iron Dome, the startup's automated system hopes to protect everything from neighborhoods to vineyards in coming fire seasons. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The OpenWRT One router is designed with ‘software freedom and right to repair’ in mind
A new router designed in collaboration by the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and OpenWRT Project is touted as the first router “designed and built with your software freedom and right-to-repair in mind.” OpenWRT is an open source, customizable operating system based on the Linux kernel, designed primarily for networking devices — such as routers. While […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS re:Invent 2024: What to expect and how to watch Amazon’s biggest event of the year
Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) biggest conference of the year has begun, and all signs point to it being an eventful one. AWS re:Invent 2024 kicked off in Las Vegas on Sunday, with sessions scheduled to run through December 6. A keynote address featuring AWS CEO Matt Garman marks the start of today’s programming, starting at […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pat Gelsinger set to net more than $10M severance from Intel
Intel’s newly departed ex-CEO Pat Gelsinger could be walking away with more than $10 million in severance pay. As per a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today, Intel and Gelsinger entered into a “retirement and separation agreement” which will entitle the former CEO to a payment equal to 18 months of his […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Delivery app Glovo bends to Spain’s Riders Law, will hire thousands of couriers
Glovo, a Spanish delivery app owned by Germany’s Delivery Hero, has bowed to pressure over labor rights in its home market. The company announced Monday it will hire around 15,000 riders — most of them are currently “self employed” according to Glovo. Per Reuters, the company also warned of a €100 million hit to earnings. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK antitrust suit hits Microsoft with claim for $1.25B in cloud fees damages
Microsoft is in the crosshairs of a U.K. competition class-action style lawsuit that’s seeking £1 billion (around $1.25 billion at current exchange rates) in damages. It revolves around accusations related to fees the software giant charged businesses and other organizations for licensing Windows Server when they were customers of rival cloud computing platforms. The suit, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US agency proposes new rule blocking data brokers from selling Americans’ sensitive personal data
The U.S. consumer protection agency said it's closing the loophole to block the "widespread evasion" of federal law by data brokers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US government contractor ENGlobal says operations are ‘limited’ following cyberattack
ENGlobal Corporation, a provider of engineering and automation services to the U.S. energy sector and federal government, says it has restricted access to its IT systems following a cyberattack, limiting the company to essential business operations only. In an 8-K filing with the SEC on Monday, Texas-based ENGlobal said it became aware of a “cybersecurity […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Orakl Oncology combines data and biology to bring new drugs to cancer patients
Cancer incidence is on the rise, particularly among younger adults, but most new drug compounds fail to progress through clinical trials. According to French entrepreneur Fanny Jaulin (on the right in the picture above), the problem lies with clinical trial design. “Just because a drug isn’t successful in clinical trials doesn’t mean it’s not a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
KPay, a financial management platform for SMEs, raises $55M Series A
Sometimes, the easiest way to find a great idea for a startup is to look beyond the current problem you’re solving for your customers. That’s exactly what worked for the founders of KPay. Davis Chan and his co-founders previously helped small and medium-sized merchants optimize their revenue and traffic in Asia, but they eventually noticed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The race is on to make AI agents do your online shopping for you
Millions of Americans will pop open their laptops to buy gifts this holiday season, but tech companies are racing to turn the job of online shopping over to AI agents instead. Perplexity recently released an AI shopping agent for its paying customers in the United States. It’s supposed to navigate retail websites for you, find […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Judge confirms decision to sink Elon Musk’s $56B pay package despite Tesla shareholder vote
Delaware Chancery court judge Kathaleen McCormick has denied Tesla’s request to revise her decision to strike down CEO Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package — despite shareholders voting at the company’s annual meeting this year to “re-ratify” the deal. Her decision, laid out in a 103-page opinion published on Monday, explains that the attempt by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads takes on Bluesky with more advanced search
Meta’s X competitor Instagram Threads is gaining an improved search interface, the company announced on Monday. The app, which offers a Meta-run alternative to Elon Musk’s X, but built on top of Instagram’s social graph, is rolling out a new way to search for specific posts, allowing users to filter searches by user profiles and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FTC fines online retailer Goat $2M over deceptive ‘Instant’ and ‘Next Day’ orders
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ordered Goat, an online marketplace for sneakers and apparel, to pay more than $2 million to consumers over illegal shipping practices. The FTC also alleges that Goat fails to honor its “Buyer Protection” policies. In a complaint, the agency outlined that Goat has failed to ship many orders […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GM offloads one of its battery factories to joint venture partner LGES
General Motors is selling its stake in the nearly completed Ultium Cells battery cell plant in Lansing, Michigan to its joint venture partner LG Energy Solution. GM’s step back from the factory comes amid weakening electric vehicle demand and the potential rollback of Biden administration incentives to produce clean energy domestically. GM and LGES initially […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why does the name ‘David Mayer’ crash ChatGPT? Digital privacy requests may be at fault
Users of the conversational AI platform ChatGPT discovered an interesting phenomenon over the weekend: the popular chatbot refuses to answer questions if asked about a “David Mayer.” Asking it to do so causes it to freeze up instantly. Conspiracy theories ensued — but a more ordinary reason may be at the heart of this strange […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS bets on liquid cooling for its AI servers
It’s AWS re:Invent this week, Amazon’s annual cloud computing extravaganza in Las Vegas, and as is tradition, the company has so much to announce, it can’t fit everything into its five (!) keynotes. Ahead of the show’s official opening, AWS on Monday detailed a number of updates to its overall data center strategy that are […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Jeff Bezos backs AI chipmaker Tenstorrent
AI hardware startup Tenstorrent raised nearly $700 million in new funding. Tenstorrent raised a $693 million Series D round that values the company at more than $2.6 billion, Bloomberg first reported. The round was led by Samsung Securities and AFW Partners. Other investors including Hyundai and Jeff Bezos’s Bezos Expeditions, among others. The Toronto-based company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Coinbase now lets you buy crypto with Apple Pay in third-party apps
Coinbase announced an integration with Apple Pay on Monday, allowing app makers to build the ability to buy crypto with Apple Pay directly into their apps. The integration is part of Coinbase Onramp, which gives app makers a way for customers to turn their traditional currencies, such as USD, into cryptocurrencies. That process has historically […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
An Apple employee is suing the company over monitoring employee personal devices
An Apple employee sued the tech company as part of an effort to limit the visibility employers have on personal devices used for work. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ads might be coming to ChatGPT — despite Sam Altman not being a fan
OpenAI is toying with a move into ads, per the Financial Times. CFO Sarah Friar told the newspaper it’s weighing an ads business model, with plans to be “thoughtful” about when and where ads appear. In a follow-on statement, Friar stressed it has “no active plans to pursue advertising,” but it seems clear the idea […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Poland arrests former spy chief in Pegasus spyware probe
The former head of Poland’s internal security agency Piotr Pogonowski was forced to appear in front of a parliamentary committee investigating the alleged abuse of Pegasus spyware in the country. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Indian online ID verification firm Signzy confirms security incident
The Indian identity verification service, used by millions of customners, has confirmed a cybersecurity incident. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Russian government confirms rare criminal charges against ransomware hacker
Russian media reports says that the accused hacker is on the FBI's most wanted list. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify Wrapped 2024 is almost here, but first let’s explore all the copycats
Spotify’s annual Wrapped feature — which is coming out soon — provides listeners with a fun, personalized summary of their listening habits, and it has gained immense popularity over the years. As a result, many companies have seized the opportunity to create similar year-in-review experiences, offering users a recap of their habits, preferences, or interactions […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ads might be coming to ChatGPT — despite Sama not being a fan
OpenAI is toying with a move into ads, per the Financial Times. CFO Sarah Friar told the newspaper it’s weighing up an ads business model but plans to be “thoughtful” about when and where ads appear. Though, in a follow-on statement, she stressed it has “no active plans to pursue advertising.” But it seems clear […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
World Labs’ AI can generate interactive 3D scenes from a single photo
World Labs, the startup founded by AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, has unveiled its first project: an AI system that can generate video game-like, 3D scenes from a single image. The AI-generated scenes, which anyone with a keyboard and mouse can explore on a demo on World Labs’ website, look impressive — if a bit cartoonish. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GoBlue’s new app lets you track your Bluesky stats
A new app called GoBlue has launched to help those looking to track their following on Bluesky, the Twitter-like social network that’s rapidly grown in recent weeks to reach nearly 24 million users. Filling in a gap in the Bluesky ecosystem of third-party apps and utilities, GoBlue offers a simple interface for tracking your own […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS re:Invent 2024: What to expect and how to watch Amazon’s biggest event of the year
Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) biggest conference of the year has begun, and all signs point to it being an eventful one. AWS re:Invent 2024 kicked off in Las Vegas on Sunday, with sessions scheduled to run through December 6. A keynote address featuring AWS CEO Matt Garman will take place December 3, starting at 8 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla updates include Apple Watch app and fart prank
Tesla has revealed an app designed for the Apple Watch and says it should be live by next week. The Tesla app for the Apple Watch will do much of what the smartphone app does – it doubles as a key, can open up the trunk or the frunk, activate climate control, and show battery […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
HUB2 banks $8.5M to become the ‘Stripe for Francophone Africa’
A fintech from Ivory Coast — part of one of the most economically challenged and financially fragmented regions in the world — has raised funding for an ambitious goal: to become the ‘Stripe for Francophone Africa’. HUB2, as the startup is called, already works with some 55 neobanks, payment companies, remittance companies and cryptocurrency providers, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger retires
Intel has announced that CEO Pat Gelsinger has retired, effective December 1, and stepped down from the company’s board of directors. Intel execs David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus have been named interim co-CEOs. Zinsner is Intel’s CFO, and Holthaus, GM of Intel’s client computing group, has been appointed to the newly created position of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Confirmed: cloud security specialist Upwind raises $100M on a $900M valuation
In November, we broke the news on how cybersecurity startup Upwind was getting a lot of inbound interest to raise money on a big valuation. Now, we can confirm that the deal is done: Upwind has closed a Series A of $100 million. The company confirmed that the round values it at $900 million post-money. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ex-NBA athlete Omri Casspi launches $60M fund targeting cybersecurity, cloud infra and AI
Former NBA athlete Omri Casspi has raised $60 million for his latest venture fund, Swish Ventures, which will invest in early-stage cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and AI startups. The fund plans to back 10 companies, and will invest $5 million to $7 million per deal. Swish Ventures is Casspi’s second fund following the launch of Sheva […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Retail outages drag into second week after Blue Yonder ransomware attack
A ransomware attack on supply chain software giant Blue Yonder continues to cause disruption to the company’s customers, almost two weeks after the outage first began. In a brief update to its cybersecurity incident page on Sunday, Arizona-based Blue Yonder said it is making “good progress” in its recovery from the attack, which hit its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Musk busts through the UK political china shop
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly known as Twitter) may detest the current Kier Starmer government due to clashes on topics like free speech and immigration, but Musk is playing the long game. He’s getting cosy with major figures from both sides of the aisle, advancing his particular beliefs on AI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Blackrock marks down its investment in Automattic by 10%
Blackrock has cut the worth of its stake in web hosting provider Automattic by 10%, the asset manager said in its latest quarterly disclosure report. Blackrock, which invested in Automattic during its Series E round in 2021, valued its investment in the WordPress hosting company at $37.5 per share, down from $41.7 per share earlier […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
European AI infrastructure company Nebius nabs $700M from Nvidia, Accel, others
Nebius, the publicly-traded European AI infrastructure company formerly known as Yandex N.V., has raised $700 million in financing to power its U.S. expansion. The financing included “dozens of very well known investors,” according to Nebius CEO Arkady Volozh (pictured above) in a press briefing today. While all the names will eventually come out when the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Browser Company teases Dia, its new AI browser
The Browser Company, the company behind Arc Browser for both desktop and mobile, teased its new web browser Monday called Dia — and this time, it focuses on AI tools. In the last few years, the startup launched Arc on Mac and Windows and Arc Search on iOS and Android, but the company is beginning work […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Prosus eyes 5 Indian IPOs in next 18 months
Prosus anticipates as many as five potential IPOs from its Indian portfolio over the next 18 months, signalling growing momentum in the world’s second-largest internet market. The Dutch technology investment group on Monday named payments giant PayU, e-commerce startup Meesho and online jewelry seller Bluestone among startups preparing for public listings. TechCrunch reported last month […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Brain rot’ wins as Oxford’s word of the year
According to Oxford University Press, which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the term ‘brain rot’ is defined as the “supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state” as it relates to overdosing on online content without much of a narrative — like TikTok videos. Brain rot is also the outfit’s so-called word of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Swiggy scales 10-minute food delivery to 400 cities in quick-commerce push
Swiggy, a leading food delivery and quick commerce firm, said Monday it has expanded its 10-minute food delivery service Bolt to more than 400 cities and towns across India, intensifying the quick-commerce race in the world’s most populous nation. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup, which went public last month, said it has scaled up partnerships to over […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS opens physical locations for customers to upload their data
At its re:Invent 2024 conference Sunday evening in Las Vegas, Amazon announced a somewhat unusual new service for Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers: Data Transfer Terminal, a set of physical locations where customers can plug in their storage devices to upload data to the AWS cloud. So how’s it work, exactly? From the AWS management […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS wants to make your call center interactions less painful
Slowly but surely, Amazon’s AWS cloud computing unit has become a major player in the call/contact center space with its Amazon Connect cloud-based (and AI-centric) contact center service, which launched back in 2017. Today, companies like Air Canada, Dish Network and U.S. Bank use the platform for their customer service needs. At its annual re:Invent […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS launches an incident response service to combat cybersecurity threats
Companies often struggle with how to respond to cybersecurity incidents. According to one recent poll, only three out of five organizations have an incident response plan in place, and only around a third do regular drills to ensure that their plans remain effective. The consequences of poor incident response are costly. The International Monetary Fund […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Y Combinator’s Demo Day is back in person
As promised, startup accelerator Y Combinator’s imminent Demo Day will be happening in person. In fact, YC seems to have kicked off the IRL return of Demo Day at the end of the long Thanksgiving weekend, with an in-person Alumni Demo Day on Sunday for the Fall 2024 class of startups. Squad founder (and later […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Death Clock app predicts the date of your death
A new app called Death Clock predicts the date of its users’ deaths and offers tips on how to push that date back. TechCrunch wrote about an iPod Death Clock app way back in 2006 — but developer Brett Franson told Bloomberg that with an AI trained on more than 1,200 life expectancy studies, his […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fidelity reportedly marked up its X stake by 32 percent
Fidelity marked up the value of its holdings in Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) by 32.37% in October, according to a report in Axios. Even with this markup, Fidelity still values the company at 72 percent less than the $44 billion that Musk purchased it for in 2022. Axios reports that this move is probably […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Best Apple Watch apps for boosting your productivity
The Apple Watch helps people track their health and fitness, but it can also be a great tool to help people stay productive and get work done. This is especially true for people who gets easily distracted by their phone. Although the Apple Watch comes with simple built-in productivity apps like Reminders and Calendar, it’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky promises more verification and an ‘aggressive’ approach to impersonation
As more celebrities and popular influencers join Bluesky, the fast-growing social media service has been facing more concerns around impersonation and verified identity. The Bluesky Safety team posted Friday that the company has updated its impersonation policy to be “more aggressive,” adding that “impersonation and handle-squatting accounts will be removed.” The company said it should […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk files for injunction to halt OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit
Attorneys for tech billionaire Elon Musk have filed for a preliminary injunction against OpenAI, several of its co-founders, and its investor and close collaborator, Microsoft, to prevent OpenAI and other named defendants from engaging in what Musk’s counsel claims is anticompetitive behavior. The motion for an injunction, which was filed late on Friday in the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why Olympic champion cyclist Sir Chris Hoy is backing Skarper to make any bike an e-bike
As one of the most decorated track cyclists of all time, Sir Chris Hoy might not seem an obvious candidate to back the burgeoning electric bike movement. The common refrain, after all, is that e-bikes aren’t real bikes. However, the six-time Olympic gold medalist has done exactly that, investing in a fledgling U.K. startup that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Climate VCs are cautiously optimistic about a second Trump term — here’s why
President-elect Donald Trump made no secret during his campaigning that he doesn’t think the U.S. should take an aggressive stance on climate change. From leading chants of “drill, baby, drill” to frequently criticizing everything from wind turbines to electric vehicles, he appears poised to cast a shadow over the climate tech sector for the next […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Black Friday hits a record $74.4B in sales online, up 5% on last year
The momentum of Thanksgiving — which saw consumers spend a record $33.6 billion spent globally online on the day — looks like it continued into Black Friday, with a bang. Adobe said that in the U.S., consumers made a record-breaking $10.8 billion of purchases, up 10.2% on last year. Meanwhile, Salesforce is giving a much […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Joco almost died at launch. Now, it’s a lifeline for e-bike delivery riders — and a profitable business
On a September morning in 2024, two Jonathan Cohens — one from the Rockaways in Queens, the other from London — stood in an empty 15,000-square-foot parking garage near Hudson Yards in New York City. As they walked over chipped yellow lines, they explained how the space would help Joco, their shared e-bike startup for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Canadian news companies sue OpenAI
A group of Canadian news and media companies filed a lawsuit Friday against OpenAI, alleging that the ChatGPT maker has infringed their copyrights and unjustly enriched itself at their expense. The companies behind the lawsuit include the Toronto Star, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Globe and Mail, and others who seek to win monetary damages […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As the year draws to a close, startups don’t pause
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. With only so many days left in the year, there was plenty of startup news to round up since last Friday, despite a short workweek in the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Study of ChatGPT citations makes dismal reading for publishers
As more publishers cut content licensing deals with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, a study put out this week by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism — looking at how the AI chatbot produces citations (i.e. sources) for publishers’ content — makes for interesting, or, well, concerning, reading. In a nutshell, the findings suggest publishers remain at the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ASL Aspire wants to gamify STEM education for deaf kids
Poor literacy skills have plagued the deaf and hard of hearing community for decades. The median literacy rates of deaf high school graduates have languished at a fourth-grade level since the turn of the 20th century, according to the National Center for Special Education Research. Bringing STEM concepts into the mix — the vocabulary for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Learn how to use Apple Intelligence’s ‘Image Playground’
Apple just released iOS 18.1.1, but it’s iOS 18.2 that will come with exciting image generation features, such as “Image Playground,” Apple’s image creation feature that creates cartoon-like images from text descriptions. Here’s what you need to know about the Apple Intelligence feature, including what it is, how to use it, and when it launches. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sequoia nears first Asia-Pacific deal since regional split
Sequoia is closing in on making its first deal in India and the broader Asia Pacific region since its split with former partners, according to four sources familiar with the matter. The investor, one of the world’s largest venture capital firms, is in advanced talks to back Vance, a Bengaluru-based cross-border payments startup, the sources […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Thanksgiving 2024: $33.6B spent online, 72% of that on mobile, says Salesforce
Thanksgiving weekend has long been seen as the traditional start of the most important sales period for retailers, and so far, the indication is that we’re in for a strong holiday season for e-commerce. Salesforce is tracking activity in real time and said that yesterday, Thanksgiving, generated $33.6 billion in sales online globally, up 6%. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X could introduce labels for parody accounts, but enforcement might be tricky
X is filled with accounts that mimic real-life public figures, ranging from politicians to sports professionals and artists. While some accounts mention “Parody” in their display names, others mention it in their bios, leading some people to mistake them for real accounts — including news anchors. According to a few app reverse engineers, the platform […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Indoor climbing tracking startup, Lizcore, sharpens its focus on safety as it pulls in pre-seed
Indoor climbing is a tricky sport to track. That’s why Spanish startup Lizcore caught TechCrunch’s eye at MWC earlier this year. The team of two co-founders — led by CEO Edgar Casanovas Lorente, a climbing instructor and guide turned entrepreneur — were showing off hardware they hope will see climbing gyms ushering in the kind of social gamification […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These alternatives to popular apps can help reclaim your online life from billionaires and surveillance
Not every app or service wants to monetize your personal data. Here are some of our favorite alternatives to popular apps. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta plans to build a $10B subsea cable spanning the world, sources say
Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is the second-biggest driver of internet usage globally. Its properties — and their billions of users — account for 10% of all fixed and 22% of all mobile traffic. Meta’s investments into artificial intelligence stand to boost that usage even further. So to make sure it will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As Cohere and Writer mine the ‘Live AI’ arena, Pathway joins the pack with a $10M round
As large enterprises grapple with how to incorporate AI into their platforms and processes, they have encountered a problem: Generative AI needs to have memory and its training data must be constantly updated for it to have any practical use. This area is now called ‘Live AI’ and a number of startups are working in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Reddit looks to UK, India, Brazil and the Philippines to spur international growth
Reddit is concentrating on international markets such as the U.K., India, Brazil, and the Philippines to bolster its user base. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zomato raises $1 billion in first major fundraise since 2021 listing
Zomato has raised $1 billion through a so-called qualified institutional placement, completing its first major fundraise since its 2021 IPO. The food delivery and quick-commerce giant issued approximately 336.5 million shares at ₹252.62 each ($3), according to a stock exchange filing on Friday. The placement, which opened on November 25 and closed on November 28, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Early Thanksgiving online sales numbers are up 7% YoY to $15.6B, on par with pre-pandemic trends
Thanksgiving weekend has long been seen as the traditional start to the most important sales period for retailers, and so far, the indication is that we’re in for a strong holiday season for e-commerce. Salesforce is tracking activity in real time and has just put out its first figures for the day. It says that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Akhetonics gets fresh funding for a contrarian bet on all-optical chips
Photonics — a field that underpins light-based systems for manipulating data — has a bright future, as the rise of AI demands better computing performance, but it has yet to be fully applied to a new generation of chips. German startup Akhetonics hopes to change that. It’s raised a €6 million seed funding round (approximately […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
French court blocks popular porn site… subdomain
When the Paris Court of Appeal recently blocked four porn sites in France for not having a proper age verification system, the two online child protection nonprofits that had pushed for the blocks probably thought they’d scored a big victory. But, in one case, it turned out to be a bit of a self-own. As […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Linkup connects LLMs with premium content sources (legally)
If you’ve used ChatGPT Search or Perplexity you know that being able to search the web and get citations inline greatly improves these AI chatbots. Results are better when they involve timely information, and web search may reduce so-called hallucinations (i.e. when a generative AI outputs incorrect information). That’s why French startup Linkup is building […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI agent startup /dev/agents has raised a massive $56M seed round at a $500M valuation
/dev/agents, a new company by the developers of Android, believes a new operating system is needed to fully realize the potential of AI agents. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Australia approves law banning social media for under 16s
In a step likely to be tracked around the world, Australia has approved legislation that will ban the use of social media for children under 16. The bill was only introduced about a week ago but had backing from the main conservative opposition party as well as the centre-left government over concerns the tech services […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
North Korean hackers have stolen billions in crypto by posing as VCs, recruiters and IT workers
Security researchers say North Korean hackers have infiltrated hundreds of organizations with the goal of taking money and stealing data to further the regime's nuclear weapons program. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Intenty nudges you to provide a reason every time you unlock your phone
Intentional phone usage is a tricky habit to develop. Operating systems like iOS and Android, along with social media networks like Instagram and TikTok, have built timers, nudges, and controls around the usage of the apps or the platform. But at times, you mindlessly unlock your phone as a force of habit to eventually do nothing or scroll timelines. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EU ends Amazon state aid case with no back taxes in its basket
Amazon can finally close the book on a long-running state aid saga in the European Union. The Commission confirmed Thursday it’s shuttered an investigation into whether Luxembourg, the Member State where Amazon has its EU HQ, had granted it “selective tax advantages.” The upshot is Amazon has no unpaid taxes to pay. The case dates […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
From pond scum to premium skincare? Deep Blue Biotech is all in on blue-green algae to make better chemicals
Decarbonizing our economies in the race to fight climate change demands a wholesale overhauling of all sorts of production processes to make them as sustainable as possible. Greening chemicals, which are used as ingredients in all sorts of products, is where U.K. startup Deep Blue Biotech is putting its energies. The biotech startup founded in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Financial inclusion drives African fintech M-KOPA to $400M in ARR
An African fintech that has grown on the strength of a 30,000-strong team of direct salespeople is moving into profit country by sub-Saharan country. Now, M-KOPA, the pay-as-you-go asset financing platform serving 5 million underbanked Africans, is racing toward a major milestone: surpassing an annual revenue rate of $400 million by year-end. The London-headquartered fintech […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google Chat now has its own take on Slack’s Huddles
Google Chat is rolling out instant voice meetings — similar to Slack’s Huddles — that let you quickly switch to a voice or video call from within a chat. Google is not giving the feature a new name, though, opting to call the feature “Huddles” as well. If you are in a Google Chat, you […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
HongShan, spun out of Sequoia last year, is reportedly struggling to invest its huge war chest
According to the Financial Times, HongShan, the Chinese investment firm spun off from Sequoia Capital in 2023, is aggressively expanding into Europe and North Asia owing both to “shrinking options” in China and to limited partners that have grown frustrated with how slowly HongShan is deploying the $9 billion in capital commitments it secured two […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India, already an IPO bright spot, prepares for bigger surge in 2025
India has bucked the global trend in initial public offerings this year, establishing itself as a rare bright spot for tech listings while other major markets face continued headwinds. The world’s most populous nation is now preparing for an even more substantial wave of startup IPOs in 2025. More than 20 startups are preparing to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FTC reportedly opens antitrust investigation into Microsoft
The FTC has launched an antitrust investigation into Microsoft, according to multiple reports that corroborate earlier reporting by the Financial Times. The agency is said to be looking into whether Microsoft violated antitrust law in multiple segments of its business, including its public cloud, AI, and cybersecurity product lines. Of particular interest to the FTC […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Time spent online by adults in the UK jumped by nearly an hour in 2024 says Ofcom
Adults are spending an average of 4 hours and 20 minutes each day online across smartphones, tablets and computers in the U.K., according to figures from Ofcom’s annual Online Nation report diving into consumer digital habits. The figure is a big jump compared to 2023, when adults over 18 spent an average of 3 hours […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Uber’s subscription service reportedly target of FTC probe
The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Uber over whether it broke consumer protection laws by allegedly automatically signing people up for its Uber One subscription service and making it hard to cancel, according to Bloomberg News. The investigation was opened earlier this year after the FTC received customer complaints. Uber told Bloomberg that its cancellation […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Alibaba releases an ‘open’ challenger to OpenAI’s o1 reasoning model
A new “reasoning” AI model, QwQ-32B-Preview, has arrived on the scene. It’s one of the few to rival OpenAI’s o1, and it’s the first available to download under a permissive license. Developed by Alibaba’s Qwen team, QwQ-32B-Preview, which contains 32.5 billion parameters and can consider prompts up ~32,000 words in length, performs better on certain […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify cuts developer access to several of its recommendation features
Spotify will no longer allow developers building third-party apps with its Web API to access several features within the music streaming platform, such as song and artist recommendations, the company announced in a developer blog post on Wednesday. The company appears to be limiting third-party developers from building AI apps using data from Spotify listeners. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Investigators think a Chinese ship purposefully cut critical data cables
European investigators believe that a Chinese commercial ship purposefully dragged its anchor in order to slash through two critical data cables. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DIY and synth-curious? Try putting together the analog POM-400 from Teenage Engineering
The Pocket Operator Modular 400 from Teenage Engineering is an analog modular synthesizer that you put together yourself. If you’re at all interested in DIY kits or synths, this might be a great weekend project. You bend the bright yellow chassis into shape to start, mounting the various modules into place with tiny little screws. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
T-Mobile says telco hackers had ‘no access’ to customer call and text message logs
The phone giant said hackers did not access the contents or logs of customer phone calls or text messages, during an industry-wide attack on phone and internet companies. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads now lets you swipe between different feeds right from the home screen
Threads is rolling out a redesign that keeps your feeds visible on the home screen, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced on Wednesday. The redesign allows you to quickly swipe between different feeds just like you can on X. The change is rolling out on Android on Wednesday, and will launch on iOS in the coming […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google Gemini’s Imagen 3 lets players design their own chess pieces
Google Labs, the experimental arm of the tech giant, has introduced a new online project that offers an entertaining variation of the game of chess. The web experiment is named GenChess, which, as the name implies, uses Gemini Imagen 3, Google’s image generation model, allowing players to customize their own chess pieces using text prompts. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: AI gets creative in the kitchen
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. It’s nearly Thanksgiving, and you know what that means: stuffing your face to the point of comatosis. Well, that and entertaining all the unsavory relatives you manage to keep at bay the rest of the year. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta’s Threads is developing its own take on Bluesky’s ‘Starter Packs’
Hoping to quell some of the momentum behind social network Bluesky, a competitor to X and Meta’s Threads, Meta is developing a feature that takes inspiration from one of Bluesky’s more popular additions: the concept of “Starter Packs,” or hand-curated lists of suggested users that help newcomers find people to follow. Meta’s version of these […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI moves to trademark its ‘reasoning’ models
OpenAI has filed a trademark application for its latest AI model, o1, as the firm moves to shield its IP. On Tuesday, OpenAI submitted paperwork to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to register the trademark “OpenAI o1.” Interestingly, the application reveals that OpenAI filed for a foreign trademark application in Jamaica in May, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Marc Andreessen, Joe Lonsdale, and all the other VCs reportedly in the running for DOGE and other Trump committees
With Elon Musk playing such a high-profile role in Donald Trump’s transition team, Musk’s buddies, many of them Silicon Valley venture capitalists, are reportedly being tapped to help out. For instance, VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, and in particular co-founder Marc Andreessen, is repeatedly being mentioned. He, along with Antonio Gracias and Joe Lonsdale, are reportedly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ElevenLabs’ new feature is a NotebookLM competitor for creating GenAI podcasts
Voice AI startup ElevenLabs on Wednesday introduced a feature that lets you upload different types of content to create a multi-speaker podcast for you, similar to Google’s NotebookLM. The feature, called GenFM, can be found on the company’s ElevenLabs Reader iOS app. Currently, GenFM supports 32 languages, including English, Hindi, Portuguese, Chinese, Spanish, French, German, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TuSimple co-founder demands liquidation, sues company for control of his shares
Xiaodi Hou, the co-founder and former CEO of self-driving truck startup TuSimple, is demanding that the board immediately liquidate the company and return all remaining funds – roughly $450 million – to shareholders “on a pure pro-rata basis, regardless of share class,” according to a letter that TechCrunch has viewed. Hou is also suing TuSimple […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s AI company may release a consumer app
xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, is reportedly preparing to release a standalone consumer app. That’s according to The Wall Street Journal, which reports that the upcoming app will be similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT app, allowing users to access xAI’s Grok chatbot from their personal devices. The app will likely arrive after xAI closes its next […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pony AI set for Nasdaq debut at $4.55B valuation
The Chinese autonomous driving tech company will go public on the U.S. markets at $13 per share. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok will restrict some beauty filters for people under 18
TikTok is now the go-to social network for more than a billion users, bringing it to the attention of 14 U.S. attorneys general, who recently announced they were suing the company over its negative impact on minors’ mental health, as well as for harvesting their data. A subsequent report indicated that the company’s own research […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok will restrict some beauty filters for under-18s
TikTok is now the go-to social network for more than a billion users, bringing it to the attention of 14 U.S. attorneys general, who recently announced they were suing the company over its negative impact on minors’ mental health, as well as for harvesting their data. A subsequent report indicated that the company’s own research […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Scaling startups is top priority as EU reboots its top team
Europe must get much better at scaling startups. That’s the prognosis of the European Union’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, who’s on the cusp of taking up her second five-year term steering the bloc of some 449 million people — with a December 1 start date now locked in. Giving a speech to the European […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Scaling startups top priority, as EU reboots its top team
Europe must get much better at scaling startups. That’s the prognosis of the European Union’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, who’s on the cusp of taking up her second five-year term steering the bloc of some 449 million people — with a December 1 start date now locked in. Giving a speech to the European […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky’s open API means anyone can scrape your data for AI training
Bluesky might not be training AI systems on user content as other social networks are doing, but there’s little stopping third-parties from doing so. Per a report by 404 Media, a machine learning librarian at AI firm Hugging Face pulled 1 million public posts from Bluesky via its Firehose API for machine learning research, pushing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Audio platform Pocket FM taps into AI tools help it expand content catalog
India-based audio platform Pocket FM has more than 200,000 hours of content on the service. However, the company’s CEO, Rohan Nayak, believes that the platform still has room to grow in terms of creating original content and expanding its library to multiple genres and sub-genres. The fastest way to do that is to tap into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Raspberry Pi launches Compute Module 5 for embedded apps
Raspberry Pi is better known for its single-board computer with a ton of ports sticking out. The most recent of which is the Raspberry Pi 5, which was introduced in September 2023. These small computers are perfect for the education market and for tech enthusiasts looking for a cheap computing device to power an interactive […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Eyewa now has 150 stores selling eyeglasses in the Middle East and just raised $100M to add 100 more
Helping consumers find the perfect glasses is a booming global business, spawning giants like Warby Parker in the U.S. and Lenskart in India. In the Middle East, this market is producing its own rising powerhouse: Eyewa. Eyewa, based in Dubai and Riyadh, sells a wide range of eyewear products, including prescription glasses, sunglasses, blue light […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Eyewa now has 150 stores selling eyeglasses in the Mideast, and just raised $100M to add 100 more
Helping consumers find the perfect glasses is a booming global business, spawning giants like Warby Parker in the U.S. and Lenskart in India. In the Middle East, this market is producing its own rising powerhouse: Eyewa. Eyewa, based in Dubai and Riyadh, sells a wide range of eyewear products, including prescription glasses, sunglasses, blue light […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ai2 releases new language models competitive with Meta’s Llama
There’s a new AI model family on the block, and it’s one of the few that can be reproduced from scratch. On Tuesday, Ai2, the nonprofit AI research organization founded by the late Paul Allen, released OLMo 2, the second family of models in its OLMo series. (OLMo’s short for “Open Language Model.”) While there’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Roblox starts offering 25% more game currency for web purchases
As scrutiny around Apple and Google’s app store fees tightens around the world, gaming platform Roblox has now started to offer an additional 25% game currency Robux for purchases on the web and gift cards as compared to mobile platforms. In essence, the company is encouraging users to purchase Robux from the web to avoid […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Figure 02 performing tasks autonomously
Robotics startup Figure released a video update showcasing their Figure 02 humanoid robot autonomously performing tasks at HQ for a BMW use case. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump considers naming an ‘AI czar’
Incoming president Donald Trump is considering naming an “AI czar” in the White House, Axios reports. Should Trump appoint such a policy person, they’d be charged with helping to coordinate federal regulation and governmental use of AI. Importantly, an AI czar wouldn’t require Senate confirmation, Axios notes — allowing them to get to work on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk wants to block the transfer of InfoWars’ X accounts to The Onion
The Onion, a satirical publication, won a bankruptcy auction earlier this month to purchase conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ website, InfoWars, and other related assets. However, that sale is now in limbo after a federal judge temporarily halted the deal. On Monday, Elon Musk threw yet another wrench in the works, objecting to the transfer of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX gets FCC green light for Starlink direct-to-phone deal with T-Mobile
The FCC has granted SpaceX permission to go forward with plans to offer a direct-to-phone version of its Starlink satellite internet service, with T-Mobile as its provider and a few provisos in place. The proposal dates to summer 2022, when SpaceX and T-Mobile first announced that they were pursuing the ability for the mobile provider’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS re:Invent 2024: What to expect and how to watch Amazon’s biggest event of the year
Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) biggest conference of the year is around the corner, and all signs point to it being an eventful one. AWS re:Invent 2024 kicks off in Las Vegas on Sunday, with sessions scheduled to run through December 6. A keynote address featuring AWS CEO Matt Garman will take place December 3, starting […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ServiceTitan could be the first of many ‘dirty’ term-sheet IPOs, VCs believe
Rather than opening an IPO window, ServiceTitan's IPO could be the first \of something else entirely, VCs warn. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Uber is building a fleet of gig workers to label data for AI models
Uber is expanding its fleet of gig workers and creating a new category: AI annotation and data labeling. The ride-hailing company has started hiring contractors for a new AI and data labeling division called Scaled Solutions. These workers complete projects for Uber’s internal business units but are also serving outside customers including self-driving vehicle company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FTC finds that smart device makers fail to make clear how long their products will be supported
A new paper from the Federal Trade Commission found that many smart device makers fail to disclose to consumers how long they will provide software updates for their products. The agency looked at 184 different smart devices, ranging from hearing aids to security cameras, and found that nearly 89% of them don’t provide buyers with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Russia-linked hackers exploited Firefox and Windows zero-day bugs in ‘widespread’ hacking campaign
The Russia-aligned RomCom gang exploited the vulnerabilities to target hundreds of Firefox users across Europe and North America. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Mexican fintech isn’t too worried about Trump’s tariff threats
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re taking a look at: If you’d like to receive the Fintech newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, sign up here! The big story Trump’s tariff threats don’t scare this Mexican fintech Mexico’s economic development has made it a fertile ground for startups. But the trend is under threat […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky verification could look a lot different from X’s blue checks
The rapidly growing social networking startup Bluesky, a Twitter/X alternative built on open web principles, revealed in a livestream on Monday how its approach to user account verification will differ from existing services, like Meta and X. While traditional social media has shifted to a pay-for-verification model, where users pay for the privilege of the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YC-backed Circleback is out to become the best meeting notetaker
As the number of startups offering speech-to-text services is increasing, meeting transcripts are becoming a common offering. There are plenty of tools that offer AI assistants that either join the meeting or capture your system’s audio to transcribe and summarize your meetings. Y Combinator-backed Circleback wants to differentiate itself by providing detailed notes and action […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Roon raises $15M to replace ‘Dr. Google’ with real doctors sharing videos about illness treatments
Vikram Bhaskaran was leading creator partnerships at Pinterest when his father started showing early symptoms of ALS, a rare, terminal neurodegenerative disease. “It turned my world upside down,” Bhaskaran said. He worked during the day, and spent his evenings Googling the illness and treatment options and in Facebook groups. But Bhaskaran discovered that finding clear, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
From $19M to $1.5M, here’s how much Anduril pays top execs like Palmer Luckey in cash and stock
Beyond patriotism, there’s another huge reason to join a defense startup: it pays really, really well. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
From $19M to $1.5M, here’s how much Anduril pays top execs like Palmer Luckey in cash and stock
Beyond patriotism, there’s another huge reason to join a defense startup: it pays really, really well. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s Sora appears to have leaked
A group appears to have leaked access to Sora, OpenAI’s video generator, in protest of what they’re calling duplicity and “art washing” on OpenAI’s part. On Tuesday, the group published a project on the AI dev platform Hugging Face seemingly connected to OpenAI’s Sora API, which isn’t yet publicly available. Using their authentication tokens — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity mulls getting into hardware
Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine, wants to get into hardware — kinda sorta. Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity’s founder and CEO, posted on X yesterday that he was considering making a “simple, under $50” device to “reliably answer” questions “voice to voice.” He promised that Perplexity would “definitely” sell such a device if the post got more […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon Japan raided by anti-monopoly authorities
Amazon Japan has said it will collaborate with Japan’s Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) after the watchdog conducted an on-site inspection related to suspected violations of anti-monopoly laws. The e-commerce giant is under suspicion of inappropriately urging vendors to lower their prices on its online shopping platform in return for better product placement, as first reported […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify debuts marketing tools and insights for audiobook authors
Spotify on Tuesday introduced a new set of tools for authors and publishers distributing their audiobooks on its platform with the launch of Spotify for Authors. Similar to its existing efforts, Spotify for Artists and Spotify for Creators (previously Podcasters), Spotify for Authors will allow writers and publishers to track insights and analytics about their […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Major UK, US stores face ongoing disruption after ransomware attack hits supply chain giant Blue Yonder
The Arizona-based firm said it has "no timeline" for restoration, following a cyberattack that caused disruption at companies around the world. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Inflection CEO says it’s done trying to make next generation AI models
Just last year, Inflection AI was as hot as a startup could be, releasing best-in-class AI models it claimed could outperform technology from OpenAI, Meta, and Google. That’s a stark contrast compared to today, as Inflection’s new CEO tells TechCrunch that his startup is simply no longer trying to compete on that front. Between then […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
In court filing, Drake alleges UMG and Spotify artificially inflated popularity of diss track ‘Not Like Us’
The longstanding feud between rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar is heating up. Drake — via a business entity called Frozen Moments LLC — filed a petition yesterday in a New York Supreme Court accusing distributor Universal Music Group (UMG) of artificially inflating the popularity of “Not Like Us,” Lamar’s recently released “diss” track directed at […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EU’s outgoing antitrust chief regrets not moving faster & breaking Big Tech’s grip
The European Union’s outgoing competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, made a name for herself with headline-grabbing enforcements against Big Tech. But in a New York Times exit interview, as she approaches the end of her term, she sounds regretful at not having gone faster and harder against the likes of Apple and Google. She summarized her […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cleo Capital launches cybersecurity accelerator to help undo the ‘crushing burden’ of online threats
Cleo Capital, the early-stage venture fund that counts the AI firm Groq, fintech company Ellevest, and fashion brand Hill House as investments, has announced the launch of a new cybersecurity accelerator. The program is looking for pre-seed and seed companies from all around the world. The accelerator is a remote, 12-week program, with a standard […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla appears to be building a teleoperations team for its robotaxi service
As Tesla gears up to launch a robotaxi service in the coming years, the automaker looks like it’s building out a teleoperations team. According to a recent job listing, Tesla is hiring a software engineer to help develop a teleoperations system that will allow human operators to remotely access and control the company’s upcoming robotaxis […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cardless swipes up $30M to build a new generation of co-branded credit cards
More than a quarter of all U.S. residents use co-branded credit cards today to get discounts and other extras from brands they use regularly, but not all is rosy in the world of loyalty commerce. Major brands like Uber, Starbucks and Walmart have all pulled back from such projects over the years after failing to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple ordered to open up in-app purchases in Brazil
Brazil’s antitrust regulator Cade has ruled that Apple must lift restrictions on in-app purchases within 20 days, Reuters reports. Otherwise, if the iPhone maker doesn’t comply, it faces fines of $43,000 per day. This decision is the result of a complaint filed by e-commerce merchant Mercado Libre in 2022. If you’ve been following recent changes […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Say goodbye to freeform ‘dockless’ e-bike parking in London: TFL debuts new rules to reduce bike mess on streets
London is putting the brakes on the mess of e-bikes that litter the streets of the city. Today, the local transportation authority, Transport for London, announced a new enforcement policy that will restrict parking for the tens of thousands of e-bikes rented on-demand from companies like Lime, HumanForest and Dott. The news is significant because […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google to test plain ‘blue link’ results for hotel searches in EU markets in latest DMA twist
Google has announced it’s making more changes to how it displays search results in the European Union in response to continued complaints that it’s failing to comply with the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). This will include what it bills as a “short test” of plain “blue link” style search results for hotel queries in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Intel and Biden Administration finalize $7.86B deal to fund domestic chip manufacturing
The U.S. Department of Commerce today confirmed it has awarded $7.865 billion to chip giant Intel under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, a federal statute signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022 to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing. The figure is notably lower than the potential highest figure announced back in March, when […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI helps India’s Meesho cut customer call costs by 75%
Softbank-backed Meesho has rolled out what it claims to be India’s first generative AI-powered voice bot among e-commerce firms for customer support, paring down some expenses by 75%. The Bengaluru-based e-commerce startup, which serves 160 million customers in India, said Tuesday its AI bot currently handles 60,000 customer calls daily in English and Hindi. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EV charging platform Ampeco raise $26M Series B, as demand for charging soars
We last covered EV charging platform Ampeco in 2023 when it raised a Series A round of $13 million. Today it’s raised $26 million in a Series B funding led by Revaia, a growth equity investment fund. That takes its total funding to $42 million. Many EV charging systems are end-to-end solutions which makes them […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cradle builds out its protein-design AI platform (and wet lab) with $73M in new funding
Using AI to accelerate biotech is fast becoming standard practice, and companies offering services to deploy the tech quickly are seeing big uptake and new investment. Cradle is one of these, focused on protein design — and it just raised $73 million to build out its labs and team. Cradle appeared in 2022 as part […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cambridge materials science spin-out Molyon is on a mission to make next-gen batteries fly
Battery tech is pivotal as the world leans into electrification to power decarbonization in the race against climate change. But rising demand is putting more attention on the limits and drawbacks of current generation lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery technology. This is where Cambridge University spin-out Molyon hopes to come in: the U.K. startup is developing next-gen […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Volta, a Shopify for B2B transactions, raises biggest pre-seed round of Italy
Volta, a new startup with a team split between two headquarters in Milan and Paris, has secured a €6 million pre-seed round ($6.3 million) to develop a new vertical software-as-a-service platform focused on B2B sales. In more practical terms, the Volta team pitches its product as an equivalent to Shopify but focused on B2B transactions. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Biolevate’s raises €6M to helps medical writers keep up with the pace of new drugs
Writing the documentation that must go alongside the development of new drugs is a highly labor-intensive process: not much software is used and there’s a shortage of expert writers. Paris-based Biolevate helps medical writers go faster with a platform that uses NLP and visual document reading to assisting in writing. It’s now raised €6 million […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rivian snags $6.6B conditional federal loan to build Georgia factory
Rivian said late Monday it has secured conditional commitment for a $6.6 billion loan from the Department of Energy, funds that will help the EV maker restart construction of a massive factory in Georgia. The funds will come from DOE’s Loan Programs Office Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program. Rivian said it expects to begin […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google Developer Program gains new features, but you’ll have to pay for them
In June, Google announced the Google Developer Program, a free program to give devs access to resources designed to help them build applications using Google services. Now that “millions” of devs have signed up (according to Google), the company is introducing a second, paid tier to commercialize the program. On Monday, Google launched the Google […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Another star athlete is making his way into venture capital
Giannis Antetokounmpo, a player for the Milwaukee Bucks, launched a venture capital firm called Build Your Legacy Ventures that will focus on sports and entertainment investing, according to Bleacher Report. Antetokounmpo will serve as general partner. The fund was “not just about capital; it’s about forging partnerships and opening my network to accelerate the growth […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Marc Andreessen, Joe Londsale and all the other VCs reportedly in the running for new Trump committees
With Elon Musk playing such a high-profile role in Donald Trump’s transition team, Musk’s buddies, many of them Silicon Valley venture capitalists, are reportedly being tapped to help out. For instance, VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, and in particular cofounder Marc Andreessen, is repeatedly being mentioned. He, along with Antonio Gracias and Joe Lonsdale, are reportedly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Space: Everything is bigger in Texas!
Hello, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space! First off, I want to highlight a few stories we weren’t able to get to: First, Inversion Space raised a $44 million Series A to continue development of its ultra-precise orbit-to-Earth cargo delivery service. The company has already garnered a lot of attention from the DOD for its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rocket Lab nails two missions within 24 hours – one in each hemisphere
Rocket Lab set a new speed record for launch turnaround time, successfully executing two Electron missions in 24 hours. The company added in a statement that this is also the first time any launch operator has completed a mission from each hemisphere within that time frame. Rocket Lab, which was founded in New Zealand, maintains […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla appears to be building a teleoperations team for its robotaxi service
As Tesla gears up to launch a robotaxi service in the coming years, the automaker looks like it’s building out a teleoperations team. According to a recent job listing, Tesla is hiring a software engineer to help develop a teleoperations system that will allow human operators to remotely access and control the company’s upcoming robotaxis […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sill’s new app rounds up the best links from your Bluesky and Mastodon network
Want to keep up with what everyone’s talking about on alternative social media sites like Bluesky and Mastodon, but don’t have time to constantly scroll through their respective apps? A newly launched link aggregation service called Sill may be able to help. The service is similar to the older startup Nuzzel, which was ultimately acquired […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here’s why ServiceTitan was on the clock to go public
When ServiceTitan dropped its S-1 notice of an impending public offering on November 18, many VCs likely rejoiced. A successful IPO by the company, which builds operating software for trade businesses, could be what the quiet IPO market needs to start shaking loose. But the timing of ServiceTitan’s IPO may not be entirely based on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
IMAX embraces AI to expand original content reach
With global content consumption rising and demand for non-English content surpassing that for English movies and shows, IMAX is leveraging AI to scale localization on its original content. The entertainment and media industry grew 5% to $2.8 trillion in 2023, according to a report by PwC. The industry is expected to continue its expansion, though […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Volkswagen slashes the value of its stake in Northvolt, the beleaguered battery manufacturer
The write downs occurred throughout the current fiscal year as the situation at Northvolt deteriorated. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads tests the ability for users to choose their preferred default feed
Since Threads’ launch last year, users have asked for the option to set their “Following” feed as their default feed. Now, more than a year later, Threads is finally testing the ability for users to do so. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Monday that the social network is now testing the option for users […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Authorities catch ‘SMS blaster’ gang that drove around Bangkok sending thousands of phishing messages
Thai authorities said the crime gang sent around a million malicious SMS text messages to nearby residents over a three-day period in November. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube Music’s 2024 Recaps are out—here’s how to see yours
It’s officially that time of the year when music streaming services start giving users a look back at their listening habits for the year. YouTube Music announced on Monday that users can now access their 2024 Music Recap to get personalized stats regarding their top artists, songs, moods, genres, and more for the year. You […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple again snubs AI in its ‘iPhone App of the Year’ finalists
On Monday, Apple’s list of finalists for its coveted “iPhone App of the Year” award once again reveals how the iPhone maker is downplaying the impact of AI technology on the mobile app ecosystem. As it did last year, Apple’s 2024 list of top iPhone finalists favors more traditional iOS apps, including those that help […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky falling foul of EU rules by not reporting user numbers across the bloc
Bluesky, the social network that’s currently surging in popularity due to an exodus of users from rival X, is in breach of European Union (EU) regulations that stipulate all online platforms must regularly publish regional user numbers. The Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into full effect back in February, is an online governance framework […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instagram takes on Snapchat with new location-sharing feature
Instagram is introducing the ability for users to share their locations with their friends via DMs (direct messages), the company announced on Monday. The feature indicates that the Meta-owned social network is looking to challenge services like Apple’s “Find My” and Snapchat’s Snap Map, both of which are popular ways for users to see their […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pestle recipe app can now save dishes from TikTok
Recipe app Pestle is rolling out a new feature that can automatically turn your favorite TikTok recipe videos into detailed, step-by-step instructions, using AI. The new feature processes the video’s caption, where creators tend to document their ingredient list and instructions, but is powered by on-device machine learning instead of using a third-party AI provider. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anthropic proposes a new way to connect data to AI chatbots
Anthropic is proposing a new standard for connecting AI assistants to the systems where data lives. Called the Model Context Protocol, or MCP for short, Anthropic says the standard, which it open sourced today, could help AI models produce better, more relevant responses to questions. MCP lets models draw data from sources like business tools […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
California will offer EV rebates if Trump kills federal tax credits
California is committed to zero-emission vehicles, even if the federal mood shifts. The state’s governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said Monday that if the incoming Trump administration cuts the $7,500 EV tax credit, he will propose rebates for eligible residents who buy electric vehicles. “We’re not turning back on a clean transportation future – we’re […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Appcharge raises $26M to help gaming apps cut out Apple and Google from virtual goods revenues
As Apple and Google continue to battle with regulators and publishers over whether their app stores are monopolistic, a startup called Appcharge has raised some funding to build an alternative for gaming developers who want to monetise a different way. No, it’s not an ad network. And no, they are not building an alternative app […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bending Spoons is taking video platform Brightcove private in $233M acquisition
Brightcove, a cloud platform that helps businesses manage and monetize video content, is being taken private by Italian technology company Bending Spoons, in a deal valued at $233 million. Founded in 2004, Brightcove develops tools and services for creating, hosting, streaming, marketing, and monetizing video content, with clients including Marriott Hotels, Ford, and Johnson & […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK seeks collaboration for security research lab to counter Russia and ‘new AI arms race’
The U.K. is seeking collaboration for a new AI security research lab that’s designed to counter Russia and other hostile states in what it dubs the “new AI arms race.” While the U.K. government has launched numerous funding initiatives in the past to support cybersecurity projects, the rise of AI-fueled nation-state attacks, specifically, is the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Corning offers bundle of commitments in bid to settle EU antitrust probe
After the European Union opened a competition investigation into Corning earlier this month, citing concerns over alleged exclusive dealing, the Gorilla Glass maker has offered a raft of changes to its contract clauses aimed at settling the probe. The U.S. company is a supplier to major electronics brands including Apple’s iPhone, and the changes could […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
PlayAI clones voices on command
Back in 2016, Hammad Syed and Mahmoud Felfel, an ex-WhatsApp engineer, thought it’d be neat to build a text-to-speech Chrome extension for Medium articles. The extension, which could read any Medium story aloud, was featured on Product Hunt. A year later, it spawned an entire business. “We saw a bigger opportunity in helping individuals and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
South Korean prosecutors request 5-year jail sentence for Samsung chief Jay Lee
South Korean prosecutors sought a five-year prison sentence and a 500 million KRW fine, equivalent to $375,000, for Samsung Electronics Chief Jay Y. Lee at an appeals court on Monday. The appeals case comes 10 months after Lee and 13 former Samsung executives were originally acquitted of manipulating stock prices and committing accounting fraud in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Raspberry Pi releases the Pico 2 W, a $7 wireless-enabled microcontroller board
Meet the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W, a tiny board designed around a microcontroller that lets you build hardware projects at scale. Raspberry Pi is once again using the RP2350, its own, well-documented microcontroller. But what is a microcontroller again? As the name suggests, microcontrollers let you control other electronic components or devices. Regular Raspberry […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Entrepreneur Marc Lore on ‘founder mode,’ bad hires, and why avoiding risk is deadly
Entrepreneur Marc Lore has already sold two companies for billions of dollars, collectively. Now he plans to take his food delivery and take-out business Wonder public in a couple of years at an ambitious $40 billion valuation. We talked with Lore in person in New York recently about Wonder and its ultimate aim of making […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple will never stop thinking about making a TV
It’s not exactly a secret that Apple has explored the possibility of building a television. Before his death in 2011, co-founder Steve Jobs famously told biographer Walter Isaacson that he’d “finally cracked it,” but no full-fledged Apple TV (as opposed to the Apple TV set-top box) has emerged in the years since. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Australian government drops misinformation bill
The Australian government has withdrawn a bill that would have fined online platforms up to 5 percent of their global revenue if they failed to stop the spread of misinformation. The bill, which was backed by the Labor government, would have allowed the Australian Communications and Media Authority to create enforceable rules around misinformation on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Latin America fintech will be a market to watch in 2025
Heading into 2024, Mike Packer, a partner at fintech-focused QED Investors, predicted we’d hit the bottom for funding to Latin American fintech startups during the year. While momentum wasn’t a straight shot up and to the right, Packer’s prediction may still have come true. The volume of venture capital dollars invested into fintech companies based […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Executive assistants, high salaries, and other ways early-stage founders will trigger a seed VC
While most seed investors believe founders should spend their raised cash however they want to, those VCs will still be judging founders’ cash management. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These alternatives to popular apps can help reclaim your online life from billionaires and surveillance
Not every app or service is trying to monetize your personal data. Here are some of our favorite alternatives to popular apps. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The curious case of Nebius, the publicly traded AI infrastructure ‘startup’
On October 21, a new ticker opened to Nasdaq traders: NBIS, a truncation of Nebius, a fledgling player in the AI cloud infrastructure space. Casual observers could be forgiven for wondering where this company had come from, as there had been little in the way of the usual fanfare that surrounds most startups’ journey to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How a digital “you” can sit through your agonizing web conference calls
Now you can appear to be on a Zoom call in your office, even when you’re sipping a margarita in a hammock far, far away. Courtesy of a months-old startup called Pickle, its pitch is simple: just submit a five-minute-long training video of yourself to create an avatar, and within 24 hours, you’re ready to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Wolfs’ sequel canceled because director ‘no longer trusted’ Apple
It may be hard to remember, but George Clooney and Brad Pitt co-starred in a movie, “Wolfs,” that Apple released just two months ago. On Friday, the film’s writer and director Jon Watts said Friday that a sequel is no longer happening; in a follow-up interview with Deadline, he explained that he “no longer trusted […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DOJ tells Google to sell Chrome
Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re exploring the DOJ telling Google to sell off Chrome to break up its monopoly, OpenAI accidentally deleting potential evidence in The New York Times’ copyright lawsuit against it, and how AI companies are using TikTok brainrot for study tools. Let’s do this. The U.S. Department of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla says it has reached a ‘conditional’ settlement in Rivian trade secrets lawsuit
Tesla and Rivian may have resolved a lawsuit in which Tesla accused Rivian of poaching employees and stealing trade secrets. Bloomberg reports that Tesla told a California statement judge that the companies have reached a “conditional” settlement, and that it expects to seek dismissal of the lawsuit by December 24. Tesla filed the suit, which […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The rise and fall of the ‘Scattered Spider’ hackers
The prolific hacking group broke into Caesars Entertainment, Coinbase, DoorDash, Mailchimp, Riot Games, Twilio (twice), and dozens more. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump’s tariff threats don’t scare this Mexican fintech
Mexico’s economic development — turbocharged by the amount of nearshoring in recent years — has made it fertile ground for startups. But the trend is under threat if President-elect Donald Trump follows through with his idea of taking a harder line on trade with Mexico. Jaime Tabachnik, co-founder and CEO of Mexican trucking finance startup […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meet three incoming EU lawmakers in charge of key tech policy areas
The European Union looks to have clinched political agreement on the team of 26 commissioners who will be implementing President Ursula von der Leyen’s policy plan for the next five years. A final vote is still pending next week, but on Thursday, Politico’s Brussels Playbook newsletter reported a deal in the European Parliament on the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI accidentally deleted potential evidence in NY Times copyright lawsuit (updated)
Lawyers for The New York Times and Daily News, which are suing OpenAI for allegedly scraping their works to train its AI models without permission, say OpenAI engineers accidentally deleted data potentially relevant to the case. Earlier this fall, OpenAI agreed to provide two virtual machines so that counsel for The Times and Daily News […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sequoia marks up its 2020 fund by 25%
Sequoia says no exits, no problem. The Silicon Valley titan of venture marked up the value of its 2020 Sequoia Capital U.S. Venture XVII fund by 24.6% in June, at the end of a 12-month period, according to PitchBook, which ran analysis on data from the Regents of the University of California’s endowment. Sequoia’s markup […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Illumen Capital doubles down on supporting underrepresented funds
Illumen Capital is doubling down on its support for fund managers and founders from underrepresented communities. The firm is an impact fund of funds that has previously supported ways to address racial bias in investing. Yesterday, the firm, founded by Daryn Dodson, announced the raise of a $32.75 million “Catalyst Fund “to once again support […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gilroy, former Coatue fintech head, and angel investor Rajaram launch VC firm
Michael Gilroy, a former head of fintech investments at Coatue, and Gokul Rajaram, a longtime tech executive and prolific angel investor, are forming a yet-to-be-named venture firm and plan to begin fundraising toward a $400 million to $500 million debut fund early next year, Bloomberg reported. The firm will invest in US-based early-stage fintech and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tour the new Hyundai Ioniq 9
Emme Hall takes a closer look at the new Hyundai Ioniq 9, an all-electric three-row SUV. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies. That growth has propelled OpenAI itself into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI is funding research into ‘AI morality’
OpenAI is funding academic research into algorithms that can predict humans’ moral judgements. In a filing with the IRS, OpenAI Inc., OpenAI’s nonprofit org, disclosed that it awarded a grant to Duke University researchers for a project titled “Research AI Morality.” Contacted for comment, an OpenAI spokesperson pointed to a press release indicating the award […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Y Combinator often backs startups that duplicate other YC companies, data shows — it’s not just AI code editors
An analysis of all nearly 5,000 companies YC has backed to date reveals a surprising truth: YC startups don’t have to be unique. Far from it. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hyundai and Kia recall 208,000 EVs
Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis are recalling about 208,000 EVs in the United States due to an issue that could cause the vehicles to suddenly lose power, according to several filings with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The recall was first reported by Reuters. The problem originates with the integrated charging control unit (ICCU), which […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Money for tech that matters
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. If you’d like to receive this newsletter in your inbox every Friday, sign up here! The week before Thanksgiving is typically busy with announcements of all sorts, but this week has been particularly interesting. Money was flowing to big problems, like defense, cybersecurity, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fondo wants to mitigate the US’ accountant shortage with its AI bookkeeping service
Despite all the talk of doom and gloom about the economy, entrepreneurship is actually on the rise in the U.S.: In 2024, an average of 430,000 new business applications were submitted every month, marking a 50% rise from 2019. But the number of accountants these new businesses will need to maintain their books, file taxes […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman warns against Elon Musk’s ‘conflict of interest’ in setting AI policies
Reid Hoffman, co-founder at LinkedIn and Inflection AI, shared his expectations for the incoming Trump administration in an opinion piece for the Financial Times. And while he appears hopeful that President-Elect Donald Trump could clear the way for more competition and faster innovation in the technology industry, Hoffman also expressed concerns around Trump providing certain […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to turn a Bluesky Starter Pack into a List
A new tool for the rapidly growing X competitor Bluesky helps you quickly create new feeds that you can pin to the app’s home page to follow your various interests. If you’re daunted by the prospect of having to rebuild your Twitter/X lists on Bluesky’s app, you can use the Pack2List web app to take […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI chip startup MatX, founded by Google alums, raises Series A at $300M+ valuation, sources say
MatX, a startup designing chips that support large language models, has raised a Series A of approximately $80 million, three sources say, less than a year after raising its $25 million seed round. Spark Capital led the investment, valuing the company at a pre-money valuation in the mid-$200 million range and a post-money valuation of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Revolut to launch mortgages, smart ATMs and business credit products
Revolut, the London-based fintech unicorn, shared a few items on the company’s 2025 roadmap at a corporate event in London on Friday. One of its main focuses for next year will be the introduction of an AI-enabled assistant to help its 50 million customers navigate the financial app, manage their money, and customize the software. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Italian food delivery app Foodinho eats another privacy fine
Not for the first time, food delivery firm Foodinho has been spanked by Italy’s privacy watchdog. Per Reuters, the Glovo-owned on-demand delivery app has been fined €5 million ($5.20 million) after it was found to have unlawfully processed the data of more than 35,000 riders registered on the platform. Issues identified included riders’ geolocation data […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EU closes antitrust probe into Apple’s e-book and audiobook rules after complaint withdrawn
The European Commission (EC) has quietly closed a longstanding antitrust investigation into Apple over rules it enforces against third-party e-book and audiobook app developers. The EC opened the probe back in 2020 after receiving complaints over how Apple forced competing e-book and audiobook app developers to use Apple’s own in-app payment system, while also preventing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla Superchargers: GM, Ford, Rivian, and other EV brands with access
EV owners of GM vehicles like the Chevrolet Silverado EV and Cadillac Lyriq will now officially have access to Tesla’s Superchargers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Plex redesigns its app to look more like a streaming service
Streaming service and media software maker Plex on Friday introduced a redesign of its software that puts more emphasis on discovery, easily accessing your watchlist and other personalization features — including those for home media enthusiasts who still use the app to organize their media libraries. Over the years, the company has tried to balance […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Battery unicorn Northvolt files for bankruptcy, co-founder and CEO resigns
The company chose Chapter 11 in an effort to right its listing finances. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Taking a cue from X, Threads tests AI-powered summaries of trending topics
As the Twitter-like social network Bluesky sees a significant surge in users this month, Meta’s own X competitor Threads has been rapidly building out its platform. On Friday, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced that Threads will start testing AI-powered summaries of what people are discussing on the platform in the app’s “Trending now” section in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
StoreCash’s new app lets you instantly earn cash back at stores
Daricus Releford always wanted to be a founder. In high school, he ran a hot dog station and in college launched a chocolate-covered strawberry business, making millions in sales before moving to Silicon Valley to pursue his dreams in tech. Entrepreneurship simply runs in his family, he told TechCrunch. “My grandfather was one of the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anthropic raises an additional $4B from Amazon, makes AWS its ‘primary’ training partner
Anthropic, OpenAI’s close rival, has raised an additional $4 billion from Amazon, and has agreed to make Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing division, the primary place it’ll train its flagship generative AI models.Anthropic also says it’s working with Annapurna Labs, AWS’ chipmaking division, to develop future generations of Trainium accelerators, AWS’ custom-built […]For personal use only.
Anthropic raises an additional $4B from Amazon, makes AWS is ‘primary’ cloud partner
Anthropic, OpenAI’s close rival, has raised an additional $4 billion from Amazon, and has agreed to make Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s cloud computing division, the primary place it’ll train its flagship generative AI models.Anthropic also says it’s working with Annapurna Labs, AWS’ chipmaking division, to develop future generations of Trainium accelerators, AWS’ custom-built chips […]For personal use only.
Apple’s mobile browser policies and Google pact are ‘holding back innovation,’ UK regulator says
An inquiry group setup by the U.K.’s antitrust authority has provisionally found that Apple’s policies are “holding back innovation in the browsers we use to access the web on mobile phones.” While the report focuses substantively on Apple, it also highlighted a revenue-sharing agreement with Google, noting that the duo “earn significant revenue” when Google […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal leaves PhonePe board
Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal has stepped down from PhonePe’s board of directors, three quarters after making a similar move at the e-commerce giant. Bengaluru-headquartered PhonePe said it had appointed Manish Sabharwal, an executive at staffing and HR firm Teamlease, as an independent director and audit committee chair. Bansal played a key role in Flipkart’s acquisition […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
New UK crypto regulations will include stablecoins and staking services
The U.K. is set to create an all-encompassing regulatory framework to govern the crypto sector in early 2025. Speaking on Thursday at the Tokenisation Summit in London, economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq confirmed that the new rules would include cryptocurrency and stablecoins, which are pegged against a more stable asset such as a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A company is now developing human washing machines
Forget cold plunges. The new flex could soon be human washing machines. According to one of Japan’s oldest newspapers, an Osaka-based shower head maker called Science has developed a contraption that’s shaped like a cockpit, fills with water when a bather sits in a seat at its center, and measures the person’s pulse and other […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Texas AG opens investigation into advertising group that Elon Musk sued for ‘boycotting’ X
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Thursday he is opening an investigation into the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) to determine whether the trade group’s members conspired to boycott “certain social media platforms.” While the press release doesn’t name social media platforms by name, one of them is likely Elon Musk’s X, which filed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
American Airlines is deploying new tech to shame boarding line cutters
American Airlines has a new tactic for shaming boarding line cutters: A loud beeper. CNBC reports that the airline is rolling out a system that emits two loud beeps when a traveler tries to get on an airplane before their boarding group is called. As of Wednesday, the new tech was in over 100 airports […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hackers break into Andrew Tate’s online ‘university,’ steal user data and flood chats with emojis
Hackers have breached an online course founded by ostensible influencer and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate, leaking data on close to 800,000 users, including thousands of email addresses, and private user chat logs. The Daily Dot, which broke the news Thursday, reported that the hackers accessed the user data, then flooded the online course’s chatroom with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple is reportedly building a more conversational Siri powered by LLMs
Apple is developing a new version of its voice assistant, Siri, powered by advanced large language models, according to sources cited by Bloomberg. This more conversational Siri is part of Apple’s attempt to catch up in AI, where competitors have released impressive features, like Google’s Gemini Live, that are far more natural to talk to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Future Google supplier Kairos gets approval to build two small nuclear reactors
The reactors are scaled down versions of what Kairos hopes to ultimately build to supply Google with electricity. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zepto raises another $350 million amid retail upheaval in India
Zepto has secured $350 million in new funding, its third round of financing in six months, as the Indian quick-commerce startup strengthens its position against its competitors ahead of a planned IPO next year. Indian family offices, wealthy individuals, and asset manager Motilal Oswal invested in the round, which maintains Zepto’s $5 billion valuation. Motilal […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube Shorts’ Dream Screen feature can now generate AI video backgrounds
YouTube announced on Thursday that its Dream Screen feature for Shorts now lets you create AI-generated video backgrounds. Up until now, Dream Screen could only create image backgrounds. The new capability is possible due to the integration of Google DeepMind’s AI video generation model, Veo, which can create 1080p video clips in various cinematic styles. Users […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Marissa Mayer just laid out a possible business model for ad-supported AI chatbots
Marissa Mayer has a lot of insights into the promise and problems with online advertising. She played an instrumental role in the early days of Google Search, and spent several years as Yahoo’s CEO. Today, Mayer the CEO of her own company, Sunshine, which is creating apps to do things like share photos among groups […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Battery unicorn Northvolt files for bankruptcy, upending Europe’s industrial plan
The company chose Chapter 11 in an effort to right its listing finances. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Brave Search adds AI chat for follow-up questions after your initial query
Brave announced on Thursday that it’s introducing an AI chat mode for follow-up questions based on initial queries on Brave Search. Earlier this year, the company launched “Answer with AI” summaries that appear above search results after you submit a query to give you an easy-to-read answer in response to a question. Now, the Answer […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX signs second commercial deal for Starship lunar lander with Lunar Outpost
As SpaceX’s Starship test program continues to gain momentum, the company signed its second commercial deal to deliver a payload to the moon using a lunar lander variant of the massive vehicle. Starship will deposit Lunar Outpost’s rugged rover, called Eagle, to the lunar surface by 2029, the Colorado-based startup said. Lunar Outpost CEO Justin […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cruise fesses up, Pony AI raises its IPO ambitions, and the TuSimple drama dials back up
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! President-elect Trump has wasted little time picking cabinet members, including naming former Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy as the next secretary of transportation. If Duffy’s appointment is confirmed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
German fintech unicorn N26 just had its first profitable quarter
Ten years after pitching on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt in London, fintech N26 has reported its first ever quarterly (pre-tax) profit. The challenger bank with millions of customers across Europe generated a net operating income of €2.8 million during the third quarter of 2024 (or $2.9 million at current exchange rates). This is an important […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Teleo wants to help the robotics industry reach its ‘ChatGPT moment’
Teleo describes itself as a construction robotics startup, but its mission is bigger than automating heavy equipment like excavators and tractors. Today, Teleo’s retrofitted machinery allows its customers to operate their existing fleets semi-autonomously. In the future, the startup sees the data it collects as a key enabler for the robotics industry to reach its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WhatsApp rolls out voice message transcripts
WhatsApp announced on Thursday it’s rolling out voice message transcripts. The Meta-owned company says the new feature will come in handy when you’re on the move or in a loud place where you can’t listen to a voice message. A similar feature was announced last year for Apple’s Message app, a top WhatsApp competitor, with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI2’s open source Tulu 3 lets anyone play the AI post-training game
Ask anyone in the open source AI community, and they will tell you the gap between them and the big private companies is more than just computing power. AI2 is working to fix that, first with fully open source databases and models, and now with an open and easily adapted post-training regimen to turn “raw” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Crusoe, a rumored OpenAI data center supplier, has secured $686M in new funds, filing shows
Crusoe Energy, a startup building data centers reportedly to be leased Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI, is in the process of raising $818 million, according to an SEC filing. The filing indicates that Crusoe has secured $686 million of the $818 million total that it hopes to raise. Seventy investors have contributed to the tranche so […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former X policy chief joins Sam Altman’s Tools for Humanity
X’s former top policy chief has taken a job at Tools for Humanity, the company building the tech to support World Network (formerly Worldcoin). Nick Pickles, previously head of global affairs at X, Elon Musk’s social media platform, will serve as chief policy officer for Tools for Humanity, which OpenAI CEO Sam Altman co-founded five […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Pay, Cash App, PayPal and other apps to be treated more like banks
Some digital services look like banks, act like banks, but aren’t banks — meaning they can, for instance, close down your account without notice. Or be difficult to contact when you want to dispute fraud. This is about to change: the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has just ruled that all digital services that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads adjusts its algorithm to show you more content from accounts you follow
After several complaints about its algorithm, Threads is finally making changes to surface more content from people you follow in the algorithmic feed. Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a Threads post that the social network has adjusted its algorithm to show less content from accounts you don’t follow. “We are rebalancing ranking to prioritize […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WordPress.com owner Automattic snaps up grammar checker Harper
WordPress.com owner Automattic has added another company to its portfolio of online content creation tools and services with its acquisition of Grammarly competitor, Harper. Although it’s competing in the same space as the popular grammar checker used by many online writers, Harper’s tool is aimed at developers, open source, and works to maintain privacy by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Reddit is down again
This morning, at around 7 a.m. PT, the social media platform Reddit experienced yet another outage after experiencing one yesterday afternoon. According to its status page, Reddit says the platform is still operational. However, thousands of users are currently unable to access its website and app. As of this writing, 51,221 users reported problems on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel agrees to step down
Jessica Rosenworcel, the first woman to serve as permanent chair on the FCC, said Wednesday that she’ll step down from the agency when Donald Trump assumes the presidency. Rosenworcel joined the FCC in 2012, and was behind a number of efforts to transform the agency charged with regulating the U.S. telecommunications industry. She pushed for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify tests a video feature for audiobooks as it ramps up video expansion
Spotify is enhancing the audiobook experience for premium users through three new experiments: video clips, author pages, and the ability to add visuals that appear while users listen. These initiatives are part of Spotify’s effort to improve its audiobook offering and bring listeners closer to their favorite authors and stories. One notable feature being introduced […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Wiz acquires Dazz for $450M to expand its cybersecurity platform
Wiz, one of the most talked-about names in the world of cybersecurity, is making a significant acquisition to expand its product reach in cloud security, particularly with developers. It is buying Dazz, a specialist in security remediation and risk management. Sources tell us the deal is valued at $450 million in a mix of cash […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Palo Alto Networks warns hackers are breaking into its customers’ firewalls — again
Hackers have compromised potentially thousands of Palo Alto customers by exploiting two new zero-day vulnerabilities © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Candela brings its P-12 electric ferry to Tahoe and adds another $14M to build more
Electric passenger boat startup Candela has topped off its most recent raise with another $14 million, the company announced Thursday, and has sold the first of its ferries in the U.S. — bound for Lake Tahoe. Candela makes a series of all-electric hydrofoiling watercraft, meaning the body of the boat rises above the surface of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tubi hops on the short-form video bandwagon with its ‘Scenes’ feature
Tubi, the free ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox, has unveiled a new feature designed to set it apart from its rivals, such as Pluto TV and the Roku Channel, as well as put it in closer competition with short-form video-sharing platforms like Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. Called “Scenes,” the feature allows viewers […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lightning looks to make managing AI a piece of cake
AI may be the hottest thing since sliced bread. But that doesn’t mean it’s getting easier to develop and run. According to a recent Boston Consulting Group poll, 74% of organizations are struggling to derive value from their AI investments. William Falcon, the creator of PyTorch Lightning, a popular open source AI framework, says that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OneRail’s software helps solve the last-mile delivery problem
Last-mile delivery, the very last step of the delivery process, is a common pain point for companies. According to one survey, nearly 90% of retailers struggle with their last-mile delivery operations, either because of technical issues, costs, or a combination of both. Bill and Lisa Catania understand this well. The husband-and-wife team founded OneRail, a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Blue Bear Capital lands $160M to back AI founders in climate, energy, and industry
The new fund swims against the prevailing currents in its sector, where funds that invest in hardware or a mix of hardware and software tend to dominate. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bill to ban social media use by under-16s arrives in Australia’s parliament
Legislation to ban social media for under 16s has been introduced in the Australian parliament. The country’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, confirmed the plan to curb the use of social media by kids earlier this month, and the bill has now been presented to lawmakers, Reuters reports. Many jurisdictions will be watching the proceedings with interest, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lighthouse, an analytics provider for the hospitality sector, lights up with $370M at a $1B valuation
Here is yet one more sign of the travel industry’s noticeable boom: a major growth round for one of the B2B startups servicing it. Lighthouse, a data analytics platform for hotels and others in the hospitality industry, has closed a Series C of $370 million. The KKR-led round catapults Lighthouse to a valuation of over […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DOJ: Google must sell Chrome to end monopoly
The United States Department of Justice argued Wednesday that Google should divest its Chrome browser as part of a remedy to break up the company’s illegal monopoly in online search, according to a U.S District Court of the District of Columbia filing. This story is developing… © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WhatsApp will finally let you unsubscribe from business marketing spam
WhatsApp Business has grown to over 200 million monthly users over the past few years. That means there are tons of businesses sending messages to users — and some of these messages could be considered as spam. For customers, the only option was to either let them send messages and offers, or block the business account […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OneCell Diagnostics bags $16M to help limit cancer reoccurrence using AI
OneCell Diagnostics has secured $16 million in a Series A round as it aims to limit cancer recurrence using AI advancements along with scientific ways. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s Arzooo, once valued at $310M, sells in distressed deal
Arzooo, an Indian startup founded by former Flipkart executives that sought to bring “best of e-commerce” to physical stores, has sold its assets in distressed sale to Moksha Group. The deal follows Arzooo engaging with several startups, including Bengaluru-headquartered Udaan, for potential merger opportunities, according to people familiar with the matter. The startup had raised […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI accidentally deleted potential evidence in NY Times copyright lawsuit
Lawyers for The New York Times and Daily News, which are suing OpenAI for allegedly scraping their works to train its AI models without permission, say OpenAI engineers accidentally deleted data potentially relevant to the case. Earlier this fall, OpenAI agreed to provide two dedicated virtual machines so that counsel for The Times and Daily […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hyundai reveals the Ioniq 9, its biggest EV to date
Hyundai revealed Wednesday the new Ioniq 9, an all-electric three-row SUV — and its largest EV to date — based on the SEVEN concept that we saw in 2021. (Look, nobody said car-naming protocol had to make sense.) The SUV, which made its debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show, joins the smaller Ioniq 5 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia’s CEO defends his moat as AI labs change how they improve their AI models
Nvidia raked in more than $19 billion in net income during the last quarter, the company reported on Wednesday, but that did little to assure investors that its rapid growth would continue. On its earnings call, analysts prodded CEO Jensen Huang about how Nvidia would fare if tech companies start using new methods to improve […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Reddit appears to be back after a 4-hour-long outage
Social media platform Reddit experienced an outage this afternoon at around 12:20 p.m. PT (or possibly even earlier), resulting in thousands of users being unable to access its website and app. After four hours, it appears to be working again. Reddit confirmed it fixed the issue and is monitoring the results, according to its status […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snowflake snaps up data management company Datavolo
Cloud giant Snowflake has agreed to acquire Datavolo, a data pipeline management company, for an undisclosed sum. Snowflake unveiled the deal at the close of the market bell on Wednesday, when it also announced its Q3 2025 earnings. Its closing is subject to customary closing conditions, Snowflake noted in a release. Joseph Witt and Luke […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Solar power magnate Gautam Adani and others indicted over alleged $250M bribery scheme
Billionaire Gautam Adani and several executives at his company, the Indian conglomerate Adani Group, have been indicted over an alleged scheme to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian officials in exchange for contracts to a 12 gigawatt solar power project. The indictment, unsealed Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn, charges Adani, his […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘PDF to Brainrot’ study tools are a strange iteration on a TikTok trend
Several AI-based study tools are capitalizing on a “PDF to Brainrot” trend, which will read the text of a document you upload over “oddly satisfying” videos, like ASMR clips of mixing paint and cutting soap, or gameplay footage from Minecraft and Subway Surfers. Then, students can listen to an automated voice read their textbooks to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fusion startup Tokamak Energy attracts $125M for its egg-like reactor design
Startups pursuing fusion power have benefitted from AI's insatiable thirst for electricity. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Another VC-backed fintech, Earnin, faces crackdown over allegedly ‘predatory’ loans
The attorney general for the District of Columbia is suing instant payday loan fintech Earnin for “deceptively marketing and providing illegal high-interest loans,” the AG alleges. Earnin allows its users to get loans against paychecks. It advertises that users can get $150 a day, up to $750 per pay period, with “no interest, credit check […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
It’s not just you, Reddit is down
Social media platform Reddit is experiencing an outage this afternoon, resulting in thousands of users being unable to access its website and app. Reddit confirmed that it’s currently investigating the issue, according to its status page. We discovered the outage ourselves when attempting to visit the homepage, which displayed a black screen with the message: […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FTX CTO Gary Wang avoids prison time
Not every former top FTX executive is heading to prison. Gary Wang, former FTX chief technical officer, was spared prison time by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan today. Judge Kaplan praised Wang’s cooperation with federal authorities. Wang testified against former FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried at his trial last fall. Wang pleaded guilty to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US charges five accused of multi-year hacking spree targeting tech and crypto giants
The five alleged hackers are accused of stealing millions of dollars in crypto, and corporate data from several victims all over the world. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
May Mobility to test driverless shuttles in Ann Arbor
May Mobility is slowly advancing its driverless capabilities. The startup this week launched a small-scale deployment of autonomous shuttles, which will drive themselves along a fixed route without a human safety driver present. May will initially deploy one to two autonomous Toyota Sienna minivans to ferry employees and “invited guests” across a 2-square-mile area of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Benchmark invests $19M in New Lantern, a smarter way for radiologists to use AI
Shiva Suri gained a unique perspective into how radiologists work when he quarantined and shared a home office with his mom, a well-regarded radiologist. “I watched her work day in and day out, and she was wasting about seven to eight hours on boring workflow tasks,” Suri said. “Only 5% of her time, she had […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Led by Anduril, defense tech funding sets a new record this year
Defense tech startups have raised almost $3 billion so far in 2024, surpassing the previous record from 2022 of $2.6 billion. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Messenger gets HD video calls, AI backgrounds, and more
Meta is introducing new features for Messenger, its messaging app, including AI-powered noise suppression. Messenger is getting HD video calls and voice isolation, both of which can be enabled via the call settings menu. HD calls are now the default for calls placed over Wi-Fi, Meta says, and an option for calls over cellular. Messenger […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DuckDuckGo calls for EU to widen its Digital Markets Act probe of Google
Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo has urged the European Union to widen its Digital Markets Act (DMA) investigation into Google, claiming the search giant is in breach of several areas where the bloc has yet to formally probe the company’s compliance. The EU’s flagship market contestability rulebook has been in force on a handful of tech […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: Congressional commission warns of Chinese AGI
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. America’s AI war with China is intensifying — or at least, the rhetoric around it is. On Tuesday, a U.S. congressional commission proposed a “Manhattan Project-style” effort to fund the development of AI systems with human-level […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
H, the AI startup that raised $220M, launches its first product: Runner H for ‘agentic’ applications
H, the Paris startup founded by Google alums, made a big splash last summer when, out of the blue, it announced a seed round of $220 million before releasing a single product. Three months later, still without a product, that splash started to look like a catastrophic flood when three of the company’s five co-founders […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As Bluesky soars, Threads rolls out custom feeds globally
As X competitor Bluesky takes off, topping 20 million users, Meta’s own Twitter-like app, Instagram Threads, has begun rolling out a new feature called custom feeds, to its global audience. Hoping to capitalize on user demand for more personalization, custom feeds are meant to allow Threads users to easily build feeds around specific topics or […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Federal prosecutors have charged another Forbes 30 Under 30 alum with fraud
The FBI unsealed an indictment yesterday that alleges Joanna Smith-Griffin, founder of the AI startup AllHere Education, engaged in “securities fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft in connection with defrauding investors” out of nearly $10 million. The FBI claims she misrepresented her company’s revenue, customer base, and cash to investors from at least November […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A Chinese lab has released a ‘reasoning’ AI model to rival OpenAI’s o1
A Chinese lab has unveiled what appears to be one of the first “reasoning” AI models to rival OpenAI’s o1. On Wednesday, DeepSeek, an AI research company funded by quantitative traders, released a preview of DeepSeek-R1, which the firm claims is a reasoning model competitive with o1. Unlike most models, reasoning models effectively fact-check themselves […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TV Time points to Apple’s ‘significant power’ over developers after being removed from App Store
TV Time, a popular TV and movie tracking and recommendations app with more than 30 million registered users, disappeared from Apple’s App Store for several weeks, leading to questions about its future from the app’s avid fan base. Considering that 2.5 million users use the app every month to track what they’re watching and to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TV Time points to Apple’s ‘significant power’ over devolpers after being removed from App Store
TV Time, a popular TV and movie tracking and recommendations app with more than 30 million registered users, disappeared from Apple’s App Store for several weeks, leading to questions about its future from the app’s avid fan base. Considering that 2.5 million users use the app every month to track what they’re watching and to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Comcast spins off its cable channels into separate company as it looks for growth
Cable television has long been viewed as a stagnant business, showing little promise for growth over the years. However, Comcast believes it has found a new growth opportunity. On Wednesday, the company announced that it’s spinning off NBCUniversal’s cable television networks — such as CNBC, E!, Golf Channel, MSNBC, Oxygen, SYFY, and USA Network — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Chinese AV startup Pony AI boosts its IPO goal to $260M
Pony AI, the Chinese autonomous vehicle startup that’s looking to go public on the Nasdaq stock exchange, now wants to raise around $260 million, according to a new regulatory filing. That’s up from its previous target of around $224 million. To meet the goal, Pony will sell as many as 20 million American depository shares. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon debuts its largest Echo Show yet
Amazon on Wednesday introduced the Echo Show 21, its largest Echo Show yet. The smart display comes with double the viewing area of the existing Echo Show 15, which is also getting an upgrade. The two new devices have better audio quality than the original Echo Show 15, as they come with double the bass […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Riding high on open source ERP, Odoo raises $527M via secondaries lifting its valuation to $5.26B
Belgium-based Odoo decided to use open-source tools as a way to attack the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software market, going up against giants like SAP. Fast forward a couple of decades and it’s now picking up €500 million in secondary investment — or around $527M at current exchange rates — led by CapitalG (Alphabet’s venture […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YC-backed Four Growers builds robots to help solve greenhouse labor shortages
When Brandon Contino and co-founder Dan Chi were developing Four Growers’ produce-harvesting robots, they practically lived in a greenhouse for an entire year. They coded at a small desk tucked in the back corner and discovered that fertilizer bags can be comfortable beds. “We actually started just running everything off a laptop, and I would […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Raven Space Systems opens up a whole new category of industrial 3D printing
Manufacturing has been one of the hottest categories in venture this year, but there are still many innovative materials and processes yet to scale. One example is thermoset composites, materials widely used in aerospace and defense due to their high heat resistance and light weight, but which typically have long lead times and high prices […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Federato fixes insurance risk analysis with AI, raises $40M
Insurance has been fertile ground for artificial intelligence innovation, working as it does at the nexus of giant datasets, risk assessment, predictive analytics, fintech and customer service. Federato, a startup riding that momentum, has now raised $40 million to expand its business: an AI-powered underwriting platform to help insurers better understand and respond to risk. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Converge Bio’s ‘everything store’ for biotech LLMs brings in $5.5M seed
AI is finding its way into every corner of biotech and pharmaceutical research, but like other industries, it’s never quite as straightforward to implement as one would like. Converge Bio has built a tool for companies to make their biology-focused LLMs actually work, from “enriching” their data to explaining their answers. The company has raised […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LogicMonitor’s massive $800M raise shows AI is driving the demand for data center monitoring
As companies’ server infrastructure grows, they often run into challenges keeping tabs on the health of their various assets, like cloud instances and local data centers. Monitoring tools, also known as observability tools, can help — but lots of tools quickly becomes overwhelming. According to one survey, seven in 10 organizations believe that monitoring is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Data center monitoring firm LogicMonitor raises $800M at a $2.4B valuation
As companies’ server infrastructure grows, they often run into challenges keeping tabs on the health of their various assets, like their cloud and local data centers. Monitoring tools, also known as observability tools, can help — but lots of tools can become overwhelming. According to one survey, seven in 10 organizations believe that monitoring is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Current AI scaling laws are showing diminishing returns, forcing AI labs to change course
AI labs traveling the road to super-intelligent systems are realizing they might have to take a detour. “AI scaling laws,” the methods and expectations that labs have used to increase the capabilities of their models for the last five years, are now showing signs of diminishing returns, according to several AI investors, founders, and CEOs […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fintech giant Finastra confirms it’s investigating a data breach
An incident disclosure shared with Finastra's banking and financial customers confirms a hacker stole files from a company system. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Portugal’s Tekever raises $74M for dual-use drone platform deployed to Ukraine
Dual-use drone startup Tekever has raised €70 million ($74 million) to develop its product and expand into new markets, specifically the U.S.. The news is part of a trend of smaller tech-driven startups moving into markets normally dominated by large ‘defense primes’. It also shows that unmanned aerial drones are becoming far more sophisticated, in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK crashes out of global top 50 supercomputer ranking
The U.K. no longer has a supercomputer in the top 50, according to new data from the Top500 project, which ranks the 500 most powerful non-distributed computer systems globally. The country’s current national supercomputer system, Archer2, is approaching end-of-life in 2026. According to the latest figures, it’s also now sitting in 62nd place globally, down […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK open to social media ban for kids as gov’t kicks off feasibility study
The U.K. government is not ruling out further beefing up existing online safety rules by adding an Australian-style ban on social media for under 16s technology secretary, Peter Kyle, has said. Back in the summer the government warned it may toughen laws for tech platforms in the wake of riots that were perceived to have […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI releases a teacher’s guide to ChatGPT, but some educators are skeptical
OpenAI envisions teachers using its AI-powered tools to create lesson plans and interactive tutorials for students. But some educators are wary of the technology — and its potential to go awry. Today, OpenAI released a free online course designed to help K-12 teachers learn how to bring ChatGPT, the company’s AI chatbot platform, into their […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
You have a few hours left to bid on this burned-out husk in San Francisco
Houses in San Francisco are notoriously expensive, with the average home price hovering around $1.26 million. It’s no wonder that a fire-ravaged shack priced at $299,000 in one of San Francisco’s southernmost neighborhoods saw at least 20 people tour the property this past weekend, according to The San Francisco Standard. Potential buyers were asked to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ben Ling’s Bling Capital has already nabbed another $270M for fourth fund
Bling Capital, one of the more prolific and well-connected seed VC firms, has nabbed another $270 million for a new flagship, fourth fund. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX launches Starship for the sixth time – with Trump on site to watch
SpaceX conducted the sixth flight test of its massive Starship rocket on Tuesday afternoon, and although the company did not replicate the history-making booster catch, the company did welcome a very special guest: President-elect Donald Trump. Trump, who will soon be sworn into office for his second term, said on X that he was headed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple says Mac users targeted in zero-day cyberattacks
Apple said the security update for Macs, iPhones, and iPads is "recommended for all users." © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
PayPal revives its money-pooling feature
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re diving into PayPal’s new holiday shopping-friendly feature, Klarna’s 2025 IPO ambitions, and sales tax automation startup Kintsugi doubling its valuation in less than a year. If you’d like to receive the Fintech newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, sign up here! The big story PayPal makes group purchases […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
PSA: You shouldn’t upload your medical images to AI chatbots
Security and privacy advocates have long warned that sensitive medical data can be used to train AI models, and can expose personal data down the line. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Kim Kardashian has befriended Optimus, the Tesla bot
Pete Davidson? Kanye West? Step aside. Kim Kardashian’s new beaux is a Tesla bot named Optimus. The fashion mogul got some hands-on experience with Tesla’s bipedal, human-shaped robot, which is not yet available to the general public. In Kardashian’s videos with the robot — posted to X and her Instagram story — she prompts Optimus […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VW taps former Rivian exec to run US business
Volkswagen of America has a new CEO: Rivian’s recently departed chief commercial officer Kjell Gruner. The appointment comes just one week after VW parent company Volkswagen Group formalized a $5.8 billion joint venture with Rivian, which will be focused on EV architecture and software. While Gruner’s new post isn’t really related to that new JV, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Chroma, backed by Pinterest and Twitter cofounders, sells to AI audio company Bronze
Chroma, a startup building a new type of audiovisual entertainment for mobile devices, has been sold. The company, which had financial backing from Twitter and Medium co-founder Biz Stone as well as Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp, is headed to London-based audio technology company Bronze, an AI music startup. Founded by record producer Lex Dromgoole, who’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta hires Salesforce’s CEO of AI, Clara Shih, to lead new business AI group
Meta hired Salesforce’s CEO of AI, Clara Shih, to lead a new organization building AI tools for businesses that use Meta’s apps to reach consumers, according to a LinkedIn post from Shih on Tuesday. Meta confirmed the appointment and the new Business AI group in a statement to TechCrunch. “I’m thrilled to share today that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nuclear startups face new competition as energy giant Enel enters the ring
The new endeavor could put additional pressure on small modular reactor (SMR) startups that have struggled to build power plants. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI brings ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode to the web
OpenAI is expanding ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode feature to the web, letting users talk to the AI chatbot right from their browser. The company’s chief product officer, Kevin Weil, announced the launch on X. The feature, which makes ChatGPT more natural to speak with, is rolling out to ChatGPT’s paying customers this week, which means […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google ships first developer preview Android 16 to speed up feature roll outs
Google is releasing the first developer preview of Android 16 to speed up feature rollouts in devices. This is a major change in the Android rollout schedule as, over the past few years, Google released its first Android developer beta around Q2, with a stable release coming out post-July. With the new schedule, Android 16’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Las Vegas Sheriff tells a16z partners what’s next on his wish list: AI for bodycams
Vegas police received funding for tech like drones and license plate readers from Ben Horowitz. Now it wants AI to go through police footage. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Thanks, Netflix, but we don’t need another daily word game
Netflix is adding a new title to its gaming library: a daily word puzzle that is eerily similar to a lot of other mobile games that exist already. Announced in October, the streaming giant teamed up with TED, the well-known non-profit media organization, to launch TED Tumblewords, a new daily word puzzle game. In this […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GitHub launches $1.25M open source fund with a focus on security
The open source funding problem is very real, but a slew of initiatives have emerged of late, with startups, corporations, and venture capitalists launching various programs to support some of the most critical projects via equity-free financing. Today it’s GitHub’s turn, launching the GitHub Secure Open Source Fund with an initial commitment of $1.25 million […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google’s Gemini chatbot now has memory
Google’s Gemini chatbot can now remember things like info about your life, work, and personal preferences. As flagged by posters on X, a “memory” feature has begun rolling out to certain Gemini users, including this reporter. Like ChatGPT’s memory, Gemini’s adds context to the current conversation. For example, tell Gemini to remember foods you like […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mitsubishi backs Ample’s radical approach to charging EV batteries
Startup Ample is on a mission to convert commercial fleets into believers in the power of electric vehicle battery swapping technology. The company has spent the last three years piloting its electric vehicle battery swapping technology in San Francisco, Madrid, and Japan. Now, Ample is preparing to turn some of those pilot customers into commercial […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What is Bluesky? Everything to know about the X competitor
Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is most certainly bluer. It’s been two years since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now X, leading people to set up shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (two of which have already shuttered operations) and Spill have been presented as potential […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YC-backed Formal brings a clever security reverse-proxy out of stealth
Formal is a security startup coming out of stealth on Tuesday with a nice list of investors and an interesting product positioning. The company has designed a reverse-proxy for data stores and APIs so that security teams can more easily secure access to sensitive data. In more practical terms, Formal is a proxy that you […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
IRL social app Pie is coming to SF to make you less lonely
After a robust career building Bonobos and advocating for founder mental health, Andy Dunn moved to Chicago with his family. A few years later, he came to a depressing realization: He hadn’t made any new friends. “I don’t think it’s easy to admit to yourself that you don’t have friends,” Dunn told TechCrunch, laughing. “It’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Codecrafters wants to challenge seasoned developers with hard-to-build projects
There are plenty of online platforms for developers that help you learn new skills or get started with a new language, such as CodeCademy, Leetcode, and CodeSignal. Some guide developers step by step through the process while teaching the basics, while others provide detailed video tutorials. Codecrafters is a platform that doesn’t want to show […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky tops 20M users, narrowing gap with Instagram Threads
Bluesky, the social network and X competitor has been benefiting from a surge of departures from the Elon Musk-owned app formerly known as Twitter. Today, Bluesky has hit a major milestone: it’s topped 20 million users. What’s more, new data indicates the app’s rapid growth is seeing it close the gap with another prominent X […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Physical AI startup BrightAI bootstraps to $80m in revenue
When Alex Hawkinson was the CEO of SmartThings, the consumer-focused connected devices company he co-founded and sold to Samsung for around $200 million, he kept thinking that internet of things (IoT) technology could probably solve bigger issues. He left SmartThings in 2018 to figure out where connected devices could make the largest impact. He co-founded […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Minecraft is entering the real world
Minecraft is entering the real world — sort of. The Guardian reports that Microsoft, the owner of the Minecraft video game franchise, has struck a deal with European theme park operator Merlin Entertainments to open Minecraft-themed attractions, including rides, retail outlets, and hotel rooms. Merlin plans to invest more than $110 million in the first […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Oura valued at $5B following deal with medical device firm Dexcom
Smart ring maker Oura announced on Tuesday that it has received a $75 million investment from glucose device maker Dexcom. The investment marks Oura’s Series D funding round and brings the company’s valuation to more than $5 billion. The partnership paves the way for the two companies’ devices and apps to be used together, which […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US extradites Russian accused of extorting millions in Phobos ransomware payments
Phobos ransomware has been used to extort at least $16 million from over a thousand victims globally, according to the DOJ © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google Lens can now check prices and inventory when shopping in the real world
After building out Google Lens to help users shop online more easily, Google is now updating the product to help people shop when they’re in a physical store by offering product insights, price comparisons, and local inventory availability. Alongside this news, the company is bringing new shopping features to Maps, and adding more Google Pay […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nuro expands driverless autonomous vehicle testing in push to attract customers
Nuro is rolling out test fleet of its its driverless, passenger-less R3 vehicles across the Bay Area and Houston, two months after the the autonomous vehicle technology startup changed its business strategy to license its AV tech to automakers and mobility providers. The large-scale demo, which will expand the domain where Nuro currently tests, is designed to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon’s top Prime Music plan will now include one audiobook per month
Amazon said on Tuesday that it will let Amazon Prime Music Unlimited subscribers access one audiobook per month from Audible’s catalog for free. This move is possibly to counter Spotify’s growth in the audiobook space and also nudge some Prime Music subscribers to purchase Audible books or plans. The company noted that subscribers of the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Database startup Neo4j embraces AI to supercharge growth
To make AI possible, you need to create connections between vast quantities of data. That’s where tech like graph databases come into play. Graph databases handle fast-changing, interconnected data more adeptly than traditional databases, which were designed to store rigidly structured information. Of course, graph databases need to be managed in order to be useful. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft built a PC that can’t run local apps
Prefer to offload all your Windows tasks to the cloud? Microsoft may just have the compact, desk-bound computer for you. On Tuesday at Microsoft Ignite 2024, the tech giant unveiled Windows 365 Link, a fanless, lightweight PC that connects to Windows 365. Windows 365 is a cloud-hosted, virtual Windows machine — like a typical Windows […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft will soon let you clone your voice for Teams meetings
Microsoft plans to let Teams users clone their voices so they can have their sound-alikes speak to others in meetings in different languages. At Microsoft Ignite 2024 on Tuesday, the company revealed Interpreter in Teams, a tool for Microsoft Teams that delivers “real-time, speech-to-speech” interpretation capabilities. Starting in early 2025, people using Teams for meetings […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Windows comes to the Meta Quest
If Windows in mixed reality sounds like your idea of a good time, rejoice. Microsoft said on Tuesday at Microsoft Ignite 2024 it’s bringing the “full capabilities” of Windows 11 to the Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S in December as part of a public preview. “Full capabilities,” in this context, means that you’ll be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft to launch new custom chips for data processing, security
Microsoft on Tuesday revealed new custom chips aimed at powering workloads on its Azure cloud and bolstering security, particularly a new hardware accelerator that can manage data processing, networking and storage-related tasks. The Azure Boost DPU is Microsoft’s first data processing unit, designed for “data-centric workloads with high efficiency and low power,” the company said. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft beefs up Windows security with new recovery and patching features
In the aftermath of the devastating CrowdStrike outage this July, Microsoft vowed to do better even though it insisted that the event was an aberration. Evidently unwilling to take chances (or risk further hits to its credibility), the company on Tuesday, during Microsoft Ignite 2024, shared how it’s making changes to Windows to prevent similar […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft brings together its enterprise AI offerings in the Azure AI Foundry
At its annual Ignite conference, Microsoft on Tuesday announced the Azure AI Foundry, a new offering that brings together a number of Microsoft’s existing AI services for enterprises under a single umbrella. Azure AI Studio, Microsoft’s hub for building generative AI-based applications, is the management console and portal for the AI Foundry. “Business leaders are […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft and Atom Computing will launch a commercial quantum computer in 2025
Quantum computing is getting there. After years of slow but steady development to create a useful quantum computer that can outperform classical machines, we’re still squarely in the so-called “noisy intermediate-scale quantum era.” However, many of the pieces needed for building more advanced — and stable — machines are starting to fall into place now. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spectro Cloud nets $75M to help companies manage their Kubernetes installations
Kubernetes, the open-source system that helps manage containerized applications (software packages that run in isolated environments), long ago breached the mainstream. According to one recent poll, 60% of organizations have adopted Kubernetes, and Gartner estimates that more than 90% of all enterprises could run Kubernetes in production by 2026. But Kubernetes itself remains difficult to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Selector automatically spots IT issues and recommends fixes
AIOps, short for artificial intelligence in operations, is a process that uses AI to automate IT tasks. More organizations are embracing it as AI commodifies, yet adoption is still lagging. According to a recent IDC survey, almost half of companies said that they were just getting started in AIOps, while a third indicated they had […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Agentio raises $12 million from Benchmark for its YouTube ad marketplace
Creator marketplace startup Agentio, which has built an automated platform for YouTubers to sell their ad slots to brands, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Benchmark with participation from returning investors Craft Ventures and AlleyCorp. With the new funding, the startup aims to scale its marketplace for YouTubers and bolster its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lightyear is on a mission to modernize network procurement
Dennis Thankachan isn’t someone you’d expect would launch a digital procurement startup. After college, Thankachan went to work for Goldman Sachs as an investment banker. Two years later, he left for a hedge fund, PointState Capital, where he helped to manage equity investing. At PointState, which specializes in telecommunications, Thankachan said he encountered an unexpected […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Workbrew makes open-source package manager Homebrew enterprise-friendly
Workbrew emerges from stealth with the mission of mitigating the risks of "shadow IT" practices around Homebrew package manager deployments. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Itching to write a book? AI publisher Spines wants to make a deal
Generative AI has upended how we write things… or even if we write at all. Now a startup wants to be the main character in the next chapter of that story: AI that replaces the role of the publisher. Spines is a self-publishing platform that claims that — thanks to being powered by artificial intelligence […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK competition regulator clears Alphabet’s investment in Anthropic
The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has okayed Alphabet’s partnership and investment in AI rival Anthropic, concluding that it doesn’t qualify for investigation under current merger regulations.The announcement comes a month after the CMA revealed it was launching a formal “stage 1” probe into Google’s parent’s various investments in Anthropic, a three-year-old San […]For personal use only.
In Mexico’s tense job market, Minu’s take on employee benefits includes financial wellness
In a tight labor market, the best way to attract and retain talent is to look after employee well-being. As Mexico is nearing full employment, this creates tailwinds for these endeavors, but with particular awareness that financial, physical, and mental health are interconnected. “The main problem to solve in Mexico is around financial matters,” said […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instagram will soon let you reset your recommendation algorithm
Instagram is testing the ability for users to reset their recommendations, the company announced on Tuesday. By resetting your recommendations, you would be starting fresh and retraining the app’s algorithm about the content you enjoy across your Explore page, home feed, and Reels tab. The feature is geared toward users who feel like their content […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former basketball hopeful wants to prevent ACL tears with airbags for knees
You’ve heard of car airbags deploying within milliseconds to protect passengers. How about an airbag for your knee? © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Indian news agency sues OpenAI alleging copyright infringement
One of India's largest news agencies has sued OpenAI in a case that could set a precedent for how AI companies use copyrighted news content. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sagence is building analog chips to run AI
Graphics processing units (GPUs), the chips on which most AI models run, are energy-hungry beasts. As a consequence of the accelerating incorporation of GPUs in data centers, AI will drive a 160% uptick in electricity demand by 2030, Goldman Sachs estimates. The trend isn’t sustainable, argues Vishal Sarin, an analog and memory circuit designer. After […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Yuka, the app that rates food and makeup, now lets users complain to companies directly
Yuka is a popular health app that allows users to scan the barcodes of food items to quickly see a health ranking based on additives, sugar, saturated fat, and fiber. It also scans cosmetic products, highlighting any harmful substances like endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, allergens, and irritants. Yuka then recommends healthier options, helping consumers make more […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Socium doubles down on Francophone Africa after $5M seed round
Demand for HR-tech solutions in Africa is growing, and Senegal’s Socium is out to tap the opportunity in French-speaking countries on the continent. Socium has since 2021 built HR solutions that target users within the 21 countries of Francophone Africa and plans to continue narrowing its focus on the region, where it is enjoying first-mover […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Logitech’s MX console for creatives
Deep into Adobe apps like Photoshop or Premiere? Logitech’s MX Creative Console is designed to streamline your creative workflow with a totally customizable dialpad and keypad. Use the dial or wheel to quickly scrub through timelines in Premiere, detailed brush precision in Photoshop, or cycle through presets on Lightroom. Adding functions and icons is as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ben Affleck tells actors and writers not to worry about AI
Unions representing Hollywood actors and writers went on strike last year to secure protections against AI systems taking their jobs. But Ben Affleck says that actors and screenwriters shouldn’t worry about AI because it’s not capable of doing either job today, and likely won’t for a long time. “Movies will be one of the last […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Venture funding in Europe in 2024 fell to $45 billion, says Atomico
Funding for European tech appears to have stabilised in 2024 after dropping precipitously in 2023, but the signs continue to point to more tough times ahead, according to the latest State of European Tech report. The annual survey — produced by European VC firm Atomico — notes that startups in the region are on track […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Justice Department reportedly pushing Google to spin off Chrome
The Department of Justice is reportedly pushing to force Google to spin off its Chrome browser business. That’s according to Bloomberg, which reports that the Justice Department is also planning to recommend to a federal judge that Google face antitrust requirements related to AI and its Android mobile operating system. The enforcement actions are the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Space: A big pivot
Hello, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space! This week, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said she wouldn’t be surprised if the company launched Starship 400 times over the next four years. What do you think? How realistic are those numbers, on the scale of “almost certain” to “no chance in hell”? I believe SpaceX has the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ServiceTitan names LLMs from Microsoft, OpenAI as risk factors
With ServiceTitan's public IPO documents, we may be witnessing the birth of a new boilerplate warning: LLMs. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
In 2023 VCs returned the lowest level of capital to their investors since 2011
It’s no secret that the venture capital industry is facing a liquidity crisis as IPOs and other exits remain few and far between after 2020 and 2021’s record-breaking years. Now, we have numbers that show just how bad it’s gotten. In 2023, the U.S. VC industry invested $60 billion more into startups than it collected […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump’s FCC pick has said he wants to ban TikTok, challenge Section 230
Though president-elect Donald Trump has been expected to stop the looming ban on TikTok, his political appointments suggest otherwise. Trump announced on Sunday that he selected Brendan Carr to chair the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which regulates the internet, news media, and other forms of communication. Carr, whom Trump appointed to the FCC in 2017, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DoorDash’s app can now import your grocery list for faster shopping
While online grocery shopping is generally convenient, manually adding items to your cart one by one can become a bit of a chore. To address this, food and grocery shopping app DoorDash has launched a new feature that allows you to sync your grocery list to the app. The app will then suggest what to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Marlon Nichols talks relationship building in the African markets
Marlon Nichols took the stage at AfroTech last week to discuss the importance of building relationships when it comes to entering into a new market. “One of the first things you do when you go to a new market is you’ve got to meet the new players,” he said. “Like, what do people need? What’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Venture capitalists continue to play musical chairs
From Keith Rabois to Ethan Kurzweil, a lot of VCs have switched firms or spun out of storied VC institutions to launch their own funds this year. These employment changes are surprising because unlike in many other fields, venture capitalists don’t traditionally move around very much — especially those who reach the partner or general […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI investor Josh Kushner praises Musk, despite Musk’s OpenAI lawsuit
Elon Musk may be suing OpenAI, accusing the ChatGPT maker of abandoning the company’s original mission as a non-profit organization, but Josh Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital and one of the company’s key investors, has nothing but good things to say about the world’s richest man. “I have deep admiration and respect for Elon,” Kushner […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump’s pro-fracking energy secretary pick has also invested in geothermal and nuclear startups
Chris Wright has been a big booster of oil and gas, but he's also no stranger to climate tech. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former TuSimple co-founder urges courts to block asset transfer to China
Xiaodi Hou, the co-founder and former CEO of self-driving trucking startup TuSimple, has urged a California district court to issue a temporary restraining order to stop the company from transferring its remaining U.S. assets to China, according to a recent court filing. Hou, who plans to apply for a temporary restraining order in December during […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mastodon sees a boost from the ‘X exodus,’ too, founder says
Decentralized social network Mastodon is also seeing some uplift from the X “exodus,” founder Eugen Rochko shared on the platform just ahead of the weekend. While the Twitter-like startup Bluesky has been capturing headlines and attention for its rapid adoption among former X users, a smaller group has apparently turned to the open source networking […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Healthcare VC firm Initiate has a new $45M and has already founded five startups internally
Jessica Owens and Iana Dimkova, co-founders of Initiate Ventures, are launching their new healthcare/ life sciences-focused firm with a respectable $45 million debut fund. One of the ways they convinced limited partners to become investors is because they are building a combination early-stage and incubation firm. So not only will they invest in early-stage startups […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gadget lover Marc Benioff says his favorite gadget these days is his cars and trucks
Marc Benioff famously got into tech as a child coder writing games. He’s always loved tech gadgets. During an episode of TechCrunch’s Equity, when asked about his latest gadgets, he showed off his Oura ring. But then he considered and said that his favorite gadget these days is his car. “I think my car is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hail Mary! AI in the confessional
We’ve seen AI chatbots in religious apps before, but a chapel in Lucerne, Switzerland has gone further — putting artificial intelligence inside a confessional. DW’s report shows the “AI Jesus” in action dispensing machine-generated spiritual advice via an avatar visible inside the wooden enclosure. Parishioners sitting on the other side interact with the AI by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Partiful is Google’s ‘best app’ of 2024
Partiful, the New York-based event-planning app that’s taking on older solutions like Evite, Eventbrite, and Facebook Events, has been named Google’s app of the year, the tech giant announced on Monday as part of its “best apps and games of 2024” list. The list also highlighted the top game, AFK Journey, alongside other category winners […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ex-Duolingo execs raise $13M for startup making it easier to access a college education
As college tuition increases and the student loan debt crisis continues, three former executives from language learning app Duolingo are building a new startup aimed at making college education more affordable and accessible. The company, tentatively named Outsmart Education (the name is not final yet), is headed by co-founders Daniel Falabella (CPO), former senior director […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google.org commits $20M to researchers using AI for scientific breakthroughs
Google is committing $20 million in cash and $2 million in cloud credits to a new funding initiative designed to help scientists and researchers unearth the next great scientific breakthroughs using artificial intelligence (AI). The announcement, made by Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis during a fireside chat at the closed-door AI for Science […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity introduces a shopping feature for Pro users in the U.S.
AI-powered search engine Perplexity is venturing into e-commerce. On Monday, the company debuted a new shopping feature for its paid customers in the U.S. which offers shopping recommendations within Perplexity’s search results as well as the ability to place an order without going to a retailer’s website. With the move, Perplexity is taking on Google […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sam Altman will co-chair San Francisco mayor-elect Daniel Lurie’s transition team
San Francisco’s mayor-elect, Daniel Lurie, has tapped OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to help run his transition team, the campaign announced on Monday, as part of the administration’s effort to embrace the tech industry. Altman, alongside nine other San Francisco leaders, will provide guidance to Lurie’s team on ways the city can innovate, and help the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ElevenLabs now offers ability to build conversational AI agents
ElevenLabs, a startup that provides AI voice cloning and a text-to-speech API, launched the ability to build conversational AI bots on Monday. The company announced that users can now build complete conversational agents on ElevenLabs’ developer platform, with customizable variables such as tone of voice and response length. ElevenLabs has mostly worked on providing different […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CISA director Jen Easterly to depart agency on January 20
CISA's director will depart the agency after three years at the helm, as part of the "seamless transition" of government power. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mistral unveils new AI models and chat features
French AI startup Mistral has released a slew of updates to its product portfolio as it looks to remain competitive in the cutthroat AI space. Mistral’s Le Chat chatbot platform can now search the web — with citations in line, a la OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It’s also gained a “canvas” tool along the lines of ChatGPT […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India fines Meta $25.4 million over WhatsApp privacy policy
India’s competition watchdog has fined Meta $25.4 million for antitrust violations related to WhatsApp’s controversial 2021 privacy policy.The Competition Commission of India also issued cease-and-desist orders against Meta and its messaging subsidiary WhatsApp, alongside mandating behavioral remedies.The ruling follows the regulator’s 2021 investigation into WhatsApp’s “take-it-or-leave-it” privacy terms, which sparked concerns over data […]
Twenty is building an open source alternative to Salesforce
If a software product is successful enough, you’ll probably be able to find a company building an open source alternative. And yet, nobody has created a modern open source CRM product that can be considered as a serious competitor to Salesforce. That’s exactly what Twenty is trying to achieve. For the past couple of years, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI training software firm iLearningEngines says it lost $250,000 in recent cyberattack
The US-based firm said hackers misdirected a $250,000 wire transfer payment that it hasn't been able to recover. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Beyoncé to perform live on Netflix during NFL Christmas Gameday stream
Beyoncé is headed to Netflix. The singer will perform live during the halftime show during the Houston Texans vs. Baltimore Ravens Christmas Day game, which is set to be streamed on the as part of its newly minuted three-year deal with the NFL. “Your early Christmas wish has been granted as Beyoncé will perform during Netflix’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta brings certain AI features to Ray-Ban Meta glasses in Europe
After a brief delay, Meta says that it’s begun to roll out certain AI features to users of its Ray-Ban Meta AR glasses in France, Italy, and Spain. Starting today, people in those countries can invoke Meta’s AI assistant, Meta AI, using their voice to get answers to general questions (e.g. “What are some good […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SuperAnnotate wants to help companies manage their AI data sets
SuperAnnotate, a platform for managing and prepping AI training data sets, has raised a new round of capital. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Space tech giant Maxar confirms hacker accessed employees’ personal data
Maxar has 2,600 employees — with more than half having security clearances to work on classified U.S. government projects. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Moonvalley wants to build more ethical video models
Moonvalley, a new generative video startup, claims it's building models using more ethical and transparent approaches. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Xiaomi taps PhonePe’s app store for India smartphones
Xiaomi will replace its app store with fintech PhonePe’s offering for customers in India starting January in a major win for the Indian startup. The smartphone vendor, the second largest in India, will automatically push the update to customers’ devices in India to replace GetApps with PhonePe’s Indus AppStore, it informed customers over the weekend. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Text marketing firm Blip secures backing from SoftBank, Microsoft
Take Blip, a conversational marketing platform, has raised $60 million in funding from SoftBank and Microsoft. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Text marketing firm Take Blip secures backing from SoftBank, Microsoft
Take Blip, a conversational marketing platform, has raised $60 million in funding from SoftBank and Microsoft. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Roblox no longer allows users under 13 to message others outside of games
Roblox will not let users under the age of 13 message others outside of games and experiences on the platform, the company said Friday. Roblox also announced a series of other built-in protections for young users, such as age-gating certain experiences, along with enhanced parental controls. Roblox has been criticized for failing to protect children […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MakeMyTrip buys Happay from CRED
MakeMyTrip, India’s largest online travel company, has agreed to acquire the expense management platform Happay from fintech CRED. The deal, announced on Monday, will see Happay’s expense management business and team transition to MakeMyTrip, while the payments division will remain at CRED. The financial terms were not disclosed and couldn’t be immediately learned. CRED, which […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Juna.ai wants to use AI agents to make factories more energy-efficient
Juna.ai wants to help factories become more efficient by automating complex industrial processes using AI agents. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s HealthKart valued at $500 million in new investment
Indian omni-channel nutrition startup HealthKart has raised $153 million in one of the country’s largest consumer startup transactions this year, valuing the business at about $500 million, according to a source familiar with the matter. The new investment was co-led by private equity firms ChrysCapital and Motilal Oswal, with Avendus Capital serving as financial advisor. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Oyo founder seeks new investment at $3.8 billion valuation
Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal’s investment vehicle has proposed to inject another $65.1 million into the hotel management startup, according to shareholder notifications reviewed by TechCrunch.The investment, through Redsprig Innovation Partners, would value the SoftBank-backed company at $3.8 billion, according to terms shared in the extraordinary general meeting notice.While this represents a 38% premium […]
World of Warcraft turns 20
Blizzard Entertainment first released World of Warcraft in November 2004, so The New York Times celebrated the anniversary by outlining the many ways we can still see the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game’s influence’s 20 years later. For one thing, while multiplayer games and early social networks such as MySpace already existed, WoW provided a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What is Bluesky when it’s not the underdog?
Bluesky is having a moment — a moment that’s already stretched on for nearly three months. Over the summer, the social media app saw a wave of new signups in Brazil after X (formerly Twitter) was temporarily banned there. And in the United States, unhappiness with changes at X, and with owner Elon Musk’s close […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Exploration Company raises $160M to build Europe’s answer to SpaceX Dragon
Only two companies currently provide cargo delivery to and from the International Space Station, and both are based in the United States. The Exploration Company, which operates out of Germany, France, and Italy, is looking to change that: It just closed a large funding round to further its mission of building Europe’s first reusable space […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Norwegian startup Factiverse wants to fight disinformation with AI
In the wake of the U.S. 2024 presidential election, one fact became clear: Disinformation proliferated online at a startling rate, shaping Americans’ views about each candidate as well as a diverse set of topics, including public health, climate change, and immigration. Generative AI – with its ability to produce deepfakes in seconds and its propensity to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Precursor’s Charles Hudson believes founders should test their investors
Charles Hudson, managing partner of Precursor Ventures, told an audience at AfroTech the basics of knowing when to invest: A company should have product-market fit and some form of traction. But the next thing he said garnered some surprised looks from the audience: Founders should test investors with a small issue to see how they […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Robust AI’s Carter Pro robot is designed to work with, and be moved by, humans
Two things are immediately notable when watching the Carter Pro robot navigate the aisles of the demo warehouse inside Robust AI’s San Carlos, California, headquarters. The first is the shelving units: standardized, modular, and off-the-shelf. The wire frames will look familiar to anyone who has spent time in warehouses, and that’s certainly by design. The second […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A popular technique to make AI more efficient has drawbacks
One of the most widely used techniques to make AI models more efficient, quantization, has limits — and the industry could be fast approaching them. In the context of AI, quantization refers to lowering the number of bits — the smallest units a computer can process — needed to represent information. Consider this analogy: When […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The best tech for plant lovers
House plants are great. They can also be hard. All of those stress-reducing self-care qualities they promise tend to fade into the background when they suddenly turn brown for seemingly no reason. Unlike pets and human children, they can’t bug you when something is wrong. They just sort of wither. There’s a reason Reddit is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Consumer tech is bouncing back, and consumer founders like Brynn Putnam are bouncing back with it
When Brynn Putnam sold her last company, Mirror, to Lululemon for $500 million at the start of the pandemic, it looked to this editor like she’d sold the smart fitness company too soon. Instead, the timing proved brilliant. The home fitness craze crashed nearly as abruptly as it peaked during that first year of lockdowns. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight shows Netflix still struggles with live events
Viewers have been talking about Friday evening’s boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul — but probably not for the reasons Netflix was hoping. Yes, the 27-year-old Paul (a YouTuber turned professional boxer) defeated the 58-year-old Tyson (a former heavyweight champion who came out of retirement for this match) in eight rounds, but the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Disgruntled X users make the switch to Bluesky
Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re breaking down Bluesky’s big surge in users, Elon Musk co-leading Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” and Mark Zuckerberg’s latest foray in extreme wife-guy behavior. Let’s go. Bluesky is seeing a major surge as X users unhappy with the platform’s latest policy decisions make the move to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Best gifts for frequent travelers
What’s the best gift you can get someone? Why, the gift of travel, of course. The next best is something to enhance the travel experience. As fun and enlightening as seeing new places is, the whole part of getting there can detract from the overall experience, especially for those who find themselves traveling a lot […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok parent ByteDance reportedly values itself at $300 billion
ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, valued itself at $300 billion in a recent share buyback offer, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal. That number might sound familiar, as the WSJ previously reported on a ByteDance buyback offer at a $300 billion valuation back in September 2022. But a year […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Botinkit’s robot wants to cook for you
Warehouses aren’t the only places grappling with a labor crunch. Since the start of the pandemic, restaurants around the world have been grappling with staffing shortages. A number of startups have entered the picture with automation solutions, aimed at reducing the number of hands required to keep the lights on and the food warm. There […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX Starship: Everything you’ve ever wondered but were afraid to ask
SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket has the potential to transform the commercial space economy, ensure America’s position as the global leaders in the space race, and put humans on Mars for the first time. But first it has to get to orbit. This is becoming much more likely as the Starship test program accelerates and the company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
T-Mobile hack linked to Chinese breaches of telecom networks
This is the ninth known cyberattack to target T-Mobile in recent years, according to an ongoing count by TechCrunch. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
T-Mobile says it was hacked, linked to Chinese breaches of telecom networks
This is the ninth known cyberattack to target T-Mobile in recent years, according to an ongoing count by TechCrunch. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What a second Trump term means for the future of ransomware
The U.S. government has made big strides over the past four years in the ongoing fight against the “scourge of ransomware,” as President Joe Biden described it. At the start of his term, Biden and his administration were quick to declare ransomware a national security threat, unlocking new powers for the military and intelligence agencies. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EU AI Act: Everything you need to know
The European Union’s risk-based rulebook for artificial intelligence — aka the EU AI Act — has been years in the making. But expect to hear a lot more about the regulation in the coming months (and years) as key compliance deadlines kick in. Meanwhile, read on for an overview of the law and its aims. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘AI Granny’ is happy to talk with phone scammers all day
On Thursday, the UK’s largest mobile network operator, O2, introduced a chatbot designed to frustrate phone scammers. Called “dAIsy,” it mimics an older woman with all kinds of time to chat – about knitting, her cat Fluffy – with the aim of keeping fraudsters engaged as they try obtaining her (fake) bank details. A press […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former TuSimple co-founder urges courts to block asset transfer to China
Xiaodi Hou, the co-founder and former CEO of self-driving trucking startup TuSimple, has urged a California district court to issue a temporary restraining order to stop the company from transferring its remaining U.S. assets to China, according to a recent court filing. Hou, who plans to apply for a temporary restraining order in December during […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s tumultuous early years revealed in emails from Musk, Altman, and others
A lawsuit by the world’s wealthiest man against one of the fastest growing companies of all time is necessarily interesting stuff. But while the allegations are yet to be proven, the case has already exposed a batch of emails between Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and others during OpenAI’s early days. Here are a few of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here’s the full list of 44 US AI startups that have raised $100M or more in 2024
In the first half of 2024 alone, more than $35.5 billion was invested into AI startups globally. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Unlike X, Bluesky says it won’t train AI on your posts
Bluesky, a social network that’s experiencing a surge in users this week as users abandon X, says it has “no intention” of using user content to train generative AI tools. The social network made the announcement on the same day that X (formerly Twitter) is implementing its new terms of service that allow the platform […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What is Bluesky? Everything to know about the X competitor
Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is most certainly bluer. It’s been two years since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now X, leading people to set up shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (two of which have already shuttered operations) and Spill have been presented as potential […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
NSO Group admits cutting off 10 customers because they abused its Pegasus spyware, say unsealed court documents
Newly unsealed documents brought by a WhatsApp lawsuit shows NSO Group's spyware, Pegasus, was used to hack as many as "tens of thousands” of devices. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI at one point considered acquiring AI chip startup Cerebras
OpenAI was at one point considering acquiring Cerabras, an AI chipmaking company that’s in the process of going public. According to new exhibits filed in Elon Musk’s ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI, OpenAI was contemplating snatching up Cerebras in or around 2017 — a year after Cerebras’ founding and just a few years after OpenAI achieved […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The US IPO window hasn’t reopened yet, but startups take what they can
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here! Despite the short workweek in many locations, the last few days have been crammed with deal announcements and funding news, although it is too early to tell how much was just on hold before […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘I went to Greenland to try to buy it’: Meet the founder who wants to re-create Mars on Earth
Praxis co-founder Dryden Brown wants to build a city in Greenland that emulates what a community on Mars could be like. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Think you need a VPN? Start here.
Not everyone actually needs to use a VPN. This simple guide will help you decide if you need a VPN for your situation. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘AI granny’ scambaiter wastes telephone fraudsters’ time with boring chat
Telephone scams are nothing new, but with the advent of AI, it has become harder than ever for people to know whether the person they’re speaking to is in fact who they say they are. But U.K. mobile network O2 is turning the tables, creating what it calls an “AI granny” to keep scammers on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Drone manufacturer Skydio raises $170 million extension round
American drone manufacturer Skydio has raised an extension round of $170 million, adding onto the $230 million Series E it closed early last year. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After raising nearly half a billion dollars, ABL Space pivots from launch vehicles to missiles
Significant changes are coming to ABL Space Systems. The leader of the 7-year-old startup took to social media last night to make a big announcement: The company will no longer be focusing on the commercial launch market but will be turning instead to missile defense. ABL had been developing a small launch vehicle called RS1 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After raising nearly half a billion, ABL Space pivots from launch vehicles to missiles
Significant changes are coming to ABL Space Systems. The leader of the seven year old startup took to social media last night to make a big announcement: the company will no longer be focusing on the commercial launch market, but will be turning instead to missile defense. ABL had been developing a small launch vehicle […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft bets a carbon removal bake-off will help offset its skyrocketing AI emissions
Microsoft is buying 10,000 tons of carbon credits from Deep Sky, a direct air capture developer. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X sues to block California anti-deepfakes bill
Per Bloomberg, X, Elon Musk’s social media company, has sued to block California law AB 2655, which requires large online platforms to remove or label AI deepfakes related to elections. X argues that the law, also known as the “Defending Democracy From Deepfake Deception Act of 2024,” will lead to widespread censorship of political speech. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
General Motors slashes another 1,000 jobs to cut costs
General Motors is laying off nearly 1,000 workers in the U.S. as part of a cost-cutting bid, just three months after cutting 1,000 software jobs. The company told TechCrunch that cuts won’t affect hourly workers at any of its factories, but declined to specify what teams were affected. A significant majority of the layoffs were […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How social app Spill plans to capitalize on the exodus from X
Social networking rivals continue to benefit from the user exodus from X. Spill, the social app founded by two former Twitter employees, released a statement claiming it has also seen a jump in users after the U.S. Presidential election, following similar news by Bluesky, which gained more than 2 million users during that time. The startup, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As Bluesky surges, Threads begins testing custom feeds
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday announced the company’s X competitor Threads would begin testing custom feeds for specific topics and profiles, making it easier for users to find communities and conversations that interest them. The news follows the rapid growth of the social networking startup and X rival Bluesky which prioritizes tools that allow […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
JobGet, a ‘LinkedIn’ for hourly workers, acquires rival Snagajob
If you’re an hourly worker, the number of go-to options you have for finding new jobs is shrinking a little. JobGet — a Boston startup that operates an hourly job-hunting site with social features built in, a la LinkedIn — is acquiring Snagajob, one of its rivals in the U.S. market. JobGet claims this will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meghan Markle is expanding her consumer portfolio
Instyle reported yesterday that Meghan is an investor in the hair and wellness company Highbrow Hippie, founded by her colorist Kadi Lee, and Myka Harris. The company was announcing the launch of a new hair care line and Meghan told the outlet that she was “proud to invest in her as a friend and as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GM’s Cruise to pay $500,000 fine to DOJ, admits submitting false report
Cruise, the autonomous vehicle unit of General Motors, has admitted to submitting a false report with the goal of influencing a federal investigation into a safety incident last year. In penance, the company will pay a $500,000 criminal fine as part of a deferred prosecution agreement, per the Department of Justice (DOJ). This is one […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Angel investor Hannah Bronfman is ready to launch her own fund
Early Thursday morning, excited AfroTech attendees shuffled into a conference room to see one thing: Hannah Bronfman, a noted angel investor who has more than 1 million followers on social media, in conversation with Blavity founder and CEO Morgan DeBaun. Bronfman is a wellness content creator, an author, and an investor in more than 70 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google tests removing news articles from search in EU, but it’s already backfiring
Under EU law, digital platforms have to pay for news reuse. But how much should Google pay for article previews? That’s what Google is trying to find out with an experiment in nine EU countries. During the test, 1% of users won’t see articles from EU-based news publishers in search and Google News so that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Musk’s amended lawsuit against OpenAI names Microsoft as defendant
Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI accusing the company of abandoning its non-profit mission was withdrawn in July, only to be revived in August. Now, in an amended complaint, the suit names new defendants including Microsoft, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and former OpenAI board member and Microsoft VP Dee Templeton. The amended filing also adds new […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Musk’s amended lawsuit against OpenAI names Microsoft as defendent
Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI accusing the company of abandoning its nonprofit mission was withdrawn in July, only to be revived in August. Now, in an amended complaint, the suit names new defendants including Microsoft, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and former OpenAI board member and Microsoft VP Dee Templeton. The amended filing also adds new plaintiffs: […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky says 1 million people signed up for the platform in last 24 hours
Bluesky said Thursday evening that over 1 million people signed up for the platform in the last 24 hours, making it one of the busiest days for the company. This also meant the social network crossed the mark of 16 million users overall. The platform’s announcement comes hours after Instagram head Adam Mosseri said that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Heroku CEO Bob Wise departs
Bob Wise, the CEO of Heroku, Salesforce’s cloud platform as a service, has left. A Salesforce spokesperson confirmed the news to TechCrunch in a statement via email. “Bob Wise has left Salesforce for his next career move,” the spokesperson said. “We appreciate all that Bob has done for Salesforce and Heroku and we wish him […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tech leaders recommend colleagues for Trump’s cabinet
Some tech investors and executives have been trying to influence the incoming Trump administration to appoint Silicon Valley insiders for cabinet positions, the New York Times reported. Given Elon Musk’s strong relationship with Donald Trump, a significant portion of tech leaders’ persuasion efforts have been directed towards him. Friends of Musk, like Joe Lonsdale, the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FTC reportedly begins investigating Microsoft’s cloud business practices
The FTC is reportedly readying an investigation into whether Microsoft used anti-competitive tactics to maintain a dominant position in the cloud market. According to the Financial Times, the agency is looking into allegations that Microsoft imposed punitive licensing agreements to prevent customers from moving data off its platforms. Sources told FT that the FTC is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington’s Thrive AI Health assistant has a bare-bones demo
In a splashy op-ed in Time published this summer, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced Thrive AI Health, a venture with the goal of building an AI-powered assistant to promote healthier lifestyles. Backed by Huffington’s mental wellness firm Thrive Global and the OpenAI Startup Fund, Thrive AI Health would seek to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to use Bluesky, the Twitter-like app that’s taking on Elon Musk’s X
Bluesky is continuing to blow up. The Twitter-like service and alternative to Elon Musk’s X, has now surpassed 16 million users after seeing rapid growth in the days following the U.S. presidential election. While many are leaving X over the service’s increasing right-wing leanings and Musk’s campaigning for Trump, others are unhappy with other changes […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Chinese autonomous driving startup Pony AI seeks up to $224M in US IPO
Pony AI is inching closer to its initial public offering in the U.S., but as it does so, it continues to drop its minimum target for what it hopes to raise in the transaction. Pony operates a fleet of 190 “robotrucks” in Beijing and Guangzhou and over 250 robotaxis in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky is courting the Swifties
Bluesky has grown by 2 million users — about 15% — since Donald Trump won the U.S. election last week. But the emerging social platform isn’t just acting as a refuge for left-leaning X users who are disappointed in Elon Musk’s alliance with the president elect. A community of Taylor Swift fans, or Swifites, has […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The $7,500 EV tax credit is on Trump’s chopping block
Republicans have long opposed the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles contained in the Inflation Reduction Act. Now, it seems President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has made that a priority with plans to end the tax credit as part of broader tax reform legislation, Reuters reported citing two unnamed sources. TechCrunch has confirmed the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ford will pay up to $165M fine for rearview camera recall failures
Ford has agreed to pay a $165 million penalty to federal regulators after moving too slowly to recall vehicles with faulty rearview cameras. This is the second largest fine the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has handed out in its 54-year history, after the 2019 Takata airbag recalls. Ford also failed to provide accurate […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Hawk Tuah’ girl launches Pookie Tool, an AI-powered dating advice app, and it’s fine?
Haliey Welch, the 22-year-old who went viral for her “Hawk Tuah” video, has managed to turn her brief moment of fame into a full-fledged career. In just a few months, Welch has rapidly risen to fame, amassing around 5 million followers across various social media platforms. After recently releasing her own podcast titled “Talk Tuah,” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Will Rivian be Volkswagen’s software savior? VW is betting $5.8B it will
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Before we jump into the news, I wanted to steer you toward a recent TechCrunch Equity podcast episode with Waabi co-founder and CEO Raquel Urtasun. A little […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT can now read some of your Mac’s desktop apps
OpenAI’s ChatGPT is starting to work with other apps on your computer. On Thursday, the startup announced the ChatGPT desktop app for MacOS can now read code in a handful of developer-focused coding apps, such as VS Code, Xcode, TextEdit, Terminal, and iTerm2. That means developers will no longer have to copy and paste their […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube chases TikTok with new gifting feature for vertical livestreams
YouTube is launching a new way for creators to earn money during vertical livestreams, the company announced on Thursday. Viewers can now buy “Jewels,” a digital currency, to send “gifts” to creators. Gifts are animations that appear on screen during vertical livestreams. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s similar to TikTok’s live gifting feature […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
New Apple security feature reboots iPhones after 3 days, researchers confirm
“Inactivity reboot" effectively puts iPhones in a more secure state by locking the user's encryption keys in the iPhone's secure enclave chip. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ecolectro stuffs hydrogen production into shipping containers to cut costs
The startup figures the best way to rein in costs is to bring production closer to where it’s being used. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI pioneer Francois Chollet leaves Google
Francois Chollet, a leading figure in the AI world, is leaving Google after close to a decade. In a post on X, Chollet said that he’s starting a new company with “a friend” — but declined to reveal additional details. “I’m very grateful for my decade at Google,” he said. “In that timespan, deep learning […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
BitSight buys dark web security specialist Cybersixgill for $115M
More consolidation is afoot in the world of cybersecurity. BitSight, the startup last valued at $2.4 billion when ratings firm Moody’s took a majority stake in the business in 2021, is acquiring Cybersixgill for $115 million. Boston-based BitSight’s focus is cyber risk management. It works with enterprises to assess their risk profiles and specifically the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nearly half of AI data centers may not have enough power by 2027
AI’s insatiable thirst for electricity is expected to surge in the coming years. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EU AI Act: Draft guidance for general purpose AIs shows first steps for Big AI to comply
A first draft of a Code of Practice that will apply to providers of general-purpose AI models under the European Union’s AI Act has been published, alongside an invitation for feedback — open until November 28 — as the drafting process continues into next year, ahead of formal compliance deadlines kicking in over the coming […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon’s telehealth platform adds low-cost plans for hair loss, skin care, and more
Amazon One Medical is expanding its telehealth services with the launch of upfront and low-cost treatment plans and medication delivery for several beauty and lifestyle concerns. Customers can get treatment plans and medication for men’s hair loss for as low as $16 per month, anti-aging skin care for $10 per month, and erectile disfunction care […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mission Space launches next quarter to provide real-time space weather forecasts
When you board a plane, the pilot already knows the weather on the flight path and can steer clear, or at least warn you it’s coming. The same can’t be said of “space weather” from solar events, which can seriously affect satellites and even passenger planes. Mission Space is about to launch a constellation provide […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SwiftConnect lets workers access the office with a smartphone swipe
With the advent of flexible workspaces, companies are increasingly adopting smartphone-based authentication to let employees enter and leave. In a recent poll, nearly two in five firms said they’re letting staff use their phones to access office buildings. The boon has benefited vendors like SwiftConnect, which sells a platform for managing access to physical offices. Chris […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mobile browser Arc Search is now generally available on Android
Following an October beta release for Android, mobile browser, Arc Search, hit general availability Thursday. Its developer, The Browser Company, is known for its desktop browser Arc. To reach more users and employ AI-based search, the company launched Arc Search for iOS earlier this year. The new version will possibly open up Arc Search’s reach […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mach9 is equipping infrastructure operators with better information
Clean water, safe roads, accessible broadband and electricity: These things are not a given. They depend on vast infrastructure networks that need to be constantly maintained and improved in order to function. America is failing badly on this front. In its latest report card, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the country’s aging infrastructure […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FBI raids home of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan
The FBI raided the home of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan on Wednesday morning and seized his electronics, a company spokesperson confirmed to Axios. It’s not clear what the FBI was seeking — or if Polymarket, Coplan, or both are the targets of an investigation. Polymarket, one of the most active prediction betting markets, gained mainstream […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google launches Gemini app for iOS worldwide
Google launched a dedicated app for its AI-powered assistant Gemini on iOS globally today. Until now, iOS users either had to use the Google app or mobile web to chat with Gemini. The new Gemini iOS app supports 35 languages across the world. Plus, users can have a conversation with Gemini through its Gemini Live […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau moves to place Google under supervision
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has taken steps to place Google under formal federal supervision, a move that could subject the company to the same inspections the government imposes on major banks. According to The Washington Post, the CFPB has been in talks with Google for months about the supervision order, which hasn’t yet […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sales tax automation startup Kintsugi doubled its valuation this year
A 2018 Supreme Court ruling eliminated the requirement that an e-commerce retailer needed a physical location in a state in order for said state to be able to collect sales tax on purchases made by residents. While the decision was a boon for states, it created a headache for e-commerce sellers. Kintsugi is looking to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tourlane, the German travel startup, raises $26M led by Sequoia
The travel industry continues to gain ground, expected to break $11 trillion in revenues this year, and consumers are evolving from so-called “revenge travel” post-Covid-19, to dedicating a growing share of their budget to a wider array of experiences away from home. Add AI into the mix, and that spells a bump of investment into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta slapped with a €798M fine in Europe, its biggest yet
Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has been hit with yet another huge fine in Europe, this time over abusive practices in Facebook Marketplace. The European Commission announced that it would fine it €797.72 million — nearly $840 million — for breaching EU antitrust rules connected to how it ties its online classified […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Team-GPT raises$4.5M to offer suite of AI tools to companies
To stay competitive, some companies are scrambling to adopt AI, but they are sometimes unsure of the best way to integrate AI into their business. Illiya Valchanvov, co-founder and CEO of Team-GPT, thinks he has an answer to their worries. In 2023, Valchanvov and Ilko Kacharvo, Yavor Belakov, Katya Vaptsarova, and Maria Valchanova launched Team-GPT […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Influur wants to standout from other influencer marketplaces by promising timely payout
As the influencer economy grows, startups like PassionFroot, Agentio, and One Impression, along with social platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are trying to build marketplaces to connect brands with creators. Miami-based startup Influur, is banking on two unique aspects of its platform: quick response from creators and financial tools to ensure they are paid […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snapchat will soon be able to alert parents when their teen leaves or arrives at certain locations
Snapchat is bringing enhanced location sharing to Family Center, its parental controls hub, the company announced Thursday. Users have been able to share their location with others on Snapchat for quite some time now, but the new addition allows parents to get an alert from within the app’s Family Center when their teen departs from […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tiger Global-backed InVideo launches gen AI-based video creation
Indian video editing platform InVideo is launching a generative AI-powered video creation feature that lets you use prompts to create video clips. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Reliance, Disney complete India media merger valued at $8.5 billion
Reliance and Disney have completed their landmark Indian media merger, creating an $8.5 billion entertainment behemoth that will dominate the country’s streaming and television markets. The deal, proposed in February, brings together Disney’s Star India with Reliance-controlled Viacom18 under a joint venture that will control about 85% of India’s streaming market and roughly half of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
PayPal will once again let you pool money from family and friends to pay for things together
PayPal is launching a few features that let users in groups pool money with friends or family, to collectively pay for trips, travels, gifts, and anything else. The company is launching this feature in the U.S., Germany, the U.K., Italy, and Spain ahead of the holiday season. “Re-launching” might be the more appropriate verb here: […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US confirms China-backed hackers breached telecom providers to steal wiretap data
CISA and the FBI say they have uncovered a 'broad and significant' PRC-linked cyberespionage campaign © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tessl raises $125M at at $500M+ valuation to build AI that writes and maintains code
Many startups and larger tech companies have taken a crack at building artificial intelligence to code software. Now, another new player is coming out of the shadows to throw its hat into the ring, with a mission to fix the many problems that will arise when humans and all those AIs are all writing code […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Atlas.co wants its web-based mapping tool to be the Figma of geospatial data
Startup inspiration can strike anywhere. But for Atlas.co*, a freemium browser-based, real-time mapping tool that’s being built by an Oslo, Norway-based team of (initially student) engineers, the realization that there might be a business opportunity in competing with expensive legacy mapping software hit the founders during class. “When we took introduction class to GIS [geographic […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ePlane looks to ride the Indian government’s interest in air taxis with new $14M round
India's ePlane Company has raised $14 million in a Series B round as it plans to commercialize its air taxi in 2026. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple faces UK ‘iCloud monopoly’ compensation claim worth $3.8 billion
U.K. consumer rights group ‘Which?’ is filing a legal claim against Apple under competition law on behalf of some 40 million users of iCloud, its cloud storage service. The collective proceeding lawsuit, which is seeking £3 billion in compensation damages (around $3.8 billion at current exchange rates), alleges that Apple has broken competition rules by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What’s DOGE? Musk’s new political appointment under Trump is a crypto joke
President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that one of his top donors, Elon Musk, will co-lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. It’s a not-even-thinly-veiled nod to the popular Doge meme, depicting a cute Shiba Inu, which is also the inspiration behind the meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin. The commission, which will advise Trump, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple’s AI-powered Final Cut Pro 11 is now available
It’s been 13 years since Apple released Final Cut X. That’s just over half of the video-editing software’s entire lifespan, having celebrated its 25th birthday this April. It’s several lifetimes in the world of consumer software, leading some to wonder whether the company had quietly washed its hands of the offering. After 13 years of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s take on AI agents could come in January
OpenAI could release an “AI agent” tool as soon as January. That’s according to Bloomberg, which reports that OpenAI is close to launching software, code-named “Operator,” that can take direct actions on a person’s computer. OpenAI is said to be planning to initially launch Operator as a research preview through its developer API. Operator would […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Don Lemon leaves X, the platform he nearly had a video show with
Former CNN anchor Don Lemon said on Wednesday he is leaving Elon Musk’s X, a decision made less than a year after X announced that “The Don Lemon Show” would appear on the social media platform three times a week. That deal was canceled before it was ever signed, and Lemon sued Musk and X […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Don Lemon officially leaves Elon Musk’s X
Former CNN anchor Don Lemon said on Wednesday he is leaving Elon Musk’s X, a decision made less than a year after X announced that “The Don Lemon Show” would appear on the social media platform three times a week. That deal was canceled before it was ever signed, and Lemon sued Musk and X […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify will start paying video podcast hosts based on how well their videos perform
Spotify announced on Wednesday that it will start paying podcast hosts who make popular videos on its streaming platform, as the company looks to take on YouTube’s dominance in the video podcast space. Although creators can already monetize their podcasts on the platform, they are now being incentivized to publish a video component alongside their […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon scraps secret fertility-tracking project
Amazon has shut down a four-year-old secret program working on a fertility monitoring device and accompanying smartphone app, CNBC reported. The project, which was known by the codename “Encore,” evolved out of Amazon’s 2020 purchase of a startup called bluDiagnostics, which was developing a device that measured the levels of estradiol and progesterone — two […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mark Zuckerberg sings with T-Pain on ‘Get Low’ remix
There now exists an .mp3 file in this world of Mark Zuckerberg earnestly singing the lyric “to the window, to the wall, ’til the sweat drop down my balls.” The Meta founder met his wife, Priscilla Chan, at a college party where the song “Get Low” by Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz ft. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lawyer allegedly hacked with spyware names NSO founders in lawsuit
Spanish lawyer Andreu Van den Eynde is suing NSO Group and its founders Omri Lavie and Shalev Hulio, accusing them of illegal hacking. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Wing begins delivering blood samples via drone in London
Alphabet X spinoff Wing on Wednesday confirmed that it has started delivering blood samples via drone. The program, announced in September, is shuttling samples between London’s Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals. Wing is running up to 10 deliveries a day, Monday through Friday. Each run can contain several different samples and takes around three minutes. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This generative AI startup is strapping cameras to people’s backs
A startup is training an AI model that it claims will enable creators to generate cinematic worlds, with complete control over the scenery, characters, lighting, and motion. How? By having humans strap cameras to their backs and hike around the world. Odyssey, founded by self-driving pioneers Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke (Cameron was previously the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Stepful raises $31.5M to address healthcare staffing shortage with AI-powered training
Carl Madi spent a chunk of the last decade working for Uber and Handy, an online marketplace for cleaners. “I spent a lot of time convincing drivers, handyman and cleaners, to join the gig economy,” he told TechCrunch. But when the pandemic struck, he saw many people lose their jobs overnight. He noticed that there […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify teases a ‘super premium’ tier for superfans and upcoming video expansion in Q3 earnings call
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has once again teased the company’s long-delayed HiFi or “super premium” tier, a higher-qualify subscription offering the streaming service first announced in 2021 and then failed to roll out. In the company’s third-quarter earnings call with investors on Wednesday, the exec suggested that such a product was still on the way, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: Anthropic’s CEO talks scaling up AI and Google predicts floods
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. On Monday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei sat in for a five-hour podcast interview with AI influencer Lex Fridman. The two covered a range of topics, from timelines for superintelligence to progress on Anthropic’s next flagship tech. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ever wanted to rent a food delivery robot? Now you can.
Good news for anyone who’s ever wanted to rent a delivery robot. Kiwibot this week announced a new “rent a robot” offering, making it possible for companies to utilize its army of autonomous delivery systems for a finite amount of time. The robot as a service (RaaS) approach follows the startup’s recent acquisition of advertising […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AMD lays off 4% of its workforce
AMD has confirmed that it’s laying off 4% of its workforce to focus on “large growth opportunities.” It’s unclear how many workers have been impacted by the reduction — and which divisions. AMD had roughly 26,000 employees as of last year, according to the company’s annual 10-K filing. Four percent would translate to approximately 1,000. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Starfish Space raises $29M to launch satellite-servicing spacecraft missions
Starfish Space has closed a new tranche of funding led by a major defense tech investor as it looks to launch three full-size satellite servicing and inspection spacecraft in 2026. The Washington-based startup’s Otter spacecraft is designed for two primary missions: extending the operational life of expensive satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO) and disposing of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lyten buys battery manufacturing assets from beleaguered Northvolt
Lyten, a Silicon Valley battery startup, announced today that it’s acquiring manufacturing assets from Northvolt, a Swedish battery manufacturer that’s facing a cash crunch. As part of the deal, Northvolt is selling manufacturing equipment the company inherited in its 2021 acquisition of Cuberg, another battery startup. Lyten will also assume the lease of Cuberg’s old […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Almost all of this year’s top 40 startups at Station F use AI
Every year, more than 1,000 startups join Station F, the iconic startup campus in Paris. As it can be hard to sift through 1,000 startup descriptions, Station F selects the 40 most promising startups and shares a list of what it calls the “Future 40”. The campus also invests in 10 of these startups. These […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple now lets app developers apply to be featured on the App Store
App developers now have a new way to promote their app launches, updates, and other new features on Apple’s App Store. First announced at the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference in June, Apple this week introduced a “Featuring Nominations” option in App Store Connect — the service developers use to submit their apps, games, and updates […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon takes on Temu and Shein with discount ‘Amazon Haul’ store
Amazon has rolled out its answer to the discounted, low-cost storefronts of Temu and Shein. The Amazon Haul store, currently available on the mobile app or mobile web browser exclusively, offers similar mass-produced, discounted items, most of which ship from China. It’s a departure from Amazon’s long-established reputation as a powerhouse of rapid delivery times […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hot Topic data breach exposed personal data of 57 million customers
Millions of customers of Hot Topic have been informed that their personal data was compromised during an October data breach at the American retailer. Have I Been Pwned, the breach notification service, said this week that it alerted 57 million Hot Topic customers that their data had been compromised. The stolen data includes email addresses, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Europe asks for input on banned uses of AI
The European Union is developing compliance guidance for its new law on AI. As part of that process it’s launched a consultation (here) seeking input in two areas. The first is how the law defines AI systems (as opposed to “simpler traditional” software). It’s asking people in the AI industry, business, academic and civil society […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nokia acquires Rapid, the API company once valued at $1B
Nokia, the company that once was the biggest mobile phone company in the world, has made an interesting acquisition in its bid to be a bridge between the adjacent but very different worlds of tech and telecoms: it’s acquiring Rapid, formerly known as RapidAPI, a provider of an API marketplace, which it will be integrating […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Leland lands $12 million to grow its coaching platform
Coaching platform Leland has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Forerunner Ventures with participation from GSV ventures to grow its platform geared toward matching coaches and aspirants to fulfill goals ranging from getting into a university to passing an entrance exam and excelling at product management. The company aims to build better […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Vecna Robotics raises $14.5M and taps former Motional CEO to lead startup
Karl Iagnemma, an early pioneer in the autonomous vehicle industry who recently stepped down as president and CEO from Hyundai-backed Motional, is back in the AV and robotics game. Vecna Robotics, a Massachusetts-based startup that uses robots to handle materials in warehouses, has hired Iagnemma as CEO. The robotics startup, which has developed autonomous pallet […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Patreon gets gift subscriptions in time for the holidays
Creator subscription platform Patreon is making it a bit easier for fans to support their favorite creators this holiday season. The creator membership platform announced on Wednesday that it will roll out gift subscriptions, as well as functionality for creators to offer discounts for membership sign-ups. The gift subscription feature had previously been in testing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Prosus eyes PayU IPO in 2025 after stellar Swiggy listing
Prosus aims to list fintech firm PayU in 2025 as the Dutch investor looks to shift more focus to India. On Wednesday it described the market as a pillar for its investment business after the stellar listing of food delivery and quick commerce firm Swiggy netted it gains of $2 billion. PayU, which is wholly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fitbit’s kids smartwatch gets family group chats
Fitbit’s Ace LTE, the smartwatch designed for ages 7+, is introducing new features to help families stay connected and get active together. On Wednesday, Fitbit announced a slew of new features, including group chats, family quests, a new mini-game, and two new watch faces. There’s also a new direct message feature for siblings to text […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla issues sixth Cybertruck recall in a year
Tesla’s Cybertruck is facing its sixth recall since its launch a year ago. The recall affects 2,431 units, including certain 2024 Cybertrucks built between November 6, 2023 and July 30, 2024. A report from Tesla found that those trucks are or were equipped with a faulty drive inverter. “If the inverter stops producing torque, the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DeepL launches DeepL Voice, real-time, text-based translations from voices and videos
DeepL has made a name for itself with online text translation it claims is more nuanced and precise than services from the likes of Google — a pitch that has catapulted the German startup to a valuation of $2 billion and more than 100,000 paying customers. Now, as the hype for AI services continues to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Klarna kickstarts U.S. IPO plans with confidential SEC filing
The Swedish BNPL startup has confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the U.S. SEC. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After spending three years working on SMS verification at Zenly, Prelude wants to fix SMS onboarding
Prelude is a new a new French startup that focuses on SMS verification; it’s coming out of stealth Wednesday. The two founders met when they were working for Zenly, a popular location-sharing app with tens of millions of users that was acquired by Snap (and later shut down). While you might not think much about […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Just Eat Takeaway sells Grubhub to Wonder for $650 million
Netherlands-based Just Eat Takeaway announced today that it is selling Grubhub to Wonder in a deal valued at $650 million. The company said that it expects the deal to be completed by Q1 2025. “The sale of Grubhub to Wonder will increase the cash generation capabilities of Just Eat Takeaway.com and will accelerate our growth. This deal […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube is now letting creators remix songs through AI prompting
YouTube added a capability for select creators in the U.S. to create AI-generated songs via prompts using the vocals of artists like Charlie Puth, Charli XCX, Demi Lovato, John Legend, Sia, T-Pain, and Troye Sivan last year. Now, the company is adding a feature for select creators to remix a track by describing how they […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Swiggy debut fuels India’s food, quick commerce wars
Shares of Swiggy dropped 4% to 401 rupees on Wednesday as the food delivery and quick commerce startup concluded India’s second-largest IPO this year, in a closely watched debut that puts it in direct comparison with what analysts have long considered the benchmark Indian internet stock: Zomato. The listing of the 10-year-old Bengaluru-headquartered firm marks […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity brings ads to its platform
AI-powered search engine Perplexity says it’ll begin experimenting with ads on its platform starting this week. Ads will appear in the U.S. to start, formatted as “sponsored follow-up questions.” (E.g., “How can I use LinkedIn to enhance my job search?”) Paid media will be positioned to the side of answers, and labeled as sponsored. Brands […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Donald Trump announces Elon Musk will co-lead Department of Government Efficiency
President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that Elon Musk will co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency, the acronym of which spells out DOGE, Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency. The CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, Neuralink, and owner of X, will lead the department alongside biotech entrepreneur and former Presidential hopeful, Vivek Ramaswamy, to pave the way for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
NASA awards ‘sustainable’ aircraft concepts $11.5M
The future of aircraft may look very similar to today’s superficially — but under the hood (or sitting next to the tailfins) they will likely be quite different. That’s the future NASA is hoping to nurture with five research awards worth $11.5 million. The Advanced Aircraft Concepts for Environmental Sustainability 2050 (AACES) program is an […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple reportedly releasing a wall-mounted smart home tablet in 2025 – and yes, it does AI
Apple is gearing up to announce a new smart home hub, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. As early as March 2025, the iPhone maker could release a tablet that mounts to your wall, control smart home appliances, does video calls, and of course does Apple Intelligence. The device reportedly has a 6-inch touchscreen, but it’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Space: Nothing to see here!
Hello, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. There was absolutely no news last week because nothing happened. Just kidding. Defying all early polling, Donald Trump swept the election and will soon be sworn in for his second term in office. From a space policy perspective, things are already starting to look interesting. That’s mostly due […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
23andMe cuts 40% of staff in restructuring
23andMe announced on Monday it would cut 40% of its workforce, representing more than 200 employees, as part of a restructuring at the company. The genetic testing company is also discontinuing its therapeutics business and winding down its clinical trials; it expects these changes to save $35 million annually. “We are taking these difficult but […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Generative disinfo is real — you’re just not the target, warns deepfake tracking nonprofit
Many feared that the 2024 election would be affected, and perhaps decided, by AI-generated disinformation. While there was some to be found, it was far less than anticipated. But don’t let that fool you: the disinfo threat is real — you’re just not the target. So at least says Oren Etzioni, an AI researcher of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Rivian-Volkswagen joint venture deal is now up to $5.8B
Rivian and Volkswagen Group have finalized a multi-billion-dollar joint venture to develop software, paving the way to let the German auto giant leverage the EV startup’s more technical chops in the coming years. Volkswagen will invest up to $5.8 billion by 2027, about 16% more than when the deal was first announced in June. Volkswagen […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok is integrating with influencer shopping app LTK, videos show
An integration with LTK, an app that lets consumers shop from creator and influencers’ recommendations, is rolling out on TikTok, according to videos by select creators viewed by TechCrunch. The collaboration could boost fashion creators’ ability to earn affiliate commissions via LTK, while also making it easier for consumers to locate the clothes and accessories […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump expected to try to stop looming TikTok ban
President-elect Donald Trump will try to prevent TikTok from getting banned in the United States, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday. During his campaign, Trump promised voters that he would save the popular social media app if elected. Former Trump adviser and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told the Post that the president-elect “appreciates the breadth and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anysphere acquires Supermaven to beef up Cursor
Anysphere, the company behind Cursor, has acquired AI coding assistant Supermaven for an undisclosed sum. Anysphere CEO Michael Truell announced the deal in a post on Cursor’s blog. Supermaven, he said, will enable Anysphere to launch a new version of its Tab AI model that’s “fast, context-aware, and highly intelligent,” especially at sequences of long code. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What is Bluesky? Everything to know about the X competitor.
Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is most certainly bluer. It’s been two years since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now X, leading people to set up shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (two of which have already shuttered operations) and Spill have been presented as potential […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky is seeing an exodus of unhappy X users following the election
X, formerly Twitter, is no longer the “digital town square” it once promised to be. Following the results of the U.S. presidential election, floods of users unhappy with the app’s latest direction are moving over to a competing app, Bluesky. Bluesky’s decentralized social media platform has steadily grown from 9+ million users as of September […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Chrome on iOS now lets you search using images and text at the same time
Google is rolling out a few new features for Chrome on iOS, the company announced on Tuesday. Most notably, Google Chrome on iOS now lets you search using images and text at the same time. While you could already do this using the Google Lens iOS app, you can now do so directly within the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FTC alleges neobank Dave misled customers
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at neobank Dave’s “misleading marketing” according to a new FTC complaint, Affirm’s launch in the U.K. amid regulatory overhaul, and how Equal aims to combat India’s growing cyberfraud problem. The big story The FTC comes after Dave for “misleading marketing” The FTC is taking action against online […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sam Bankman-Fried is coming back
Well, to the big screen, at least. Variety reports that Lena Dunham is working with Apple and production studio A24 to adapt Michael Lewis’ book “Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon,” which chronicles the life of Sam Bankman-Fried and the implosion of his company, FTX. She is set to write the script, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sam Bankman-Fried is coming to the big screen
Variety reports that Lena Dunham is working with Apple and production studio A24 to adapt Michael Lewis’ book “Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon,” which chronicles the life of Sam Bankman-Fried and the implosion of his company, FTX. She is set to write the script, the outlet said. FTX, once one of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple reportedly shipping a security camera in 2026
Apple is set to expand its smart home presence, according to Ming-Chi Kuo. The well-sourced analyst reported on Tuesday that the iPhone maker is working on an IP (internet protocol) camera with an expected 2026 shipping date. The analyst notes that Chinese component maker, Goertek, is set to assemble the product, which Apple expects to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Firefly Aerospace readies for a big year in orbit with $175M D round
Firefly Aerospace has raised a massive late-stage funding round ahead as it prepares for the launch of its lunar lander later this year and the first mission of its Elytra spacecraft next year. The $175 million Series D, which set Firefly’s valuation at over $2 billion, apparently closed in less than two months in a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here’s how to create a custom emoji with the Apple Intelligence feature ‘Genmoji’
Apple’s latest iOS 18.1 software updates introduced a series of Apple Intelligence features, including Writing Tools and notification summaries. However, some features were missing from the lineup, like Genmoji, which allows users to create emojis from written prompts. Now, with iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 public betas officially available, the highly anticipated […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zoox rolls outs custom robotaxi in San Francisco, Las Vegas
Zoox is testing its custom robotaxis, which are built without a steering wheel or pedals, on public roads in San Francisco and the Las Vegas Strip. The rollout of the autonomous vehicles, which Zoox CTO Jesse Levinson first announced at TechCrunch Disrupt, is a public show of force from the Amazon-backed company. Federal regulations prohibit […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Dapr graduates to become a CNCF top-level project
Dapr, the Microsoft-incubated open source runtime for helping developers build secure and resilient distributed applications, has graduated from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation’s (CNCF) pool of incubating projects to become a top-level project at the same level of projects like Kubernetes, Prometheus, Istio, and Vitess. To graduate to this level, a project has to be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snowflake hackers identified and charged with stealing 50 billion AT&T records
The U.S. Department of justice indicted two hackers for breaking into the systems of AT&T and several other companies. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Altos Ventures, an early backer of Coupang and Roblox, raises $500M fund
Altos Ventures, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has backed the likes of Roblox, Coupang, PandaDoc and Quizlet, has secured $500 million for its latest fund, according to SEC filings. The firm has been around for almost three decades and this is its largest fund to date. Altos Ventures declined to comment on the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Now anyone in LA can hail a Waymo robotaxi
Waymo has opened its robotaxi service to everyone in Los Angeles, sunsetting a waitlist that had grown to 300,000 people. The Alphabet-backed company said starting Tuesday anyone can download the Waymo One app to hail a ride in its service area, which is now about 80-square miles in Los Angeles County. Waymo has had a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Particle launches an AI news app to help publishers, instead of just stealing their work
The media industry today may not have a very favorable view of AI — a technology that’s already been used to replace reporters with AI-written copy, while other AI companies have scooped up journalists’ work to feed their chatbots’ data demands, but without returning traffic to the publisher as search engines once did. However, one […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok launches integration with Lemon8, as US ban looms
Users will be able to directly access Lemon8, ByteDance’s newer social media app, with their TikTok account, the company announced Tuesday. ByteDance says the integration will make photo-sharing more feasible, and give creators the ability to cross-share photo content between the apps. Lemon8 will remain a separate app, but the two platforms will share a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
French newspapers want social media platform X to pay for news reuse
It’s rare when French newspapers team up and agree on something. But major publications, such as Le Monde, Le Figaro and Le Parisien have collectively decided to take legal action against X over neighboring rights, according to a statement sent to Reuters and the AFP. Under EU law, digital platforms are required to negotiate with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This USB-C mouthpiece turns your phone into a musical instrument
Artinoise, the Italian startup behind re.corder — a smart device reimagining the traditional plastic recorder we all played in school — has introduced its latest product: Zefiro. The portable device, shaped like the mouthpiece of a recorder, can be plugged into any smartphone, tablet, or PC with a USB-C port, effectively transforming into a musical […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SUSE launches a cloud observability service
Luxembourg-based SUSE has long offered various services around its various Linux- and cloud-centric infrastructure and security tools.Yet what the company didn’t really offer before was a more traditional SaaS product.That’s changing now with the early access launch of SUSE Cloud Observability, a fully managed observability platform designed for Rancher-managed multi-cloud Kubernetes clusters.
Bounce bags $19M to expand its traveler convenience network
Luggage storage as a vector for piling into convenience-based revenue opportunities in the business of global travel continues to put a spring in San Francisco-based Bounce‘s step. The startup has just tucked $19 million in Series B funding into its suitcase, with a plan to keep rolling revenue that’s grown 20x since its $12M Series […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LocalStack raises $25M to help developers emulate and test cloud apps locally
Knowing how your cloud application will behave in production usually requires significant development and testing in the environment in which it will be deployed, be that AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or wherever. But this can be a resource-intensive endeavor, particularly with issues relating to latency (the time it takes to constantly send data) and the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Europe’s DMA forces Meta towards ‘less personalized ads’
Meta, under legal pressure in the European Union over a binary ‘pay us or consent to ad tracking’ choice it currently offers regional users of its social networks Facebook and Instagram, is changing how its regional ad business works again. Little wonder when compliance failure in this context risks fines of up to 10% of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
NitroVolt is helping farmers make their own fertilizer using renewable power
The majority of the world’s ammonia is produced using the 115-year-old Haber-Bosch process, which is heavily reliant on natural gas. NitroVolt could change that. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Generative AI startup Writer raises $200M at a $1.9B valuation
Writer has raised $200 million at a $1.9 billion valuation to expand its generative AI platform. The round was co-led by Premji Invest, Radical Ventures, and ICONIQ Growth, with participation from investors including Salesforce Ventures, Adobe Ventures, B Capital, Citi Ventures, IBM Ventures, and Workday Ventures. Writer CEO May Habib says that the new cash, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ScaleOps aims to take the frustration out of cloud management
ScaleOps, an automated cloud management platform, has closed a $58 million Series B, bringing its total raised to $80 million. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
General Catalyst and Khosla Ventures back data mapping startup Lume
Data integration is a necessary part of many workflows from onboarding customer data to exercising payroll, but for many data sets the process is long and manual. Data is siloed into databases and SaaS applications that each keep the information in different formats, which makes it difficult to move information from one database to another. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon attempts to lure AI researchers with $110M in grants and credits
There’s an AI chip battle brewing among the major cloud vendors. Google’s Trillium, a custom chip for training and running AI models, recently entered preview, and Microsoft’s Maia is expected to follow in short order. Not to be outdone, Amazon Web Services has AI chips, too: Trainium, Inferentia, and Graviton. In an effort to draw […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How two brothers went from growing up on a sailboat to making underwater military vehicles
Vatn Systems founders Nelson and Freddie Mills spent their childhood cruising over turquoise waters, doing their homework on a sailboat off the coast of Caribbean islands. While their surroundings were idyllic, their vessel of choice was decidedly not. “The first boat I remember, I think our parents bought it for like five, ten grand,” Freddie […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple’s geoblocks on media services in EU draw consumer protection ire
Apple’s pile of regulatory woes in the European Union has ticked up again: the iPhone maker is being accused of unlawfully discriminating against consumers by applying restrictions on how several of its media services can be accessed around the bloc. Consumer protection authorities in three EU Member States have been investigating the geoblocking measures (access […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Red Hat acquires AI optimization startup Neural Magic
Red Hat, the IBM-owned open source software firm, is acquiring Neural Magic, a startup that optimizes AI algorithms to run on commodity processors. The transaction is subject to applicable regulatory reviews and other customary closing conditions. The terms weren’t disclosed. MIT research scientist Alex Matveev and professor Nir Shavit founded Somerville, Massachusetts-based Neural Magic in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
PointFive snaps up $20M for breakthrough tech to track usage across multiple clouds
Enterprise spend on cloud services continues to go up, up, up — to the tune of $675 billion this year — thanks to organizations’ firm embrace of software-as-a-service, the popularity of distributed working, and the arrival of compute-intensive tech like AI. A startup called PointFive that believes it has found a better way to get […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Conduktor looks to gatekeep ‘bad data’ out of company’s apps
It was 2020, and Nicolas Orban, Stéphane Derosiaux and Stéphane Maarek were beyond frustrated with Apache Kafka. The tool for handling real-time data streams simply couldn’t keep up with the trio’s engineering needs — particularly during the pandemic, when companies were rushing to embrace cloud services. “Many companies were finding it difficult to scale their […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Signal gets new video call features, making it a viable alternative to Zoom, Meet and Teams
Privacy-focused messaging app Signal is adding new features for video calls, including links, reactions and a calls tab, in a bid to pose as an alternative to Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. The highlight of the update is a new “Calls” tab, which lets you make new calls, manage call links, and check your […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Germany’s Klim raises $22M to take its regenerative farming platform international
So-called “regenerative” farming, which is said to be less harmful to soils and biodiversity than conventional farming, offers an opportunity to reduce carbon emissions and alleviate the climate crisis. It also maintain the yields we have from modern farm methods. Global food production generates at least a quarter of climate-heating greenhouse gas emissions, and more than 80% […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fleek, a marketplace for wholesale second-hand clothes, sews up $20M
Fleek, an online marketplace that connects second-hand clothing wholesalers with those who sell it at retail, has raised a $20.4 million Series A. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SoftBank Vision Fund co-CEO Misra to exit
Rajeev Misra is to step down from his leadership roles at SoftBank’s flagship technology investment vehicles, marking the final departure of one of the Japanese group’s most prominent dealmakers. The company announced on Tuesday that Misra, who helped steer the $100 billion Vision Fund through both its meteoric rise and subsequent challenges, will relinquish his […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Quantune joins quest for the holy grail of non-invasive glucose monitoring
Berlin-based Quantune is trying to shrink laser spectrometers so that you can wear one on your wrist, and it just raised $9M to do it. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Agicap secures $48 million for its cash flow management platform
On average, Agicap’s clients manage 15 different bank accounts each. So the chief financial officers (CFOs) working for these companies sometimes struggle to make sure that there will be enough money in the right bank account to pay employees and suppliers across different subsidiaries, countries and currencies. That’s also why they turn to Agicap to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ecosia and Qwant, two European search engines, join forces on building an index to shrink reliance on Big Tech
Qwant, France’s privacy-focused search engine, and Ecosia, a Berlin-based not-for-profit search engine that uses ad revenue to fund tree planting and other climate-focused initiatives, are joining forces on a joint venture to develop their own European search index. The pair hopes this move will help drive innovation in their respective search engines — including and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As demand for lithium explodes, battery recycling startup Tozero sprints to scale with $11.7M seed
Tozero, a Munich-based startup that recovers valuable raw materials from recycled lithium-ion batteries, is gearing up to scale. The startup just closed an oversubscribed €11 million seed round (around $11.7M) to step up production by building its first industrial deployment (A.K.A first-of-a-kind or FOAK) plant. Currently, Tozero’s pilot plant processes nine tonnes of lithium-ion battery […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SmartBank secures $26M for its personal finance management app
The majority of the aging population in Japan still prefers using cash for transactions, according to a recent report citing government data. In 2023, cashless transactions in Japan totaled 126.7 trillion yen ($885 billion), accounting for 39.3 percent of all spending in the country, said the Japanese government. The government hopes that number reaches 40 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Indonesian VC firm Intudo raises $125M across two funds
Intudo, the Indonesia-only venture capital firm, said it has raised $125 million across two investment funds — $75 million for Intudo Ventures IV, and $50 million for another fund that will invest in downstream natural resources and renewable energy. Intudo said Fund IV will invest in Indonesian startups that take advantage of the country’s location, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lightspeed doubles down on Wheelocity as it pivots to rural India commerce
Lightspeed has led Wheelocity's $15 million round as the startup pivots to rural India commerce. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple updates Find My to let you share locations of lost items
Apple could soon let users share the location of lost items via the Find My app with people who are not in their contacts using a link. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon confirms employee data stolen after hacker claims MOVEit breach
Amazon has confirmed that employee data was compromised after a “security event” at a third-party vendor. In a statement given to TechCrunch on Monday, Amazon spokesperson Adam Montgomery confirmed that employee information had been involved in a data breach. “Amazon and AWS systems remain secure, and we have not experienced a security event. We were […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX alums find traction on Earth with their Mars-inspired CO2-to-fuel tech
Though General Galactic is focused on producing methane, the company isn’t necessarily looking to displace the fuel from heating and energy. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX alums find traction on Earth with their Mars-inspired methane-to-CO2 tech
Though General Galactic is focused on producing methane, the company isn’t necessarily looking to displace the fuel from heating and energy. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Intuitive Machines CEO: ‘We now have the platform for a lunar economy’
Steve Altemus is optimistic. And as CEO of Intuitive Machines, which made history with the first ever successful moon landing performed by a private company, he has good reason. But that was just the opening act of his company’s plans to build “a full stack: all the pieces you need to create missions to the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gift Guide 2024: The best gadgets for new home owners
In August, I did something I never imagined myself doing: I bought a house. After spending most of my adult life in New York City, I moved a couple of hours north to the Hudson Valley. It’s been every bit as major an adjustment as I’d expected. Along with your standard new homeowner surprises — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta taps US, UK universities to test VR in education, creates digital twin ‘metaversities’ in Europe
As part of an ongoing effort to embed virtual reality (VR) in education, Meta has launched a new partnership with a slew of universities in the U.S. and U.K., designed to provide feedback on a new product that Meta hopes will finally make VR just a little more mainstream. The new Meta for Education beta […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
From self-driving cars to AI that writes enterprise software: Cogna founder raises $15M
A founder who was an early mover in the race to build autonomous vehicles has raised $15 million for his next act: a startup that claims its AI can write enterprise software on its own. Cogna — as the U.K.-based startup is called — is led by Ben Peters, the technical co-founder of FiveAI (the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Swiggy’s public debut will test India’s appetite for $1B+ IPOs
Swiggy’s upcoming IPO on Wednesday will finally give many analysts a public comparable for what has been long considered to be the Indian internet stock: Zomato. It will also test the nation’s appetite for IPOs that can scale past the $1 billion mark. For its IPO, Swiggy has already secured $1.4 billion from institutional investors […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Brazilian fintech Tako emerges from stealth with sizable seed round led by a16z and Ribbit Capital
Running payroll is hard in any country, but perhaps especially so in Brazil thanks to consistently changing laws and extremely influential unions that make it significantly harder to get it right. Fernando Gadotti struggled with this as the co-founder and CEO of DogHero, LatAm’s version of Rover. When Gadotti left the company in 2022, after […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X is testing a free version of AI chatbot Grok
Social network X has so far limited its AI chatbot Grok (built by Elon Musk’s other company xAI) to its premium, paying users. However, the platform is seemingly preparing to open up the chatbot to free users. Over the weekend, several app researchers and users posted about a free version of Grok being made available […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s X is moving its legal disputes to Northern Texas
Lawsuits against X (formerly Twitter) will soon be heard in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The shift was first announced last month as part of a broader set of changes to X’s terms of service and privacy policy. Now, with the changes set to take effect on November 15, The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
It’s the Senate’s last chance to pass the PRESS Act
The PRESS Act would protect a journalist's sources, and gained unanimous bipartisan support when passed by the House in January. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TSMC reportedly halts advanced chip shipments to Chinese companies
After a chip manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company was found inside a Huawei processor, the US Department of Commerce has ordered the company to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, according to a report in Reuters. Huawei faces significant trade restrictions from the US, so the pause on shipments is supposed to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Equal has a plan to fight India’s growing cyber fraud problem
Equal, an Indian startup founded by Keshav Reddy, has raised $10M in its maiden funding round led by Prosus Ventures to scale identity verification and financial data sharing. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Encore is an AI-powered search engine for your thrifting needs
Former Apple engineer Alex Ruber and former Twitter and Asana engineer Parth Chopra first met on Y Combinator’s founder match platform, then met in person at a thrift store for shopping. They later went on a thrift store shopping trip where they talked about solving problems with finding the right product in the online space. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
a16z VC Martin Casado explains why so many AI regulations are so wrong
Attempts to regulate AI to date have focused on some mythical future instead of understanding what new risks AI actually introduces, argues VC Martin Casado. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These are the top apps Gen Z young adults downloaded this year
It’s clear that Gen Z has an influence on app consumption. Known as the “mobile-first generation,” they make up about 40% of all mobile users worldwide. Curious about their preferences, we recently contacted the app intelligence firm Appfigures, which provided an overview of the 50 most downloaded apps by Gen Z this year. However, due […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Open source projects draw equity-free funding from corporates, startups, and even VCs
A dearth of funding for vital open source technologies is leading to a swath of support from startups, unicorns, corporations, and even venture capital firms. Last year, Bloomberg launched its FOSS (free and open source software) fund, committing up to $90,000 per year to various projects. And in October, Indian financial services company Zerodha launched […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FTX bankruptcy estate sues Anthony Scaramucci, FWD.us, others
Bankrupt cryptocurrency company FTX filed 23 lawsuits Friday against Anthony Scaramucci (pictured above), his hedge fund SkyBridge Capital, and other organizations including Crypto.com and the Mark Zuckerberg-backed lobbying group Fwd.us. These lawsuits are an attempt to claw back money for FTX’s creditors following the company’s collapse. FTX claims that the money targeted in these suits […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI reportedly developing new strategies to deal with AI improvement slowdown
OpenAI’s next flagship model might not represent as big a leap forward as its predecessors, according to a new report in The Information. Employees who tested the new model, code-named Orion, reportedly found that even though its performance exceeds OpenAI’s existing models, there was less improvement than they’d seen in the jump from GPT-3 to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mozilla lays off 30% of its nonprofit arm
Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re unpacking the latest layoffs at Mozilla, Perplexity offering to cross a picket line, and Apple warning investors that it might never top the iPhone. Let’s get into it. The Mozilla Foundation laid off 30% of its employees in the second round of layoffs for the Firefox […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
iPhones might be harder for police to unlock, thanks to new reboot feature
New code introduced in the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system could make it more difficult for both police and thieves to unlock iPhones. 404 Media reported Thursday that law enforcement officials were warning each other that phones being stored for forensic examination seemed to be rebooting themselves — something that security experts confirmed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Standing desks don’t do squat, per new study
Over the years, numerous startups have gained traction by designing, making and selling standing desks as part of a workspace innovation trend to promote better health, and a lot of executives swear by them, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, who once called sitting “the new cancer.” But per the Washington Post, a new study of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As Firefox turns 20, Mozilla ponders how to restore it to its former glory
Exactly 20 years ago, Mozilla started shipping version 1.0 of its Firefox browser. At the time, you could download it or buy a CD-ROM with a guidebook from Mozilla (or maybe get it on one of those free CDs that would come with many magazines at the time). Born out of the ashes of Netscape, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Boox Palma 2: A great little e-reader with bigger ambitions
The Palma is a strange product. It’s a small e-reader with far bigger gadget ambitions. On its site, Boox describes the product as a “distraction-free device that lets you reclaim your focus in the exact middle between tech and life.” In a lot of ways, the company’s ambitions appear to mirror those of Light Phone’s by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These 60 robotics companies are hiring
From the looks of things, companies in the category — including Agility Robotics and Formlogic — can’t hire quickly enough. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Productivity hacks are overrated, says a16z VC who sold his own startup for $1.25B
What’s the secret to success? It isn’t any of the trends that so many founders in Silicon Valley subscribe to, a16z's Martin Casado says. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VCs on how to ‘survive and thrive’ after a down round
Founders hope that their startups continually raise larger funding rounds at escalating valuations. But unexpected challenges, such as a global health crisis or a sudden surge in interest rates, can have a significant impact on a company’s ability to maintain its valuations. Some of these startups may have to resort to down rounds, which are […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Murder trial for tech exec Bob Lee enters next phase
Roughly 19 months after the fatal stabbing of tech exec Bob Lee in San Francisco attracted the nation’s attention, the trial of the man accused of killing him, tech entrepreneur and consultant Nima Momeni, will soon enter its next phrase. It should be riveting, if the prosecution’s newly wrapped case against Momeni is any indication. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI loses another lead safety researcher, Lilian Weng
Another one of OpenAI’s lead safety researchers, Lilian Weng, announced on Friday she is departing the startup. Weng served as VP of research and safety since August, and before that, was the head of the OpenAI’s safety systems team. In a post on X, Weng said that “after 7 years at OpenAI, I feel ready […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Upwind, an Israeli cloud cybersecurity startup, is raising $100M at a $850-900M valuation, say sources
Cybersecurity continues to command a lot of attention from enterprises looking for better protection from malicious hackers, and VCs want in on the action. In the latest example, TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that Upwind — a specialist in assessing and securing cloud infrastructure — is closing in on a $100 million round at a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT told 2M people to get their election news elsewhere — and rejected 250K deepfakes
Now that the election is over, the dissection can begin. As this is the first election in which AI chatbots played a significant part of voters’ information diets, even approximate numbers are interesting to think about. For instance, OpenAI has stated that it told around 2 million users of ChatGPT to go look somewhere else. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Benchmark, Index, others are in a wild unsolicited bidding war over Anysphere, maker of Cursor
There isn’t a shortage of AI-powered coding assistance startups. They include Augment, Codeium, Magic, and Poolside. However, Cursor has become one of the most popular. Its developer, Anysphere, has seen its revenue grow from $4 million annualized recurring revenue (ARR) in April to $4 million a month as of last month, according to a person […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Whatever you want Ben’: Inside Ben Horowitz’s cozy relationship with the Las Vegas Police Department
When Skydio, a young maker of drones in San Mateo, Ca., sent a customer proposal in 2023 to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, its chief of staff, Mike Gennaro, forwarded the email to VC Ben Horowitz. “Which deployment are you looking to do?” Horowitz wrote back. “Whatever you want Ben,” Gennaro replied, according to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What does Trump’s election mean for the TikTok ban?
As TikTok stares down an impending federal ban, Donald Trump’s win in the presidential election could be a lifeline. It’s a plot twist for the embattled, Chinese-owned social media company. During Trump’s last presidency, the president-elect had been the one to initiate the calls to ban TikTok, which only petered out because he didn’t win […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Monarch Tractor lays off 10% in restructuring towards software and licensing AV tech
Monarch Tractor has laid off around 10% of its workforce as part of a restructuring that will see it prioritize non-agricultural customers, license its autonomous technology, and boost sales of its AI-powered farm management software, TechCrunch has learned. Around 35 employees were cut this week by the Livermore, California-based autonomous electric tractor startup that has […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Startup land wasn’t as quiet this week as you might’ve expected
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here! This week probably wasn’t the best one to make any type of big announcement. But when it comes to startups, there are quite a few contrarians, leaving us […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Supersonic aircraft startup Exosonic is shutting down
Exosonic, a startup developing supersonic commercial air travel and UAV tech, is winding down after five years of operation. In an update posted to its website, Exosonic said it was unable to find the traction necessary to continue operations. “Although the founders and team still believe in the need/desire for quiet supersonic flight and supersonic […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trump included Elon Musk on call with Zelenskyy
President-elect Donald Trump looped in Elon Musk on his phone call with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, according to Axios. As one of Trump’s top campaign donors, Musk has forged a strong alliance with the incoming president. The Tesla CEO has been rumored as a candidate for a position in Trump’s cabinet, and his […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla is part of the trillion-dollar club again
Tesla shares have popped since the U.S. election as investors bet that a Trump presidency will benefit the automaker led by ally Elon Musk. Tesla’s shares have rallied nearly 30% since Tuesday, including an increase Friday morning that pushed the company’s market cap past the $1 trillion mark. The share spike is largely related to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Beatles’ AI-assisted track ‘Now and Then’ is nominated for two Grammy awards
The Beatles have been nominated for two Grammy awards this year, and no, we did not accidentally fall into a time warp back to the 1960s. The Beatles song “Now and Then,” refined with the use of AI and released last year, is up for Record of the Year and Best Rock Performance. So, the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UnifyApp’s AI-powered app integration platform grabs $20M from ICONIQ Growth
These days, it seems like every company either wants to or is already offering an AI product or service. For startups building an AI product in this space, it’s a really good time, but they aren’t without their challenges — the tech is still early, and though many companies are interested in trying generative AI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How AI startup Conflixis is protecting hospitals from corrupt doctors
After a career as a corruption investigator, Aaron Narva had an idea for a startup in the age of LLM AI: help hospitals identify risky behavior by doctors. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FBI says hackers are sending fraudulent police data requests to tech giants to steal people’s private information
The warning is a rare admission from the FBI about the threat from fake emergency data requests submitted by hackers with access to police email accounts. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Large funds are too invested in the energy transition to turn back now
The recent U.S. election might appear bad for climate tech, but the energy transition has enough financial momentum that experts aren’t expecting investment trends to change anytime soon. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former Raya, Dispo exec has a new fund for the biggest out-of-favor tech: consumer
The idea of one day becoming a venture capitalist always loomed in the back of TJ Taylor's mind. After all, he had an extensive tech background. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Led by a founder who sold a video startup to Apple, Panjaya uses deepfake techniques to bite into video dubbing
There’s a big opportunity for generative AI in the world of translation, and a startup called Panjaya is taking the concept to the next level: a hyperrealistic, gen AI-based dubbing tool for videos that re-creates a person’s original voice speaking the new language, with the video and the speaker’s physical movements automatically modifying to match […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Block scales back TIDAL investment and shutters TBD in favor of Bitcoin mining
Jack Dorsey’s Block is scaling back its investment in TIDAL, the music streaming platform once owned by Jay-Z, according to a shareholder letter on Thursday. Block is also shutting down TBD, a Bitcoin-focused arm of the business that previously set out to build a decentralized internet, dubbed “Web5.” These cuts will free up the company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Crypto CEO kidnapped in Toronto, released after paying $1M ransom
The CEO of Canadian cryptocurrency firm, WonderFi, was kidnapped and held for ransom on Wednesday, according to CBC. Dean Skurka was reportedly shoved into a vehicle in downtown Toronto during rush hour, only to be released uninjured after electronically sending $1 million (presumably CAD) to his captors. The WonderFi CEO is the latest crypto celebrity […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon may up its investment in Anthropic — on one condition
Amazon is considering increasing its investment in OpenAI rival Anthropic. According to The Information, Amazon is in talks to invest multiple billions in Anthropic, its first financial pledge in the company since a $4 billion deal struck last year. The new investment is structured similar to the last one — but with a twist. Amazon […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI-powered parenting is here and a16z is ready to back it
AI wants to help us drive better, write better and diagnose diseases faster. Now imagine AI helping you be a better parent. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Yelp just spent $80M on a site for car repair estimates
Yelp, which made a name for itself giving restaurant recs, just bought an auto services website. In the company’s earnings report on Thursday, Yelp revealed that it agreed to buy RepairPal, a site for car repair estimates, for $80 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the year, subject […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
With this latest deal, Flipboard looks to build a news ecosystem beyond X
An effort to bring a broader news ecosystem to the open social web, also known as the fediverse, is now in the hands of the social magazine app Flipboard. Press.coop, a service that created mirrored accounts of top news publishers (including Reuters, AP, WSJ, NYT, BBC, CNN, and even yours truly), has transferred its collection […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rivian takes revenue hit as supplier problem persists
Rivian reported Thursday revenue of $874 million in the third quarter — more than 12% lower than analysts estimates — as the EV startup struggled to resolve a component shortage that disrupted production of its recently overhauled flagship R1S and R1T vehicles. Last month, Rivian lowered its annual production guidance to 47,000 to 49,000 vehicles […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Canoo’s latest loss, tales from Waymo riders, and what a Trump win means for Elon (and his companies)
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! We’re just two days past the election, and there is already a ton of speculation about what another Trump presidency will mean for transportation and tech — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained
This story has been updated throughout with more details as the story has developed. We will continue to do so as the case and dispute are ongoing. The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Roblox adds safety measures to ban kids under 13 from social spaces and other experiences
Throughout the years, several reports have accused Roblox, the popular gaming platform aimed at preteens, of lacking strict safety protocols for children, which exposes them to dangers such as grooming, explicit content, and violent or abusive material. In a significant update to its safety policy, Roblox plans to keep users under the age of 13 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok’s latest feature lets music fans ‘Share to TikTok’ from Spotify and Apple Music
TikTok on Thursday debuted a new feature that will more closely connect its app, which already influences which songs top the charts, to the streaming services where users discover and play their favorite music. With the launch of a new “Share to TikTok” feature, music fans will be able to directly share tracks from both […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mistral launches a moderation API
AI startup Mistral has launched a new API for content moderation. The API, which is the same API that powers moderation in Mistral’s Le Chat chatbot platform, can be tailored to specific applications and safety standards, Mistral says. It’s powered by a fine-tuned model (Ministral 8B) trained to classify text in a range of languages, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft Outlook now lets you create personalized AI-powered themes
Microsoft announced on Thursday that Outlook is getting a new feature that will allow you to use generative AI to create themes based on your personal preferences. AI-powered themes are available to people who have a Copilot Pro consumer subscription and business accounts with Copilot enabled. They are available on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hacker says they banned ‘thousands’ of Call of Duty gamers by abusing anti-cheat flaw
The hacker, who goes by Vizor, tells TechCrunch that they exploited a bug in the popular game's anti-cheat software for months. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple 16-inch MacBook Pro (M4 Pro) review: a powerful desktop replacement
On Monday, Bloomberg reported on Apple’s plans to fully overhaul its laptop line. That’s exactly the kind of rumor you don’t want to drop in the week between the announcement and launch of a new MacBook Pro. A deeper dive reveals that the planned revamp is coming at some point in 2026. It’s still very […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lucid Motors starts taking orders for its existential Gravity SUV
Lucid Motors has officially started taking orders for its electric Gravity SUV, a critically important vehicle that’s supposed to go into production by the end of this year. Interested buyers can now place $1,000 refundable deposits on the “Grand Touring” trim, which starts at $94,900, on the company’s website. Similar to the company’s current model, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Automattic’s new site tracks how many websites left WP Engine following feud with Matt Mullenweg
A new website called WP Engine tracker shows how many sites have moved away from hosting provider WP Engine since the company’s feud with WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweng began in September. Automattic confirmed it created this site, but didn’t provide any further details. The site’s full URL is WordPressenginetracker.com, which is ironic given Mullenweg and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
iMac (M4) review: a mini upgrade to Apple’s entry-level all-in-one
iMac is the rock of Apple’s desktop line. Over the past decade we’ve seen the iMac Pro come and go, Apple struggling to crack the Mac Pro, and largely forgetting the Mac Mini existed for more than a decade. With two years and two models under its belt, the jury is still out on the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Mac Mini (M4) review: more power in a tiny package
For years, the Mini was the odd man out in the Mac desktop lineup. Apple has given plenty of love to the iMac over the years. The Mac Pro has had a few false starts, but the company is clearly committed to offering a true professional-grade desktop experience. The Studio is the new kid on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why founders shouldn’t chase massive TAMs
Not every investor will be impressed by a founder’s massive prospective TAM, short for total addressable market. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Startup Battlefield 200: Celebrating outstanding achievements
This year, TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 showcased the incredible talent and groundbreaking ideas of our 2024 Startup Battlefield 200 cohort. Out of thousands of applications, we selected 200 of the most promising startups, each bringing unique innovations to their respective industries. The competition culminated in an electrifying event where these startups had the opportunity to pitch […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ulysses is using robots to restore seagrass populations
Seagrass punches above its weight. The marine plant only occupies 0.1% of the ocean floor but can be credited with supporting marine ecosystems of plants and fish, filtering ocean water and capturing quite a bit of carbon. Seagrass is also being destroyed, due to climate change and other factors, with meadows reducing 7% globally each […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Mac Mini (M4) review
For years, the Mini was the odd man out in the Mac desktop lineup. Apple has given plenty of love to the iMac over the years. The Mac Pro has had a few false starts, but the company is clearly committed to offering a true professional-grade desktop experience. The Studio is the new kid on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
iMac (M4) review
iMac is the rock of Apple’s desktop line. Over the past decade we’ve seen the iMac Pro come and go, Apple struggling to crack the Mac Pro, and largely forgetting the Mac Mini existed for more than a decade. With two years and two models under its belt, the jury is still out on the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple 16-inch MacBook Pro (M4 Pro) review
On Monday, Bloomberg reported on Apple’s plans to fully overhaul its laptop line. That’s exactly the kind of rumor you don’t want to drop in the week between the announcement and launch of a new MacBook Pro. A deeper dive reveals that the planned revamp is coming at some point in 2026. It’s still very […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SocialCrowd raises $2.5M seed round as interest in future of work software remains
Back in February, when TechCrunch spoke to Raphael Akinsipe, he described his company SocialCrowd as a “Fitbit but for work.” As CEO and co-founder, he explained that the product allows companies to set goals for employees and then reward them when those expectations are met. “For example, we had a restaurant incentivize their staff by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anthropic teams up with Palantir and AWS to sell its AI to defense customers
Anthropic today announced that it’s teaming up with Palantir, the data-mining company, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide U.S. intelligence and defense agencies access to Anthropic’s Claude family of AI models. The news comes as a growing number of AI vendors, for strategic and revenue-related reasons, look to ink deals with U.S. defense customers. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Canada orders shutdown of TikTok offices over security risks (but won’t block app)
With all eyes on how a new Trump administration in the U.S. will interface with China Tech in the years ahead, its neighbor to the north has levelled a blow to one of the biggest apps to come out of the country. Canada has ordered the closure of ByteDance’s operations in Canada — specifically the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Glint Solar grabs $8M to help accelerate solar energy adoption across Europe
Solar energy is booming, which is good news for Glint Solar. The Norwegian software-as-a-service startup has built a platform that’s helping energy giants and large solar developers such as E.ON, Recurrent Energy, and Statkraft cut the time it takes to plan and pre-design solar installations to accelerate the transition to renewables. Glint’s software pulls in data […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Truecaller founders step down as spam-blocker regains momentum
The co-founders of Swedish caller identification app Truecaller are stepping back from day-to-day operations, marking the end of an era for one of Sweden’s most successful consumer technology companies as it pushes towards a goal of 1 billion users. Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam, who co-founded Truecaller in 2009 and pictured above, will hand over […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Australia looks to ban social media for kids under age 16
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday announced plans in the country to ban social media for children under 16, saying that “social media is doing harm to our kids, and I’m calling time on it.” The proposed legislation will enter parliament this year, taking effect a year after lawmakers ratify it, said Albanese, adding […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Prediction markets’ set to pay out $450M to election bettors
Following Donald Trump’s election victory, thousands of bettors now anticipate a potential $450 million payout from online betting sites, says Reuters. As Trump’s odds surged on so-called prediction markets near the end of the race, platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket gained attention for diverging sharply from traditional polls, which suggested a much closer race. Talking […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX to launch Starship for the sixth time this month
SpaceX will conduct the sixth flight test of Starship, the largest rocket ever built, as soon as November 18 following the smooth success of the previous mission less than a month ago. The high flight cadence is thanks, in part, to that success, which included the first-ever return of the Super Heavy booster to the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
iRobot lays off another 105 employees
Roomba maker iRobot is laying off 105 employees — about 16% of the company’s workforce, — according a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The company says the cuts are part of an “operational restructuring plan.” Since the start of 2024, the company has reduced its global workforce by approximately 50%. The latest cuts come […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple iOS 18.2 public beta arrives with new AI features, but some remain waitlisted
Apple has released the AI-powered version of its latest mobile operating system, iOS 18.2, to its public beta users. The update includes new features like an AI emoji generator app called Genmoji, an Image Playground AI image app, ChatGPT integration with Siri, and visual search using the iPhone 16 cameras, among other things. Previously, these […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The FTC comes after neobank Dave for misleading marketing, hidden fees
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Tuesday it will be taking action against the online cash app and neobank Dave, which it says used “misleading marketing to deceive consumers.” At issue is how Dave marketed $500 cash advances to consumers that it rarely offered, and the “Express Fee” it charged if customers wanted their […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The other election night winner: Perplexity
On Tuesday, two AI startups tried convincing the world their AI chatbots were good enough to be an accurate, real-time source of information during a high-stakes Presidential election: xAI and Perplexity. Elon Musk’s Grok failed almost instantly, offering wrong answers about races’ outcomes before the polls had even closed. On the other hand, Perplexity offered […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI acquired Chat.com
OpenAI bought Chat.com, adding to its collection of high-profile domain names. As of this morning, Chat.com now redirects to OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the acquisition via email. Chat.com is one of the older domains on the web, having been registered in September 1996. Last year, it was reported that Hubspot co-founder […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What Trump’s win might mean for Elon Musk
Elon Musk — the billionaire CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, and the owner of The Boring Company, Neuralink, and X — took a sharp swing to the right this election to support President-elect Donald Trump, using his vast wealth, influence, and megaphone on X to influence the outcome of the election. Musk’s support came […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: It’s shockingly easy to make a Kamala Harris deepfake
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. It was shockingly easy to create a convincing Kamala Harris audio deepfake on Election Day. It cost me $5 and took less than two minutes, illustrating how cheap, ubiquitous generative AI has opened the floodgates to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pinstripe wants to redefine the way online sellers sell secondhand clothing
Pinstripe aims to reimagine the secondhand market by offering sellers the opportunity to have both a digital storefront and a physical retail presence. Launched in June, the platform offers an alternative approach compared with other marketplaces like Archive, Depop, Facebook Marketplace, and Poshmark. With Pinstripe, sellers take their clothes to local consignment stores, vintage shops, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What Trump’s victory could mean for AI regulation
A grueling election cycle has come to a close. Donald Trump will be the 47th president of the U.S., and, with Republicans in control of the Senate — and possibly the House — his allies are poised to bring sea change to the highest levels of government. The effects will be acutely felt in the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI coding assistants can help startups develop products, seed VCs believe
By now, there’s hardly a coder in the world who isn’t using an AI copilot in some way. But using GitHub Copilot or Cursor.AI to ask technical questions and get debugging help could be just the beginning. AI coding may one day involve agents that can write the programs themselves based on a natural language […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How Trump’s election could affect the startup-friendly Inflation Reduction Act
While Trump's administration is unlikely to be supportive of certain climate tech startups, it will have a harder time ending the broadly popular law. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What’s next for the startup-friendly Inflation Reduction Act
While Trump's administration is unlikely to be supportive of most climate tech startups, it will have a harder time ending the broadly popular law. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘For You’ feeds fail on election night, offering outdated information, angering users
“For You” algorithms that promote the most interesting content across a social network, personalized to the individual user, offered a disjointed, outdated, and nearly unusable experience on election night in the U.S. as they highlighted hours-old posts that no longer reflected the current state of the race. Frustrations were particularly high on Threads, Meta’s X […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lyft partners with May Mobility, Mobileye to bring autonomous vehicles to the app
It seems Lyft is hoping to catch up to Uber’s string of autonomous vehicle partnerships. Lyft announced Wednesday three separate partnerships — with startup May Mobility, automated driving company Mobileye and smart dashcam firm Nexar — all aimed at establishing a foothold in the emerging autonomous vehicle market. In the announcement, the ride-hailing company said […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Faber launches third VC fund with $34M first close, aims for $64M
The startup ecosystem in the Iberian Peninsula — the region encompassing Spain and Portugal — has been on a roll the last couple of years. The value of Spanish startups surpassed €100 billion in 2023, according to Dealroom data, with venture investment of €2.2 billion across some 850 rounds. Meanwhile, Portugal has produced a slew of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MoradaUno wants to make it easier to rent apartments in Mexico
Renting in Latin America is restrictive. Most landlords require three months of rent as a deposit and a guarantor that owns property in the same city to co-sign the lease. Santiago Morales, the co-founder and CEO of proptech MoradaUno, said this dynamic makes 40% of prospective renters ineligible. His company wants to get more tenants […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Corning, maker of toughened Gorilla Glass for phones, faces EU antitrust probe
On Wednesday, the European Union opened an investigation of U.S. manufacturer Corning over possible anti-competitive practices. Corning may not be a name that’s super familiar to the average tech consumer, but you are almost certainly within touching distance of its products as its a leading supplier of speciality toughened glass for mobile devices, including Apple’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple to be fined for breaching EU’s Digital Markets Act, Bloomberg reports
The European Union’s flagship market contestability regulation has been in force on a handful of tech giants for months. Since March, the bloc has had open investigations on several gatekeepers. But it’s Apple that will face the first Digital Markets Act (DMA) fine, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the case. Apple’s App Store rules […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple may update Find My app to let you share locations of lost items
Apple could soon let users share the location of lost items via the Find My app with people who are not in their contacts using a link. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
It’s Election Day, and all the AIs — but one — are acting responsibly
TechCrunch found that X's AI chatbot produced incorrect results about the U.S. presidential election, even as votes were still being cast. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Research Grid raises $6.4M to automate clincal trial admin
Amber Hill spent 14 years as a medical researcher. She didn’t mind the work, but there was one thing she consistently hated: administrative tasks. “I think most people do, especially in research,” she told TechCrunch. She would rather be analyzing data or building relationships with patients, she said. “But I was spending so much time […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple warns investors its new products might never be as profitable as the iPhone
Apple is warning investors that its new and future products might never be as profitable as the iPhone. The disclosure comes as the company is pursuing newer technologies like artificial intelligence and mixed reality headsets. Apple added the warning in its latest annual report under the “business risks” section, as first reported by the Financial […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia just became the world’s largest company amid AI boom
Nvidia on Tuesday exceeded Apple’s market capitalization to become the world’s largest company, on the strength of a global AI push. As Bloomberg notes, the chipmaker has experienced an astronomical 850% growth since the tail end of 2022. Nvidia was valued at $3.43 trillion at the close of market, topping Apple’s $3.38 trillion. This isn’t […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Canoo’s CFO and top lawyer are the latest executives to leave
EV startup Canoo has lost its chief financial officer and its head lawyer, the latest in a string of executive departures as the company continues to struggle to find mass adoption of its electric work vans. CFO Greg Ethridge and general counsel Hector Ruiz both resigned from Canoo on October 31, the company announced Tuesday […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X reinstates SwapYourVote’s account after suspending it as spam
In the final days leading up to the U.S. presidential election, Elon Musk’s X suspended the official account of a progressive-donor-backed ballot initiative called SwapYourVote. The volunteer-run website tries to get third-party voters in swing states to cast their ballots for Kamala Harris, matching them with Democrats in solidly blue states who agree to vote […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google ‘fixes’ issues with voting search results that weren’t actually broken
Google says it has addressed an issue with its search engine that saw it displaying a “where to vote” panel, which includes a map of polling places, for some specific voting-related searches but not for others. The tech giant even used the word “fixed” to respond to the matter, despite the fact that Google Search […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The TechCrunch Cyber Glossary
This glossary includes some of the most common terms and expressions we use in our articles, and explanations of how — and why — we use them. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As generative AI gets better, what will happen to artists?
Suno CEO Mikey Shulman found himself in an unlikely place for the founder of a generative AI music company: a songwriting class at Berklee College of Music. “It sounds like walking into the lion’s den,” Shulman said onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “The approach of just walking in there and saying, ‘don’t worry, there’s no […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mozilla Foundation lays off 30% staff, drops advocacy division
This is the second layoff at Mozilla this year, the first affecting dozens of staff on the side of the organization that builds the popular Firefox browser. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google is opening an AI hub in oil-rich Saudi Arabia
The new AI hub will support research into Arab language AI models and “Saudi-specific AI applications.” © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nodal connects hopeful parents with surrogates as reproductive freedom hangs in limbo
Many people who want to have children can’t, or shouldn’t, carry a pregnancy for a variety of reasons. Gestational surrogacy can be a great option for those individuals — if they can endure the lengthy wait times and afford to pay for the costly service. New York-based Nodal looks to make the process less expensive, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Substack is giving out free subscriptions to boost app installs
Publishing platform Substack is now pushing users to install its mobile app by offering gifted subscriptions. While Substack itself is available across platforms, including the web, those who want to take advantage of the free subscription offer can only do so after downloading the mobile app to their device. The free subscription offer is being […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Waymo’s latest funding round boosts it to a $45B valuation
Waymo recently closed a $5.6 billion Series C funding round led by parent company Alphabet and joined by a who’s who of Silicon Valley venture firms. The investment boosts Waymo’s overall valuation to more than $45 billion, according to Bloomberg News. Alphabet had previously announced in July that it was pledging another $5 billion to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rivian’s software boss is ‘super excited’ about third-party apps
Rivian’s chief software officer Wassym Bensaid opened up at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 last week about his thoughts on physical buttons (“an anomaly“) and how his company will help power VW offshoot Scout’s EVs. But there’s one other item on his to-do list that he’s “super excited” about: making Rivian’s vehicles work with third-party app developers. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Symbiotic Security helps developers find bugs as they code
Symbiotic Security, which is announcing a $3 million seed round today, watches over developers as they code and points out potential security issues in real time. Other companies do this, but Symbiotic also emphasizes the next step: teaching developers to avoid these bugs in the first place. Ideally, this means developers will fix security bugs […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple’s new widget puts Election Day updates on your Lock Screen and Home Screen
It’s Election Day in the U.S., which means you’re likely glued to the latest news about which presidential candidate is currently in the lead. To help with this, Apple has released a Live Activities widget within its Apple News app that will offer real-time election updates directly on your iPhone or iPad’s Home Screen and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Oil giant BP is killing 18 hydrogen projects, chilling the nascent industry
The hydrogen industry, which has relied on oil and gas companies both financially and through lobbying efforts, is preparing for a grim outcome. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s false and misleading election claims have been viewed 2 billion times on X
The world’s richest man buys out one of the most popular social media platforms and uses it as a propaganda and disinformation machine in support of a presidential candidate. What could go wrong? An analysis from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit that tracks misinformation, found that Elon Musk posted at least […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Swiggy IPO nets $606 million from institutional investors
Swiggy has raised around $606 million from anchor investors as part of its $1.35 billion initial public offering, as the Indian food delivery and quick commerce startup prepares for the country’s second-largest listing of the year next week. The Bengaluru-based startup, which is seeking an $11.3 billion valuation in the IPO, received bids worth $15 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta extends political ad ban past Election Day
Meta announced Tuesday that it is extending its restriction on political ads until later in the week, though it did not specify which day the ban would be lifted. When asked for more information, a Meta spokesperson pointed TechCrunch to the announcement about the company working to “protect the integrity of elections on Facebook and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google Cloud to make multi-factor authentication mandatory in 2025
The move to enable the MFA security feature comes hot on the heels of major data breaches at cloud giants, like Snowflake. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How a box on a roof helped Transaera to land $8.2 million in funding
The company has been toiling for seven years, developing a novel air conditioning technology and searching for a beachhead market. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Canadian authorities say they arrested hacker linked to Snowflake data breaches
Alexander Moucka was arrested in October in Canada. Moucka is suspected of being linked to the series of Snowflake data breaches this year. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta found to have exposed info on North Korean defectors to advertisers
Meta has added another privacy sanction to its extensive collection: South Korea’s data protection agency fined the social media giant around $15.7 million for processing sensitive user data and passing it to advertisers without a proper legal basis, Reuters reports.Seoul’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) found Facebook’s parent collected information from about 980,000 users, […]For personal use only.
Printful and Printify ink a merger deal
Two veteran European companies in the world of on-demand printing are merging, and you may have not even realised they were separate companies to begin with. Printful and Printify, both startups with Latvian roots providing custom printing services, are coming together as a single company. They are framing the move as a natural fit to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DeepRoute raises $100M in push to beat Tesla’s FSD in China
DeepRoute.ai, a Shenzhen-based autonomous driving technology startup, raised $100 million from Great Wall Motor. The startup aims to get its automated driving systems into as many vehicles in China before Tesla takes off next year, according to a Reuters report. DeepRoute did not publicly disclose the name of its automaker backer, but reports in the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI startups will need ‘quality of revenue’ to raise in 2025, seed VCs warn
To raise VC money next year, it won't just be about sales and growth, but about the "quality" of that growth, VCs say. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Flash, founded by ex-Flipkart exec, launches in the U.S. to help shoppers juggle multiple online orders
Flash, the payment management service that tracks all your online purchases, announced Tuesday its entry into the U.S. market, giving American customers the ability to manage all of their spending in one place while also earning rewards, such as gift cards and cashback. The U.S. is home to many big spenders, making it a strategic […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Can Pictionary and Minecraft test AI models’ ingenuity?
Most AI benchmarks don’t tell us much. They ask questions that can be solved with rote memorization, or cover topics that aren’t relevant to the majority of users. So some AI enthusiasts are turning to games as a way to test AIs’ problem-solving skills. Paul Calcraft, a freelance AI developer, has built an app where […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI safety advocates tell founders to slow down
“Move cautiously and red-team things” is sadly not as catchy as “move fast and break things.” But three AI safety advocates made it clear to startup founders that going too fast can lead to ethical issues in the long run. “We are at an inflection point where there are tons of resources being moved into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon begins delivering certain products via drone in Phoenix
A few months after ending its drone-based delivery program, Prime Air, in California, Amazon says that it’s begun making deliveries to select customers via drone in Phoenix, Arizona. Starting today, Amazon customers in the West Valley Phoenix Metro Area have access to a drone-deliverable selection from Amazon’s catalog, including household, beauty, office, health, and tech […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India issues notice to Wikipedia over concerns of bias
Wikipedia is facing mounting regulatory pressure in India as local authorities question whether the platform should continue to enjoy legal protections as a neutral intermediary rather than being classified as a publisher. The Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued a notice to Wikipedia on Tuesday questioning the encyclopedia’s intermediary status that’s offered to tech […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Alan unveils AI health assistant for its 680,000 health insurance members
French tech startup Alan held a press conference this morning to announce three product updates. While it is better known as a health insurance company, the startup has always been trying to offer more than insurance coverage. It wants to build a super app for all things related to healthcare. For instance, Alan lets you […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Coatue is raising $1B for AI bets
Coatue Management, a hedge fund that invested heavily in tech startups during the pandemic-infused boom, is raising $1 billion to back AI-focused companies, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The funding, which will top up the firm’s flagship fund, will be raised primarily from institutional investors. However, high-net-worth individuals with accounts at the brokerage Raymond James and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta’s former hardware lead for Orion is joining OpenAI
Meta’s former head of augmented reality glasses announced on Monday she is joining OpenAI to lead robotics and consumer hardware, according to a post on LinkedIn. OpenAI confirmed to TechCrunch that Caitlin Kalinowski will be joining the startup. Kalinowski is a hardware executive who led the development Meta’s augmented reality hardware team since 2022. She […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Datadog challenger Dash0 aims to dash observability bill shock
The end of zero-interest rates has driven companies to look for savings wherever they can, but one area continues to be a major budget drain. Observability — collecting and understanding data and systems — typically remains an organization’s second-highest cloud expenditure, right after cloud provisioning itself. People have even gone so far as to talk […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bowery Farming is ceasing operations
Agtech unicorn Bowery Farming is shutting down, according to PitchBook, which cited internal documents and multiple company employees. The New York-based agtech company was known for building vertical farms that could produce crops including: lettuces, herbs and berries. The company has raised more than $700 million in funding, according to PitchBook data, from VCs including […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple users can soon upgrade to ChatGPT Plus within the Settings app
Apple products are getting an integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT in December when iOS 18.2 rolls out, which should supercharge Siri and a few other features with smarter AI. On Wednesday, iOS 18.2 beta testers got a taste of how OpenAI could profit off of its Apple partnership. Apple is including an option to upgrade to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity CEO offers AI company’s services to replace striking NYT staff
The CEO of AI search company Perplexity, Aravind Srinivas, has offered to cross picket lines and provide services to mitigate the effect of a strike by New York Times tech workers. The NYT Tech Guild announced its strike Monday, after setting November 4 as its deadline months earlier. The workers represented provide software support and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky gears up for Election Day as X goes pro-Trump
As Election Day in the U.S. nears, social networking startup Bluesky, now flush with new capital, hopes to demonstrate that its platform can serve as a more trusted, fact-checked alternative to Elon Musk’s X. While the latter is dominated by Musk’s support for the Trump campaign, Bluesky tends to lean left, thanks to its influx […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon brings generative AI-powered recaps to Prime Video
Instead of scouring the internet for a summary of a TV show, which often risks unintentionally revealing major plot points, Prime Video’s latest feature aims to save viewers from encountering any spoilers. Amazon announced on Monday the launch of “X-Ray Recaps,” a generative AI-powered feature that creates concise summaries of entire seasons, single episodes, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon acknowledges screen issues on a ‘small number’ of Kindle Colorsoft units
After more than a decade of waiting, Amazon’s first color Kindle has stumbled out of the gate. An issue with the new display has left Colorsoft buyers leaving unfavorable reviews. At last count, the e-reader is hovering around 2.7 stars. The company confirmed the display issues affecting a “small number” of units in a statement […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Regulators deliver successive blows to Amazon and Meta’s nuclear power ambitions
A series of recent rulings from regulators dashed the Big Tech companies' hopes of finding a quick fix for their electricity needs. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
From Lime to Uber to Hertz: Free and discounted Election Day rides
Election Day is nearly here, and if you haven’t already mailed in your ballot or gone in for early voting, you might need a ride come November 5. Here’s a roundup of all the freebies, discounts, and information on getting to the polls that transportation companies are offering. Micromobility Lime is offering free rides to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity CEO offers to replace striking NYT staff with AI
The CEO of AI search company Perplexity, Aravind Srinivas, has offered to cross a virtual picket line and provide services during a strike by New York Times tech workers. The NYT Tech Guild announced its strike Monday, having said for months that this was the deadline. “But the company has decided that our members aren’t […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anthropic hikes the price of its Haiku model
Anthropic’s newest AI model has arrived. But it’s pricier than the last generation — and, unlike Anthropic’s other models, can’t analyze images just yet. Claude 3.5 Haiku, which Anthropic announced last month, matches or bests the performance of Claude 3 Opus, once Anthropic’s state-of-the-art model, on specific benchmarks. Available through Anthropic’s API and a number […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The brightest bling of TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
At TechCrunch Disrupt, our team sits front and center, furiously typing away at our laptops to publish real-time news from impressive speakers like NFL quarterback-turned-founder Colin Kaepernick, Perplexity AI founder Aravind Srinivas, and Ashton Kutcher. We are a well-oiled machine. Some writers have been covering Disrupt since the old days, before Meta was Meta, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anduril is considering Arizona, Ohio, or Texas for its massive manufacturing facility, source says
Anduril, the defense tech company co-founded by Palmer Luckey, is considering building its first major manufacturing plant, a 5-million-square-foot facility known as “Arsenal-1,” in Arizona, Ohio or Texas, according to someone familiar with the matter. The company, which is developing autonomous drones, planes, and submarines, had announced $1.5 billion at a $14 billion post-money valuation […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta says it’s making its Llama models available for US national security applications
To combat the perception that its “open” AI is aiding foreign adversaries, Meta today said that it’s making its Llama series of AI models available to U.S. government agencies and contractors in national security. “We are pleased to confirm that we’re making Llama available to U.S. government agencies, including those that are working on defense […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DeepRoute raises $100M in push to beat Tesla’s FSD in China
DeepRoute.ai, a Shenzhen-based autonomous driving technology startup, raised $100 million from an unidentified Chinese automaker. The company aims to get its automated driving systems into as many vehicles in China before Tesla takes off next year, according to a Reuters report. China lifted certain restrictions on Tesla vehicles in April, clearing a path for the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Built in four days, this $120 robot arm cleans a spill with help from GPT-4o
Large language models have already proven transformative for robotics. While researchers and companies alike utilize the platforms to supercharge robotic learning, a pair of roboticists at UC Berkeley and ETH Zurich challenged themselves by leveraging generative AI to put a cheap robot arm to work. Jannik Grothusen and Kaspar Janssen trained a pair of $120 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Columbus says ransomware gang stole personal data of 500,000 Ohio residents
Columbus says hackers accessed resident's Social Security numbers and bank account details © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
No, startups shouldn’t always take the highest valuation, seed VCs say
One of the lessons that the wild Silicon Valley venture funding environment of the past few years has clearly taught is this: Bigger valuations are not always better. “I think we’ve all kind of seen the negative impact of having a valuation too high from the last, call it, three years,” Elizabeth Yin, co-founder of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT Search is not OpenAI’s ‘Google killer’ yet
OpenAI's search offers a glimpse of what an AI-search interface could one day look like. But it's too impractical as a daily driver right now. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
U.S. laws regulating AI prove elusive, but there may be hope
Can the U.S. meaningfully regulate AI? It’s not at all clear yet. Policymakers have achieved progress in recent months, but they’ve also had setbacks, illustrating the challenging nature of laws imposing guardrails on the technology. In March, Tennessee became the first state to protect voice artists from unauthorized AI cloning. This summer, Colorado adopted a tiered, risk-based […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Vanguard cuts Indian ride-share startup Ola’s valuation to $2B
Vanguard has revised its valuation of Indian ride-hailing startup Ola to about $2 billion as of the end of August. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads now has 275M monthly active users
Meta's social network, Threads, now has 275 million monthly active users, the company said on Sunday. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X updates block feature, letting blocked users see your public posts
X is rolling out its controversial update to the block feature, allowing people to view your public posts even if you have blocked them. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Affirm launches in the UK, as ‘buy now, pay later’ market faces regulatory overhaul
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) giant Affirm is launching in the U.K., its first market outside North America. Its long-anticipated arrival comes as U.K. lawmakers mull new rules to bring BNPL firms into line with other traditional consumer credit services, though such laws aren’t expected to come into effect until at least 2026 — long […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
From Lime to Uber to Hertz: Free and discounted Election Day rides
Election Day is nearly here, and if you haven’t already mailed in your ballot or gone in for early voting, you might need a ride come November 5. Here’s a roundup of all the freebies, discounts, and information on getting to the polls that transportation companies are offering. Micromobility Lime is offering free rides to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI has hired the co-founder of Twitter challenger Pebble
Gabor Cselle, the former CEO and co-founder of X challenger Pebble, has joined OpenAI to work on a secretive project. Cselle, who according to LinkedIn has been employed at OpenAI since October, announced the news in a post on X yesterday. “Will share more about what I’m working on in due time,” he wrote. “Learning […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Founders should seek sector alignment when looking for a family office investor
Family offices invest a substantial amount of capital in startups each year. In the first half of 2023, 27% of overall startup deal value came from deals that included a family office investor, according to a recent report from PwC. Despite their prevalence in startup deals, family offices can be a mysterious class of investors […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘If you actually are solving a problem, you don’t talk about any of the hype,’ investor says
The hype is palpable: As tech folks from near and far converge for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San Fransisco — one of the only places where Waymo is available to the public — there’s ample chatter about the autonomous vehicle service. “If you think about AI hype and all, everyone gets excited about what 10 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Wesley Chan on what he looks for as he’s shopping for potential unicorns
Investor Wesley Chan has shown a knack for making very early investments into multi-billion-dollar unicorns, such as Plaid, Gusto, Flexport, and, most recently, Canva. Chan comes from an unconventional background — he grew up in an immigrant family and had only middling grades in high school. But he landed a job washing test tubes in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Women in AI: Sophia Velastegui believes AI is moving too fast
As a part of TechCrunch’s ongoing Women in AI series, which seeks to give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved (and overdue) time in the spotlight, TechCrunch interviewed Sophia Velastegui.Velastegui is a member of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) national AI advisory committee and the former chief AI officer at Microsoft’s business software division.Velastegui didn’t […]
GenAI suffers from data overload, so companies should focus on smaller, specific goals
“There is no AI without data, there is no AI without unstructured data, and there is no AI without unstructured data at scale,” said Chet Kapoor, chairman and CEO of data management company DataStax. Kapoor was kicking off a conversation at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 about “new data pipelines” in the context of modern AI applications, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why Wiz really turned down Google’s $23B offer
Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re coming at you right off the heels of TechCrunch Disrupt! If you missed it, we’re highlighting conversations from Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, and Disney star turned space CEO Bridgit Mendler. Of course, we’ve got news from the rest of the tech world […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Quantum Machines and Nvidia use machine learning to get closer to an error-corrected quantum computer
About a year and a half ago, quantum control startup Quantum Machines and Nvidia announced a deep partnership that would bring together Nvidia’s DGX Quantum computing platform and Quantum Machine’s advanced quantum control hardware. We didn’t hear much about the results of this partnership for a while, but it’s now starting to bear fruit and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MIT debuts a large language model-inspired method for teaching robots new skills
MIT this week showcased a new model for training robots. Rather than the standard set of focused data used to teach robots new tasks, the method goes big, mimicking the massive troves of information used to train large language models (LLMs). The researchers note that imitation learning — in which the agent learns by following […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Can you build a startup without sacrificing your mental health? Bonobos founder Andy Dunn thinks so
Bonobos founder Andy Dunn is back in the builder’s seat, working on an in-person social media platform called Pie. But the biggest lessons he learned from his $310 million Bonobos exit don’t have as much to do with entrepreneurship as they do with staying sane. When Dunn was in college, he was diagnosed with bipolar […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CoffeeSpace is a Hinge-like app that wants to help you find your co-founder
CoffeeSpace is on a mission to help people find partners for their startup ideas online. The startup, which exhibited as part of the Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, has launched a social networking app that matches people exploring startup ideas and looking for co-founders. The startup’s algorithm only matches candidates who meet each […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CareYaya is enabling affordable home care by connecting healthcare students with elders
CareYaya, a platform that matches people who need caregivers with healthcare students, is working to disrupt the caregiving industry. The startup, which exhibited as part of the Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt, is looking to enhance affordable in-home support, while also helping students prepare for their future healthcare careers. The startup was founded in 2022 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How national interest startups should be thinking about government contracts
National interest technology can show up in a lot of ways, like in data analysis and cybersecurity, as well as satellites and weapons. Many startups with dual-use applications are increasingly looking at the government as an attractive customer due to its wide range of use cases and the amount of federal dollars available. And while […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft and A16Z set aside differences, join hands in plea against AI regulation
Two of the biggest forces in two deeply intertwined tech ecosystems — large incumbents and startups — have taken a break from counting their money to jointly plead that the government cease and desist from even pondering regulations that might affect their financial interests, or as they like to call it, innovation. “Our two companies […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX wants to test refueling Starships in space early next year
SpaceX will attempt to transfer propellant from one orbiting Starship to another as early as next March, a technical milestone that will pave the way for an uncrewed landing demonstration of a Starship on the moon, a NASA official said this week. Much has been made of Starship’s potential to transform the commercial space industry, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity launches an elections tracker
Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine, might hallucinate from time to time. But the company wants to show that it’s trustworthy enough to use for election results tracking. Today, Perplexity announced a dedicated hub for U.S. general election information. Populated by data from The Associated Press and Democracy Works, the company described it in a blog […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
When to sell your company? Look for these signals
Startups are 16-times more likely to get acquired than to IPO. Here's how to decide when o cash out. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Chainsmokers want to bring a different kind of value add to B2B companies
The potential value a celebrity investor can bring to a consumer company, beyond just writing a check, is obvious: marketing and promotion. But that value is less clear when it comes to backing B2B startups. Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, also known as the Chainsmokers, think their VC fund Mantis VC can bring a value […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
New funding rounds confirm that money attracts money
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Money attracts money, as the saying goes. This week seemed to confirm it, with a couple startups announcing new rounds of funding only months after their previous […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to make open source software more secure
Earlier this year, a Microsoft developer realized that someone had inserted a backdoor into the code of open source utility XZ Utils, which is used in virtually all Linux operating systems. The operation had started two years earlier when that someone, a person nicknamed JiaT75, started contributing to the XZ Utils repository on GitHub. A […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies. That growth has propelled OpenAI itself into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The biggest underestimated security threat of today? Advanced persistent teenagers
These attacks are highly effective, have caused huge data breaches and resulted in huge ransoms paid to make the hackers go away. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple is buying photo editing app Pixelmator
Pixelmator Friday announced that it is being acquired by Apple. The image editing platform didn’t discuss what life might look like under the corporate umbrella, but did note that would be “no material changes” to its Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator apps – at least for now. If Apple’s acquisition history is any […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A new app launches to help keep voters informed for elections
Around the corner is perhaps one of the most important elections this nation has ever seen, yet many people are still unaware of the details needed to cast informed ballots. It’s not necessarily their fault — some voting information can be quite hard to find, especially when it comes to learning about, say, the political […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cross-posting social app Openvibe now supports Threads, too
The decline of X (formerly Twitter) under Elon Musk, has boosted engagement with alternative social networks like Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon, but it has also challenged early adopters who now have too many places to post. Naturally, some entrepreneurs are working to solve this problem with apps that let you cross-post to multiple platforms at […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Chinese military researchers reportedly used Meta’s AI to develop a defense chatbot
Chinese research scientists linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the military wing of China’s ruling party, reportedly used “open” AI from Meta to develop a tool for defense applications. According to Reuters, Chinese researchers, including two affiliated with a PLA R&D group, used Meta’s Llama 2 AI model to create a military-focused chatbot. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instagram upgrades DMs with focus on creators
Instagram on Friday announced an update to DMs, its direct messages inbox, which will improve the experience for those who receive a lot of inbound messages, like creators and influencers. Now, the app is introducing tools that will allow users to sort and filter their “message requests” — meaning those messages that don’t arrive in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former Caribou founder launches Further, a fintech that’s focused on helping people buy homes
Buying a home has always been complicated. You have to figure out how much money to put down and how that down payment will affect a monthly mortgage bill. Then there are the closing costs and fees. Kevin Bennett launched Further to try to help make the financial process easier to navigate — especially for first-time […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to build a company that can save the world and generate a profit
For startups that hope to save the world, or at least make it a better place, balancing impact with profit can be tricky. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Indonesia blocks Google Pixel sales after ban on iPhone 16
Indonesia has banned sales of Google Pixel smartphones for failing to meet domestic content requirements, days after blocking Apple’s iPhone 16 in Southeast Asia’s largest phone market. The Ministry of Industry said Google’s phones cannot be traded until they comply with rules requiring 40% local content in smartphones sold in Indonesia. Google must obtain local […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk skipped a hearing in Philly about his super PAC’s payouts to voters
A Philadelphia judge ordered X CEO Elon Musk to appear in a hearing Thursday morning over his super PAC’s plan to award $1 million a day to voters in key battleground states. But Musk skipped his courthouse appointment after the same judge granted a request to transfer the case from Pennsylvania state to federal jurisdiction. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Space: Disrupt 2024 wrap-up
Hello, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is a wrap, and I’m more than thrilled by the amazing space industry programming we had on offer this year. We covered everything from building a dual-use business to orbital re-entry, we caught up with Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck and heard about the ground station […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy hints at an ‘agentic’ Alexa
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy today hinted at an improved, “agentic” version of the company’s Alexa assistant — one that could take actions on a user’s behalf. “I think that the next generation of these assistants and generative AI applications will be better at not just answering questions and summarizing, indexing, and aggregating data, but also […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US drone maker Skydio faces battery squeeze after Chinese sanctions
America’s supply chain vulnerabilities were on full display Thursday after drone manufacturer Skydio told customers it was facing a battery squeeze after being hit with sanctions from China. “This is an attempt to eliminate the leading American drone company and deepen the world’s dependence on Chinese drone suppliers,” Skydio CEO Adam Bry said in a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Decart’s AI simulates a real-time, playable version of Minecraft
Decart, an Israeli AI company that emerged from stealth today with $21 million in funding from Sequoia and Oren Zeev, has released what it’s claiming is the first playable “open-world” AI model. Called Oasis, the model, which is available for download, powers a demo on Decart’s site: a Minecraft-like game that’s generated on the fly, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
BBG Ventures raises new $60 million fund to support diverse founders
BBG Ventures raised a new $60 million fund to support founders from “diverse backgrounds,” including gender, race, age, and class, Business Insider reported. The firm is known for backing exclusively women founders, and this new fund is a slight departure from that focus but comes as funding to diverse founders continues to dip. Crunchbase found that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Female Founders Fund returns its Fund I
After 10 years, the Female Founders Fund has returned its $5.85 million Fund I, according to Fortune. The news makes FFF one of the few diverse-focused funds to fully return a fund in a move that may boost the image of investing in women founders across Silicon Valley. Any further investments and exits to come […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Oura buys Sparta Science, its third acquisition in two years
Smart ring maker Oura on Thursday announced that it has acquired Sparta Science, a Bay Area-based health tracking startup. TechCrunch spoke to Sparta back in 2018 at the offices of Playground Global, a key investor. The deal marks Oura’s third acquisition in two years. The company purchased digital identity platform, Proxy, in May 2023. This […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MaC VC raised $150 million Fund III
MaC VC just raised a $150 million Fund III, according to Fortune. The firm, which launched in 2021 and already has $600 million in assets under management, will now cut check sizes between $2 million and $3 million into seed-stage companies. Notable investments for the firm include Chef Robotics and Stoke Space. The firm is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says lack of compute capacity is delaying the company’s products
In a Reddit AMA, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admitted that a lack of compute capacity is one major factor preventing the company from shipping products as often as it’d like. “All of these models have gotten quite complex,” he wrote in response to a question about why OpenAI’s next AI models were taking so long. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Carl Pei says Nothing could build its own operating system
Two mobile operating systems currently comprise nearly 100% of the global smartphone market. Building one is hard, and for most phone makers, there are better uses of resources, especially when Android is right there for the taking. While it’s a potential differentiator, these companies have largely opted to maintain Google’s mobile OS, customized by skins and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Kalshi secures tens of millions in loans from VCs, eyes $50M+ round amid election betting boom, source says
Investors are rushing to throw millions at a hot startup called Kalshi as loans or even as unusual we’ll-figure-it-out later cash. Kalshi is an exchange that allows people to bet, as official commodity trading contracts, on the outcomes of cultural events, from election results to how long Taylor Swift’s latest album will top the charts. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ford pauses F-150 Lightning production as Tesla Cybertruck heats up
Ford will pause production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck starting in mid-November for almost two months as it struggles with decreased demand, increased competition, and losses in its electric vehicle business. “We continue to adjust production for an optimal mix of sales growth and profitability,” a Ford spokesperson told TechCrunch. The news was […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zoox robotaxis are finally rolling out, Waymo snags more cash, and Aurora delays its self-driving truck launch
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is wrapped! And what a whirlwind it was. Some highlights? Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson weighed in on whether Tesla robotaxis will launch next […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta is making a robot hand that can ‘feel’ touch
Meta says it’s partnering with sensor firm GelSight and Wonik Robotics, a South Korean robotics company, to commercialize tactile sensors for AI. GelSight will work with Meta to bring to market Digit 360, which Meta describes as a “a tactile fingertip with human-level multimodal sensing capabilities.” The successor to Meta’s Digit sensor, Digit 360 digitizes […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Three investors talk the highs and lows of space investing
The space industry operates in waves: There are massive highs and big lows, but it’s always exhilarating. Three venture capitalists who invest in space joined us onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Monday to talk about what’s coming next for this dynamic area. Much of the current investing is shadowed by the SPAC boom in 2021 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI launches its Google challenger, ChatGPT Search
OpenAI’s Google challenger is finally here. The company on Thursday launched ChatGPT Search, an evolution of the SearchGPT prototype it unveiled this summer. Built into OpenAI’s ChatGPT platform, ChatGPT Search is designed to give “timely answers” to questions, OpenAI says, drawing from a range of online sources. Powered by a fine-tuned version of OpenAI’s GPT-4o model, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google Maps is getting new AI features powered by Gemini
Google Maps is getting new features powered by Gemini, Google’s generative AI model. On Thursday the company announced incoming updates that will allow Google Maps users in the U.S. to tap into AI to help them find new places to visit and answer questions about different locations. The platform is also getting enhanced navigation features […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google’s Gemini API and AI Studio get grounding with Google Search
Starting today, developers using Google’s Gemini API and its Google AI Studio to build AI-based services and bots will be able to ground their prompts’ results with data from Google Search. This should enable more accurate responses based on fresher data. As has been the case before, developers will be able to try out grounding […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to court — and retain — Gen Z workers
It’s the topic on everyone’s mind: Are Gen Z workers actually different? TechCrunch sought to find out at this year’s Disrupt 2024. We sat down with SignalFire’s Heather Doshay, Comprehensive.io’s Roger Lee, and CapitalG’s Lauren Illovsky to chat about how to hire and retain talent. One topic that came up was how younger workers are […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to court — and retain — Gen Z workers
It’s the topic on everyone’s mind: Are Gen Z workers actually different? TechCrunch sought to find out at this year’s Disrupt 2024. We sat down with SignalFire’s Heather Doshay, Comprehensive.io’s Roger Lee, and Lauren Illovsky from Capital G to chat about how to hire and retain talent. One topic that came up was how younger […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WhatsApp users can now filter chats with customized lists
WhatsApp is making it easier to organize the many messages filling up your inbox. The messaging app announced Thursday that it’s adding the ability to filter chats into customizable categories. This will help you keep track of conversations with family members, work colleagues, college friends, and more. The “Custom Lists” feature is an enhancement to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
College social app Fizz’s ‘serial failed retiree’ CEO steps down as founder takes helm
Veteran entrepreneur Rakesh Mathur stepped down as CEO of the college social network Fizz, handing over the reins to 22-year-old founder Teddy Solomon. It’s full circle for Fizz, the anonymous platform that Solomon started with his Stanford classmate Ashton Cofer before they dropped out to work on the app full-time. Mathur has been working with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia-Run:ai deal to be reviewed under EU’s merger rules
The European Union has tossed a spanner in the works of chipmaker Nvidia’s proposed acquisition of Tel Aviv-based AI workload management startup Run:ai. The deal, which was announced back in April — with a price-tag of $700 million per our sources — will be reviewed by the bloc after a request by competition regulators in Italy […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Claude gets desktop apps and dictation support
Anthropic’s AI-powered chatbot, Claude, now has desktop apps. Anthropic is launching Claude apps for Mac and Windows today in public beta, which — as Anthropic writes in a blog post — “brings Claude’s capabilities directly to your preferred work environment.” These capabilities, to be clear, don’t include Anthropic’s recently announced Computer Use feature, which allows […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Boston Dynamics’ Atlas humanoid hot dogs for the camera
Automation skeptics ask: why humanoids? We’ve discussed many of the benefits and drawbacks of the robotics form factor, but Boston Dynamics’ latest electric Atlas video showcases one of the most under discussed factors: costumes. “Why build a humanoid robot?” the company rhetorically posits. “Because the world is designed for humans, including all the best Halloween […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Space CEOs talk about the challenges and opportunities of selling defense tech
Space executives took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Monday to talk about the challenges and opportunities of building out dual-use technology, or tech that has both a defense and a commercial use case. The dual-use strategy can be tricky for young startups to manage, however, because they run the risk of diluting their focus […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MealMe, the startup integrating food ordering tech into apps, picks up $8M
MealMe, a unified API that embeds food and retail ordering into consumer apps and websites, announced on Thursday that it secured $8 million in Series A funding. The newly raised capital brings the total amount raised to $16 million. MealMe has undergone several changes since its launch in 2019. Initially, it was a consumer app designed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Buddy.ai is using AI and gaming to help children learn English as a second language
In 2014, Ivan Crewkov moved his family from Serbia to the U.S. as his startup, Cubic.AI, was preparing to launch a Kickstarter campaign for its smart speaker. A week before the campaign was supposed to go live, Amazon launched its Echo smart speaker, rendering Cubic.AI essentially dead in the water. “It was a disaster,” Crewkov […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
D-ID launches new high-quality avatars capable of real-time conversations
AI video platform D-ID announced today that it is releasing two new types of avatars — Express and Premium+ — for content creation. Companies are chasing the golden goose of creating AI avatars that are more humanlike and can potentially offload video creation for enterprise use cases in areas like marketing, sales, and customer support. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Noma is building tools to spot security issues with AI apps
Companies are concerned that their eagerness to adopt AI has made them more vulnerable to cyberthreats. Per a recent poll of over 350 IT leaders, more than half of the executives surveyed said the complexity of AI applications weakened their organization’s cybersecurity posture. More than two-fifths of executives believe their security teams lack the skills […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Temu’s low cost marketplace faces formal probe in EU over raft of DSA compliance concerns
The European Union has expanded its scrutiny of online marketplaces by opening a formal proceeding on Chinese low cost ecommerce platform, Temu, under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Commission announced Thursday. Enforcers of the online governance framework will now dial up their oversight of Temu. The bloc’s suspicions are focused on concerns about the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
2024 looks set to be another record-breaking year for ransomware — and it’s likely going to get worse
This year, 2024, looks set to be the most profitable yet for hackers, with four ransom demands paid in the tens of millions of dollars. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
NFL quarterback turned-founder Colin Kaepernick on the challenges facing disrupters
Former NFL quarterback and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Wednesday to talk about the challenges that people who want to disrupt something are facing — both inside and outside of the tech world. “One of the biggest challenges that you will likely face when you try to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Aurora Innovation delays commercial autonomous truck launch to 2025
Autonomous vehicle technology startup Aurora Innovation is targeting April 2025 for commercial deployment of its autonomous trucks, pushing its timeline back by about a quarter. The company had originally planned to launch by the end of 2024. The company said it delayed the launch so it can continue to validate its self-driving technology. “While this […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
And the winner of Startup Battlefield at Disrupt 2024 is . . . Salva Health
Over the last three days, 20 startups participated in the incredibly competitive Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt. These 20 companies were selected as the best of the Startup Battlefield 200 and competed for a chance to take home the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000. After three days of intense pitching, we have a winner. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity’s CEO punts on defining ‘plagiarism’
Perplexity’s CEO, Aravind Srinivas, wouldn’t say how Perplexity defines “plagiarism” in an on stage interview with Devin Coldewey at TechCrunch’s Disrupt 2024 conference.It’s a touchy subject.News Corp’s Dow Jones and the New York Post have sued Perplexity over what they describe as a “content kleptocracy.”
Announcing the winner of Startup Battlefield 200
Watch as we announce the winner of TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition – Startup Battlefield 200.After impressing the judges, the winner walks away with the Battlefield Cup and $100,000 equity-free.TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield 200 is the world’s preeminent startup competition with alumni like Vurb, Trello, Mint, Dropbox, Yammer, Tripit, Redbeacon, Qwiki, Getaround, and Soluto.
Startup Battlefield 200 Runnerup Announcement
Watch as we announce the runnerup winner of TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition – Startup Battlefield 200.TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield 200 is the world’s preeminent startup competition with alumni like Vurb, Trello, Mint, Dropbox, Yammer, Tripit, Redbeacon, Qwiki, Getaround, and Soluto. Startup Battlefield 200 showcases the top 200 startups from around the globe, across multiple industries every […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Colin Kaepernick helps creators own their story with Lumi, his AI startup
If anyone knows a thing or two about losing control of your own narrative, it’s Colin Keapernick.Now the former NFL quarterback and civil rights activist runs an AI storytelling platform, Lumi, to help creators tell and own their stories.Watch as Keapernick talks about about the media landscape, how AI can empower storytellers, and biases in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rivian’s chief software officer says in-car buttons are ‘an anomaly’
The trend of big touchscreens in cars has left many yearning for the not-so-distant days when most user interactions happened with physical buttons. But Rivian’s chief software officer Wassym Bensaid believes using buttons in a car is an “anomaly.” “It’s a bug. It’s not a feature,” Bensaid said Wednesday at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “Ideally, you […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
500 Amazon employees reportedly ask AWS CEO to reverse return-to-office policy
More than 500 Amazon employees sent a letter on Wednesday to AWS CEO Matt Garman, urging the executive to reverse the company’s full return-to-office policy, Reuters reports. In September, Amazon asked employees to come back to the office five days a week starting in 2025. The AWS CEO previously told employees that nine out of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas on the rush toward an AI-curated web
Perplexity’s AI-powered search engine might be the next stage of interacting with the web and knowledge in general – or not. But the company is certainly risking it all to manifest that future, even if it ruffles a few feathers along the way.Hear from Perplexity Co-Founder & CEO Aravind Srinivas on how the company plans […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI models get more election questions wrong when asked in Spanish, study shows
AI models are struggling to accurately answer election-related questions in Spanish. That’s according to a new study from the AI Democracy Projects, a collaboration between Proof News, fact-checking service Factchequeado and the Institute for Advanced Study in San Francisco. The study found a sharp disparity between the factuality of English- and Spanish-language responses produced by five […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to harness generative AI in music and video production without displacing artists
Generative AI is increasingly capable of creating video, music, and other media on demand. But who actually wants it, and why?Watch as Luma AI CEO Amit Jain, Suno Co-Founder and CEO Michael Shulman, and Splice CEO Kakul Srivastave discuss the growing markets for generative media, and how they can be served without harming or displacing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Future of AI’s Data Infrastructure: Unlocking the Power of Gen AI with MongoDB and Capgemini
The next generation of business applications will have AI as a user – powering AI agents for customer services, recommendations for online shoppers, anomaly detection for business analysts, etc. This means that businesses must re-architect their applications to be AI-native. To effectively deploy and leverage AI in these applications, businesses need to optimize for data […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Architecting the Future: Building Hardware for an AI-Native World
AI-driven hardware is transforming enterprise operations. This panel discussion will address the complexities of building AI-native ecosystems, the role of generative AI in reshaping enterprise technology, and the practical implications for developing scalable AI solutions. Our moderator Lee Ott from HP’s AI Innovation team will be joined by Carl Pei (Nothing phone), Jerry Yue (Brain.ai) […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
When startups should look to sell and when to keep fighting
Startup founders are often presented with the chance to sell their companies before they reach full maturity.In today’s world with IPOs often delayed past historical norms, it may be tempting for founders to look for a parent company for their startups. But when does it make sense to sell, when should a founder keep blazing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The future of AI governance, with SB 1047 architect Sen. Scott Wiener
AI development continues at a breakneck pace, but how fast is too fast?In this fireside chat at Disrupt 2024, U.S. AI Safety Institute Director Elizabeth Kelly and California state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the architect of California’s controversial AI safety bill SB 1047, talk about the need to balance AI innovation with safeguards. Subscribe […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zoox co-founder on Tesla self-driving: ‘they don’t have technology that works’
Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson doesn’t believe Tesla will launch a robotaxi ride-hailing service in California (or anywhere else) next year despite what Elon Musk recently claimed. The “fundamental issue is they don’t have technology that works,” Levinson said Wednesday at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “And by works, I want to differentiate between a driver […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The cybsecurity problems and opportunities facing open-source startups
Open-source software is everywhere, and in everything.Many startups are pursuing explicitly open-source business models. But every company out there that builds software has at least some dependency on open-source code. Recent security issues, however, have made it plain that open-source software is a target for state-level hackers.So, how can we keep building and using code […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How AI startups can navigate legal and ethical minefields
AI’s meteoric rise has created new ethical dilemmas and exacerbated old ones, while lawsuits drop left and right. This threatens both new and established AI companies, and the creators and workers whose labor feeds the models.Watch as AI Now Institue Executive Director Sarah Myers West, ElevenLabs AI Safety Lead Aleksandra Pedraszewska, and Cara Founder & […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Clashing approaches to combat AI’s ‘perpetual bulls**t machine’
The AI stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 got off to a fiery but constructive start on a panel about combating disinformation. But in a spirited exchange of views tempered by expressions of respect and agreement, all three panelists had harsh words for social media and generative AI. None was harsher, though, than Imran Ahmed, CEO […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Matt Mullenweg talks about Automattic’s staffing issues and financials at TechCrunch Disrupt
WordPress co-creator and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg talked about his fight with WP Engine, Automattic’s staffing issues, and the company’s financials at TechCrunch Disrupt on Wednesday. Mullenweg repeated a lot of stuff from the past month about the trademark fight, WP Engine not contributing to the community, and misleading customers to believe it was associated with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg says a fork would be ‘fantastic’
WordPress co-founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg, speaking on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Wednesday, said he’s not worried that the recent legal drama between his company, Automattic, and WordPress host WP Engine may lead to a fork of the open source WordPress software. In fact, he said, he’d welcome it. “There might be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zoox custom robotaxis are finally coming to San Francisco and Las Vegas
Amazon-owned AV company Zoox will start rolling out dozens of its purpose-built autonomous vehicle in San Francisco and in Las Vegas in the coming weeks, co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson announced on the TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 stage. Levinson said that Zoox will start offering rides — starting with employees — in the SoMa neighborhood of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Matt Mullenweg says Automattic is ‘very short-staffed’ amid WordPress vs. WP Engine drama
Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg says the company is “very short-staffed” amid WordPress’s ongoing drama with WP Engine, which hosts websites built on WordPress. The WordPress co-founder took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Wednesday. The saga began when Mullenweg called WP Engine a “cancer to WordPress.” Mullenweg called out WP Engine, claiming that they […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Scout Motors EVs will use Rivian-VW software and architecture
VW’s new offshoot EV company Scout Motors, which revealed its first two vehicles last week, will use the software and zonal architecture being developed by the joint venture between Rivian and the Volkswagen Group. Rivian Chief Software Officer Wassym Bensaid confirmed to TechCrunch at Disrupt 2024 that Scout will leverage the joint venture tech when […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 5 Finalists: Stitch3D
Offers a SaaS platform for hosting, processing, viewing, analyzing, and sharing large volumes of LIDAR point cloud data, all in a real-time collaborative 3D viewer.Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky Mastodon: https://tcrn.ch/mstdn Read more: https://techcrunch.com/© 2024 TechCrunch.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 5 Finalists: geCKo Materials
A bio-inspired Dry Adhesive that is ultra-strong, reusable, leaves no residue, and requires no force to detach.The product opens new applications in industrial automations, robotic gripping, space and defense.For personal use only.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 5 Finalists: Luna
An AI-driven health and wellbeing companion for teens, so they can feel empowered to make informed decisions about their health and wellbeing as they move into adulthood.Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky Mastodon: https://tcrn.ch/mstdn Read more: https://techcrunch.com/© 2024 TechCrunch.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 5 Finalists: MabLab
Maker of 5-in-1, at-home rapid tests to screen for laced drugs and spiked drinks.Results delivered in under three minutes, potentially saving over 100,000 lives annually and preventing an additional 5 million hospitalizations every year.© 2024 TechCrunch.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 5 Finalists: Salva Health
Julieta is a portable, AI-powered breast cancer detection device that eliminates barriers to early screening, ensuring access even in remote areas.Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky Mastodon: https://tcrn.ch/mstdn Read more: https://techcrunch.com/© 2024 TechCrunch.
How to make something of Nothing with Nothing CEO Carl Pei
Disrupting the top-heavy mobile industry once is hard enough. Carl Pei has done it twice. Following the success of OnePlus, Pei founded Nothing. The London-based hardware firm aims to make the stodgy world of smartphones fun again.Watch as Pei discusses how he founded the hardware startup and built Nothing from nothing. Subscribe for more on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The current and future landscape of AI on wheels with Jesse Levinson from Zoox
Before generative AI took center stage, the burgeoning autonomous vehicle technology industry was where many machine learning and AI experts played.Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson , who has been in the thick of it for a decade, is now preparing the Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company for its next big adventure.Watch as Levinson discusses the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Modash is flipping the influencer marketing script by connecting brands with the long tail of creators
Estonia-based startup Modash has raised a $12 million Series A led by henQ, a Dutch VC firm that prides itself in “funding the odd ones.” And what’s odd about Modash, according to CEO Avery Schrader, is that its team “has a really strong opinion in a space that nobody really has much faith in anymore.” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The AI Clouds Race: What’s Behind the Scenes
The fast-growing AI market is not only giving rise to new AI startups but also fostering the emergence of specialist vendors. Competition among cloud providers in the AI space is fierce. Roman will share how Nebius is navigating this race, what is driving the company’s rapid growth, and what it takes to support AI disruptors. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to recognize a startup unicorn with FPV Ventures Co-Founder Wesley Chan
Wesley Chan is known in the industry as a unicorn-spotter, with early investments in winners like AngelList, Canva, Flexport, Plaid, Ring, and Robinhood. Formerly of Google Ventures and Felicis Ventures, he’s now a co-founder and managing partner at FPV Ventures, where he oversees a $450 million fund.In this panel, Chan shares what he looks for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The increasing support and advantages of “open” AI, with Meta and Hugging Face
There’s increasing support in the AI industry for “open” AI models — models released under permissive licenses that can be repurposed for a range of applications. Standing in contrast to models gated behind paid services, open models are shacking up the AI status quo.At Disrupt 2024, Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence CEO Ali Farhadi, Hugging […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to build tech that wins over customers with Rivian Wassym Bensaid
Rivian’s chief software officer Wassym Bensaid knows a thing or two about building a product from scratch in a high-stakes environment. The software and systems engineering veteran played a central role in Rivian’s recent push to drive down costs, while improving its EVs. It was a massive and existential effort that led the EV maker […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: A preview of Disrupt 2024’s stacked AI panels
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. This week, the TechCrunch crew (including yours truly) is at TC’s annual Disrupt conference in San Francisco. We’ve got a packed lineup of speakers from the AI industry, academia, and policy, so in lieu of my […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Speeding Ahead: Lessons for the GenAI Evolution
GenAI has super charged the speed of change. Companies around the world, whether they are startups or global enterprises, are struggling with the question of how they can move faster and take advantage of the incredible opportunities this technology offers. This discussion outlines how Thomson Reuters transformed itself from a content company into a nimble, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How Generative AI Is flooding the web with deepfakes and disinformation
As generative AI tools become more widely available – and become cheaper, or even free, to use – they’re being abused by an array of actors, including state actors, to create deepfakes and sow disinformation online.In this session at Disrupt 2024, hear from CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed, CITRIS UC Director of the CITRIS Policy Lab […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VCs on how to raise in 2025 if you’ve taken a flat, down, or extension round
Old ideas like you need $100 million worth of trailing revenue to go public, and $1 million worth of annual recurring revenue to raise a Series A are so old that they are practically perched atop Abe Lincoln’s head.In today’s market, what a startup needs to raise depends on its sector, founder profile, and, yes, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Betaworks focuses on AI applications in its latest Camp
For its most recent Camp, VC and accelerator Betaworks was on the lookout for startups building native applications made possible by AI. The program was first announced in May. To explain this focus, managing partner John Borthwick wrote at the time that while things like AI chatbots and writing assistants exist, “we aren’t yet living […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple announces M4 Max chip, debuting on the MacBook Pro
Apple wrapped up a half-week of Mac announcements Wednesday by debuting the latest addition to the M-series of chips. A day after announcing the M4 Pro alongside the tiny new Mac Mini, the company is showcasing the M4 Max, which is coming to the MacBook Pro line. Like the other members of the M4 line, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple upgrades MacBook Pro with M4 chips
Apple on Wednesday wrapped up Macweek (well, Mac half-week) by introducing an updated MacBook Pro. Apple’s most premium laptop is catching up to is brethren with the addition of M4 chips. The Pro and Mini are the first two Macs getting the new chip. The Pro will also be the first to sport the just-announced […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Boston Dynamics’ electric Atlas humanoid executes autonomous automotive parts picking
Boston Dynamics’ new humanoid has been quietly improving by leaps and bounds behind the scenes. Announced in April, we caught some brief insight into the electric Atlas’ strength in August through a video of the robot doing pushups. The latest video, released Wednesday, showcases the robot doing work in a demo space, moving engine parts […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hummingbirds, a platform that connects local creators with brand campaigns in their area, raises $5.4M
Hummingbirds is a female-founded startup that connects hyperlocal content creators with locally-based brands that reward them for sharing products with their small and highly engaged communities via social media. The company announced Wednesday its latest funding round of $5.4 million, bringing the total amount raised to $10 million. The new capital will support the platform’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bifrost helps industrials speed up model training with its 3D data generation platform
For many companies working on AI models with applications in the physical world, data presents the biggest opportunity. It’s also the biggest hurdle they face, as nicely labeled and clean real-world data is as readily available as hen’s teeth, and the costs and effort required to gather and clean up data can be immense. Bifrost, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Wonder Dynamics now lets you go straight from multi-camera video to fully animated 3D scene
Wonder Dynamics made a strong opening play in AI-enhanced visual effects, providing tools animators and filmmakers actually find useful — and earning the startup a prompt acquisition by Autodesk. Their latest tool further automates the animation process, letting you put in practically any video and get a fully editable 3D scene, characters and all. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Dropbox is laying off 20% of its staff
Dropbox is letting go 20% of its workforce as the cloud company undergoes what CEO Drew Houston calls a “transitional period.” In a letter to staff, Houston said that the reduction in headcount would impact 528 people. “As CEO, I take full responsibility for this decision and the circumstances that led to it, and I’m […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon Kindle Colorsoft review: A muted approach to color
October was an exciting month for reading devices. We got a new iPad mini, a couple of products from Boox, and this strange yet compelling iPhone e-reader adapter from Astropad. The biggest splash of all, however, came from Amazon. It’s unsurprising, as the retail giant commands around 80% of the devoted e-reader market. The past […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple will buy renewable power for its Mac Mini users
Apple went to unusual lengths to ensure it accounted for and neutralized all the pollution that the new Mac Mini might produce. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024: Day 3
Welcome to the third and final day of TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 at Moscone West in San Francisco! The excitement here is still in full swing, and there’s no slowing down. If you thought it was too late to join, think again—there’s still time to register and be part of the action. Today brings some of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Regal claims its customer service chatbots are better than most
People are generally skeptical of customer service chatbots, and many outright despise them. In a recent Gartner survey, 64% of consumers said that they’d prefer companies didn’t use AI of any kind — including chatbots — in their customer service. Fifty-three percent went so far as to say they’d weigh switching to a rival if […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Archon emerges from stealth with $20M and ‘antibody cages’ to power up drug development
Archon Biosciences, a biotech startup putting AI to work designing novel biomolecules, has just emerged from stealth with an impressive $20 million in seed funding. The company aims to supercharge antibody treatments using specially designed protein “cages” that multiply their effects, opening up new opportunities in drug development. This is the first company to be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Once-dominant Swiggy seeks $11.3B value at IPO, less than half Zomato’s worth
Swiggy, one of India’s largest food delivery and quick commerce startups, is seeking a valuation of up to $11.3 billion in its initial public offering, marking a 57% discount to rival Zomato’s market cap. The lossmaking Bengaluru-based company has set an IPO price band of ₹371 to ₹390 ($4.41-$4.64) per share for next month’s IPO. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X makes its basic API tier more costly, launches annual subscriptions
Elon Musk-owned social network X made changes to its API pricing and limits today and also announced annual plans with a discounted rate. The company raised the prices of the basic API tier from $100 to $200 and said it would introduce higher limits and new endpoints for this subscription plan. In a post on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meesho claims Indian e-commerce first with positive cash flow
Meesho has become India’s first horizontal e-commerce firm to generate positive cash flow, marking a significant shift in a market where profitability has long remained elusive even as new competitive threats emerge. The SoftBank and Prosus-backed startup, which serves customers in smaller Indian cities and towns, reported positive operating cash flow of ₹232 crores ($27.6 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
African ‘gender-equal’ VC Janngo Capital closes second fund at $78M
Pan-African venture capital firm Janngo Capital has closed its oversubscribed second fund at €73 million ($78 million), 20% more than its target of €60 million (~$63 million). In 2022, Janngo Capital reached the first close of its second fund at €26 million, receiving capital from several limited partners, including the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here are the 5 Startup Battlefield finalists at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
The time has finally come to announce the five finalists of the Startup Battlefield. It all started earlier this year when the TechCrunch editorial team selected 200 companies from thousands that applied. From there, the team then chose the 20 finalists who pitched this week onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 to investor judges and packed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tony Fadell takes a shot at Sam Altman in TechCrunch Disrupt interview
iPod creator, Nest Labs founder, and investor Tony Fadell took a shot at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Tuesday during a spirited interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San Francisco. Speaking about his understanding of the longer history of AI development before the LLM craze and the serious issues with LLM hallucinations, he said, “I’ve […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GM CEO Mary Barra on the politics of EVs, the future of AVs, and moving away from China
“I never thought the propulsion of a vehicle would become a political issue,” GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra said on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Tuesday. While the executive didn’t expand on this statement, former President Trump has railed against EVs and claimed, wrongly, that there is a mandate to make and sell electric […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tony Fadell on mission-driven a**holes, Silicon Valley entitlement and why LLMs are ‘know-it-alls’
Tony Fadell, the father of the iPod and founder of Nest, took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Tuesday to talk about how building the next generation of deep tech startups requires mission-driven a**holes. The entrepreneur and investor did not hold back on stage as he called out Silicon Valley for its entitlement and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cloud Doesn’t Have to Mean Compromise
Join us as we discuss the multi-cloud landscape and learn how Kentik leverages AI and network visibility to help you run cloud – and your entire hybrid estate – in the most cost-efficient way possible. Hear about Kentik’s partnership with Golub Growth, which is driving innovation and enhancing their platform, and learn more about the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How AI empowers SaaS leaders to build a new data pipeline
The rise of modern AI applications has put a renewed emphasis on the importance of the data that underpins them. But simply having data isn’t enough, you also need the tools to manage it, secure it and build the pipelines to let it flow between applications.Watch as we talk to Datastax Chairman & CEO, NEA […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MDC is building a surgical robot that operates inside an MRI
MRIs are an indispensable tool for surgeons, though the technology certainly has its limitations. Take, for instance, surgeons using the machines to guide their procedures. The current process entails putting the patient into a machine to get an image, before pulling them out to advance a needle one centimeter at a time. It’s a time-consuming […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VCs offer live feedback on audience members’ startup pitch decks
An articulate, alluring pitch presentation is a big part of successfully fundraising, and yet it’s relatively uncommon for founders to get candid feedback on how they communicated the problem, their solution, and their path to success.During the Pitch Deck Teardown, Index Ventures Partner Sofia Dolfe, Lux Capital General Partner Deena Shakir, and Greycroft Partner Marcie […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures backs Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs in continued AI push
Ashton Kutcher’s VC firm, Sound Ventures, co-led by general partners Guy Oseary and Effie Epstein, is betting on AI — including with an investment in Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs, the investors confirmed on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Tuesday. The startup, founded by Li, the Stanford professor dubbed the “Godmother of AI,” has already […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Haptic’s touch-based navigation helps blind and sighted alike get around without looking
Smartphones and navigation apps have become second nature these days. But for those with blindness and low vision, it’s not quite so convenient. Haptic Works has been building a non-visual, non-verbal way of telling people where to go, and they’ve decided it’s time to scale up and take it global. Haptic presented onstage today as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ashton Kutcher explains why he’s betting on AI, but not trying to pick a ‘winner’
Ashton Kutcher, co-founder of Sound Ventures, believes that every company is going to become an AI company, but that there might not be a winner in the space. The actor and investor spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Tuesday alongside Sound co-founder Guy Oseary and partner Effie Epstein to detail what the firm is looking […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gecko Materials wants to sell you the next Velcro
It looks fake, or at least like a good illusion: There’s Gecko Materials founder Capella Kerst dangling a full wine bottle from her pinky finger, the only thing keeping it from smashing to pieces being the super-strong dry-adhesive her startup has brought to market. But it’s no trick. It’s the result of years of academic […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ForceField helps detect deepfakes and digital deception by verifying source data
A new startup setting out to combat the scourge of deepfakes and spoofed evidence in the age of AI is showing off its wares on the Startup Battlefield stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 this week. ForceField is building a set of “patent-pending” APIs dubbed MARQ, the first of which is designed to authenticate content. For […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
From Salesforce co-CEO to Sierra: Bret Taylor’s journey in tech innovation
Former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, who recently co-founded Sierra, a new startup building a customer experience AI agent, joined us to talk about why he thinks AI agents are going to transform enterprise software. Taylor also chatted about what it’s like going from a big company like Salesforce to a brand new startup – and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How The Chainsmokers built a fund that doesn’t rely on their celebrity status
While a lot of celebrities invest in startups, the Chainsmokers are different. Instead of angel investing, Drew Taggart and Alex Pall launched a formal fund, Mantis Venture Capital, invest out of a formal closed-end fund, and back companies in industries their celebrity prowess can’t always help in, like security startups and analytics platforms. Watch as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
BANF’s smart tires for trucks promise to save fuel and lives
Tire health has a huge impact on a truck’s fuel efficiency and safety on the road. And yet, with all of the arguably sexier solutions out there offering driver assist features and self-driving software, tires don’t get the attention they deserve. At least, so says Ron Lee, the head of business development at BANF, a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google says its next-gen AI agents won’t launch until 2025 at the earliest
Google won’t ship tech from Project Astra, its wide-ranging effort to build AI apps and “agents” for real-time, multimodal understanding, until next year at the earliest. Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed the timeline in remarks during Google’s Q3 earnings call today. “[Google is] building out experiences where AI can see and reason about the world […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists: MDC
Revolutionizing surgery with a novel robotic system that provides physicians direct access inside MRI scanners.Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky Mastodon: https://tcrn.ch/mstdn Read more: https://techcrunch.com/© 2024 TechCrunch.
Aesthetic launches the ‘Shazam for fashion’
Aesthetic, a new fashion company looking to be the “Shazam for clothes,” launched this week and is using AI to help people identify and shop for clothing they sourced on social media. The fashion concierge, called Alma, makes it easy for people to buy clothes that might otherwise be hard to find. Say you see […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists: BANF
Ensures safe driving and optimizes fuel efficiency by 20% with their smart tire profile technology by providing real-time tire data, including pressure, temperature, wear, load, wheel alignment, and lug nut status.Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky Mastodon: https://tcrn.ch/mstdn Read […]© 2024 TechCrunch.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists: ForceField
MARQ protects company, community & country data with tamper-proof badges.Patent-pending APIs defend against deepfake scams, fraud & breaches.Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky Mastodon: https://tcrn.ch/mstdn Read more: https://techcrunch.com/
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists: geCKo Materials
A bio-inspired Dry Adhesive that is ultra-strong, reusable, leaves no residue, and requires no force to detach.The product opens new applications in industrial automations, robotic gripping, space and defense.For personal use only.
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies. That growth has propelled OpenAI itself into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Making sound investments in 2024 with Ashton Kutcher
Watch as Sound Ventures partners Ashton Kutcher, Effie Epstein and Guy Oseary discuss their firm’s big bet on AI, the influence of celebrity status, and the trends they are currently tracking at Disrupt 2024.Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky […]© 2024 TechCrunch.
OpenAI reportedly planning to build its first AI chip in 2026
OpenAI is reportedly working with TSMC and Broadcom to build an in-house AI chip — and beginning to use AMD chips alongside Nvidia’s to train its AI. Reuters reports that OpenAI has — at least for now — abandoned plans to establish a network of factories for chip manufacturing. Instead, the company will focus on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Scaling trust to unicorn status with Vanta CEO Christina Cacioppot
SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001, GDPR — few people want to deal with them, but to even be considered for a deal, many B2B startups now need to comply with one or more compliance frameworks.Vanta, which became a unicorn in 2022, has become somewhat of a standard of its own for helping businesses automate large […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hollywood’s Olivia Wilde launches a VC firm
Actress Olivia Wilde, famous for her roles in “Tron: Legacy” and “Don’t Worry Darling,” quietly launched venture firm Proximity Ventures late last year, according to Bloomberg. She launched the early- and growth-stage investment fund with Neil Sirni, formerly of Roc Nation’s venture division Arrive; Jason Mack, formerly of Mack Ventures; and Santi White, the musician […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Actor and director Olivia Wilde launches a VC firm
Actor and director Olivia Wilde, famous for in “Tron: Legacy” and “Don’t Worry Darling,” quietly launched venture firm Proximity Ventures late last year, according to Bloomberg. She launched the early- and growth-stage investment fund with Neil Sirni, formerly of Roc Nation’s venture division Arrive; Jason Mack, formerly of Mack Ventures; and Santi White, the musician […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s xAI is reportedly trying to raise billions more
Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, is in talks to raise new funding at a valuation around $40 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. xAI hopes to raise several billion dollars in the round, adding to the $6 billion in Series B funding that the company raised in May. The rumored valuation would nearly double […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mary Barra still thinks GM will make an AV with no steering wheel
General Motors CEO Mary Barra still believes an autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel and pedals is “definitely” in her company’s future, despite recently cancelling the purpose-built Origin. Barra told the crowd at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Tuesday that she still has an eye on a purpose-built robotaxi, but that she made the call to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ElevenLabs has hired the team behind Omnivore, a reader app
Generative AI audio company ElevenLabs has hired the team behind Omnivore, an open source save-it-later reader app. In a blog post, co-founders Jackson Harper and Hongbu Wu said that joining ElevenLabs would give them “an even larger platform to create accessible and engaging experiences for serious readers.” “ElevenLabs is committed to the developer community and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How VCs can distinguish the difference between opportunity and hype
What’s the difference between true opportunity and hype? Answering that question correctly is the difference between success and failure and the tech industry. And it’s a far more difficult question than it might appear. When everyone is convinced a specific tech is the future, founders – and even VCs – tend to pursue that tech […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How a series of opsec failures led US authorities to the alleged developer of the Redline password-stealing malware
Prosecutors allege that Redline infected millions of computers around the world since 2020, including several hundred machines at the U.S. Dept. of Defense. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Industry leaders break down what’s next in open source as a business model
Open source has become the default business model for many tech startups. But the success of the movement hasn’t been without challenges as businesses now try to balance the ideals of open source with the realities of running a business in an ever-changing competitive environment.Watch as Accel Partner Casey Aylward, Docker CEO Scott Johnston, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How General Motors CEO Mary Barra is shaping GM’s tech future
Over her decade-long tenure, Chairman and CEO Mary Barra has pushed to transform General Motors into a technological powerhouse — and one that will lead in electrification, software and autonomous driving though their self-driving subsidiary Cruise. We’ll take stock of her progress — including the unexpected speed bumps along the way.Watch as Mary Barra discusses […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Salva Health wants to lower breast cancer mortality with its affordable screening device
Six years ago, while researching for a college entrepreneurship competition, Valentina Agudelo identified a troubling gap in breast cancer survival rates between Latin America and the developed world, with women in her native Colombia and the rest of the continent dying at higher rates due to late detection. She realized that breast cancer is highly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Narada AI’s enterprise agent will use workplace tools for you
There’s no shortage of startups trying to create enterprise AI assistants. What’s less common is an AI assistant that can actually execute tasks across several of your work apps at once. That’s the promise of Narada AI, a startup building an AI assistant based on new research out of UC Berkeley. Narada has been operating […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Building Enterprise AI Apps with Multi-Agent RAG Systems (MARS)
Join SingleStore to explore a live Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) application that combines real-time streaming data with vast amounts of point-in-time data, achieving near-zero latency in AI interactions.We’ll discuss how Multi-Agent Retrieval-Augmented Generation Systems (MARS) can facilitate the development of effective real-time AI applications, utilizing AWS Bedrock and SingleStore.Gain valuable insights into the challenges […]
How founders should hire tech talent in 2025
Gone are the days when recruiters seemed more plentiful than leaves in the wind; employees in nearly every startup function are therefore facing a more conservative labor market. How can founders capitalize on their increased labor buying power, while also treating their staff with respect and retaining key talent? Founders, take note, this one is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Intelligence is more about convenience with initial iOS 18.1 launch
After much hype, Apple Intelligence, the company’s suite of AI features, finally shipped to users this week with the iOS 18.1 update. I used these features for months through beta software and realized that the feature set rolling out this week is more about creating convenience for users rather than letting users plan or brainstorm […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Luna wants to help young girls navigate their health and well-being
Meet Luna, a health and well-being app for teen girls that is designed to help them navigate teenhood. The app lets teens ask questions about their health and wellness and get responses from experts. It also lets them track their periods, moods, and skin. The London-based startup presented today at on the Startup Battlefield stage […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How Slack’s CEO Denise Dresser is embracing its evolution under Salesforce
Slack CEO Denise Dresser is approaching her one year anniversary while leading her organization through a time of AI-driven change and continued questions about the return to office. Watch as Denise Dresser and TechCrunch Hardware Editor Brian Heater discuss how Slack is innovating with agents to empower teams to work smarter, faster, and more efficiently […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CTGT aims to make AI models safer
Growing up as an immigrant, Cyril Gorlla taught himself how to code — and practiced as if a man possessed. “I aced my mother’s community college programming course at 11, amidst periodically disconnected household utilities,” he told TechCrunch. In high school, Gorlla learned about AI, and became so obsessed with the idea of training his […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to build a company while protecting your mental health
Everyone knows that it is stressful to build a company. And it’s just as commonly known that endless chronic work can lead to burnout. So, why don’t we talk more about founder mental health?Now that our culture is more comfortable discussing mental health in general, it’s time we brought the topic to Disrupt for a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How Slice entered India’s regulated banking sector
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week we’re looking at a company making a rare entrance into India’s significant — but locked-down — banking market and a new lawsuit facing SoLo Funds. If you’d like to receive the Fintech newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, sign up here! The big story Indian fintech Slice seals bank […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
HILOS is making footwear more sustainable without skimping on style
When people imagine what 3D printing is, they might think of plastic knickknacks and miniature figurines that teenagers make in their high school libraries. For HILOS (Human Innovation Lab Operating System), 3D printing means creating footwear that’s chic, low-waste, and runway ready. “Brands are overproducing 20% because they don’t know what size and styles are […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists: Narada AI
A generative AI assistant that identifies tasks from conversations and executes them across enterprise tools using AI orchestration.Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky Mastodon: https://tcrn.ch/mstdn Read more: https://techcrunch.com/© 2024 TechCrunch.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists: Luna
An AI-driven health and wellbeing companion for teens, so they can feel empowered to make informed decisions about their health and wellbeing as they move into adulthood.Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky Mastodon: https://tcrn.ch/mstdn Read more: https://techcrunch.com/© 2024 TechCrunch.
You’re going to get hacked. But here’s how to avoid a cybersecurity disaster
Cyberattacks are inevitable, but disasters are avoidable.Listen as experienced security defenders Heather Gantt-Evans, CISO of Marqeta, and Darren Gruber, MongoDB’s Technical Advisor in the Office of Security and Trust, discuss what you need to know to get ahead of cyberattackers before they strike.For personal use only.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists: CTGT
Streamlines the mitigation of hallucinations and bias with token-level data lineage in advanced models like LLMs, enabling deployment in regulated areas like finance or healthcare with ease.Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky Mastodon: https://tcrn.ch/mstdn Read more: https://techcrunch.com/© 2024 TechCrunch.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists: HILOS
Unifies deep tech with sustainable craft to offer a software and manufacturing platform to design and launch 3D-printed footwear made locally, on-demand, without end-of-life waste.Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky Mastodon: https://tcrn.ch/mstdn Read more: https://techcrunch.com/© 2024 TechCrunch.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists: Salva Health
Julieta is a portable, AI-powered breast cancer detection device that eliminates barriers to early screening, ensuring access even in remote areas.Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky Mastodon: https://tcrn.ch/mstdn Read more: https://techcrunch.com/© 2024 TechCrunch.
Amazon brings its Rufus AI shopping assistant to more international markets
Amazon is extending the availability of its AI-enabled shopping assistant, Rufus, to more markets in Europe and the Americas. The ecommerce giant has been widely considered to be playing catchup with its Big Tech brethren in the AI sphere, particularly against the backdrop of the generative AI hype these past couple of years. Rufus is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LinkedIn launches its first AI agent to take on the role of job recruiters
LinkedIn, the social platform used by the working world to connect with others in their field, hunt for jobs, and develop skills, is taking the wraps off its latest effort to build artificial intelligence tools for its users: Hiring Assistant, a new product designed to take on a wide array of recruitment tasks, from ingesting […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How startups can do more than rack up huge valuations and maybe save the world
Startup work and venture capital investing are usually judged through the lens of their financial results. The bigger a startup gets, the more it’s worth. But some upstart tech companies are also working on making the world better, while making money. We want to know how far the ‘doing good’ can go while not giving […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GitHub Spark lets you build we b apps in plain English
When GitHub Copilot launched and started autocompleting lines of code — and, later, entire code snippets — the question many people were asking was: how long until we can just describe an app in natural language and Copilot will build it for us? We’ve seen quite a few experiments in this arena in recent months, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GitHub’s Copilot comes to Apple’s Xcode
At its Universe conference, GitHub today announced a number of major new products, including the Spark project for writing applications entirely with AI, as well as multi-model support for its Copilot service. But Copilot itself is also getting quite a few updates. With this release, Microsoft-owned GitHub is bringing Copilot to Apple’s Xcode environment for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GitHub’s Copilot goes multi-model and adds support for Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini
GitHub today announced that it will now allow developers to switch between a number of large language models when they use Copilot Chat, its code-centric ChatGPT-like service. Until now, Copilot Chat was powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4. Going forward, developers can choose between Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro, and OpenAI’s GPT-4o, o1-preview, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GitHub Spark lets you build web apps in plain English
When GitHub Copilot launched and started autocompleting lines of code — and, later, entire code snippets — the question many people were asking was: how long until we can just describe an app in natural language and Copilot will build it for us? We’ve seen quite a few experiments in this arena in recent months, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained
This story has been updated throughout with more details as the story has developed. We will continue to do so as the case and dispute are ongoing. The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple introduces M4 Pro chip, debuting on the new Mac Mini
The week of Mac announcements chugs along, as Apple introduces the latest addition to its line of first-party silicon. The new M4 is debuting as an upgradeable option for the just-announced palm-size Mac Mini. The Pro follows the May release of the original M4. That chip bucked the standard Apple Silicon cycle by debuting on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple’s new M4 Mac Mini really lives up to its name
The week of Macs keep rolling along with a brand-new Mac Mini. The rumors were true: The M4 edition finds the company scaling the little desktop down to not much larger than an Apple TV. The Mini enclosure measures 5 x 5 inches, versus the Apple TV 4K’s 3.66 x 3.66. The significantly smaller size […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EU boosts EIC budget for supporting deeptech R&D and strategic scale-ups
The European Union will spend €1.4 billion (about $1.5 billion) next year to bolster deeptech research and support scale-ups in strategic areas like AI, low-carbon technologies, agritech and biotech, the European Commission said on Tuesday. The budget for the 2025 Work Program of the European Innovation Council (EIC), part of the bloc’s flagship Horizon Europe research […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Popular calendar app Fantastical lands on Windows
Buzzy calendar apps tend to make a big splash and disappear after a while. Sometimes they get acquired, sometimes the company pivots to something else. That’s not the case with Fantastical, a popular calendar app for macOS, iOS, and other Apple platforms. Originally launched as a Mac app in 2011, the team behind Fantastical has […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why Crosscut Ventures is ‘following the founders’ into climate, space, and beyond
The focus of the new $100 million fund, Crosscut’s sixth, will include energy and power, space and underwater exploration, advanced manufacturing, advanced materials, and security and defense. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
U.S. finalizing rules to ban certain investments in AI tech in China
President Joe Biden’s administration says it’s finalizing rules to curb investments in AI and other tech sectors in China, Reuters reports. The rules, which were first proposed in June by the U.S. Treasury and directed by an executive order President Biden signed in August 2023, cover certain AI systems, quantum information systems, and semiconductors and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MoneyGram replaces CEO weeks after massive customer data breach
The CEO's removal comes soon after the company confirmed it had lost an unspecified amount of personal customer information in an earlier September cyberattack. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Brightwave’s AI agent helps asset managers find signal, and it’s fundraising fast
The finance world is constantly looking for signal: indicators of a buying or selling opportunity in the markets. Brightwave says its AI agent can help. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024: Day 2
Day 2 of TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 has arrived, and the energy from day 1 is still electrifying across San Francisco! We’re only partway through the 250+ speakers, 200+ sessions, and 350+ exhibiting startups at Disrupt. As expected, yesterday saw over 10,000 tech enthusiasts, startup founders, and investors filling Moscone West with energy — we’re not […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GMI Cloud secures $82M in Series A for its GPU cloud infrastructure
The AI boom has spurred massive demand for graphics processing units (GPUs). As many enterprises seek to integrate AI technology into their systems, providers of GPU infrastructure are helping businesses get access to the chips they need. In the latest development, GMI Cloud, a San Jose-based startup that provides GPU cloud infrastructure, has raised an […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tabnine launches its code review agent
AI code assistant company Tabnine is launching a code review agent today that aims to help developers stick to their organization’s best practices and standards. It allows organizations to codify these rules either by providing the agent with documentation or by pointing it at a set of “golden code repos.” The agent will passively review […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Infinite Machine raises $9M a16z-led round to convince Americans to buy scooters
Infinite Machine turned many heads when it revealed its metallic, cyberpunk-style electric scooter in 2023. Now one of Silicon Valley’s biggest venture capital firms is backing the startup’s vision of filling the world’s cities with Infinite Machine’s futuristic vehicles in a big way. The New York-based startup has closed a $9 million seed round led […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Salesforce AI chatbot Agentforce hits general availability
Salesforce on Tuesday announced the general availability of its AI agent development platform called Agentforce. The offering is, in essence, a low- or no-code method for deploying chatbots for employees or customers. Salesforce says the new platform is already being used by firms including OpenTable, Saks, and Wiley “Agentforce doesn’t depend on human engagement to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Margaret Atwood’s verdict on AI poetry is in — and it’s not good
Bestselling author Margaret Atwood isn’t worried about the indefatigable rise of generative AI — telling Reuters that she’s too old to be concerned about its impact on the arts. Her remarks follow a petition calling for an end to the unlicensed use of creative works to train AI models that’s now amassed over 31,000 signatures. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads is testing the ‘trending now’ view in Japan
After rolling out the trending topics feature in the U.S. earlier this year, Threads is now testing out the feature in Japan. “Lots of folks outside the US have been asking for the “Trending Now” feature, and we’re working on bringing it to more countries. This week, we’ll begin testing the feature in Japan with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google, DPI backs Moniepoint in $110M round
Google’s African Investment Fund is a new investor in African fintech Moniepoint, which just closed $110 million in new financing. The Series C round, which involved an equity sale, per Bloomberg, was led by Development Partners International’s African Development Partners (ADP) III fund. Other investors, including African private equity firm Verod Capital and global impact […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Infraspeak raises $19.5M to bring collaboration to facilities management
It might not be the sexiest of subjects, but facilities management is central to any business that has a physical premises — the bigger that footprint becomes, the more complex it gets. Portuguese startup Infraspeak has set out to address that with an all-in-one platform that gives facility managers and associated service providers insights and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Emidat is building a tool to clean up construction by automating environmental reporting
Fixing the climate crisis is a vast, world-sized puzzle. But one particularly large piece of this ginormous conundrum is construction and real estate — which collectively amount for around 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Enter Munich-based data startup Emidat, which has built a software platform for automating the generation of validated Environmental Product Declaration […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Krafton backs IMM Investment’s maiden India fund
The India unit of gaming firm Krafton has backed IMM Investment’s maiden India fund as an anchor limited partner as the battle royale BGMI-maker broadens its investment bets in the South Asian market. Seoul-based IMM Investment, an early backer of Krafton and roughly half of South Korea’s unicorn startups, has made the first close for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Despite risks, Vinod Khosla is optimistic about AI
Vinod Khosla has no doubts that humanity’s future with AI is bright.The Sun Microsystems co-founder turned prominent investor predicts that “the need to work will go away” almost entirely thanks to AI. “Almost all expertise, it doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about primary care physicians, mental health therapists, oncologists, structural engineers or accountants—all […]
Foster sisters explain why they haven’t invested in AI
Oversubscribed Ventures co-founder Sara Foster (above right) made a confession on stage on Monday at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “I don’t even have ChatGPT on my phone,” she said. It’s an unexpected comment from an investor, given that ChatGPT is arguably the most influential product to launch this decade. But what makes the Foster sisters different […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google-backed Open Cloud Coalition launches to lobby European lawmakers
Europe has a new lobbying body, one with a self-stated mission to “improve competition, transparency, and resilience” in the cloud computing sector. The Open Cloud Coalition (OCC) counts 10 members at launch, the most notable one being Google, supported by cloud providers spanning international and local markets including Centerprise International, Civo, Gigas, ControlPlane, DTP Group, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Visa Everywhere Initiative: The Ultimate Fintech Pitch Competition
Fintech startups inspire—Visa enables. Join us at the Visa Emerging Innovators (VEI) program, where we celebrate the next generation of fintech pioneers. This year, we are thrilled to announce that we are doubling the prize to an incredible $100K! Visa has carefully selected five visionary startups from around the world, each poised to pitch their […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Post-Synapse meltdown, this is the state of the banking-as-a-service industry
The bankruptcy of banking-as-a-service (BaaS) fintech Synapse shows just how treacherous things are for the often-interdependent fintech world when one key player hits trouble. Synapse’s problems have hurt and taken down a number of other startups and affected millions of consumers all over the country. Many believe regulatory clarity is needed moving forward. One analyst […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Erin and Sara Foster from Oversubscribed Ventures talk consumer, culture and creators
Erin and Sara Foster, two of the venture industry’s most famous sisters, sit down alongside business partner Phil Schwarz at Disrupt 2024 to talk about their VC firm Oversubscribed Ventures, consumer investing, culture curation, and what it means to be a creator in the modern age. Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What’s driving the boom in national interest startups in Silicon Valley?
One fascinating trend these days is an area that has a number of names: national-interest startups, American Dynamism, New World. These startups are creating technologies in areas that are meant to be built, used, and create jobs in the country of origin, like the US. They cover everything from aerospace and critical infrastructure to government, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This veteran couldn’t share 3D scans of a burnt naval ship, so he created a startup that can
In the summer of 2020, a fire broke out onboard a naval ship docked in San Diego Bay. For more than four days, the USS Bonhomme Richard burned as helicopters dropped buckets of water from above, boats spewed water from below, and firefighters rushed onboard to control the blaze. Before the embers had even cooled, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Vinod Khosla calls out Trump’s ‘depraved values’ and Musk’s role in spreading misinformation
Storied investor Vinod Khosla, founder and partner at Khosla Ventures, and more recently one of the first checks into OpenAI veered off topic during a Monday interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 focused on the future of AI. After talking about AI’s future and risks, he took a moment to deliver a stringent warning about the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MabLab’s improved drug and drink testing strips could make for safer streets and venues
For anyone who parties or goes out dancing, the risk of accidentally taking adulterated drugs is a real one. MabLab, presenting today on the Startup Battlefield stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, has created a testing strip that detects the five most common and dangerous additives in minutes. Co-founders Vienna Sparks and Skye Lam met in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The global future of remote work, according to three HR startup leaders
Software is eating the world, and companies are hiring global talent more frequently than ever. They want to be able to hire talent in foreign countries and retain employees who want to move abroad. That’s why a new wave of global HR startups are helping companies hire people all around the world with local contracts. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Step aside, Zoom fatigue, VRTL wants to make virtual fan events fun again
VRTL founder Courtney Jeffries describes herself as a “recovering sports executive.” “That was my entire career before I threw it away to chase down my startup dreams,” Jeffries told TechCrunch. After playing softball at the University of Washington, she spent almost 20 years working in marketing and sales for teams like the Oakland Raiders and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DGLegacy wants to help you ensure your loved ones inherit your assets
DGLegacy, a company that’s designed a digital legacy planning and inheritance app, pitched today at TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield to detail how it’s helping people ensure that their loved ones inherit their assets. Founded by husband-and-wife duo Ana Mineva and Peter Minev, DGLegacy allows users to proactively inform their beneficiaries of their assets and ensure […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Vinod Khosla calls SB 1047 author ‘clueless’ and ‘not qualified’ to regulate the real dangers of AI
Vinod Khosla said the author of California’s recently vetoed AI bill, SB 1047, was clueless about the real dangers of AI, and not qualified to have an opinion on global national security issues. The comment about state Senator Scott Wiener was made during an on-stage interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “He’s clueless about the real […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Postmates founder Bastian Lehmann is hungry for more with Tiptop, a new fintech startup
After selling Postmates to Uber for $2.65 billion, Bastian Lehmann is back with Tiptop, a startup that wants to unlock the monetary value of things you already own. Tiptop is building an instant trade-in program that is available at checkout. Retailers can integrate Tiptop as a payment option and Tiptop handles everything from quotes to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How family offices can get more startup exposure, with Eti Lazarian and Bruce Lee
Family offices have gotten increasingly active in investing in startups both directly and through their VC investors. But what are they looking for? While no two family offices are the same, this session with Elle Family Office Family Office Principle Eti Lazarian and Keebeck Wealth Management CEO & Founder Bruce Lee digs into family office […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How Advex creates synthetic data to improve machine vision for manufacturers
Data is pretty much everything when it comes to training AI systems, but accessing enough data to produce quality products that live up to their promise is a major challenge, even for companies with the deepest of pockets. This is a problem that Advex AI is setting out to address, using generative AI and synthetic […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists: MabLab
Maker of 5-in-1, at-home rapid tests to screen for laced drugs and spiked drinks.Results delivered in under three minutes, potentially saving over 100,000 lives annually and preventing an additional 5 million hospitalizations every year.© 2024 TechCrunch.
Beyond the Hype: Building AI that Means Business
Join Iliana Quiñonez, Director of North America Startups Customer Engineering, in a thought-provoking conversation with a visionary founder navigating the frontier of AI. Together, they’ll explore the pivotal growth milestones that define successful startups. This insightful discussion will uncover the transformative potential and power of AI, offering valuable insights for leaders looking to stay at […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists: Advex AI
Helps the world’s largest manufacturers reduce costs and improve efficiency by providing highly reliable computer vision models in hours.Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky Mastodon: https://tcrn.ch/mstdn Read more: https://techcrunch.com/© 2024 TechCrunch.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists: Stitch3D
Offers a SaaS platform for hosting, processing, viewing, analyzing, and sharing large volumes of LIDAR point cloud data, all in a real-time collaborative 3D viewer.Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky Mastodon: https://tcrn.ch/mstdn Read more: https://techcrunch.com/© 2024 TechCrunch.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists: DGLegacy
Ensures that in the case of an unforeseen event, your assets won’t be lost and your loved ones would be able to claim their rightful ownership with a digital legacy planning and inheritance app. Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky […]© 2024 TechCrunch.For personal use only.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists: VRTL
A virtual venue for entertainment organizations to deliver and scale in-person fan experiences to a remote, global audience, for greater lifetime values and data collection.Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky Mastodon: https://tcrn.ch/mstdn Read more: https://techcrunch.com/© 2024 TechCrunch.
Microsoft accuses Google of ‘shadow campaign’ to influence cloud regulation in Europe
The European cloud wars are heating up. Microsoft has accused its old foe Google of waging a clandestine war against the Azure cloud company, to curry favor with policymakers and antitrust authorities in Europe. In a blog post today, Microsoft deputy general counsel Rima Alaily pre-empted the imminent launch of a new lobby group called […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Vinod Khosla, legendary VC, looks into the past to see the future of AI
Watch legendary investor Vinod Khosla’s electrifying fireside chat on the future of AI at Disrupt 2024. Khosla shares his perspective on the groundbreaking opportunities AI unlocks — along with the seismic disruptions it will unleash. Given Khosla’s penchant for straight talk and his proven ability over the years to see around corners, you’ll want to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Three venture capitalists try to find the consensus of crypto VC
In the crypto space, it’s time to scale. All signs point toward a period of growth with high market prices, a more favorable regulatory landscape and a large ecosystem of scaling solutions that work. Watch as TechCrunch Reporter Romain Dillet talks with NFX General Partner Morgan Beller, Galaxy Ventures General Partner Will Nuelle, and Dragonfly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bret Taylor’s customer service AI startup just raised $175M
Sierra, the AI startup co-founded by OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor, has raised $175 million in a funding round that values the startup at $4.5 billion. Sierra, founded by Taylor and longtime Google exec Clay Bavor, focuses on selling AI-powered customer service chatbots to brands like WeightWatchers and Sirius XM. There’s an “agent” component, as well. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Netflix’s new ‘Moments’ feature lets you save and share clips from your favorite episodes
If you’ve ever struggled to explain a scene from your favorite Netflix series or movie to a friend because you couldn’t find the clip online, the streamer just came up with a solution. Netflix launched on Monday a new clipping feature called “Moments” on its iOS app, letting you quickly save your favorite scenes. Now, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former Disney star Bridgit Mendler talks scaling connectivity and resilience for space
Former Disney Channel star and singer Bridgit Mendler took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Monday to detail how her startup, Northwood Space, is investing in a forgotten part of the space industry: ground infrastructure. Ground stations are the critical communication points for satellites to communicate with Earth. Northwood aims to mass produce ground stations, as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Solideon wants to decentralize rocket manufacturing through 3D printing
Nearly five years after COVID-19 ground the world to a halt, the global supply chain still hasn’t fully recovered. Specialty industries like space travel were particularly hard hit, given the impossibility of heading down to the corner to pick up spare rocket parts. Industries began taking a long, hard look at 3D printing as a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lessons in tackling incumbents in crowded markets every founder should know
Founders seldom have the luxury of entering a completely empty market, but what happens when the incumbents are unusually entrenched? What does it take to start a company in an industry dominated by big players and technologies that have barely changed? Watch as Quilt Founder & CEO Paul Lambert, Fumo Materials CEO Gurinder Nagra, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Level Zero Health is working on a potentially life-changing device for hormone health
Level Zero Health’s co-founders Ula Rustamova and Irene Jia are swinging for the fences. They are attempting to invent a never-achieved technology that could help millions of people. If they succeed — and there are some positive early indicators — they will create a continuous hormone monitoring medical device. Such a device could do for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nintendo tries again on mobile with a $10 Animal Crossing game arriving in December
It was a sad day when Nintendo announced that its free mobile game, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, would soon shut down. The app is ending its service on November 28; however, it’s also getting a revival. This time, though, it’ll be a paid game. On December 3, Nintendo is launching a paid version of the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpiralWave’s pulsing plasma towers transform carbon dioxide into liquid fuel
If there’s anything that came from one of the worlds that was promised to us in “Back to the Future” or “The Jetsons” or innumerable other sci-fi franchises, it’s what SpiralWave co-founder and CEO Abed Bukhari showed me on a video call. Purple-tinged waves of white plasma rhythmically rose and vanished within a metal-screened column, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Riding the wave: the future of space investing with Stoke Space COO Kelly Hennig
Launch has already been reinvented over the last decade, but why stop there? Demand for space is growing as fast as launch cadences permit, but there is opportunity beyond making rockets and vehicles. Startups will likely define the future of launch-related software, automation, and operations, if these founders have anything to say about it. Watch […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Wiz CEO explains why he turned down a $23 billion deal
Assaf Rappaport, the co-founder and CEO of cloud security startup Wiz, said that turning down a $23 billion offer from Google was “the toughest decision ever,” but justified it by saying the company can get even bigger and reach $100 billion because cloud security is the future. “I think we did the right choice,” Rappaport […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ForestGuard is building the ‘Internet of Trees’ to detect fires even earlier
Many startups have taken aim at the problem of early wildfire detection and prevention, but Turkey-based ForestGuard’s space-based system could give it an edge over competitors. ForestGuard, which presented onstage today as part of the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt, was founded by trained architects Muhammed Ali Örnek and Suat Batuhan Esirger, who witnessed the need for early […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Wiz CEO says company was targeted with deepfake attack that used his voice
Even cybersecurity companies aren’t safe from deepfake attacks. Speaking on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, Wiz’s CEO and co-founder Assaf Rappaport, who recently turned down a $23 billion acquisition offer from Google, noted that his employees had been targeted by a deepfake attack just two weeks ago. “Dozens of my employees got a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why AI regulation is every startup’s business, with Andreessen Horowitz Martin Casado
Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Martin Casado has lived the experience that every founder dreams about. He invented a new technology that radically altered the way computer networks are built and sold his startup for $1.26 billion when it was barely out of stealth (the second startup he sold). He’s since gone on to have an […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How investors can help startups compete for lucrative government and defense contracts
Government and defense are relying more and more on commercial services, but startups face a real challenge entering this highly regulated and formal side of the industry. How can young, lean companies compete for contracts and attention with primes and more established organizations — and how can investors help? Watch as True Anomaly CEO & […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cislunar: The Next Frontier
Cislunar space – the region from Earth out to the Moon – is quickly becoming the next frontier for commercial space activity and a gateway for future space exploration. This panel will explore how the convergence of cutting-edge technology, innovative business models, and strategic partnerships is turning bold visions for the Moon – from space […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
NitroFix wants to use electricity to make ammonia without the pollution
Ammonia may conjure thoughts of off odors, but the world is entirely dependent on the smelly stuff as a fertilizer and for use in myriad other industries. Problem is, nearly all the ammonia produced today is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Making the compound releases more than 450 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A mysterious new image generation model has appeared
A mysterious new image generation model is beating models from Midjourney, Black Forest Labs, and OpenAI on the crowdsourced Artificial Analysis benchmark. The model, which goes by the name “red_panda,” is around 40 Elo points ahead of the next-best-ranking model, Black Forest Labs’ Flux1.1 Pro, on Artificial Analysis’ text-to-image leaderboard. Artificial Analysis uses Elo, a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bridgit Mendler on moving from Disney star to founding spacetech startup Northwood
Former Disney Channel star Bridgit Mendler wants to transform one of the least sexy segments of the space industry: ground stations. Founded in 2024, Mendler is the CEO and Co-Founder of Northwood Space, a spacetech startup looking to expand access to space by rethinking shared infrastructure for satellite backhaul. In this fireside chat with TechCrunch […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
2024 Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists: NitroFix
Aims to reduce carbon footprints by optimizing ammonia production with zero emissions, relying solely on renewable electricity, water, and air.Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky Mastodon: https://tcrn.ch/mstdn Read more: https://techcrunch.com/© 2024 TechCrunch.
How startups can find, and keep, product-market fit in 2024
Every startup knows that they need to find product market fit. But once they do find true resonance between what they are offering and what there is demand for, how should a startup ensure that they do not lose the product-market fit that they have gained? Finding PMF is one thing; maintaining it is another. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Intelligence is coming to the EU in April 2025
Remember when Apple blamed EU tech rules — and more specifically the Digital Markets Act — to justify the fact that Apple Intelligence wouldn’t be available in the European Union? Maybe that was just an attempt to turn EU users against their regulators as Apple Intelligence is coming to the EU in April 2025 along […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple updates iMac with M4 Chip, 16GB RAM starting at $1,299
Apple kicked off “Mac week” by unveiling a refresh to its perennial favorite all-in-one, the iMac. The big news here is the addition of the newish M4 chip, which the company says is 2x more powerful than the original M1 iMac. The new desktop notably arrives alongside the general availability of Apple Intelligence, which debuts […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Intelligence goes live with iOS 18.1 update
Apple on Monday confirmed the general availability of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1. The point update is most notable for its inclusion of the first batch of Apple Intelligence features, which the company announced at WWDC back in June. However, only select Apple devices are equipped to run the new generative AI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How AI and XR Will Revolutionize All of Your Devices
Join us for an engaging panel session where Ziad Asghar, SVP & GM, XR, Qualcomm, will explore the transformative potential of on-device AI and XR technologies in creating a unified and immersive experience across all your personal tech devices. Discover how the integration of smartphones, smartwatches, AR glasses, and PCs can elevate your daily digital […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Wiz CEO and Co-Founder Assaf Rappaport: From Zero-Day to Hero
Fresh off a $1 billion funding round, Wiz has shot to fame as one of the fastest-growing, impactful cloud security startups ever. And one of the most sought after: earlier this year it rebuffed a $23 billion M&A offer from Google. Watch and learn to Wiz’s CEO Assaf Rappaport talk about his journey as a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rocket Lab Founder Peter Beck reveals his vision for the space industry’s future
As the founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, Peter Beck is a familiar face to anyone in the space industry. But the company’s ambitions go far beyond its popular Electron launch vehicle: Beck believes that to thrive, perhaps even to survive, space companies will have to become fully integrated one-stop shops. Hear Beck discuss Rocket […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What you need to raise a Series A today, according to three VC partners
If you aren’t building the next foundation model AI company, raising a Series A today is likely harder than it has been in some time. So, to help founders building at the Seed-stage prepare for their first lettered-round, we’ve rounded up investors to explain what they – and their firms – are looking for in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google expands AI Overviews in Search to more than 100 countries
Google Search’s AI Overviews, which display a snapshot of information at the top of the results page, are beginning to roll out in more than 100 countries and territories, the company announced on Monday. Google first launched the feature in the United States in May before slowly rolling out to additional regions. Google says AI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple’s Magic Mouse, Keyboard, and TrackPad finally get USB-C
Apple’s EU mandated transition from Lightning to USB-C has already affected most of its hardware. There have been a few stragglers, however. Near the top of the list are its desktop accessories, the Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Trackpad. On Monday, the company finally addressed the issue. Along with an M4 refresh to the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Generative AI could cause 10 billion iPhones worth of e-waste per year by 2030
The immense and quickly advancing computing requirements of AI models could lead to the industry discarding the e-waste equivalent of over 10 billion iPhones per year by 2030, researchers project. In a paper published in the journal Nature, researchers from Cambridge University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences take a shot at predicting just how […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Stacklok donates its Minder supply chain security project to the OpenSSF
Stacklok, the open source software supply chain company founded by Kubernetes co-creator Craig McLuckie and Sigstore creator Luke Hinds, is donating Minder, one of its key projects, to the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF). Minder helps development teams set up a system of proactive checks and policies to minimize supply chain risks by enforcing best […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How Apple Intelligence changes the way you use Siri on your iPhone
Here’s a look at what’s going to change with Siri, and what the introduction of Apple Intelligence will allow you to do with the digital assistant. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Aerospace’s Future of Space pitch competition
TechCrunch and The Aerospace Corporation once again joined forces at the Space Challenge pitch competition at Disrupt 2024. The contest is designed to foster growth and development of innovative startups poised to transform commercial space operations. By engaging the founder and innovator community, venture capitalists, and the commercial industry, this event will cast a wide […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to enable Apple Intelligence on your iPhone
If you are on the developer beta, you can only use Apple Intelligence features if your language is set to U.S. English and region is set to U.S. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple unveils M4-powered iMac
Apple kicked off “Mac week” by unveiling a refresh to its perennial favorite all-in-one, the iMac. The big news here is the addition of the newish M4 chip, which the company says is 2x more powerful than the original M1 iMac. The new desktop notably arrives alongside the general availability of Apple Intelligence, which debuts […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Intelligence exits beta
Apple on Monday confirmed the general availability of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1. The point update is most notable for its inclusion of the first batch of Apple Intelligence features, which the company announced at WWDC back in June. However, only select Apple devices are equipped to run the new generative AI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Introducing the 2024 Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists at TechCrunch Disrupt
We can’t keep this secret any longer! The time has come to unveil this year’s Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists who will compete in a winner-takes-all pitch competition on the Disrupt Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. TechCrunch editorial hand-selected 200 startups, out of thousands of applicants, to comprise the Startup Battlefield 200. This year, TechCrunch […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Police operation claims takedown of prolific Redline and Meta password stealers
Authorities have gained 'full access' to the servers used by the two notorious infostealers © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
U.K. man who used AI to create child sexual abuse imagery sentenced to 18 years in prison
In what some are describing as a landmark case, a U.K. man who used AI to turn normal pictures of children into sexual abuse imagery has been sentenced to 18 years in jail. Hugh Nelson, a 27-year-old from Bolton, used the app Daz 3D to create 3D “characters” from innocent photographs of kids. In some […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What are AI ‘world models,’ and why do they matter?
World models, also known as world simulators, are being touted by some as the next big thing in AI. AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs has raised $230 million to build “large world models,” and DeepMind hired one of the creators of OpenAI’s video generator, Sora, to work on “world simulators.” But what the heck […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here’s what’s happening on day 1 of TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Welcome to day 1 of TechCrunch Disrupt 2024! We’re beyond excited to have you here with us as we kick off this incredible event. Get ready for three action-packed days of immersive tech experiences! Learn from industry leaders onstage and in hands-on sessions, network with fellow innovators, meet the startups shaping the future of technology, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Read AI raises $50M to integrate its bot with Slack, email, and more
There are plenty of startups now that have AI bots that will listen to your meetings, transcribe them, make notes, and create insights. That means companies in this area must differentiate themselves by offering additional feature sets and integrations. Read AI, the startup founded by former Foursquare CEO David Shim along with Rob Williams and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Remote ropes in Carta to simplify equity grants for distributed teams
A few months after acquiring equity management company Easop, Remote, an HR platform for managing geographically distributed teams, is doubling down on its focus on managing equity compensation with a new product, Remote Equity. Remote already makes it easy for companies to work with talent all around the globe. Companies can hire workers based anywhere […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
We finally have an ‘official’ definition for open source AI
There’s finally an “official” definition of open source AI. The Open Source Initiative (OSI), a long-running institution aiming to define and “steward” all things open source, today released version 1.0 of its Open Source AI Definition (OSAID). The product of several years of collaboration with academia and industry, the OSAID is intended to offer a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
xAI adds image understanding capabilities to Grok
Elon Musk-owned xAI has added image-understanding capabilities to its Grok AI model. With that, paid users on X social platform can upload an image and ask the AI chatbot questions about it. One of the xAI employees and the official Grok handle posted about this update on X. In a separate post, Musk said that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained
This story has been updated throughout with more details as the story has developed. We will continue to do so as the case and dispute are ongoing. The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Filigran secures $35M for its ceybersecurity threat management suite
Paris-based startup Filigran is fast becoming the next cybersecurity rocketship to track: The company just raised a $35 million Series B round, only a few months after it raised $16 million in a Series A round. Filigran’s main product is OpenCTI, an open-source threat intelligence platform that lets companies or public sector organizations import threat […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Indian fintech Slice seals bank merger
Indian fintech startup Slice has completed its merger with North East Small Finance Bank, marking a rare instance of a startup successfully entering India’s tightly regulated banking sector. The merger, first proposed last year, transforms the Bengaluru-based startup into a banking entity, following months of regulatory scrutiny that has reshaped India’s fintech landscape. Slice, which […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instagram is lowering video quality for unpopular videos
The popularity of an Instagram video can affect its actual video quality: According to Adam Mosseri (the Meta executive who leads Instagram and Threads), videos that are more popular get shown in higher quality, while less popular videos get shown in lower quality. In a video (via The Verge), Mosseri said Instagram tries to show […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Founders and VCs back a pan-European C corp, but an ‘EU Inc’ has a rocky road ahead
It’s become a common refrain in political discourse: Europe needs to take radical action to remain competitive. On the long list of potential reforms, one that’s gaining particular traction is a new, EU-wide corporate status for innovative companies. Known (somewhat obscurely) as the “28th regime,” the innovation is being billed as Europe’s answer to a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The next Mac mini might be nearly as small as an Apple TV
The Mac mini will be getting an upgrade this week, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The mini is Apple’s desktop computer (really just a small gray box) positioned between the consumer iMac and the company’s professional-grade desktops. The new mini is reportedly getting smaller — nearly the size of an Apple TV set-top box. It […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta releases an ‘open’ version of Google’s podcast generator
Meta has released an “open” implementation of the viral generate-a-podcast feature in Google’s NotebookLM. Called NotebookLlama, the project uses Meta’s own Llama models for much of the processing, unsurprisingly. Like NotebookLM, it can generate back-and-forth, podcast-style digests of text files uploaded to it. NotebookLlama first creates a transcript from a file — e.g. a PDF […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Merlin Solar bets twisty panels will help it land on rooftops everywhere
The startup uses standard silicon solar cells but connects them using bendy materials, giving them better durability and more flexibility. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Arcade, a new AI product creation platform, designed this necklace
Mariam Naficy, the founder of cosmetics retailer Eve and design marketplace Minted, has a long history of supporting independent artists and helping them sell their products. Her latest venture, Arcade AI, is a new type of marketplace that puts creative control directly into the hands of users. The generative AI platform, which launched its beta […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Get Ready! TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 kicks off tomorrow and ticket prices increase
We’re just 24 hours away from one of the most highly anticipated tech events of the year! Excitement is building as we prepare to welcome the global tech community to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024! Brace yourself for a week of vibrant energy lighting up San Francisco! Disrupt 2024 runs from October 28-30, but the excitement will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Jon McNeill’s insights on Tesla’s robotaxi and why EV startups fail
Jon McNeill — a former Tesla and Lyft executive and current CEO at DVx Ventures — spread the word last week at the World Business Forum on what he calls the “Tesla innovation method” of radical simplification. After his presentation, we sat down to chat about Tesla’s automation goals, its new robotaxi, and why building […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
NASDAQ CEO Adena Friedman isn’t surprised we haven’t seen a resurgence in startup IPOs yet
While many venture investors, and likely their LPs, were hoping IPOs were going to come back in 2024, that hasn’t happened and isn’t likely to in the next two months. NASDAQ CEO Adena Friedman isn’t surprised. Friedman said at Axios’s BFD event on Tuesday that while on paper the public markets have been experiencing a spectacular year […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s Whisper transcription tool has hallucination issues, researchers say
Software engineers, developers, and academic researchers have serious concerns about transcriptions from OpenAI’s Whisper, according to a report in the Associated Press. While there’s been no shortage of discussion around generative AI’s tendency to hallucinate — basically, to make stuff up — it’s a bit surprising that this is an issue in transcription, where you’d […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI denies it’s releasing a model called ‘Orion’ this year
Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re looking at OpenAI’s reported plans for its next AI model; a buzzy new messaging app that’s a hit with Gen Z; and Tim Cook discovering that you can name a group chat in iMessage. Let’s get into it. The Verge noted this week that OpenAI is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple wins $250 from Masimo in watch patent trial
A federal jury ruled Friday that Masimo smartwatches infringed Apple patents, but Apple isn’t getting a big payday. Bloomberg Law reports that the company was only seeking the statutory minimum of $250, and that’s all it was awarded. Apple’s attorney John Desmarais reportedly told jurors, “We’re not here for the money.” Instead, he said the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VC megadeals are booming — and AI is surprisingly not the top category
Ask any VC if we’re still in a venture capital bear market and that investor will almost certainly tell you no, that funding is still flowing for good companies. That might sound like spin, because anecdotes abound about how rough it still is for those raising now. And for good reason. Down rounds — that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Final Countdown: 2 days until TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 begins and ticket prices increase
We are a mere 2 days away from one of the most anticipated tech events of the year! San Francisco is about to be electrified by the global tech community. Join the crowd at Moscone West from October 28-30 (and all week) as Silicon Valley’s finest come together for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Only two days […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Hisense C2 Ultra is a well-rounded, great-looking home projector
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m new to the projector game. Anker won me over at the end of last year with its Nebula series. The Capsule prioritizes ease of use and portability, above all. While not cheap at $800, it’s a good starter projector in the sense that it’s self-contained and largely […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
User’s guide to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is three measly days away and we can’t be any more pumped. Here’s an insider’s guide to everything you need to know to have a successful Disrupt experience. Registration and early badge pickup Sunday, 10/27: 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.Early badge pickup — skip the line on Monday by grabbing your badge […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Jon McNeill’s lessons on innovation through subtraction
Before Jon McNeill was CEO at VC firm DVx Ventures, he was the president of Tesla and chief operating officer at Lyft. He helped Tesla grow its revenue run rate from $2 billion to $20 billion in 30 months, and he doubled Lyft’s revenue ahead of its IPO. He’s also on the board of GM’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
McDonald’s broken ice cream machines could get fixed faster thanks to new federal rule
McDonald’s ice cream machines have developed a lousy reputation for being broken when you visit the restaurant, largely due to strict copyright laws that only permit specially licensed technicians to legally repair them. The manufacturers have to license each technician, and they put locks on the McFlurry machines to prevent others from repairing them. However, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
NAACP launches $200 million fund of funds
The NAACP announced today NAACP Capital, a $200 million fund of funds to back fund managers focused on issues that impact people of color. The fund was conceived in partnership with Kapor Capital and Kapor Center, along with nine other venture fund managers. Last year, Crunchbase found that Black founders raised less than 1% of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Yikes’: While gaming, Musk inadvertently broadcasts ‘scary’ near-abort of Starship booster landing
Elon Musk occasionally posts clips of his video game plays to his social media platform X — but a recent clip includes background audio of a SpaceX engineer telling Musk how the most recent Starship flight test was “one second away” from an abort. The clip, posted on Friday, was caught by Reuters’ Joey Roulette on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FTC hits Lyft with $2.1M penalty for luring drivers with false earnings claims
Lyft has agreed to a $2.1 million settlement proposed by the FTC over the car-hailing company’s “deceptive earnings claims about how much money drivers could expect to make.” As documented in the FTC’s complaint document, Lyft systematically inflated the incomes it advertised to drivers it was attempting to recruit in 2021 and 2022. For instance, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What is Apple Intelligence, when is it coming and who will get it?
Apple Intelligence was designed to leverage things that generative AI already does well, like text and image generation, to improve upon existing features. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Not all startups mourn IPOs, but liquidity still must flow
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Several startups announced new rounds this week without disclosing their valuation. This doesn’t mean that these were down rounds, but rather it confirms that our collective focus […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rental car startup Kyte slashes staff and shrinks to two markets in bid for survival
Rental car startup Kyte, which bills itself as the “best alternative to Hertz,” is pulling out of almost all of its major markets in the United States and has cut its workforce roughly in half in a bid to survive after exploring a sale earlier this year. The company is shrinking its operations to focus […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Prominent crypto critic says someone offered bribes to take down a blog post
Crypto critic Molly White received emails from a purported lawyer and someone working for a “reputation management company” offering bribes in exchange for the takedown of a blog post about the arrest of an alleged crypto fraudster. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The fediverse is getting its own TikTok competitor called Loops
Similar to how Mastodon offers an open source, distributed version of X, the fediverse is getting its own TikTok competitor. This week, an app called Loops began accepting signups on its new platform for sharing short, looping videos. Still in the early stages, Loops is not yet open sourced, nor has it completed its integration […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI says it won’t release a model called Orion this year
OpenAI says that it doesn’t intend to release an AI model code-named Orion this year, countering recent reporting from The Verge on the AI company’s roadmap. “We don’t have plans to release a model code-named Orion this year,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch via email. “We do plan to release a lot of other great technology.” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Techcrunch Disrupt 2024 starts Monday — our partners have helped us create an unforgettable experience that you shouldn’t miss
We’d like to thank SAP for their support. Make sure to catch their Roundtable session: “Visionary Companies Embrace Innovation to Thrive in the Fast-Paced Economy” on Tuesday and Wednesday. Speakers from The Webby Awards and Silicon Zombies will be on panels at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 Breakout sessions, and we thank those companies for their support. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Classic Christmas song gets authorized Spanish reworking thanks to ‘responsible’ AI
In the decades following its 1958 release, Brenda Lee’s rockabilly-tinged “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” has attained status as an all-time holiday classic. Sixty-six years later, it’s getting a Spanish language rework courtesy of “responsible” AI. Universal on Friday announced the release of “Noche Buena y Navidad,” which utilized SoundLabs AI’s MicDrop technology to reconstruct […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YC startup Pharos lands a $5M seed led by Felicis to bring AI to quality reporting
Medical and administrative staff are increasingly overwhelmed with piles of paperwork they have to fill out every day. Dozens, if not hundreds, of startups, are seeing opportunities to make those bureaucratic processes less burdensome with the help of generative AI. These companies are building AI medical scribes, platforms for pre-authorizing health insurance payments, and products […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This robot showcases ‘exceptional dexterity’ as it loads a dishwasher
NeoDavid has changed a lot in the last 14 years. A new video of the humanoid robot from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics showcases its “exceptional dexterity.” neoDavid’s finger joints can be controlled individually, which allows the robot to be seen loading and unloading a dishwasher as well […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple upgrades TestFlight with redesigned invites, testing criteria, and more
Alongside the Apple Intelligence-powered iOS 18 updates for consumers and developers, Apple is rolling out a sizable refresh to its app testing platform for developers, TestFlight. Developers will have more control over who can join their beta and how an app’s new features are shared with testers. They’ll also be able to view metrics related […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Waymo raises $5.6B from Alphabet, a16z, Silver Lake, and more
Waymo has closed a $5.6 billion Series C funding round led by parent company Alphabet and joined by a who’s who of Silicon Valley venture firms. Alphabet had previously announced in July that it was pledging another $5 billion to Waymo, but was mum on the specifics, saying only that it was a “multi-year” commitment. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity says it’s now serving 100M search queries a week
Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of Perplexity, says that the AI-powered search engine is now performing 100 million queries each week. Extrapolated out to a month, that’s roughly 400 million queries — up from 250 million queries in July. Perplexity’s rapid rise comes as the company teases ecommerce features, including the ability for subscribers to its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
3 days left: TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 kicks off and ticket prices increase
Only 3 days to go! Moscone West in San Francisco will host 10,000 startup and VC leaders at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 from October 28-30. This event promises to inspire, spark new ideas, and cultivate meaningful connections. Final days to lock in your savings! Don’t miss your chance — you have until October 27 at 11:59 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk reportedly chats often with Putin
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been in regular contact with Russian president Vladimir Putin since late 2022. That’s according to The Wall Street Journal, which reports that the conversations have raised national security concerns among some intelligence officials. At one point, Putin reportedly asked Musk to avoid activating Starlink, his satellite-based internet service, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple adds a menu in iOS 18.2 to change default apps including messages and calls
Apple released iOS 18.2 as a developer beta users earlier this week. While there was a bunch of AI goodie shipped with this version — including Gemmoji, Image Playground, and ChatGPT integration — the company also shipped a new default menu to change your default apps. And it’s not just limited to the web browser […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Screenable’s app turns any iPhone into a starter phone for kids
A new app called Screenable will help parents introduce their children to technology by turning an iPhone or iPad into a starter phone. The app is designed to grow over time with a child, as it offers different modes for kids of different ages. For starters, the app’s “Dumb Phone” mode essentially turns an iPhone […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Airdog’s founders are back with a precision-strike drone meant for modern warfare
The war in Ukraine has shown that warfare changes by the day. It’s also clear that the tech used to make war today is costly: While larger countries can afford legions of tanks, helicopters, and precision-strike systems, smaller nations find themselves scrambling for cheaper ways to defend themselves. Origin, a new defense tech startup out of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube brings its affilate program to India, partners with Walmart-owned Flipkart
YouTube is bringing its affiliate program to India so creators can tag products in their videos and earn referral money. The company is partnering with Walmart-owned Flipkart and fashion and lifestyle e-commerce service Myntra, which is owned by Flipkart to open up their product catalogs to creators. The company said that India, YouTube’s biggest user […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google Calendar gets a design refresh along with dark mode
Google said Wednesday that it is revamping the Google Calendar’s web interface following the Material Design 3 guidelines. The update also includes support for dark mode. The updated elements include controls like button, dialogs, and a sidebar that are more “modern and accessible.” according to the company. Screenshots on the Google Workspace blog suggest that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google Calendar gets a desgin refresh along with dark mode
Google said Wednesday that it is revamping the Google Calendar’s web interface following the Material Design 3 guidelines. The update also includes support for dark mode. The updated elements include controls like button, dialogs, and a sidebar that are more “modern and accessible.” according to the company. Screenshots on the Google Workspace blog suggest that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI reportedly plans to release its Orion AI model by December
OpenAI is reportedly planning to release its next frontier AI model, codenamed Orion inside the company, by December of this year, The Verge reported on Thursday. Unlike previous releases, the company reportedly plans to release the model gradually to trusted partners before a broader rollout through ChatGPT. An OpenAI spokesperson tells TechCrunch the report is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok accounts are becoming divorce fodder
When Kat and Mike Stickler divorced, their biggest challenge was dividing a shared TikTok account with millions of followers that generated significant income, and they aren’t alone, reports the WSJ. A growing number of couples — and divorce attorneys — are grappling with how to assess the value of social media accounts when a couple […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VW spinoff Scout reveals its EV vision and it includes a model with a gas-powered generator
Scout Motors, the Volkswagen Group spinoff, unveiled Thursday two EVs it hopes will hook American customers with modern-meets-rugged styling that downplays digital and embraces the mechanical. The catch? The company will also offer variants to its all-electric Scout Traveler SUV and Scout Terra Truck that will come equipped with a built-in gas-powered generator using a system […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Scout reveals its EV vision and it includes a model with a gas-powered generator
Scout Motors, the Volkswagen Group spinoff, unveiled Thursday two EVs it hopes will hook American customers with modern-meets-rugged styling that downplays digital and embraces the mechanical. The catch? The company will also offer variants to its all-electric Scout Traveler SUV and Scout Terra Truck that will come equipped with a built-in gas-powered generator using a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Blue Origin certifies second capsule for suborbital space tourism flights
Blue Origin’s carried out a successful uncrewed certification mission of its second New Shepard ship on Wednesday, as the company looks to effectively double the number of tourists it can fly to suborbital space and back. The RSS Kármán Line capsule is named for the imaginary boundary at 100 kilometers of altitude separating the atmosphere […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Embattled Astra scores DOD contract to develop point-to-point cargo delivery from space
Don’t count out Astra Space just yet. The company, which was taken private again earlier this year for a sliver of its former value, has landed a new contract with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to support the development of a next-gen launch system for time-sensitive space missions. The contract, which the DIU awarded under […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Joby launches $200M public offering ahead of 2025 commercial eVTOL release
Electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle startup Joby Aviation has launched a public offering to sell up to $200 million of its shares of common stock, per a regulatory filing. Joby said it will use the proceeds from the raise — together with its existing cash — to fund its certification and manufacturing efforts, prepare […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How the ransomware attack at Change Healthcare went down: A timeline
A hack on UnitedHealth-owned tech giant Change Healthcare likely stands as one of the biggest data breaches of U.S. medical data in history. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lumen Orbit closed one of the biggest rounds from Y Combinator’s last cohort
Lumen Orbit has closed an oversubscribed, eight-figure seed round of more than $10 million, making it one of, if not the, hottest deal of the most recent Y Combinator batch, a source familiar with the details told TechCrunch. The Redmond, Washington-based startup is pursuing a moonshot idea to build a network of data centers in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘They wish this technology didn’t exist’: Perplexity responds to News Corp’s lawsuit
Perplexity shot back at media companies skeptical of AI’s benefits in a blog post Thursday, responding to News Corp’s lawsuit filed against the startup earlier this week. The lawsuit alleged Perplexity engaged in large-scale copyright violations against Dow Jones and the NY Post. Several other media organizations – including Forbes, The New York Times, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UnitedHealth says Change Healthcare data breach affects over 100 million people in America
Health insurance giant UnitedHealth blamed a ransomware gang for the data breach that included a substantial proportion of America's health data. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Electric aircraft startup Lilium has run out of money
Electric aircraft startup Lilium is shutting down after failing to raise emergency money from the German government, according to a regulatory filing. The filing comes after a series of setbacks from the German company that was once a darling in the nascent industry of electric aircraft. Lilium, which was developing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple will pay security researchers up to $1 million to hack its private AI cloud
Ahead of the debut of Apple’s private AI cloud next week, dubbed Private Cloud Compute, the technology giant says it will pay security researchers up to $1 million to find vulnerabilities that can compromise the security of its private AI cloud. In a post on Apple’s security blog, the company said it would pay up […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google adds new disclosures for AI photos, but it’s still not obvious at first glance
Starting next week, the Google Photos app will add a new disclosure for when a photo has been edited with one of its AI features, such as Magic Editor, Magic Eraser, and Zoom Enhance. When you click into a photo in Google Photos, there will now be a disclosure when you scroll to the bottom […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
49 US startups have become unicorns so far in 2024: Here’s the full list
The list includes Elon Musk’s xAI, which is already valued at a staggering $24 billion, as well as a good number of other AI startups. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla’s $25,000 EV flip-flop, explained
The idea of a $25,000 Tesla has persisted for years — in part, perhaps, because CEO Elon Musk said he was “very confident” the company could do it at an event in 2020. But on Wednesday night, during Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call, Musk said the idea of a $25,000 car with a steering wheel and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zero Motorcycles is raising $120 million
Electric motorcycle company Zero is in the process of closing a new funding round for a little bit more than $120 million, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing shows that Zero has sold around $100 million of the equity round so far from two undisclosed investors. The company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky raises $15M Series A, plans to launch subscriptions
Decentralized social app Bluesky announced on Thursday that it has raised a $15 million Series A round, following its $8 million seed raise last year. This funding comes as Bluesky sees increased growth, in part from X users who are troubled by recent changes to the block feature, as well as the move to allow […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here is Notion’s email client
Notion, as my colleagues at TechCrunch scooped earlier Thursday, is announcing an email client at its first “Make with Notion” user conference. For now, Notion Mail is in preview, and at least for the time being, it’s more of a Gmail client than a traditional email service. The idea here, Notion says, is to build […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Wayve takes to the streets of San Francisco, Elon Musk makes another robotaxi promise, and inside Pony.AI’s IPO
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Hey all, I’m back after a trip that mostly involved getting around on my own two feet. But one little, perhaps somewhat obvious observation from my time […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Native Union’s clever little combo charger just earned a spot in my travel bag
I love a clever gadget almost as much as I love saving space in my carry on. Native Union’s new Voyage charger handily ticks both boxes. It’s an unassuming puck-shaped product that’s easily stashed in a pocket or bag when folded shut. Open it up, and you get a pair of Qi2 chargers. One side […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg is joining TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
We’re excited to announce that Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of the popular blogging platform WordPress, will be taking the Disrupt Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. When Mullenweg first started working on WordPress, he was a 19-year-old jazz enthusiast and photographer in Texas who noticed the blogging software that he used had been stagnating — so he […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Vision Pro production reportedly scaled back due to disappointing demand
Apple has dramatically scaled back Vision Pro production, according to a new report from The Information. The news comes days after CEO Tim Cook admitted in an interview that the $3,500 mixed reality headset is for early adopters and “not a mass-market product.” The production slowdown is believed to be a response to disappointing sales, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Medtech Alimetry gases up with $18 million for a wearable to help diagnose gastric disorders
Gut health isn’t the most glamorous of topics, but as many as 1 in 10 people regularly suffer from gastric symptoms like nausea, bloating, or cramping after eating. Figuring out exactly what’s causing stomach misery is not easy without invasive tests. But New Zealand-based startup Alimetry has developed a wearable device that can speed up […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cafeteria raises $3M to connect brands with their most opinionated customers: teens
Brands often rely on scraping the web and monitoring social media to understand what customers are saying about them and get insights for product development. Cafeteria connects teens with brands they are interested in so they can provide feedback about strategy and product development. The startup is launching an iOS app Thursday. Before Thursday’s launch, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cafeteria raises $3M so teens can tell Nike to get Adam Sandler as a brand ambassador
Brands often rely on scraping the web and monitoring social media to understand what customers are saying about them and get insights for product development. Cafeteria is a startup that wants to connect brands to their most opinionated customers: teens. The startup is launching an iOS app today to onboard teens and connect them with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anthropic’s AI can now run and write code
Anthropic’s Claude chatbot can now write and run JavaScript code. Today, Anthropic launched a new analysis tool that helps Claude respond with what the company describes as “mathematically precise and reproducible answers.” With the tool enabled — it’s currently in preview — Claude can perform calculations and analyze data from files like spreadsheets and PDFs, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cheers lets you play matchmaker with friends
The latest addition to the dating app scene is Cheers, a newly launched matchmaking app available to users in New York City. Founded by former Instagram engineer, Sahil Ahuja, Cheers sets itself apart by offering friend-matchmaking and social posting features to facilitate new connections. Cheers (where almost everybody knows your name) puts a twist on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Concentric helps companies keep track of their sensitive data
Enterprises have a data inventory problem. The amount of data they’re collecting and storing is increasing, and that data is being spread across disparate storage buckets. Yet many organizations rely on processes that essentially amount to pencil-and-paper methods for tracking data provenance. According to one survey, more than 50% of companies use Excel spreadsheets in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This new UK startup is building classic-style cars with a modern EV twist
When U.K. custom electric car creator RBW showed off its Roadster and GT models at Monterey Car Week this year, the vehicles stunned a lot of attendees, CEO Peter Swain recently told TechCrunch. “We had four ‘wows,’ where people would go: ‘Wow, that’s beautiful. Wow, look at the interior. Wow, is it really brand new?’ […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
StrictlyVC joins its first TechCrunch Disrupt
The StrictlyVC series — known for bringing the biggest stories and key players to an audience of VCs, LPs, founders, and operators — is holding its first-ever event at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Be at Disrupt in the Deal Flow Cafe on Tuesday, October 29, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., located at Moscone West in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
New White House memo calls for agencies to protect AI from foreign adversaries
President Joe Biden on Thursday is expected to sign a memorandum detailing how intelligence and national security agencies, including the Pentagon, should use and implement guardrails around AI, reports The New York Times. The order urges keeping humans “in the loop” of AI tools that may be used as targeting weapons, and prohibits letting AI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
4 days left: The doors to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 open and ticket prices rise
Just 4 days left! Moscone West in San Francisco will be the epicenter of innovation as 10,000 startup and VC leaders gather for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 from October 28-30. This incredible conference is designed to inspire, spark innovative ideas, and create meaningful connections. Final days to save! You have until October 27 at 11:59 p.m. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snapchat brings camera shortcut to the iPhone lock screen
iPhone users with iOS 18 and later can now replace the flashlight or native camera lock screen shortcut with the Snapchat camera. Once a picture is taken or video is recorded with the shortcut, users will have to unlock their phone before sharing. Snapchat says more than 55,000 Snaps are created every second on average, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK competition regulator to investigate Alphabet’s investment in Anthropic
The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is launching a formal probe into Alphabet’s investment in AI rival, Anthropic. The investigation comes three months after the CMA confirmed it was inviting “interested parties” to comment on Alphabet’s various investments in Anthropic, which includes a reported $300 million early last year followed by another reported $2 billion. The probe […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Notion’s email product is nearing launch
Notion seems to be close to launching its email product called Notion Mail according to multiple sources. Earlier this year, Notion acquired Skiff, a privacy-focused email service and app. At the time, Skiff said that it would provide a 12-month sunset window to users so that they have enough time to migrate to a different […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
From Goodreads’ founder, Smashing debuts its AI-powered app for online readers
Smashing, a new app curating the best of the web from Goodreads co-founder Otis Chandler, is now available to the public. Like Goodreads, the app aims to create a community around content. But this time, instead of books, the focus is on web content — like news articles, blog posts, social media posts, podcasts, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After selling Anchor to Spotify, co-founders reunite to build AI educational startup Oboe
The co-founders who sold their last startup to Spotify are working on a new project: an AI-powered educational startup called Oboe backed by a $4 million seed investment. The new company, hailing from Nir Zicherman and Michael Mignano, aims to democratize access to learning the way that their prior startup, Anchor, made it possible for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK revives plan to reform data protection rules with an eye on boosting the economy
A new data bill from the U.K. Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) aims to revive several measures that failed to pass under the prior government, while rowing back on some controversial post-Brexit reforms proposed by Conservative ministers. The government reckons the “Data (Use and Access) Bill” (DUA) stands to boost the U.K. economy […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Finix raises $75 million to take on Stripe as a payment processor
Finix has been slowly chipping away at Stripe – which handles payments with millions of businesses – for years now. But after previously helping companies set up internal payment systems of their own, the startup officially became a payment processor in 2023, just like Stripe. Now, Finix is geaingr up for its biggest push against […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI networking startup Boardy raises $3M pre-seed
Boardy is an AI that meets you via a phone call and then introduces you to other humans to expand your professional network. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Supply chain startup Interos lands new customers, cash
Each year, supply chain disruptions cost the global economy trillions of dollars. In a recent McKinsey poll, nine in ten businesses said they had encountered logistics challenges over the past 12 months. Headwinds have only grown stronger as chaos reigns in key shipping corridors. Attacks on freighters continue in the Red Sea. Flooding is disrupting […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
General Catalyst raises $8B in fresh funds to back startups globally
U.S. venture capital giant General Catalyst has announced a fresh $8 billion in funds as it looks to ramp up its investments in multi-sector early-stage startups globally, with a specific focus on the U.S., Europe, and India. The capital constitutes around $4.5 billion for its “core VC funds” which spans seed and growth equity funding, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LinkedIn fined $356 million in EU for tracking ads privacy breaches
Bad news for Microsoft-owned LinkedIn in Europe where it has been reprimanded and fined €310 million for privacy violations related to its tracking ads business. The administrative penalties, which are worth around $356 million at current exchange rates, have been issued by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Vinted hits $5.4B valuation amid wave of secondary share sales in Europe
Lithuania’s Vinted has secured a new valuation of €5 billion (around $5.4 billion at current exchange rates), after the second-hand fashion marketplace closed a secondary share sale worth €340 million ($367 million). The transaction was led by private equity giant TPG, with other new participants including Baillie Gifford, FJ Labs, Hedosophia, Invus Opportunities, Manhattan Venture […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity launches a native Mac app
AI-focused search startup Perplexity launched its native Mac app today to compete with other AI apps like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Quora’s Poe app — the latter aggregates different large language models. Perplexity had teased the app earlier this month and asked users to sign up for pre-orders so they get a notification when the app […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Intel’s $1.45 billion EU antitrust fine is officially history
A €1.06 billion EU antitrust penalty on chipmaker Intel for abuse of dominance dating back to 2009 (when it was equivalent to $1.45 billion) has been consigned to the history books after the bloc’s top court rejected the Commission’s appeal against a 2022 lower court ruling that annulled the sanction. “The Court of Justice dismisses […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify adds auto-moderation tool to help podcasters manage comments
Spotify in July started letting listeners comment on podcast episodes on the app, and the company is now rolling out a new set of controls to help podcasters manage and moderate comments. When comments were first launched, podcasters initially had to review comments and publish them. Now, the platform has added a configurable auto-moderation tool […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Raspberry Pi releases more AI-focused add-ons
The Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ comes in 13 and 26 tera-operations per second (TOPS) variants, retailing at $70 and $110 respectively. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia deepens India AI drive with new partnerships
Nvidia unveiled a series of new partnerships with Indian tech firms and data center providers on Tuesday, as the world’s most valuable chip company expands its AI push in the world’s most populous nation. The partnerships span cloud services firm tech consultancy giant Infosys, e-commerce giant Flipkart, software firm Zoho and Tech Mahindra that are […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cash collection startup Upflow also wants to handle B2B payments
Upflow, a French startup we’ve been covering for quite a while, originally focused on managing outstanding invoices. The company is now announcing a shift in its strategy to become a B2B payment platform with its own payment gateway to complement its accounts receivable automation solution. Like many software-as-a-service products, Upflow started by building a central […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pinterest faces EU privacy complaint over tracking ads
When it comes to privacy nightmares, Pinterest is unlikely to be the first social app that springs to mind. But the visual discovery engine’s use of tracking ads is the target of the latest complaint from European privacy rights non-profit noyb, which accuses it of breaching the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by failing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X’s India revenue falls 90%, filing shows
X revenue in India plummeted 89.8% to $2.51 million in the financial year ending March, according to regulatory filings from the Elon Musk-owned social network. The company, which had posted revenue of $24.7 million in the previous fiscal year, also significantly reduced its expenses in India to $2.2 million from $20 million year-over-year, the filing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla is testing a robotaxi service that Elon Musk claims will launch next year
Elon Musk said he hopes to launch a service that will let people hail self-driving Tesla vehicles in California and Texas sometime in 2025 — and claims his company has already been testing the service in the Bay Area with employees. The comments, made Wednesday on Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call, go farther than what Musk […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Space Development Agency taps 19 companies for future defense demo missions
The Space Development Agency has selected 19 companies to compete for future contracts under a new program designed to rapidly onboard new contractors for defense demonstration missions. These companies have essentially been preapproved to bid on future prototype missions to support the SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a massive planned satellite constellation in low Earth […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bessemer, Index, and a16z alum launch VC firm Chemistry
New VC firm Chemistry raised $350 million for its debut fund, Forbes reported on Wednesday. The firm was launched by Mark Goldberg, former partner at Index Ventures; Kristina Shen, former general partner at Andreessen Horowitz; and Ethan Kurzweil, former partner at Bessemer (pictured above in that order). Axios first reported in April that the three […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Boox’s phone-size e-reader gets faster processing and a fingerprint reader
In 2023, Boox turned heads with the Palma. The device blurred the line between e-readers and smartphones, by combining e-paper with Android. The initial pitch was something along the lines of a phone-sized Kindle that’s small enough to slip into a pocket. The product would be enticing for many if that were the only thing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla Cybertruck pushes past Ford Mach-E to become third best-selling EV in America
Tesla’s Cybertruck was the third best-selling electric vehicle in the United States in the third quarter, beating out every other EV not made by Tesla. The only two vehicles that sold better were the Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV. The polarizing truck notched this achievement despite selling at its most expensive trim model […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Devialet launches new high-end audio amplifier
After releasing soundbars, portable speakers, wireless earbuds, Devialet is now going back to its roots with a new amplifier — the Devialet Astra. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Beleaguered startup Humane drops AI Pin price by $200
Humane on Wednesday announced a $200 price cut to its flagship product, the AI Pin. The Bay Area startup, founded by two former Apple executives, has reportedly struggled to sell the product, which launched in April for $700. In a message sent to its email list, Humane highlights its return policy in the new pitch. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Philly’s Portal is like social media come to life
For once, the biggest tourist attraction in Philadelphia’s Love Park isn’t the iconic artwork that gives the plaza its name. While a couple of tourists trickle through to take pictures with the love sculpture, the main attraction this week is the Portal, which was encircled by a crowd of about fifty onlookers when it made […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Arm reportedly cancels Qualcomm design license
In a move that could profoundly affect an already beleaguered global supply chain, Arm has reportedly issued Qualcomm a 60-day notice of cancelation for chip design licensing. The move, reported by Bloomberg, would have an impact on a majority of smartphone manufacturers who rely on Qualcomm chips. U.K.-based Arm, which licenses chip architecture, issued the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bookcase can turn an iPhone into an e-reader
Amazon made a big splash in e-reader land last week with the release of its first ever color Kindle. When it comes to devoted e-readers here in the States, Amazon is very nearly the only game in town. Plenty have tried to knock the Kindle off its perch, but the brand maintains around 80% of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Longtime policy researcher Miles Brundage leaves OpenAI
Miles Brundage, a longtime policy researcher at OpenAI and senior advisor to the company’s AGI readiness team, has left. In a post on X today and an essay on his personal blog, Brundage said that he believes he’ll have more impact as a policy researcher and advocate in the nonprofit sector, where he’ll have “more […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Wayve starts testing its buzzy end-to-end self-driving tech in the U.S.
Buzzy, well-funded U.K. startup Wayve is starting to test its self-learning automated driving software in San Francisco, and it’s celebrating that entry into the U.S. by also opening an office in Sunnyvale, CA. Wayve says it will start by testing a more limited version of its automated driving system — which is self-learning versus rules-based, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Flock Safety paid over $300 million for 17-month-old drone startup Aerodome
Police surveillance startup Flock Safety announced that it had bought drone software startup Aerodome for over $300 million. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: The AI agents cometh
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. The agents are coming — the AI agents, that is. This week, Anthropic released its newest AI model, an upgraded version of Claude 3.5 Sonnet, that can interact with the web and desktop apps by clicking […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Image Playground, ChatGPT, and more Apple Intelligence features roll out in beta
Apple on Wednesday rolled out the latest developer beta release of its top operating systems, including iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2. The releases arrive a week prior to the public launch of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 — though Apple has yet to specify a day. Next week’s arrivals […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here’s how ChatGPT integration works for Apple Intelligence
Developers on Wednesday are getting their first taste of Apple Intelligence’s ChatGPT integration courtesy of the newly released iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 updates. The integration arrives alongside other Apple Intelligence features, including Genmoji, Image Playground, Visual Intelligence, and Image Wand. The public will get its first access to Apple Intelligence features […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Intelligence arrives next week. Here’s how to get it.
Four months after unveiling Apple Intelligence, the company’s generative AI offer is finally rolling out in public form. The platform will arrive on an unspecified date next week, as part of the public versions of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1. Most rumors have pegged a Monday debut for those operating system upgrades. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple releases APIs for Apple Intelligence and localized English language support
Apple on Wednesday released developer betas iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2, delivering new Apple Intelligence features including Genmoji, Image Playground, Visual Intelligence, Image Wand, and ChatGPT integration. The software updates arrive the week before the public release of OS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, which brings writing tools, image cleanup, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DuckDuckGo will be making more early-stage investments in privacy-focused startups
DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused search alternative to Google, wants to put money into startups that have a similar focus on privacy. The company says that it’s actively seeking startups looking for investment, or startups that might be interested in partnering up or being acquired. In a blog post today, the company name-checked its SVP of finance, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google releases tech to watermark AI-generated text
Google is making SynthID Text, its technology that lets developers watermark and detect text generated by generative AI models, generally available. SynthID Text can be downloaded from the AI platform Hugging Face and Google’s updated Responsible GenAI Toolkit. “Today, we’re open sourcing our SynthID Text watermarking tool,” the company wrote in a post on X. “Available freely […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 Side Events schedule: Mercury, Jetro, Enterprise Ireland, and more to host
With TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 less than a week away, we’re thrilled to announce the complete list of companies behind the Side Events, set to amplify the excitement for thousands of attendees and Silicon Valley residents. From casual happy hours to insightful discussions and energizing morning runs, Disrupt Week — spanning October 26 to November 1 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 full Breakout Session agenda
With TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 just days away, we’re gearing up for an incredible three-day event packed with interactive sessions! From October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco, dive into Q&A conversations with a panel of industry experts around the most pressing issues and cutting-edge tech trends to help empower your growth. Don’t miss your […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Promise Bio exits stealth backed by Pfizer and AstraZeneca
The first thing Promise Bio CEO Ronel Veksler wants you to know about the biotech company he co-founded, is that it’s not another AI drug discovery company. Instead, he’s looking to bring precision medicine to autoimmune diseases. Tel Aviv-based Promise Bio has developed a cloud-based AI platform that can spot different Post-Translational Modifications (PTMs) in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Wiz hopes to hit $1B in ARR in 2025 before an IPO, after turning down Google’s $23B
Wiz co-founder Roy Reznik said the company hit $500 million in annual recurring revenue this year, and still thought it could double that in 2025. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 full Roundtable Session agenda
With TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 just days away, we’re gearing up for an incredible three-day event packed with interactive sessions! From October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco, dive into dynamic conversations around the most pressing issues and cutting-edge tech innovations to help empower your growth, facilitated by an industry leader. Don’t miss your chance […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
5 days to go: TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 kicks off and ticket prices go up
In only 5 short days, Moscone West in San Francisco will come alive with 10,000 startup and VC leaders for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. It’s set to be a powerhouse event, drawing innovative minds from every corner of the globe. Time is running out to save up to $400 on individual tickets or to bring a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok will now show its STEM feed to adults, not just teens
TikTok announced on Wednesday that it’s bringing its STEM feed to all users in the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland by default. Previously, the feed was only turned on by default for users under the age of 18. The social network says the expansion will make it easier for people to find educational content […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VCs love using the AI meeting notepad Granola, so they gave it $20M
Granola’s notepad app has become a popular tool among venture capitalists who use it to record meetings and augment notes using AI technology. That made it easier for the startup to raise funds from a crowd of investors for its $20 million Series A — something the team managed to do in about a week. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Andreessen Horowitz helps founders meet compute needs with ‘Oxygen’ private GPU cluster
Andreessen Horowitz has a massive cluster of Nvidia H100 GPUs to help its portfolio of AI startups meet their compute needs, the venture capital firm confirmed for the first time on Wednesday. The program, called “Oxygen”, allows their portfolio companies to train or operate their AI models without negotiating market rates. A16Z’s Oxygen cluster gives […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon adds gasoline discounts for Prime members, EV charging savings to follow
Amazon is challenging Walmart+ by offering Prime members a discount on fuel to combat high gas prices. The company announced on Wednesday that Prime members will receive a 10 cents per gallon discount at around 7,000 Amoco, AM/PM, and BP gas stations across the U.S., potentially saving them about $70 annually on fuel. To access […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lawsuit blames Character.AI in death of 14-year-old boy
Character.AI has been sued after the suicide of a 14-year-old Florida boy whose mother says he became obsessed with a chatbot on the platform. According to The New York Times, Sewell Setzer III, a ninth grader from Orlando, had spent months talking to chatbots on Character.AI’s AI role-playing app. Setzer developed an emotional attachment to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fixify blends automation and human analysts to tackle IT problems
Matt Peters has spent more than a decade working for cybersecurity vendors. He was a team lead at Check Point, climbed the corporate ladder to VP of worldwide operations at FireEye, and spent over four years at Expel, a managed detection and response firm, as chief product officer. Peters says a surprising common thread ran […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Contactles stores to grow in Europe as Sensei reels in another $16M
While Amazon Go helped pioneer the concept of the totally contactless store, others, like 7-Eleven and Walmart, have entered the territory. And the arena is growing, in part because several startups — such as Standard Cognition, Zippin, AiFi, Grabango, Trigo — have proliferated, offering their technology to retailers. But in Europe, Portuguese startup Sensei has […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s Paytm wins approval to resume payments growth
Paytm, a leading Indian financial services firm, has received regulatory approval to resume adding new UPI payments users, following an eight-month restriction on many of its operations. UPI, which processes over 15 billion monthly transactions, dominates India’s online payments. Walmart-owned PhonePe and Google Pay process about 87% of UPI transactions, whereas Paytm’s market share has […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ro CEO Zachariah Reitano says the benefits of being a private company are growing
Ro co-founder and CEO Zachariah Reitano said while he’d “never say never” about potentially taking the seven-year-old telehealth company public, he thinks the benefits of being a private company are growing. Reitano dodged multiple questions from Axios reporter Dan Primack about whether or not the company has plans to IPO in the near term — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lending fintech SoLo Funds faces class-action lawsuit
Fintech lending startup SoLo Funds is facing a new class action lawsuit according to a copy seen by TechCrunch. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EVTOL startups just got a big lift from the US government
Federal regulators have cleared the path for electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft to share U.S. airspace with planes and helicopters – a win for the burgeoning industry and a timely decision for startups like Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation that are expected to launch air taxi networks commercially in 2025. The Federal Aviation Administration […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cement startup Furno lands $20M grant to build low-carbon micro-kilns in Chicago
Furno’s micro-kilns promise to reduce pollution and eliminate transportation costs. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LinkedIn confirms the ‘follower purge’ was just a bug that’s now resolved
LinkedIn users on Tuesday began noticing a problem with their follower counts on the platform: They were dropping rapidly, and sometimes by many hundreds of users at once. With no official word at the time from LinkedIn, many began speculating that the situation was the result of LinkedIn purging fake accounts from the platform. Some […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
One Zero could be raising $100M
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week we’re looking at One Zero potentially raising $100 million, Apple Pay expanding support for loan options, and another way Stripe is making crypto a big priority for its business. If you’d like to receive the Fintech newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, sign up here! The big story One […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI hires its first chief economist
OpenAI has hired its first chief economist: Aaron Chatterji, formerly the chief economist at the Commerce Department under President Joe Biden and a senior economist in President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers. Chatterji, who’s also a professor of business and public policy at Duke, will study AI’s economic impacts at OpenAI, leading research into how […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Farewell to Foursquare’s app
“I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I have been in a real funk these last few days over this news,” writes Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley, speaking about the company’s plan to sunset the Foursquare City Guides app later this year in favor of focusing on its check-in app Swarm. The move reverses […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SEC fines four companies $7 million for ‘misleading cyber disclosures’ regarding SolarWinds hack
The SEC concluded that four tech companies misled investors and minimized the damage they suffered from the SolarWinds supply chain hack. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Researchers link Polyfill supply chain attack to huge network of copycat gambling sites
A supply chain hack targeting 100,000 websites was launched to redirect internet users to a massive online gambling network. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Thousands of creatives sign petition against AI data scraping
What do the actor Kevin Bacon, the novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, the musician Robert Smith, and the journalist and historian Sidney Blumenthal have in common? They are among the 11,500 signatories of a petition against unlicensed use of creative works for AI training. “The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Artiphon’s new Orba instrument can sample sounds live
Almost exactly two years after releasing the Orba 2, Artiphon is completing the trilogy. The newly announced Orba 3 finds the Nashville-based startup baking live sampling into its clever handheld instrument. The feature arrives by way of a built-in microphone, which lets users record their voice, instruments, and other sounds. All of that can be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The U.S. AI Safety Institute stands on shaky ground
One of the only U.S. government offices dedicated to assessing AI safety is in danger of being dismantled if Congress doesn’t choose to authorize it. The U.S. AI Safety Institute (AISI), a federal government body that studies risks in AI systems, was created last November as a part of President Joe Biden’s AI Executive Order. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anthropic’s new AI model can control your PC
Anthropic has released an updated version of its Claude 3.5 Sonnet model with a new Computer Use feature that can interact with apps on a PC. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Footwork, Construct Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners discuss how to raise capital in 2025 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
The fundraising landscape is shifting fast, and in 2025, the old rules no longer apply. Startups navigating flat, down, or extension rounds must be more strategic than ever in securing their next round of capital. Traditional metrics like $100 million in revenue for an IPO or $1 million ARR for a Series A are becoming […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ex-SpaceX engineers land $14M to scale new method for 3D printing metal
3D printing objects using metal is a well-established technique, but it tends to be too complex, expensive, or imprecise to match traditional methods at scale. Armed with $14 million from Nvidia and Boeing, Freeform aims to change that, building a new metal additive printing process that they say changes the game — and yes, there’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Stability claims its newest Stable Diffusion models generate more ‘diverse’ images
Following a string of controversies stemming from technical hiccups and licensing changes, AI startup Stability AI has announced its latest family of image generation models. The new Stable Diffusion 3.5 series is more customizable and versatile than Stability’s previous-generation tech, the company claims — as well as more performant. There are three models in total: […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
6 days to go: TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 kicks off and ticket prices go up
The clock is ticking down! Just 6 days to go until TechCrunch Disrupt 2024! Join 10,000 industry leaders from around the world at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30 to witness groundbreaking discussions with top-tier industry experts, elite networking, an exciting showcase of the newest tech innovations, and so much more. Time is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Interface.ai raises $30M to help banks field customer requests
Interface.ai, a customer automation platform for banks and other financial institutions, today announced that it closed a $30 million funding round led by Avataar Venture Partners. $20 million of the round was equity, while the remaining $10 million was in the form of debt. It’s Interface’s first outside capital; the startup had been completely bootstrapped. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify now lets you create custom cover art for your playlists
Spotify is rolling out the ability for users to design and customize their own playlist cover art, the company announced on Tuesday. While users have already been able to upload a custom image for a playlist, this new feature lets you design you own cover art right in the app. The feature is rolling out […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Marc Andreessen says AI model makers are in ‘race to the bottom’ and it’s not good for business
Marc Andreessen, general partner at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, was on stage at the Ray Summit conference earlier this month, talking about AI. CFO.com has pulled out the best quotes so you don’t have to watch the full interview. “Maybe all of these companies are in a race to the bottom,” Andreessen said when talking […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
iPad Mini 2024: Keeping up with the pack
It was a lean few years for the iPad. The tablet fell out of favor with Apple, as the company turned its focus to other categories like mobile, content, wearables, and mixed reality. The same could have been said about the Mac a few years prior, but the laptop/desktop has had a renaissance in Cupertino, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As Ozlo’s Sleepbuds go on sale, company raises funds for tinnitus treatment
Bose gave up on Sleepbuds after two generations. It was a sad, premature end for a promising product. The headphone maker came closer to creating a truly great pair of sleep headphones than anyone else. Ultimately, however, it seems the company was no longer interested in pursuing the product, which proved a major setback for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Paccurate helps companies ship in smaller boxes, saving them money while helping the earth
Paccurate co-founder and CEO James Malley likes to joke that once you get into supply chain tech, the category doesn’t let you back out. Ten years ago, Malley and Patrick Powers were working together as consultants when they started getting asked the same question over and over. Their clients were asking for help reducing the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WhatsApp introduces contact storing directly within the app, teases usernames
WhatsApp announced today a new feature that will allow users to save contacts within the app. That means that even if you lose your phone or link a new device to your primary number, you will see all the contacts stored within WhatsApp in a cloud storage. Until now, WhatsApp relied on your phone’s contact […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Paccurate helps companies ship in smaller boxes, saving them money while helping the earth
Paccurate co-founder and CEO James Malley likes to joke that once you get into supply chain tech, the category doesn’t let you back out. Ten years ago, Malley and Patrick Powers were working together as consultants when they started getting asked the same question over and over. Their clients were asking for help reducing the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Turnover Labs is helping chemical plants to reuse their waste CO2
Turnover Labs was born out of Marissa Beatty’s doctoral research into improving the durability of electrolyzers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Socket lands a fresh $40M to scan software for security flaws
The software supply chain, which comprises the components and processes used to develop software, has become precarious. According to one recent survey, 88% of companies believe poor software supply chain security presents an “enterprise-wide risk” to their organizations. Open source supply chain components are especially fraught, thanks to the logistical hurdles in keeping each component well-maintained. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Desktop AI assistant app Highlight spins out of Medal with $10M in funding
Earlier this year, Medal, a startup known for its video game clipping features, launched a cross-platform AI assistant called Highlight. Now, the company is spinning off Highlight into a new entity, which has raised $10 million in a funding round. General Catalyst led the funding round with Valor, SV Angel, and Conviction Embed participating in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After learning that you can name group chats, Tim Cook chose the safest name possible
This week’s cover of WSJ Magazine is extremely minimalistic. That’s not surprising given that the main story is an in-depth interview with Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple and the king of minimalistic design. In Cook’s interview with the WSJ’s Ben Cohen, we learn he still believes the Vision Pro is going to be a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zoom partners with Suki to offer AI-powered medical note-taking
Zoom is partnering with Suki, an AI medical note-taking app, to let doctors use an AI scribe that will take notes of their consultations with patients. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CrewAI uses third-party models to automate business tasks
Back in 2022, João Moura was directing AI engineering efforts at Clearbit, a startup creating a unified hub for business intelligence tools. There, Moura was responsible for leading the development of AI integrations, as well as defining Clearbit’s AI product roadmap. After a year, HubSpot acquired Clearbit, and Moura had the itch to go it […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s Zomato to raise $1B ahead of rival Swiggy IPO
Zomato said on Tuesday its board had approved the company’s proposal to raise $1 billion through a so-called qualified institutions placement, its first major fundraise since its IPO in 2021. The deliberations for the funding comes weeks before Swiggy, Zomato’s chief rival, makes its public debut. The Bengaluru-headquartered Swiggy, backed by Prosus Ventures, SoftBank and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tim Cook’s other job
In May, while unveiling the newest iPad at an Apple event, CEO Tim Cook wore a custom-made, one-of-a-kind pair of Nike sneakers whose decorative stitching included the words “Made on iPad.” It wasn’t just a collab between Apple and Nike. As Bloomberg reminds readers, Cook has been on Nike’s board since 2005, when Cook was […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Passionfroot is a marketplace for business-focused content creators looking for brand partnerships — and vice versa
As the creator economy is growing rapidly, brand partnerships remain one of the prime ways creators can earn money. Other services like link-in-bio apps with affiliate links or Pateron-like subscriptions become secondary ways to increase creators’ income. For platforms and startup, the biggest challenge remains to match brands and creators for collaboration. Berlin-based startup Passionfroot is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta suspends accounts tracking private jets of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and other celebrities
Instagram and Threads accounts that track the private jets of celebrities – including Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Kylie Jenner – were suspended on Monday, according to the owner of many such accounts, Florida college student, Jack Sweeney. Links to Instagram/Threads accounts tracking the flights of former President Donald […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s Neysa bags $30M to compete with global AI hyperscalers
India's Neysa has raised $30 million in a Series A round to bolster its AI infrastructure offering. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta tests facial recognition for spotting ‘celeb-bait’ ads scams and easier account recovery
Meta is expanding tests of facial recognition as an anti-scam measure to combat celebrity scam ads and more broadly, the Facebook owner announced Monday. Monika Bickert, Meta’s VP of content policy, wrote in a blog post that some of the tests aim to bolster its existing anti-scam measures, such as the automated scans (using machine […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Space: Inverted
Hello, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. We are insanely close to TechCrunch Disrupt — have you checked out the final agenda for the Space Stage yet!? Come hear the latest and greatest insights from top space entrepreneurs and investors. NB: If you’re wondering why last week’s TechCrunch Space didn’t include a single mention of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta’s smart glasses outsell traditional Ray-Bans in some stores, even before AI features roll out
The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are the top selling product in 60% of all Ray-Ban stores throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, according to Upload VR. The detail came from EssilorLuxottica CFO Stefano Grassi, who revealed during the eyewear giant’s earnings call last week that Ray-Ban Meta proved to be a significant driver for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
One Zero, the AI fintech started by the founder of MobileEye, is raising $100M, say sources
Amnon Shashua, the founder and CEO of Mobileye, has an eye for complicated problems that he believes can be solved with AI, and that AI itself can be fixed to become more reliable. On the sidelines of building and running his self-driving car technology company — which he took public, then sold to Intel, then […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Blade Runner 2049’ producer accuses Musk and Tesla of circumventing copyright with AI imagery
In an interesting variation of the usual “stop stealing our stuff” lawsuit already deployed dozens of times against AI companies, today brings a more nuanced form of alleged theft. Alcon Entertainment, a production company behind “Blade Runner 2049,” is suing Tesla, Elon Musk, and Warner Bros Digital for what they claim is a willful circumvention […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What is Bluesky? Everything to know about the X competitor.
Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is most certainly bluer. It’s been almost two years since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now X, leading people to set up shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (which has already shuttered operations) and Spill have been presented as potential replacements, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nevoya wants to break the EV truck adoption logjam
Los Angeles is known for glitz, but there’s also a lot of grit in the air — literally. Thousands of containers are moved off and onto ships at the area’s two major ports every day, almost always transferred via pollution-spewing diesel trucks. This has made Los Angeles a hotbed for all kinds of new electric […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Benchmark is raising $170M for it’s latest partners-only fund
While fund sizes of many venture capital firms have ballooned into billions of dollars over the last decade, Benchmark Partners, one of Silicon Valley’s most successful investors, has stuck to raising approximately $425 million in capital every few years. That’s what the storied firm told in a letter to its limited partners when it announced […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X rolls out its real-time search tool, Radar, to Premium+ subscribers
As competition from newcomers like Bluesky and Threads increases, X on Monday launched a “Radar” trend analysis tool that aims to offer subscribers real-time insights into emerging trends and conversations on the platform. The tool, previously known as Insights, was initially targeted at Verified Organizations (businesses), allowing marketers to track topics and trends on the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Content kleptocracy’: News Corp outlets sue Perplexity over scraped stories
News Corp’s Dow Jones and the NY Post have sued growing AI startup Perplexity over what they describe as a “content kleptocracy.” In a lawsuit filed in New York on Monday, the media organization claimed that Perplexity engages in copyright violations on a “grand scale,” simultaneously duplicating and misrepresenting original content created by others: Its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Poshmark reverses decision to lower selling fees after sellers experience a drop in sales
Shortly after the social marketplace Poshmark announced it would lower selling fees and increase fees for buyers, the company decided to revert to its original fee structure following outrage among sellers. In an email to sellers sent on Monday (and viewed by TechCrunch), founder and CEO Manish Chandra wrote an apology about the fee change, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
xAI, Elon Musk’s AI startup, launches an API
In August, Elon Musk’s xAI promised to make Grok, the company’s flagship generative AI model powering a number of features on X, available via an “enterprise API.” Now, that API has arrived — albeit bare-bones at the moment. The xAI API only has one model available, “grok-beta,” priced at $5 per million input tokens (~750,000 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Daze, a creative, AI-powered messaging app for Gen Z, is blowing up prelaunch
On TikTok, Daze’s most popular video has been viewed 8 million times. Across TikTok and Instagram, the startup behind a new messaging app aimed at Gen Z, has seen around 48 million combined views. Pre-launch, the app’s waitlist is already bursting with roughly 156,000 signups. Driving the demand for this next-generation alternative to iMessage and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Shobizzy, a networking app for the TV industry, aims to open new doors for freelancers
With the current unemployment crisis in Hollywood, many TV and film crew members are concerned about finding their next job. This is particularly the case for freelancers, who often face unstable work and irregular pay. Shobizzy is the latest professional networking app for the entertainment industry that aims to address this challenge. And, as more […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 Side Events schedule: Mercury, JETRO, Enterprise Ireland, and more to host
With TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 only a week away, we’re thrilled to announce the complete list of companies behind the Side Events, set to amplify the excitement for thousands of attendees and Silicon Valley residents. From casual happy hours to insightful discussions and energizing morning runs, Disrupt Week — spanning October 26 to November 1 — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ireland adopts Online Safety Code for video-sharing platforms including TikTok
Ireland’s media and internet watchdog, Coimisiún na Meán, has adopted and published an Online Safety Code that will apply to video-sharing platforms headquartered in the country from next month — including the likes of Bytedance’s TikTok, Google-owned YouTube and Meta’s Instagram and Facebook Reels. Under the Code, in-scope platforms are required to have terms and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Final countdown: 7 days until TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 kicks off
T-minus 7 days until TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 officially kicks off! One of the year’s biggest tech events is ready to dominate the Bay Area’s thriving tech landscape for almost the entire week. Get ready for one of the biggest tech gatherings, taking place October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Tech experts from every […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Uprise wants to help small businesses make better financial decisions
Small business creation has been on the rise in the U.S. since the pandemic. There are a lot of tech tools designed to help these companies with things like payroll or setting up retirement benefits — but more tools doesn’t mean small businesses know how to use them to make smart decisions. Uprise is looking to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A closer look at the AirPods Pro’s new hearing aid features
In November 2022, the FDA passed a resolution allowing Americans to purchase hearing aids over-the-counter. The move launched a mini-industry, with companies rushing to make available technology that was previously mired in healthcare restrictions. Consumer electronics firms saw opportunity, as well. In September, Apple announced that it would be bringing hearing aid features to the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Groww pays $160M tax as it returns to India amid a startup relocation wave
Indian stock trading and mutual fund startup Groww paid $159.4 million in taxes as it shifted its domicile from the U.S. back to India, the company said in a statement on Monday. Nearly a dozen Indian startups are in the process of relocating their headquarters to India from the U.S. and Singapore to better comply […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DataCrunch wants to be Europe’s first AI cloud hyperscaler — powered by renewable energy
A fledgling startup is setting out to become one of Europe’s first “AI compute” hyperscalers, with renewable energy playing a pivotal part in its pitch to prospective customers. The AI goldrush has spurred unprecedented demand for “compute,” which refers to the processing power, infrastructure and resources needed for tasks such as running algorithms, executing machine […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained
This story has been updated throughout with more details as the story has developed. We will continue to do so as the case and dispute are ongoing. The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Perplexity is reportedly looking to fundraise at an $8B valuation
AI search engine Perplexity is in fundraising talks and hopes to raise around $500 million at an $8 billion valuation, according to the Wall Street Journal. If a deal happens with those terms, it would more than double Perplexity’s valuation from its $3 billion valuation when it raised from SoftBank over the summer. The WSJ […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Women in AI: Marissa Hummon thinks AI will help make the power grid greener
This is part of TechCrunch’s ongoing Women in AI series, which seeks to give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved time in the spotlight. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lyft is working on a ‘service animal opt-in feature’ for passengers
Uber and Lyft need to do more to support disabled passengers, especially those who are blind or visually impaired, according to protesters who gathered outside the companies’ headquarters on October 15. Wired spoke to protesters who shared stories about drivers passing them by or refusing to let them bring their guide dogs on a ride. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Can AI sandbag safety checks to sabotage users? Yes, but not very well — for now
AI companies claim to have robust safety checks in place that ensure that models don’t say or do weird, illegal, or unsafe stuff. But what if the models were capable of evading those checks and, for some reason, trying to sabotage or mislead users? Turns out they can do this, according to Anthropic researchers. Just […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gusto’s head of technology says hiring an army of specialists is the wrong approach to AI
As founders plan for an increasingly AI-centric future, Gusto co-founder and head of technology Edward Kim said that cutting existing teams and hiring a bunch of specially trained AI engineers is “the wrong way to go.” Instead, he argued that non-technical team members can “actually have a much deeper understanding than an average engineer on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Investments in generative AI startups topped $3.9B in Q3 2024
Not everyone is convinced of generative AI’s return on investment. But many investors are, judging by the latest figures from funding tracker PitchBook. In Q3 2024, VCs invested $3.9 billion in generative AI startups across 206 deals, per PitchBook. (That’s not counting OpenAI‘s $6.6 billion round.) And $2.9 billion of that funding went to U.S.-based […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Joseph Jacks bets on open source startups, a ‘paradox of philanthropy and capitalism’
Open source might be many things, but one thing it’s not is a business model — by most estimations, at least. However, that hasn’t stopped Joseph Jacks and OSS Capital from seeking some of the earliest-stage, open source startups and funding them through their formative years. These include the likes of open source Qualtrics-alternative Formbricks, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Throne’s toilet camera takes pictures of your poop
Throne is an Austin-based health startup. It sells a camera. That clips onto the side of a toilet bowl. It takes pictures of your poop. Currently in beta, the system utilizes artificial intelligence to examine your dookie as a way of determining things like gut health and hydration. Turns out we have a surprising amount […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati is reportedly fundraising for a new AI startup
Mira Murati, the OpenAI CTO who announced her departure last month, is raising VC funding for a new AI startup, according to Reuters. This startup will reportedly focus on building AI products based on proprietary models and could raise more than $100 million in this round. At the time of her departure, Murati wrote on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DJI sues Department of Defense over listing as a Chinese military company
Drone-maker DJI filed a lawsuit Friday against the US Department of Defense over its inclusion on a DoD list of “Chinese military companies.” A DJI spokesperson said the company filed the suit after “attempting to engage with the DoD for more than sixteen months” and deciding “it had no alternative other than to seek relief […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What we know about the layoffs at Meta
Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re diving into the recent layoffs at Meta; the fallout from the battle between WordPress and WP Engine; and whether Cybertrucks are simply too big to exist in Europe. Let’s get into it. Multiple teams at Meta were hit by layoffs this week. The company confirmed the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
I just spent my first week ever with an EV, the Chevy Equinox — here’s what it was like
The funnest car I ever drove was the original Tesla Roadster. This was in 2011, back when Elon Musk’s EV company was courting press instead of denigrating us, and they offered me a test drive. I took the car up I-280 — a beautiful, mostly deserted highway with perfectly banked curves that seemed designed for Silicon […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Four takeaways from Pony AI’s IPO filing
Toyota-backed autonomous vehicle company Pony AI has joined the list of Chinese firms going public on the U.S. stock market after a multi-year ban from Beijing on offshore capital raising. Zeekr, a luxury Chinese electric vehicle startup, debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in May, and WeRide, another AV startup, also hopes to file […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Penguin Random House is adding an AI warning to its books’ copyright pages
Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade publisher, will be adding language to the copyright pages of its books to prohibit the use of those books to train AI. The Bookseller reports that new books and reprints of older titles from the publisher will now include the statement, “No part of this book may be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained
This story has been updated throughout with more details as the story has developed. We will continue to do so as the case and dispute are ongoing. The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Midjourney plans to let anyone on the web edit images with AI
Midjourney is planning to release an upgraded web tool that’ll let users edit any uploaded images from the web using Midjourney’s generative AI. The upgraded tool, which Midjourney CEO David Holtz said will be released “early next week,” will also allow users to retexture objects in images to “repaint” their colors and details according to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Women in AI: Dr. Rebecca Portnoff is protecting children from harmful deepfakes
This is part of TechCrunch’s ongoing Women in AI series, which seeks to give AI-focused women academics and others their time in the spotlight. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
23andMe faces an uncertain future — so does your genetic data
Financial and security chaos at the once-pioneering genetic testing firm has intensified concerns about user data. Here's how to take action. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Match’s random video chat app Azar could be the next Chatroulette — for better or for worse
Azar has facilitated over 100 billion video chats with its app, which randomly connects strangers around the globe. But until recently, the Seoul-based app — which shares a parent company, Match, with Tinder, Hinge, and OkCupid — hasn’t been available in the U.S. The U.S. market could be tough to crack. For millennials who grew […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Claude: Everything you need to know about Anthropic’s AI
Anthropic, the AI vendor second in size only to OpenAI, has a powerful family of generative AI models called Claude. These models can perform a range of tasks, from captioning images and writing emails to solving math and coding challenges. With Anthropic’s model ecosystem growing so quickly, it can be tough to keep track of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX wins $733M Space Force launch contract
SpaceX was awarded an eight-launch, $733 million contract by the U.S. Space Force on Friday, as part of an ongoing program intended to foster competition among launch providers. The award includes seven launches for the Space Development Agency and one for the National Reconnaissance Office, all anticipated to use Falcon 9s and occur no earlier […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Eric Schmidt’s SandboxAQ aims for $5B valuation for its AI/quantum Google moonshot
SandboxAQ began as Alphabet’s moonshot AI and quantum computing and now has an impressive roster of projects. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This $600 Buzz Lightyear toy is the most realistic yet
Do you have $600 burning an asteroid-sized hole in your pocket? If so then the new Buzz Lightyear robot might be for you. A collaboration between Pixar and smart toy company Robosen, the new Buzz is fully loaded with over 3,000 tiny parts, 75 microchips, and 23 servo motors. It also features what Robosen calls […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fluid Truck files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and pursues sale after leadership shakeup
Less than two months after Fluid Truck’s board ousted its sibling co-founders from their executive positions, the company has laid off 30% of its staff, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and found a potential buyer to take on the business, pending court approval, according to bankruptcy filings and information from a former employee. Fluid […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Acrew Capital hits five years, raises $700m
Acrew Capital has raised $700 million in fresh funds. The San Francisco-based venture capital firm announced in a blog post on Thursday that it raised $700 million to invest in companies building in data and security, healthcare, or fintech. This fundraise brings the firm’s assets under management to $1.7 billion. It’s unclear how much of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why changes to the block on Elon Musk’s X are driving users away
Elon Musk’s X is planning to make a change to how the block function works, breaking from the established standards of other social media apps. When the policies around blocking change, people who have been blocked by someone will still be able to see that person’s posts, so long as they’re public. They just won’t […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Investors bet on the power of light, diamonds in the trash, and more
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week brought us some exciting fundraising news from around the world, and even some exits. But if you are looking for tech IPOs, you will have […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft could end up with substantial equity in the restructured, for-profit OpenAI
How much equity in OpenAI will Microsoft get once the former becomes a for-profit company? That’s the multi-billion-dollar question — one the two parties are racing to answer ahead of a two-year deadline. The Wall Street Journal reports that both Microsoft and OpenAI have hired investment banks to negotiate Microsoft’s equity — which could be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WP Engine files an injuction to get its WordPress.org access back
Web hosting provider WP Engine has filed an injunction in a court in North California, asking it to intervene and restore its access to the WordPress.org open-source repository. After WP Engine filed a lawsuit against WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg and Automattic last month, Mulleweng — who also owns WordPress.org — blocked the company’s access to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky surges into the top 5 as X changes blocks, permits AI training on its data
Social networking startup Bluesky, which just reported a gain of half a million users over the past day, has now soared into the top 5 apps on the U.S. App Store and has become the No. 2 app in the Social Networking category, up from No. 181 a week ago, according to data from app […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software under investigation by federal safety regulator
The U.S. automotive safety regulator has opened a new investigation into Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software after four reported crashes in low-visibility situations. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nebius to resume Nasdaq trading after severing ties with Russia and Yandex
Nebius, the company formerly known as Yandex that’s now focused on cloud infrastructure for AI uses (aka “AI compute”), is to begin trading on the public markets once again — more than two years after the Nasdaq halted trading due to economic sanctions imposed in the wake of Russia’s Ukraine invasion in 2022. The Netherlands-based company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Byju’s founder says his edtech startup, once worth $22B, is now ‘worth zero’
Byju Raveendran, the founder of the embattled edtech group Byju’s, acknowledged on Thursday afternoon that he made mistakes, mistimed the market, and that his startup, once valued at $22 billion, is now effectively worth “zero.” Speaking to a group of journalists, Raveendran said the company’s aggressive acquisition of more than two dozen startups to expand […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The surprising way OpenAI could reportedly get out of its pact with Microsoft
The New York Times on Thursday published a look at the “fraying” relationship between OpenAI and its investor, partner, and, increasingly, rival, Microsoft, reporting their five-year romance has cooled owing to financial pressure on OpenAI, the amount of computing power Microsoft is providing OpenAI, and disagreements between the two about ground rules. Most fascinating perhaps […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former watch trader is now building the AWS of grid storage, Terralayr
The startup's technology is a twist on the virtual power plant concept, in which batteries are aggregated and portions of the whole are sold off to various customers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former watch trader is now building the AWS of grid storage, Terralyr
The startup's technology is a twist on the virtual power plant concept, in which batteries are aggregated and portions of the whole are sold off to various customers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon indicates employees can quit if they don’t like its return-to-office mandate
AWS CEO Matt Garman has harsh words for remote workers: return to the office or quit. The Amazon executive recently told employees who don’t like the new five-day in-person work policy that, “there are other companies around,” presumably companies they can work for remotely, Reuters reported on Thursday. Amazon’s top boss, Andy Jassy, told employees […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Automattic offered employees another chance to quit — this time with nine months’ severance
Days after 159 people accepted Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg’s offer of a six-month severance package to employees who wanted to leave, the company floated a new offer late on October 16 of a nine-month severance package to anybody who quit immediately. Employees had four hours to decide whether they wanted to take the deal. In […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
General Catalyst reportedly to back Saudi Arabian startup
Despite Saudi Arabia’s record of human rights abuses, some investors are warming up to investing in the country’s startups. General Catalyst is planning to invest in a Saudi Arabia-based fintech startup, Lean Technology, the firm’s first investment in the Middle Eastern nation, the Information reported. Other Saudi Arabian startups that US-based investors recently backed include […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Stripe in talks to acquire Bridge for $1 billion
Stripe is in talks to acquire stablecoin platform Bridge for a whopping $1 billion, according to Forbes. The talks are reportedly in advanced stages, although nothing has been finalized. Bridge, cofounded by Coinbase alumni Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, has built an API that helps companies accept stablecoins. The pair raised $58 million from investors […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s X is changing its privacy policy to allow third parties to train AI on your posts
On Wednesday, social network X (formerly Twitter) updated its Privacy Policy to indicate that it would allow third-party “collaborators” to train their AI models on X data, unless users opt out. While X owner Elon Musk trained xAI’s Grok AI chatbot on X user data, leading to an investigation by the EU’s lead privacy regulator, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sam Altman’s Worldcoin becomes World, and shows new iris-scanning ‘Orb’ to prove your humanity
Worldcoin, the Sam Altman co-founded “proof of personhood” crypto startup that scans people’s eyeballs, announced on Thursday that it dropped the “coin” from its name and is now just “World.” The startup also unveiled its next generation of iris-scanning “Orb” and other tools at a live event in San Francisco. Co-founder and CEO of World, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
All mobile phones must be hearing aid compatible under new FCC rules
The FCC Thursday issued rules requiring that all mobile phones — including smartphones — sold in the U.S. be compatible with hearing aids. The news comes two years after the FDA made hearing aids available to all Americans without a prescription. The FCC has not yet issued a specific timeline for compliance, only noting that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft said it lost weeks of security logs for its customers’ cloud products
Missing logs could make it more difficult to identify unauthorized access to the customers' networks during that two-week window. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Experts say OpenAI’s patent pledge amounts to little more than ‘virtue signaling’
This week, OpenAI quietly published a statement on its website pledging not to use its patents offensively. Asserting its commitment to the principles of “broad access” and “collaboration,” OpenAI said that it would only use its patents in a way that supports innovation. “We pledge to only use our patents defensively, so long as a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Marc Benioff warns that AI, while useful, is overhyped and partly blames Microsoft
One of the tech industry’s biggest hype men, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, is psyched about AI, but points out that it hasn't cured cancer. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google replaces executive in charge of Search and advertising
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced on Thursday that Prabhakar Raghavan, the executive in charge of the company’s search engine and ads products, is leaving his role. Longtime Google executive Nick Fox will replace Raghavan, who will now take on the role of chief technologist. “Prabhakar has decided it’s time to make a big leap in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Feds arrest man who allegedly participated in hack of the SEC’s X account, boosting Bitcoin’s price
Eric Council Jr. and unnamed co-conspirators were allegedly behind the hack of the official @SECGov account on X. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Beyond the hype: Why Tesla’s robotaxi future faces regulatory roadblocks
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Kirsten is still out doing Kirsten things, so I (Rebecca Bellan) will continue to pass along all the tech mobility news that’s fit to print. It’s been […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The 14 biggest take-private PE acquisitions so far this year in tech
A roundup of the year's billion-dollar take-private deals in the technology sector. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT comes to Windows
ChatGPT is now on Windows. Today, OpenAI announced that it’s begun previewing a dedicated Windows app for ChatGPT, its AI-powered chatbot platform. Currently only available to ChatGPT Plus, Team, Enterprise, and Edu users, the app is an early version, OpenAI says, arriving ahead of a “full experience” later in the year. “With the official ChatGPT […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Waymo offers $3 credit for San Francisco riders going to public transit stations
For the next month, Bay Area riders of Waymo robotaxis can earn a $3 credit whenever they travel to and from certain public transit stations. Riders will be able to take advantage of the offer through November 15, and they can use the credits earned towards future robotaxi rides from now until December 31, the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Music’s latest feature lets artists create dedicated playlists for concerts and tours
Apple Music introduced a new feature for artists on Thursday to enable them to create playlists tied to their recent concert set lists. Dubbed “Set List,” the feature acts as a new promotional tool for musicians to engage with their fans. It allows artists to turn their set list from a single show, residency, or […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Last-minute Expo+ 2-for-1 passes available for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Time is ticking! We’re less than two weeks until the doors to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 open. To ensure no one misses this highly anticipated event, we’re offering Expo+ 2-for-1 passes for the final days leading up to Disrupt 2024. Bring a friend, colleague, or family member to Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google’s NotebookLM now lets you guide AI-generated audio conversations, launches business pilot
Google's NotebookLM has updated Audio Overviews with the ability to focus on a specific topic in the given content and has introduced a NotebookLM Business pilot program for organizations. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
With $11.9 million in funding, Dottxt tells AI models how to answer
As we’ve reported before, enterprise CIOs are taking generative AI slow. One reason for that is AI doesn’t fit into existing software engineering workflows, because it literally doesn’t speak the same language. For instance, LLMs (aka large language models) require a lot of cajoling to deliver valid JSON. That’s where a U.S.-based startup called Dottxt […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
French court blocks porn sites over age verification for child protection
The Paris Court of Appeal ordered some pornography websites to be blocked on Thursday over failure to implement robust age verification systems that are capable of preventing minors from accessing the adult content, Politico reports. Porn sites Tukif and Xhamster were among several adult websites subject to the order. The sites have been given 15 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Databricks, Snowflake, and Battery Ventures discuss when to cash out or scale your startup at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Navigating the complex decision of when to sell a startup or keep pushing forward is one of the toughest challenges founders face. In an era where IPOs are frequently delayed and acquisition offers arrive earlier, determining the right moment to either cash out or stay independent is increasingly nuanced. We’re excited to welcome three distinguished […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Subscription management firm Zuora agrees to be acquired for $1.7B
Zuora, a company selling software to help businesses manage their subscription-based services, has agreed to be acquired by private equity firms GIC and Silver Lake for $1.7 billion. The all-cash deal is expected to close in Q1 2025, subject to approvals and customary closing conditions. It’ll take Zuora, which is currently publicly traded, private; Tien […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hackers are extorting Globe Life with stolen customer data
The insurance giant says an unknown threat actor has stolen data including SSNs and health information © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple says support for redeeming rewards will later come to Apple Pay
On Thursday, Apple celebrated 10 years with Apple Pay and announced how the service will evolve in the future, including with the later addition of redeeming rewards and expanding installment loan options. In addition to Apple Pay’s newly added support for loan options from Affirm in the U.S., and Monzo Flex in the U.K., the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Announcing the final group of top VCs to judge the Startup Battlefield 200 Final at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is just a week away. Our beefed-up Startup Battlefield 200 is a major highlight. Two hundred companies have been hand-selected by the TechCrunch editorial staff to grace the expo hall, 20 of which will launch their company for the first time live on our stage. Nail-biting pitches live on the Disrupt Stage, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK digital ‘end-of-life’ services startup Farewill acquired for $16.8M
Farewill, a U.K.-based end-of-life services provider that offers online tools for writing wills, organizing probate, and arranging cremation, has been acquired by funeral service provider Dignity in an all-shares deal valuing the startup at £12.9 million ($16.8 million). The deal is a classic case of an established legacy incumbent chasing growth by buying a younger […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hyperspectral imagery startup Wyvern looks to raise US presence with $6M raise
Canadian remote sensing startup Wyvern is expanding south of the border. The Alberta-based company, which collects what it says is the highest-resolution hyperspectral imagery on the market, has raised $6 million to, among other things, expand into U.S. commercial and defense markets. The new funding was led by Squadra Ventures, a firm squarely focused on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
From Elon Musk to cop car chases, how a software engineer launched a police AI startup
Abel creates AI that uses body cam footage and other data to fill out consuming police reports. For research, founder Daniel Francis shadowed the police. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Eclipse opens an NYC office with plans to bolster its presence on the East Coast
After nearly a decade, industrials-focused VC Eclipse expanded out of Silicon Valley. The firm opened its second office in New York’s Soho neighborhood with plans to invest more on the East Coast. Eclipse backs startups in sectors including manufacturing, supply chain, healthcare, and infrastructure, among others, both through its seed and early growth-focused funds. Since […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Can AI make us feel less alone? The founder of Manifest thinks so
Amy Wu, founder of the AI-based mental health app Manifest, has a bold prediction for the next wave of tech. “Separately from the AI trend, I think so many people are seeing this loneliness epidemic that’s happening with Gen Z,” she said. “There is no doubt in my mind that there will be unicorns that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Permira completes Squarespace acquisition after upping bid to $7.2B
Website builder Squarespace is no longer a publicly-traded company, after private equity firm Permira procured all remaining common stock in the firm. Permira first revealed plans to acquire Squarespace back in May, offering shareholders in the NYSE-traded company $44 per share — this equated to an equity valuation of $6.6 billion, and an enterprise valuation […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s central bank orders Sachin Bansal’s Navi to halt loans
India’s central bank ordered four non-bank lenders, including Navi Finserv and DMI Finance, to halt loans from October 21, citing excessive interest rates and regulatory breaches. The Reserve Bank of India said (PDF) the firms violated rules on pricing, income assessment, and asset classification. This action follows months of warnings about responsible lending practices, it […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s X boosts DSA info for EU users as bloc’s probe of its complaint handling continues
An incoming privacy policy update to Elon Musk-owned X (formerly Twitter) will see the company making it clearer to users in the European Union that they have the right to appeal decisions under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), such as account bans, content takedowns and shadowbanning. The online governance regulation, which applies on scores […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Casio says ‘no prospect of recovery yet’ after ransomware attack
The Japanese electronics giant says some of its systems remain "unusable" almost two weeks after cyberattack. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instagram rolls out new safety features to protect teens from sextortion
Instagram is introducing a series of new safety features to protect users from sextortion scammers, the company announced on Thursday. Most notably, the company is no longer going to allow people to screenshot or screen record ephemeral images or videos sent in private messages. Up until now, you have been able to screenshot ephemeral content […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cyera acquires Trail Security for $162M; Cyera is now raising at a $3B valuation
Cyera, the Israel-founded, U.S.-based cybersecurity unicorn that uses artificial intelligence to build what’s known as data security posture management — a full assessment and picture of where a customers’ data has been created, where it is stored, and how it is used — has been on a growth tear in the last year, picking up […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zepto eyes $100M from Indian offices in third funding in 6 months
Zepto is in advanced stages of talks to raise $100 million in new investment, its third in the last six months, as the leading Indian quick commerce startup looks to rope in more domestic investors, sources familiar with the talks told TechCrunch. The Mumbai-headquartered startup, which allows customers in multiple Indian cities order grocery, office […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Accel eyes stake in India’s Truemeds at $330 million valuation
According to half a dozen sources, Accel, the global venture firm, is in advanced discussions to lead a funding round of $30 million to $40 million in Truemeds, an Indian online pharmacy that’s focused on providing customers with more affordable generic alternatives to costly branded medications. The talks are currently centered on a proposed valuation […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta’s AI chief says world models are key to ‘human-level AI’ — but it might be 10 years out
Are today’s AI models truly remembering, thinking, planning, and reasoning, just like a human brain would? Some AI labs would have you believe they are, but according to Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun, the answer is no. He thinks we could get there in a decade or so, however, by pursuing a new method […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta lays off employees across multiple teams
Multiple teams at Meta were hit by layoffs on Wednesday, the company confirmed in a statement to TechCrunch, noting these changes were made to reallocate resources within the company. The layoffs appear to have hit employees working on Threads, recruiting, legal operations, and design, among other teams, according to social media posts announcing the layoffs […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ODD taps $27M for diamond chips to clear radioactive debris at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
Back in 2011, the world held its breath after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan suffered a failure of its cooling systems, in the wake of the country getting hit by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami. The worry was not unfounded: the resulting meltdown — which spread highly radioactive material in multiple directions […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple reportedly worked with a Chinese automaker to develop a battery for its now-canceled car
Apple worked with a Chinese automaker for years to design a battery system for its now-canceled car project. That’s according to Bloomberg, which reports that Apple was collaborating with BYD Co., a Shenzhen-based car company, to develop batteries using lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells. Apple contributed engineering expertise, specifically in areas like heat management and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Analogue 3D drags the fondly remembered N64 into the 21st century
Who among us (and by “us” I mean elder millennials) does not remember the glory days of Goldeneye deathmatches after school? It’s one experience that has been difficult to reproduce despite the march of technology — but retro gaming hardware outfit Analogue’s latest, a ground-up recreation of the N64 called the 3D, will likely be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OroraTech’s space-based wildfire detection brings in $25M to put more imaging satellites in orbit
Wildfires aren’t going away, but our ability to detect and track them — and maybe catch them early enough to prevent serious damage — is getting better. OroraTech is taking a space-based approach to “wildfire intelligence,” and just raised $25 million to grow its market and cover more of the Earth. The German startup currently […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX sues California agency, alleging political bias against Musk and regulatory overreach
SpaceX has filed a lawsuit against a California agency this week after the body rejected a proposal to increase the company’s launches from the state’s coastline to 50 per year. The California Coastal Commission (CCC) made its decision at an October 10 meeting, despite the U.S. Air Force endorsing the plan on the grounds that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Y Combinator-backed fintech CapWay has shut down
Sheena Allen, the company's founder, told TechCrunch that CapWay had to close after it couldn't raise another round. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After selling Drift, ex-HubSpot exec launches AI for customer success managers
Elias Torres has achieved a lot for somebody who immigrated to the US from Nicaragua at 17 without knowing any English. He served as a VP of engineering at HubSpot before co-founding Drift, a company that sold to Vista Equity for about $1.2 billion in 2021. “It’s very rare to get this far, but I’m […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple debuts new business tools for managing presence across email, calls and Tap to Pay
Apple on Wednesday announced an expanded series of tools that will allow businesses to increase their visibility on Apple’s platforms via its free service, Apple Business Connect. Launched last year, the online portal lets businesses manage their presence across Apple’s 1.5 billion devices in areas like Maps, Siri, Spotlight search, Safari, and Wallet. Now, business […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fisker owners get help with recall repairs as court approves liquidation plan
Fisker’s plan to liquidate its assets has been accepted by the bankruptcy court in Delaware. And with it, the issue of who should pay for labor costs associated with a pair of recalls on the bankrupt EV startup’s SUVs is finally settled. Fisker has also reached a deal with American Lease, the buyer of its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GM partners with startup Forge Nano to improve EV battery life, performance, and safety
General Motors is working with Forge Nano, a materials science startup, to find new ways to enhance the performance and lifetime of electric vehicle battery cells. The automaker’s investment arm, GM Ventures, on Wednesday injected $10 million into Forge Nano, which is developing a thin coating the startup says will help improve safety and increase […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: AWS loses a top AI exec
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. Last week, AWS lost a top AI exec. Matt Wood, VP of AI, announced that he’d be leaving AWS after 15 years. Wood had long been involved in the Amazon division’s AI initiatives; he was appointed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Are Cybertrucks too angular for Europe?
Tesla’s Cybertruck is facing blowback in Europe, particularly over pedestrian safety concerns. Euro NCAP, a voluntary but influential car safety assessment program in Europe, has not in any way tested the Cybertruck, but based on a visual assessment alone, raised alarms over its sharp, angular design, saying it could pose a serious threat to pedestrians. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
African crypto startup Yellow Card raises $33M led by Blockchain Capital to scale its B2B pivot
Africa’s blockchain and crypto space is receiving a much-needed venture boost during a tough time for startups, some of which have retreated from specific markets or completely shut down due to issues like harsh regulatory environment, macros or downright mismanagement. The boost involves Yellow Card, the U.S.-founded crypto platform launched in Nigeria in 2019, which […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon jumps on nuclear power bandwagon by investing in X-Energy and promising small reactors
The company revealed three deals, including an investment in a fission startup and two development agreements to add nuclear power to the grid. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The FTC makes it easier to cancel subscriptions like streaming services, memberships and Prime
Soon, it’ll be easier to end recurring subscriptions and memberships — if the FTC has its way. Today, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced a final “click-to-cancel” rule that’ll require companies selling subscription-based products to make it “as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it was to sign up.” First put forth for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google will now help you find the cheapest flights available for your trip
Google is introducing a new feature that will help you find the cheapest flights for your next trip. The company announced on Wednesday that it’s adding a new “cheapest” tab on Google Flights. Up until now, Google has displayed what it considers the “best” options at the top of the results based on both price […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Glovo adds a side of social stickiness to its food delivery app
Do you want a side of socials with your fast food? Spain’s Glovo, a food delivery and quick commerce service where the bulk of orders are for ready-to-eat food, is experimenting with adding a bundle of social features to drive more in-app activity. It’s also letting restaurant partners upload food preparation videos to spice up […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How Paladin’s drones helped Asheville during Hurricane Helene
When Hurricane Helene hit Asheville, North Carolina in September, the city’s police department reached out to public safety drone startup Paladin for help. The startup’s 30-member team jumped into action working nights and through the weekend to assist Asheville’s police department with locating people and dropping off supply. Asheville was a Paladin customer and its team […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Boston Dynamics teams with TRI to bring AI smarts to Atlas humanoid robot
Boston Dynamics and Toyota Research Institute (TRI) Wednesday revealed plans to bring AI-based robotic intelligence to the electric Atlas humanoid robot. The collaboration will leverage the work that TRI has done around large behavior models (LBMs), which operate along similar lines as the more familiar large language models (LLMs) behind platforms like ChatGPT. Last September, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mistral releases new AI models optimized for edge devices
French AI startup Mistral has released its first generative AI models designed to be run on edge devices, like laptops and phones. The new family of models, which Mistral is calling “Les Ministraux,” can be used or tuned for a variety of applications, from basic text generation to working in conjunction with more capable models […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lightmatter’s $400M round has AI hyperscalers hyped for photonic datacenters
Photonic computing startup Lightmatter has raised $400 million to blow one of modern datacenters’ bottlenecks wide open. The company’s optical interconnect layer allows hundreds of GPUs to work synchronously, streamlining the costly and complex job of training and running AI models. The growth of AI and its correspondingly immense compute requirements have supercharged the datacenter […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Treehouse uses AI to help electricians install tech like EV chargers and heat pumps more cheaply
The startup seeks to reduce inefficiencies for electricians, including from site visits while quoting jobs. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon Kindle finally gets color
It’s a big week in Kindle land. Along with refreshes to the base Kindle, Paperwhite, and Scribe, the company is introducing something many of us never expected in a devoted e-reader: color. Earlier this year, Amazon’s chief e-reader competitor, Kobo, introduced the $220 Libra Colour, which leverages color e-ink. The technology has thus far received […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon revamps Kindle line with faster page turns, AI, and a new green color
Amazon’s Kindle line seems to go longer and longer between updates. While e-readers aren’t quite the consumer electronics darlings they once were, however, the retail giant is still invested in the category. After all, according to estimates, Amazon controls more than 80% of the U.S. market. Along with the long-awaited addition of a color Kindle, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fable adds cognitive and hearing impairments to its accessibility tools with $25M round
Fable has gained a reputation as the go-to startup for helping companies build digital products that are more accessible to people with disabilities. After raising $25 million in new funding, the Toronto-based startup is now expanding the communities it supports and working to make AI training data more inclusive. Fable started in 2020 as a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s X dodges EU’s DMA as bloc decides platform isn’t important enough for fairness controls
Elon Musk’s X won’t be regulated under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) the Commission decided Wednesday, despite the social media platform hitting usage thresholds earlier this year. The decision means X won’t be subject to the DMA’s list of operational ‘dos and don’ts’ — in areas like its use of third party data […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Airbnb launches a network that lets hosts hire other hosts
Airbnb hosting has become a complicated business, from setting up a listing and managing the property to understanding price dynamics, communicating with customers, and tracking earnings. The tricky part is that the more properties hosts manage, the harder it becomes for them to juggle everything. To solve this problem, Airbnb is introducing the Host Network feature, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LatticeFlow’s LLM framework takes a first stab at benchmarking Big AI’s compliance with EU AI Act
While most countries’ lawmakers are still discussing how to put guardrails around artificial intelligence the European Union is ahead of the pack, having passed a risk-based framework for regulating AI apps earlier this year. The law came into force in August, although full details of the pan-EU AI governance regime are still being worked out […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Doctors complain of IT ‘in the stone age’
The United Kingdom’s NHS — the world’s largest public health service — is working on creaking IT infrastructure. In any sector, that’s a ticking time bomb. But when you consider that the NHS holds medical records for nearly 67 million people, a breach of that system could become a meltdown. This article from the Financial […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Kenya’s Octavia gets $3.9M seed to remove carbon from air
As calls for urgent climate action persist, technologies to help remove the heat-trapping greenhouse gases from the atmosphere are also emerging globally. In Africa, Octavia Carbon, a Direct Air Capture (DAC) startup is leading the efforts. Octavia, founded in Kenya two years ago, builds DAC machines that it uses to capture carbon, a greenhouse gas […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Long careers in luxury fashion led to a $17M raise for this supply chain platform
The retail sector needs Inventory planning to maintain margins and meet demand. This is getting harder because there are now many distribution channels, more complex supply chains, and shorter sales cycles. Mid-market retailers and premium brands have less firepower than the retail giants and tend to rely on legacy software. Founded in 2020, Autone aims […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Support automation firm Capacity grows with new cash and acquisitions
David Karandish has been busy. Capacity, his support automation company, was planning a $5 million “bridge round” to help the company reach the break-even point. But TVC Capital, Toloka.vc, and the venture’s other backers had something grander in mind. So they threw in an additional $21 million for what became Capacity’s $26 million Series D. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nordic entrepreneur-led VC firm Node.vc closes €71 million first fund
From Switzerland’s Founderful to Italians Founders Fund and the Dutch Operator Fund, a new crop of European VC firms claim to operate as “entrepreneurs backing entrepreneurs.” Although it might still be early to call it a trend, Swedish fund Node.vc has now joined this group, with €71 million in funding to deploy into startups across […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The woman who filmed Waymo’s honking robotaxis got an apology promo—then spent all day using it
Sophia Tung set up a livestream this past summer, showing self-driving Waymo cars honking from the San Francisco parking lot near her apartment at all hours of the night. As a kind of apology for the nuisance, Waymo threw an ice cream party in Tung’s building and gave Tung, a former Twitter engineer, some promo […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Storio is helping other businesses unlock more value from solar energy
Meet Storio, a French startup that’s focused on providing smart energy storage for commercial and industrial customers. Founded in 2023, the startup raised a €5 million seed round earlier this year (around $5.5 million at current exchange rates) and has signed its first client. Storio believes solar panels have a bright future. But the company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former Palantir CISO Dane Stuckey joins OpenAI to lead security
Dane Stuckey, the former CISO of analytics firm Palantir, has joined OpenAI as its newest CISO, serving alongside OpenAI head of security Matt Knight. Stuckey announced the move in a post on X Tuesday evening. “Security is germane to OpenAI’s mission,” he said. “It is critical we meet the highest standards for compliance, trust, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Our favorite startups from Pear VC’s invitational demo day
Pear VC, a prominent seed-focused venture firm, invites about 20 startups per semi-annual sessions to its coveted PearX accelerator. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How Tesla’s plans for ‘unsupervised FSD’ and robotaxis could run into red tape
During Tesla’s much-hyped robotaxi reveal event last week, CEO Elon Musk said he expects Tesla to release an “unsupervised” version of FSD, the automaker’s advanced driver assistance system, in Texas and California in 2025 on certain Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. He also said Tesla would begin production on its robotaxis – which are […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Two more weeks to go: Connect with Meta, Dropbox, J.P. Morgan, and HP at Disrupt
In just over two weeks, TechCrunch will gather some of the startup world’s leading companies at Disrupt in San Francisco. But our partners provide more than just financial support. Their presence at Disrupt gives startups at any stage the tools, knowledge, and community they need to be a success. We thank Meta for their support […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X rival Mastodon has started selling toys
If you like open-source, decentralized social networks that put the power in the hands of the people instead of billionaires, you can now support that cause…by buying toys. On Tuesday, Mastodon, a decentralized alternative to X, began selling its own merchandise in the form of cute, plushie mastodons – the proto-elephants with long tusks that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Watch a robot dog run under water
MAB Robotics Tuesday showcased the latest trick from its Honey Badger robot. In a video, the quadruped is seen running along the bottom of a pool. Legs don’t generally make more sense than propellers or other more standard methods of underwater robot locomotion, but the video demonstrates a sense of robustness and dynamism not often […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads will start showing others when you’re online by default
Meta’s X rival Threads is rolling out a new “activity status” feature that will let you see when someone on the social network is online. Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced the feature on Tuesday in a Threads post, noting that it’s meant to act as “a way to help you find others to engage with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Keep’s AIOps platform helps ops teams reduce alert fatigue
Alert management for developers and ops teams may seem like a solved problem. Notifying an on-call engineer isn’t exactly difficult anymore, after all. But the real question has become when to alert the right person and how to help them when a service goes down, for example. Many are turning to AI to solve some […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
White House considers expanding Nvidia and AMD’s AI chip export limits to additional countries
The Biden administration has privately discussed capping sales of advanced AI chips from Nvidia and AMD to certain Persian Gulf countries in the interest of national security, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The restriction could put a ceiling on export licenses for certain countries, potentially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are heavily investing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s X still struggles to grow subscription revenue
Elon Musk’s plan to reduce X’s dependence on advertising revenue by increasing paid subscriptions is still not taking off. According to a new, third-party analysis of the X Premium subscription service by app intelligence firm Appfigures, X has pulled in approximately $200 million in in-app purchase revenue across iOS and Android since the original 2021 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Internal blog post reveals Automattic’s plan to enforce the WordPress trademark using ‘nice and not nice lawyers’
Matt Mullenweg, the WordPress co-founder and Automattic CEO, has been embroiled in a very public and legal fight with WP Engine these last few weeks over the use of WordPress as a trademark, and fees Automattic believes WP Engine owes to the WordPress project – sparring that has resulted in WP Engine issuing legal demands […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Some Americans are still using Kaspersky’s antivirus despite U.S. government ban
Not everyone in the U.S. has given up on the Russian-made antivirus. Some Americans have found ways to get around the ban and are still using Kaspersky’s antivirus. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google adds new features for Pixel along with Android 15 rollout
Google is rolling out Android 15 today to Pixel devices. It is also adding new features through the October Pixel drop, including improved low-light photography on Instagram and support for underwater photography and video. Android 15 updates Android 15 has a private space feature that lets you hide and lock apps behind a separate PIN […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instagram’s latest feature is a digital business card for your profile
Instagram is rolling out a new “profile card” feature that is essentially a digital business card for your profile. The official launch comes a few months after the Meta-owned social network was spotted testing the feature with select creators. The new two-sided profile cards are designed to make it easier for users to share their […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The New York Times has had it with generative AI companies using its content
The New York Times sent a cease and desist letter demanding that Jeff Bezos-backed Perplexity stop accessing and using its content in AI summaries and other output. The Wall Street Journal reviewed the document. The letter argues that Perplexity has been “unjustly enriched” by using the publisher’s “expressive, carefully written and researched, and edited journalism […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India backs Musk in satellite spectrum allocation row
India is set to allocate spectrum for satellite services through administrative means rather than auction, a decision that aligns with recent comments by Elon Musk and rebuffs lobbying efforts by the country's largest telecom operators. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
New iPad mini brings support for Apple Intelligence and Pencil Pro
Apple Tuesday unveiled a new version of the iPad mini updated for the era of Apple Intelligence. The new arrival is powered by the company’s A7 Pro chip, bringing compatibility with Apple Intelligence, the company’s new generative AI offering. The new arrival marks the first major update to the 8.3-inch device since 2021. The A17 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amplitude buys Command AI to bolster its app engagement offerings
Amplitude, a publicly-traded company that makes digital analytics software, has acquired Command AI, an app user engagement startup formerly known as CommandBar. Most of Command AI’s 30-person, San Francisco-based team will be joining Amplitude. Command AI’s co-founder and CEO James Evans wouldn’t reveal the terms of the deal, but said candidly that an acquisition wasn’t […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained
This story has been updated throughout with more details as the story has developed. We will continue to do so as the case and dispute are ongoing. The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube gets better playback speed controls, collaborative playlists in new update
YouTube on Tuesday added new features to its mobile, web, and TV apps, including granular controls for playback speeds, a redesigned mini-player, collaborative playlists and badges. Until now, users had controls to increase the playback speed in increments of 0.25x. With the latest release, YouTube will let users increase or decrease the playback speed by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Early automates code testing for developers
Early is a Tel Aviv-based startup that uses generative AI to generate unit tests, helping programmers catch potential bugs early in the development cycle. The company, which launched in August, today announced that it has raised a $5 million seed funding round led by Zeev Ventures, with participation from Dynamic Loop Capital. In its current […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Inversion Space gets reentry license for orbital cargo delivery capsule demo
Inversion Space has become the third company to receive a spacecraft reentry license from the Federal Aviation Administration, paving the way for the startup to launch and return its tech pathfinder mission for orbital delivery later this year. The three-year-old startup has ambitions of transforming space into a new “transportation layer for Earth” using ultra-fast, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How customer service AI startup Neuron7 convinced Keith Block to invest
Five-year-old AI customer service startup Neuron7 just closed an oversubscribed $44 million series B round led by Keith Block and his year-and-half-old venture firm, Smith Point Capital. Neuron7 sits in one of the most promising areas for AI technology: customer service. But unlike the hoards of ChatGPT customer chatbot startups, or those doing natural language […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Adobe’s Project Super Sonic uses AI to generate sound effects for your videos
Creating engaging videos isn’t only about the visuals. So much of the appeal of good video content is about the audio, but finding (or maybe even creating) the right audio effects can be a time-consuming process. At its annual Max conference, Adobe is showing off Project Super Sonic, an experimental prototype demo that shows how […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google supercharges Shopping tab with AI and personalized recommendation feed
After bringing generative AI to Search in 2023, Google is supercharging its Shopping tab with the technology. The company announced on Tuesday that it will use AI to help users shop for products based on exactly what they’re looking for. It also launched a new scrollable feed of personalized, shoppable products. Now, when you search […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Career Karma founders launch OutRival to help companies build AI agents
Ruben Harris and Timur Meyster, the founders of the upskilling platform Career Karma, announced today the launch of the company OutRival, which offers a service that hosts and lets businesses build their own customer service agents to take on customer interactions. AI agent companies are hot right now, and AI is one of the only […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Monogoto, an innovator in ‘connectivity as a service’, raises $27M
Connectivity and connected networks are part and parcel of how many devices and services operate today, thanks to innovations and expansions in mobile networks, on-device processing and the cloud. But behind the scenes, there remains a lot of fragmentation: different regions, technologies, tariffs and devices can spell a lot of work for enterprises or service providers […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cato Networks adds a Digital Experience Monitoring service to its SASE platform
Since it was founded in 2015, Cato Networks has evangelized the concept of a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platform that combines many of the features of software-defined networking, modern network security tools, and endpoint protection into a single service backed by a global private network. The promise here is that instead of managing dozens […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Xscape is building multicolor lasers to connect chips within datacenters
The GPUs and other chips used to train AI communicate with each other inside datacenters through “interconnects.” But those interconnects have limited bandwidth, which limits AI training performance. A 2022 survey found that AI developers typically struggle to use more than 25% of a GPU’s capacity. One solution could be new interconnects with much higher […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Port is building internal tool hubs for devs
Port, a platform designed to centralize multiple dev tools and workflows in a single dashboard, has raised $35 million in a Series B round co-led by Accel and Bessemer Venture Partners. Yonatan Boguslavski and Zohar Einy, now Port’s CEO, founded the company in 2022 after serving together in the Israel Defense Forces. Prior to Port, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SimpliSafe’s new outdoor monitoring service combines AI with human agents
SimpliSafe has announced the addition of Active Guard Outdoor Protection to its monthly subscription offerings. The new tier adds an added layer of 24/7 monitoring to the home security service. Outdoor Protection Pro is available for $50 a month, a price that includes the Boston-based firm’s standard $22 indoor monitoring service. The new offering will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
20VC closes new $400M fund to ‘make Europe great again’ says Harry Stebbings
Harry Stebbings — the UK podcaster who broke into the world of tech from total obscurity by building a brand and audience around a regular series of 20-minute interviews with venture capitalists and founders — parlayed that fame into becoming a VC himself. Now, he has closed his third investment vehicle, his biggest yet. 20VC, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gladia believes real-time processing is the next frontier of audio transcription APIs
French startup Gladia, which offers a speech-recognition application programming interface (API), has raised $16 million in a Series A funding round. Essentially, Gladia’s API lets you turn any audio file into text with a high level of accuracy and low turnaround time. While Amazon, Microsoft and Google all offer speech-to-text APIs as part of their […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify is adding music video support in 85 additional markets
Music streaming company Spotify said today that it is testing music videos for premium users in 85 additional markets. The company first ran a video experiment in limited markets in March. Spotify originally rolled out music videos in beta in 11 countries, including the U.K., Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Brazil, Colombia, the Philippines, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Concourse is building AI to automate financial tasks
In a typical organization, finance is one of the most important functions. Yet teams are often bogged down by manual workflows. According to a survey by Paylocity, an HR software provider, 38% of finance teams spend more than a fourth of their time on manual jobs, like reviewing invoices. Matthieu Hafemeister, an ex-fintech investor at […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Oura Ring 4 isn’t an Apple Watch replacement, but that’s not the point
Oura didn’t invent the smart ring category. It did, however, make all that came before it effectively obsolete. The category dates back more than a decade; TechCrunch wrote about an NFC ring in 2013. The Motiv Ring is of far more recent vintage, but it ultimately struggled to find the right use case before being […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s Reliance targets 2G users with $13 4G phones offering streaming, payments
Reliance’s digital arm, Jio Platforms, has launched two new 4G-enabled handsets that offer access to live TV, music and video streaming as well as host the ability to make digital payments – all for a price tag of 1099 rupees ($13). The JioBharat V3 and JioBharat V4, successors to last year’s JioBharat model, feature 1.77-inch […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
European cyber insurance startup Stoïk secures $27 million
Cyber risk has become an increasingly important issue for small companies around the world. While many companies try to avoid and mitigate cyber risks, they rarely discuss transferring those risks to a third party. That’s why Stoïk is stepping in with a cyber insurance product specifically designed for small and medium-sized businesses. The French startup […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nvidia, the AI chipmaker, just hit another record high
Nvidia shares hit a record high on Monday, closing at $138.07 as Wall Street anticipates earnings updates from Microsoft, Meta, Google and Amazon on their AI infrastructure spending. The stock’s climb has been stupefying — surging nearly 180% this year, following a rapid climb last year; it’s also a reflection of Nvidia’s renowned stronghold on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI snatches up Microsoft generative AI research lead
Microsoft has lost an AI expert and OpenAI gained one, after the former’s VP of generative AI research Sebastian Bubeck left for the latter. The Information first reported the move, and Reuters also confirmed the departure with Microsoft. We know Bubeck as one of the main authors of papers describing Microsoft’s Phi models, a series […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meet Alarmo, Nintendo’s $100 sleep-tracking alarm clock
We got our hands on the newest gadget from Nintendo. No, it’s not a new Switch. It’s a clock and it’s aptly called the Alarmo. The design is very Nintendo, bright red with a soft plastic knob that lights up and doubles as a dial and button. You can select from a bunch of clock […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google signed a deal to power data centers with nuclear micro-reactors from Kairos — but the 2030 timeline is very optimistic
With the deal, Google joins Microsoft and Amazon in turning to nuclear power to satiate its thirst for electricity. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
In memory of Steve O’Hear
Steve O’Hear, who wrote for TechCrunch for more than a decade out of his hometown of London, has passed away after a short illness. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla Optimus bots were controlled by humans during the ‘We, Robot’ event
During Tesla’s “We, Robot” event last week, which TechCrunch covered late into the night,, sources on the ground sent me a handful of videos of the automaker’s Optimus humanoid robots walking around the party, dancing, mixing drinks, and talking to guests. Most, if not all, of those who attended the affair are Tesla investors and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former Product Hunt CEO Josh Buckley is looking to raise a fourth $250M fund
Josh Buckley, the former CEO of Product Hunt, is aiming to raise a fourth $250 million fund for his venture capital firm, Buckley Ventures, according to a regulatory filing. Buckley’s ambitions for this fund are significantly lower than for his previous one. He sought to raise a $500 million third fund in February, 2022, right […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The biggest data breaches in 2024: 1 billion stolen records and rising
Some of the largest, most damaging breaches of 2024 already account for over a billion stolen records. Plus, some special shout-outs. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Space: SpaceX alums raising a massive new fund for deep tech and more
Hello, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. The final agenda for the Space Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt is live and we’d love to see you there. Come hear the latest and greatest insights from top space entrepreneurs and investors! Want to reach out with a tip? Email Aria at [email protected] or send a message on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Omnea raises $25M to tackle the painfully annoying procurement market
Procurement — the process of requesting, vetting and eventually buying IT and other supplies in an organization — is typically one of the more frustrating, dry, yet inevitable aspects of a workplace. When you are in need of a new app or device, or when you need to renew an existing contract for one in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
National Public Data, the hacked data broker that lost millions of Social Security numbers and more, files for bankruptcy
The data broker who lost one of the biggest databases of Social Security numbers in a data breach earlier this year, files for bankruptcy protection. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Two more weeks to go: Connect with Meta, Dropbox, J.P. Morgan, and HP at Disrupt
In just over two weeks, TechCrunch will gather some of the startup world’s leading companies at Disrupt in San Francisco. But our partners provide more than just financial support. Their presence at Disrupt gives startups at any stage the tools, knowledge, and community they need to be a success. We thank Meta for their support […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Last-minute Expo+ 2-for-1 passes available for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Time is ticking! Just two weeks until the doors to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 open. To ensure no one misses this highly anticipated event, we’re offering Expo+ 2-for-1 passes for the final days leading up to Disrupt 2024. Bring a friend, colleague, or family member to Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30. Get two […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Casio confirms customer data compromised in ransomware attack
A ransomware and extortion racket called Underground has claimed responsibility for the breach on its dark web leak site, which TechCrunch has seen. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Aerleum plans to turn CO2 directly into fuel for cargo ships and, eventually, airplanes
To cut direct air capture's costs, the startup has developed a material that, in a two-step process, absorbs carbon dioxide and transforms it into another compound. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Adobe invites you to ’embrace the tech’ with Firefly’s new video generator
Adobe launched video generation capabilities for its Firefly AI platform ahead of its Adobe MAX event on Monday. Starting today, users can test out Firefly’s video generator for the first time on Adobe’s website, or try out its new AI-powered video feature, Generative Extend, in the Premiere Pro beta app. On the Firefly website, users […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Peanut, a social network for women, adds a pregnancy tracking tool
Peanut, a social networking app for women, is launching a new feature to help users track their pregnancies. The new Peanut Track tool leverages seven years of data from questions asked on the social network and uses AI to anticipate questions that women have during different stages of their pregnancy. Founded in 2017, Peanut is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After selling his last AI startup to Meta, Beyond Presence’s founder nabs $3.1M to build realistic avatars
Computer vision applications are getting a huge boost from advances in smartphones combined with AI that helps fill in the gaps of what everyday devices cannot see. Using these tools, a startup out of Munich called Beyond Presence believes it holds the keys to what is coming next: Hyper-realistic avatars that look and sound exactly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Table Space eyes $2.5B valuation in India IPO
Table Space is targeting a valuation of $2.5 billion or higher for an India IPO planned planned for 2025. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Constellation Technologies & Operations wants to work with telecom operators to deliver 5G internet from space
The telecom industry is undergoing its greatest period of disruption since the telegraph, as companies work to open up space as the next frontier for communications. French startup Constellation hopes to take part by repurposing 5G tech to provide a Starlink-like satellite broadband that uses telecoms’ existing assets. Constellation Technologies and Operations, to call it […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rerail is a new fintech-focused angel fund from Cocoa’s Anthony Danon
If you’re starting a fintech company, there’s a new, small early-stage fund looking for investment opportunities. Founded by Anthony Danon (pictured above), Rerail could be called a micro-fund, a solo GP fund, or an angel fund. Danon has been an investor for the past 10 years. He started his career with Anthemis Group in London […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Director Morgan Neville is steering clear of generative AI after ‘Roadrunner’ backlash
One of the most attention-grabbing aspects of “Roadrunner,” the Morgan Neville-directed documentary about Anthony Bourdain, was Neville’s use of generative AI to replicate Bourdain’s voice. Looking back now, Neville told Wired that he saw this as a “fun” way to “keep [Bourdain’s] voice going in the film.” But his approach drew intense criticism — while […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX successfully catches returning Starship booster
For the first time, SpaceX not only launched its mammoth Starship, but also returned the booster to the launch site and to caught it with a pair of oversized “chopsticks.” This test flight — the fifth in the Starship development program — took place Sunday morning at the company’s Starbase site in southeast Texas. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple might release a $2,000 Vision headset next year
Apple’s Vision Pro hasn’t exactly reshaped the market, but the company isn’t giving up on headsets that combine the digital and real worlds. A new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says that Apple’s next big mixed reality release could come as early as next year, with the launch of a Vision headset costing around $2,000 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The promise and perils of synthetic data
Is it possible for an AI to be trained just on data generated by another AI? It might sound like a harebrained idea. But it’s one that’s been around for quite some time — and as new, real data is increasingly hard to come by, it’s been gaining traction. Anthropic used some synthetic data to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The original source code for Backyard Baseball is long gone. Mega Cat Studios remastered the game anyway.
Backyard Baseball 1997 is back in all of its nostalgic glory, sliding onto Steam like Pablo Sanchez when he steals a base. But before Mega Cat Studios could remaster the cult favorite PC game, founder James Deighan had to sift through almost thirty years of detritus. Playground Productions, a children’s media company, scored the rights […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Data center tech is exploding but adoption won’t be easy for startups
The data center industry is expanding rapidly to keep up with the flywheel growth of AI. While these data centers are necessary AI infrastructure, they store an AI company’s compute, they are expensive to build, seemingly more so to run, and they are a huge energy suck. Startups are looking to make data centers more […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meet the Chinese ‘Typhoon’ hackers preparing for war
Of the cybersecurity risks facing the United States today, few loom larger than the potential sabotage capabilities posed by China-backed hackers, which top U.S. officials have described as an “epoch-defining threat.” In recent months, U.S. intelligence officials said Chinese government-backed hackers have been burrowing deep into the networks of U.S. critical infrastructure, including water, energy […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This three-person robotics startup is working with designer Yves Béhar to bring humanoids home
It’s hard to know where to focus when speaking to Christoph Kohstall. The contents of his packed Palo Alto garage compete for attention. To his immediate right stands a tower of electrical components, dotted with flashing lights. To his left is a workbench and the tops of machining tools. A red industrial girder runs along […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How a medtech market opportunity is shaping up for wearable neurotech
When you think of brain stimulating medtech, startups building wearables as therapeutics probably aren’t the first thing that springs to mind. Such tech is still flying fairly under the radar — perhaps, in part, because these sorts of companies have raised a fraction of the investment that’s been ploughed into invasive technologies for targeting treatments […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta’s Yann LeCun says worries about A.I.’s existential threat are ‘complete B.S.’
AI pioneer Yann LeCun doesn’t think artificial intelligence is actually on the verge of becoming intelligent. LeCun — a professor at New York University, senior researcher at Meta, and winner of the prestigious A.M. Turning Award — has been open about his skepticism before, for example tweeting that before we worry about controlling super-intelligent AI, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
In latest move against WP Engine, WordPress takes control of ACF plugin
The dispute between WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg and hosting provider WP Engine continues, with Mullenweg announcing that WordPress is “forking” a plugin developed by WP Engine. Specifically, Advanced Custom Fields — a plugin making it easier for WordPress users to customize their edit screens — is being taken out of WP Engine’s hands and updated […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla’s Cybercab robotaxi is here — and it could cost less than $30K
Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re taking a closer look at Tesla’s Cybercab and Robovan reveals, the “complete disarray” at Fisker HQ, and a horrifying side effect of living in our modern world: AI summaries of your breakup texts. Let’s do this. Tesla finally revealed its Cybercab robotaxi. Unveiled at the company’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX will attempt historic catch of returning Starship booster on Sunday
Starship is ready to fly again — and for the first time, SpaceX is going to try to bring the booster back to the launch site to catch it with a pair of oversized “chopsticks.” SpaceX will launch the mammoth Starship on Sunday in a launch window that opens at 5 AM PST (7 AM […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok’s research reportedly acknowledges negative effects on teens
Court documents suggest that TikTok executives are aware of the app’s potential harm to teenagers, according to reporting by NPR and Kentucky Public Radio. Fourteen U.S. attorneys general sued TikTok earlier this week, claiming that the app harms children’s mental health. Much of the material in those suits was redacted, but reporters were able to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Where we are today in biology AI is similar to GPT in 2020’: An interview with the CEO of Africa’s biggest AI startup
In January last year, German biotech company BioNTech acquired African AI startup Instadeep for over $550 million, a deal finalized in July of the same year. Instadeep, whose exit is currently the largest from Africa, has been operating under the German pharma umbrella for just over a year. Now is a good time to look […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The most interesting unicorns to come out of Japan
Japan’s startup sector, despite being one of the biggest in the world, has lagged behind other regions like the U.S., China, and the U.K., in terms of the number of unicorns and the scale of venture capital investment. For years, an aging population, overall economic deflation, and salarymen’s inclination to work at traditional, big corporations […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Chat control’: The EU’s controversial CSAM-scanning legal proposal explained
The European Union has a longstanding reputation for strong privacy laws. But a legislative plan to combat child abuse — which the bloc formally presented back in May 2022 — is threatening to downgrade the privacy and security of hundreds of millions of regional messaging app users. The European Commission, the EU legislative body that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon’s Tye Brady discusses the next-generation robotic warehouses
For the last several years, the Delivering the Future event has showcased the latest technologies powering Amazon operations. Seattle’s 2023 event showcased updates to the company’s pharmacy offerings and drone deliveries. This year in Nashville, Amazon discussed AI updates to its shopping experiences and how the company is using computer vision to further trim package […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How do you solve a problem like MariaDB? Cozy up to the community, says new CEO
The new CEO of MariaDB (Plc) says he wants closer-knit collaboration with the foundation behind the eponymous open source database project. He cites the corporation’s newfound stability from its recent acquisition by a private equity firm as to why it should now be able to get on a firmer footing. It has been a turbulent […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What is wearable neurotech and why might we need it?
The wearables category already contains multitudes, from exercise-focused smart watches and sleep tracking smart rings to smart femtech and semi-invasive blood glucose monitors — to name a few of the gizmos we’ve tracked over roughly a decade of novel personal hardware launches. But the space is set to get even more active, with a new […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
California police aren’t loving their Tesla cop cars
Elon Musk on Thursday night rolled out the latest tech from Tesla, saying of its sleek Cybercab robotaxis and a prototype of its new electric van that “the future should look like the future.” Back in the present day, however, California police departments are beginning to regret their decision to replace their fleets with Tesla […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anthropic CEO goes full techno-optimist in 15,000-word paean to AI
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wants you to know he’s not an AI “doomer.” At least, that’s my read of the “mic drop” of a ~15,000 word essay Amodei published to his blog late Friday. (I tried asking Anthropic’s Claude chatbot whether it concurred, but alas, the post exceeded the free plan’s length limit.) In broad […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Researchers question AI’s ‘reasoning’ ability as models stumble on math problems with trivial changes
How do machine learning models do what they do? And are they really “thinking” or “reasoning” the way we understand those things? This is a philosophical question as much as a practical one, but a new paper making the rounds Friday suggests that the answer is, at least for now, a pretty clear “no.” A […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here’s the full list of 39 US AI startups that have raised $100M or more in 2024
In the first half of 2024 alone, more than $35.5 billion was invested into AI startups globally. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Khosla Ventures just backed OpenAI with $405M more, but not necessarily with its own capital
Khosla Ventures has raised $405 million for OpenAI, according to a regulatory filing. Based on the filing alone, Khosla’s stake in the ChatGPT maker appears to be at least 6% of the $6.6 billion round the company closed last week. But that doesn’t mean Khosla has put substantial or any capital into the round. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hit by hurricanes? FCC says you qualify for internet and mobile service subsidies
As hurricanes batter the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, many people’s livelihoods are on hold and they’re struggling to make ends meet. The FCC just decided that anyone affected by a natural disaster can get a break on broadband and mobile service; it’s not much, but every little bit counts. The Lifeline […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fearless Fund has made a big deal since settling its controversial lawsuit
Fearless Fund has made a big move since it settled a lawsuit with the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER). The firm announced on Thursday a seven-figure investment into the e-commerce platform Zimi, co-founded by Audrey Djiya and Peter Nsaka. Zimi offers inventory management, handling and storage, and border logistics specifically to help businesses in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
New rounds will help startups challenge well-funded rivals
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. It was once again the private market that generated the most funding-related news in the startup world this week, both for companies and for funds. But it […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instagram blames moderation issues on human reviewers, not AI
Instagram head Adam Mosseri on Friday addressed the moderation issues that saw Instagram and Threads users losing access to their accounts, having posts disappear, and more, saying that the company “found mistakes” which it’s attributing to human moderators, not AI systems, as many believed. In a post on Threads, Mosseri addressed the issue that has […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Silicon Valley is debating if AI weapons should be allowed to decide to kill
Silicon Valley founders like Palmer Luckey and Joe Lonsdale have been grappling with fully autonomous weapons. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
HubSpot acquires Cacheflow, a platform that helps close software sales
HubSpot has acquired Cacheflow, a startup building tools for the software sales closing process, for an undisclosed amount. HubSpot CEO Yamini Rangan says that Cacheflow — which will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of HubSpot once the deal closes — will expand HubSpot’s Commerce Hub suite of subscription billing management and configure, price, and quote tools […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Temu gets more questions from the EU about illegal product risks
The European Union has dialed up scrutiny of Chinese ecommerce marketplace Temu, asking for more information about its compliance with multiple provisions of the bloc’s online governance framework, the Digital Services Act (DSA), including in relation to how it prevents the sale of illegal goods on its platform. Back in May scores of consumer protection […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anthony Levandowski buys Elon Musk’s vision for the future
Anthony Levandowski, the engineer who co-founded Google’s self-driving car program (now known as Waymo) and has gone on to start an off-road AV startup, hopped on the phone with me after Tesla’s big robotaxi reveal to share his thoughts. And he is bullish on Elon Musk’s vision for Tesla’s and the world’s future, but he’s not […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sequoia Capital, US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Tidelift take the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
In today’s software ecosystem, open source code has become the backbone of innovation and digital infrastructure, playing a pivotal role in everything from startups to major enterprises. The collaborative nature of open source software has unlocked incredible potential for businesses, allowing rapid development and agility. But with this openness comes a critical dilemma: security vulnerabilities. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Aktiia trained AI on 11 billion data points of blood pressure, and now a clinically certified app is coming
As well as being a major cause of premature death worldwide, hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a major risk factor for stroke, coronary artery disease, heart failure, and a contributing factor to dementia. It also affects an estimated 1.3 billion people, while up to 95% of cases are due to lifestyle factors […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Xbox will soon let players buy games directly in its Android app following Google antitrust ruling
Xbox President Sarah Bond announced that players will soon be able to play and purchase Xbox games directly from the Xbox App on Android. The announcement comes as a U.S. judge ordered Google to stop forcing developers to use Google Play’s billing system on Monday. The ruling forces Google to open up its app store to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Announcing more judges for Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Startup Battlefield 200 is a major highlight at every Disrupt, and we’re thrilled to find out which of the thousands of startup applicants will get the chance to pitch to top-tier VCs at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Join us at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28–30 to witness the epic showdown where every contender […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ByteDance lays off hundreds of TikTok employees in shift to AI content moderation
ByteDance’s TikTok is laying off hundreds of employees, mainly in Malaysia, according to Reuters. The cuts come as the social network is increasingly turning to AI for content moderation. Although TikTok did not provide the exact number, it said that less than 500 people were affected. The company said it’s making the changes as part […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How AI-generated content is upping the workload for Wikipedia editors
As AI-generated slop takes over increasing swathes of the user-generated Internet thanks to the rise of large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s GPT, spare a thought for Wikipedia editors. In addition to their usual job of grubbing out bad human edits, they’re having to spend an increasing proportion of their time trying to weed out […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Intelligence features can also summarize breakup texts for you
When Nick Spreen installed the beta of iOS 18.1 to try out upcoming Apple Intelligence features, he probably didn’t expect to receive an AI-generated summary of breakup texts from his then girlfriend. “No longer in a relationship; wants belongings from the apartment,” the AI summarized. After sharing a screenshot of the unfortunate message on X, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK neobank Monzo hits $5.9B valuation with secondary market sale
Monzo is now valued at $5.9 billion after the U.K.-based challenger bank confirmed a secondary market share sale to provide liquidity for its employees. The transaction, first rumored yesterday, saw existing investors such as Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund (GIC) and StepStone Group procuring additional shares in the London-based fintech. A secondary market sale essentially rewards […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk unveils the Robovan: the biggest surprise from Tesla’s We, Robot event
Elon Musk unveiled a prototype of Tesla’s Robovan on Thursday night during the company’s We, Robot event in Los Angeles. The Robovan will be an electric, autonomous vehicle roughly the size of a bus, designed for transporting people around high density areas. It will carry up to 20 people at a time and also transport […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla reveals 20 Cybercabs at We, Robot event
Tesla has finally revealed its Cybercab, and it looks like a smaller, sleeker Cybertruck. And while many were expecting there to be at least one prototype of a robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals, Tesla CEO Elon Musk delighted his fans with a lineup of 20 vehicles. The flashy “We, Robot” event took place […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Babbel co-founder Markus Witte will once again run the company, replacing CEO Arne Schepker
Arne Schepker, the CEO of the popular Berlin-based language learning platform Babbel, is stepping down, and the company’s co-founder and former CEO Markus Witte is stepping back in to lead the company “into a new phase while searching for Arne’s successor with patience,” the company said. This new phase, unsurprisingly, will involve AI. Witte will not […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Babbel co-founder Markus Witte will once again run the company, replacing CEO Arne Schepker
Arne Schepker, the CEO of the popular Berlin-based language learning platform Babbel, is stepping down, and the company’s co-founder and former CEO Markus Witte is stepping back in to lead the company “into a new phase while searching for Arne’s successor with patience,” the company said. This new phase, unsurprisingly, will involve AI. Witte will not […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla Robotaxi event: How to watch the reveal live
Tesla loves to put on a show, and Thursday’s Robotaxi reveal might just be the flashiest of them all. The electric vehicle maker is slated to unveil its much-hyped Robotaxi vehicle at Warner Bros. Discovery’s movie studio in Burbank, California. For those attending, doors will open at 5 p.m. PT, with remarks beginning at 7 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon team in charge of Just Walk Out loses three execs, gains one
Three Amazon executives in charge of developing new technologies for checking out of physical stores – including Just Walk Out, Dash Carts, and Amazon One – are leaving or have left the division, TechCrunch has learned. In addition, a former high-ranking advertising executive at Amazon, Colleen Aubrey, was recently put in charge of Just Walk […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla Robotaxi reveal: What to expect
Tesla is gearing up to reveal its Robotaxi this Thursday, and everyone wants to know what it will look like, whether Tesla will unveil a commercialization strategy, and what outrageous timelines Elon Musk might announce to bump Tesla’s stock. The “We, Robot” event will take place at 7 p.m. PT at Warner Bros. Discovery’s movie […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FTX’s Ryan Salame posts jokes on LinkedIn as he heads to prison
After the criminal implosion of the crypto exchange FTX, many of the company’s executives have been found guilty on various counts of fraud or conspiracy to commit such acts. Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, is starting his seven-and-a-half-year fraud sentence today, but not before posting an all-time absurd LinkedIn post (and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX alums are working to raise a hefty $550M first deep tech fund
Interlagos, the venture capital firm started by former senior SpaceX leaders, is looking to raise $550 million for its first venture fund, according to regulatory filings and a confidential deck sent to prospective LPs and viewed by TechCrunch. The existence of the firm was first reported by TechCrunch in April, but almost nothing has been […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky joins Threads to court users frustrated by Meta’s moderation issues
Social networking startup Bluesky is seizing the moment. Amid ongoing moderation issues affecting X rival Instagram Threads, the decentralized X competitor Bluesky has created an account on Meta’s newest platform. In doing so, the startup aims to capitalize on the discussions now taking place on Threads, where a number of users are threatening to leave […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla’s Robotaxi reveal, Palantir owns some of Faraday Future, and the Strava for EVs
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Your usual host Kirsten is out on vacation, but she didn’t leave without writing up This Week’s Wheels. But for the rest, you’ve got me, Rebecca Bellan, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LinkedIn says 10M people have signed up as freelancers on its Services Marketplace
More than 100,000 people have been laid off in the technology industry alone this year, and — either by circumstance or choice — at least some of them are not heading back into exclusively full-time work. LinkedIn launched a freelancer marketplace in 2021 to capture some of that activity. Now, at a time when other […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How stuck is the startup exit market? Pretty stuck, says Pitchbook
Deal analysis outfit Pitchbook today released a new report that underscores how fewer exits are impacting the startup investing ecosystem. Among its findings? Beyond what’s commonly known – that a lot of the fundings today are insider rounds and bridge financings aimed at keeping companies alive – cash back to limited partners (LPs) has slowed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US and UK announce joint children’s online safety group to push for common fixes
The U.S. and U.K. governments announced Thursday they will set up a joint children’s online safety working group to cooperate on safeguarding efforts in the digital realm by sharing evidence and expertise, and pushing for “common solutions” to child safety challenges. A joint statement, released by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.K. Technology Secretary […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Numeric grabs $28M Series A to automate accounting using AI
Just five months after it raised a $10 million seed round, Numeric has raised a $28 million Series A led by Menlo Ventures. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Swsh’s new photo-sharing app lets Gen Zers filter out red solo cups and alcoholic drinks
When Swsh launched last year, the social app was initially designed as a poll game (similar to the “Most Likely To” game), where users can answer five daily questions with their friends. However, the company has completely switched gears, joining a very crowded market — photo album-sharing platforms. These types of apps have existed for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Antitrust challenge to Facebook’s ‘superprofiling’ finally wraps in Germany — with Meta agreeing to data limits
A multi-year competition challenge to Facebook (aka Meta), which saw Germany’s antitrust authority become a pioneering champion for privacy rights in 2019 after it sought to block the social media giant’s ‘superprofiling’ of users on the grounds that consentless cross-site tracking of users is an “exploitative abuse” of Facebook’s monopoly position, finally concluded Thursday with […]All rights reserved.For personal use only.
Students and recent grads! Last call for a Student Pass discount at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is only two weeks away, and we want to ensure that students and recent grads don’t miss out on the full Attendee Pass experience — now available at a discounted rate with a Student Pass. We get that finances can be tight for students and recent grads, but we don’t want you […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A reporter used AI to apply to 2,843 jobs
AI is spamming up job applications. 404 Media’s Jason Koebler writes about how he used a free tool, AI Hawk, to apply for 17 jobs in an hour while working a restaurant shift — only stopping when he’d reached 2,843. The tool automatically entered Koebler’s bio info, generated resumes, wrote customized cover letters, and checked […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Opera’s new feature lets you group, pin and close tabs through natural language commands
Opera browser has a new AI-powered feature that lets you take action on tabs through natural language queries. Things you can do include grouping, pinning, bookmarking and closing tabs with these commands. The company said people can trigger the Aria command bar — by pressing Ctrl + / or Cmd + / — and type out […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Scope3 starts tracking the carbon footprint of AI
The startup, which already monitors the climate impact of digital advertising, is expanding to include artificial intelligence. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Relyance lands $32M to help companies comply with data regulations
As the demand for AI surges, AI vendors are devoting greater bandwidth to data security issues. Not only are they being compelled to comply with emerging data privacy regulations (e.g. the EU Data Act), but they’re finding themselves under the microscope of clients skeptical about how their data is being used and processed. The trouble […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fidelity says data breach exposed personal data of 77,000 customers
Fidelity Investments, one of the world’s largest asset managers, has confirmed that 77,000 customers had personal information compromised during an August data breach. The Boston, Mass.-based investment firm said in a filing with Maine’s attorney general on Wednesday that an unnamed third party accessed information from its systems between August 17 and August 19 “using […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Venture studio Diagram expands into climate tech with oversubscribed fund
Eight-year-old Diagram is expanding its startup incubator model into climate. The Montreal-based venture studio, which launches startups in house, raised $80 million CAD ($58 million) for its fourth studio fund, Diagram ClimateTech Fund. The firm said the vehicle surpassed its initial $60 million CAD ($43 million) target, hitting its hard cap, and is the studio’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MiLaboratories gets $10M for a platform play to accelerate genomic research
Advances in DNA sequencing and the vast amounts of genomic data being produced by next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology have created a startup opportunity to build software for biologists so they can more easily analyze this big data and take the next leap. It could help when it comes to developing new vaccines, cancer treatments and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained
This story has been updated throughout with more details as the story has developed. We will continue to do so as the case and dispute are ongoing. The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
BaCta is using engineered bacteria to grow natural rubber and slash CO2 emissions
The synthetic biology and precision fermentation space is a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity these days. But it’s not every day you come across a startup that’s using genetic engineering to produce natural rubber — a substance that’s challenging to reproduce in a lab because of how long its polymer is. Paris-based baCta has a proof […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Internet Archive slammed by DDoS attack and data breach
The Internet Archive, the nonprofit organization that digitizes and archives materials like web pages, came under attack Wednesday. Several users – including over at The Verge – confronted a pop-up when visiting the site, reading, “Have you ever felt like the Internet Archive runs on sticks and is constantly on the verge of suffering a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tyler, the Creator changes his tune on Elon Musk
Tyler, the Creator dropped his hit song “911” in 2017 with the line: “Sucks you can’t gas me up, shout out to Elon Musk.” However, while performing this weekend at the Austin City Limits music festival nearby Tesla’s Texas headquarters, the Grammy-winning artist changed the latter half of the lyric to: “man, f**k Elon.” It […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Health insurtech startup Qantev raises €30 million to outperform LLMs with small AI models
Health and life insurance providers face a rising volume of claims due to chronic disease and aging populations, but their processes lack scalability. AI automation can help, but it takes more tailoring than for other insurance types. Automating property and casualty insurance, for instance, gave rise to public company Guidewire decades ago, but health insurance […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Did that startup founder really work through his wedding?
Thoughtly co-founder Casey Mackrell had a big week. First, he got married. Then, he went viral. At his wedding reception, Mackrell needed to quickly give a colleague access to code that could only be unblocked from his laptop. His fellow co-founder Torrey Leonard seized the moment by taking a photo to capture Mackrell wrapping up […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bridgit Mendler’s Northwood makes ground station connection with Planet Labs in key test
Northwood Space, the startup founded by former Disney star Bridgit Mendler, nailed a key test last week when its ground station unit successfully connected with orbiting Planet Labs satellites. Operating from Planet’s ground station in Maddock, North Dakota, the team successfully showed the startup’s novel phased-array antenna system can transmit data to and from satellites […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla Robotaxi reveal: What to expect
Tesla is gearing up to reveal its Robotaxi this Thursday, and everyone wants to know what it will look like, whether Tesla will unveil a commercialization strategy, and what outrageous timelines Elon Musk might announce to bump Tesla’s stock. The “We, Robot” event will take place at 7 p.m. PT at Warner Bros. Discovery’s movie […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
You can now buy songs from Green Day’s ‘Dookie’ in lo-fi formats like doorbell chime and wax cylinder
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Green Day’s classic pop-punk album “Dookie,” Los Angeles art studio Brain has constructed extremely lo-fi versions of the songs in various formats and is selling one-off versions of them. On the website Dookie Demastered you can also enter a drawing for $49 wireless doorbell that will play the intro […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Russia is banning Discord, an app its military uses
Russia is banning chat platform Discord, the Washington Post reports. The app joins platforms like Facebook and X, which have also been blocked in the country since the start of its war with Ukraine. The twist is that the Russian military relies on Discord to coordinate communications, since the military doesn’t have its own platforms […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s Star Health confirms data breach after cybercriminals post customers’ health data online
The insurance giant confirmed a data breach, weeks after cybercriminals posted alleged customer health and medical data online. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TezLab launches new AI-powered ‘car reports’ for Tesla and Rivian EVs
Modern connected vehicles, and especially EVs, generate a lot of data. But automakers don’t often give owners a good way to play around with that data. Instead, drivers are more likely to wind up in a situation like the New York Times reported on earlier this year: essentially tricked into giving away that data for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X changes creator payouts to depend on engagement, not ads
As X continues to alienate advertisers, even recently suing a group over their boycott of the platform, the company is shifting its creator payments policy to be less dependent on ads. Before, creators would be paid a percentage of the ad revenue from ads shown in their replies. Now, X says it will instead pay […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Shield AI’s founder on death, drones in Ukraine, and the AI weapon ‘no one wants’
Shield AI cofounder Brandon Tseng has raised over $1 billion to create AI pilots. Here's what he's learned in Ukraine and the future of AI-powered weapons. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After winning Nobel for foundational AI work, Geoffrey Hinton says he’s proud Ilya Sutskever ‘fired Sam Altman’
Geoffrey Hinton accepted a Nobel Prize this week, recognizing the foundational work on artificial neural networks that earned him the nickname “godfather of AI.” In a speech Tuesday, Professor Hinton praised one student – alluding to OpenAI’s former Chief Scientist, Ilya Sutskever – for revolting against OpenAI’s CEO. “I was particularly fortunate to have many […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla designer Franz von Holzhausen says he’s been designing a robotaxi in his mind for years
About 12 years ago, not long after Tesla began delivering the Model S, chief designer Franz von Holzhausen started to think about what an autonomous vehicle might look like. Von Holzhausen played a central role at Tesla leading the design team on the Model 3 and Model Y, as well as the Tesla Semi. But […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: Tech giants embrace synthetic data
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. This week in AI, synthetic data rose to prominence. OpenAI last Thursday introduced Canvas, a new way to interact with ChatGPT, its AI-powered chatbot platform. Canvas opens a window with a workspace for writing and coding […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zoom’s custom AI avatar tool may come with risks
Zoom plans to introduce a feature to let people effectively clone themselves digitally. There's concerns that this could be misused. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Palantir now owns nearly 9% of EV startup Faraday Future — here’s why
Palantir now owns 8.7% of struggling electric vehicle startup Faraday Future, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The data-mining company was granted more than 800,000 shares in the EV startup on October 2 “as payment for certain outstanding receivables” — the equivalent of roughly $2.4 million judging by Faraday […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Streamer Plex rolls out movie and TV show reviews
Following its $40 million fundraise at the beginning of this year, streaming media company Plex announced on Wednesday it’s rolling out a new TV show and movie reviews feature, putting its app in more direct competition with other apps, like Letterboxd and TV Time. The feature will also include social networking elements, as the reviews can be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
European unicorn Alan becomes Canada’s first new health insurance company in almost 70 years
In 2016, when Alan originally launched its health insurance product in France, it was the first new health insurance company in the country in 30 years. Now, as Alan announces its expansion to Canada, the startup is about to break a new record: There hasn’t been a new health insurance company in Canada since 1957. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon makes shopping for groceries online less confusing
On Wednesday, Amazon announced several new ways it plans to enhance the grocery shopping experience for Prime members. These include enabling Same-Day Delivery for both fresh groceries and Amazon.com products simultaneously, as well as introducing additional features to simplify the shopping process. Amazon aims to enhance its online grocery delivery service by allowing Prime members […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Never mind the Switch 2, Nintendo launches a $100 sleep-tracking alarm clock
That Nintendo gadget that showed up on the FCC’s site last month is sadly not the Switch 2. While the gaming giant confirmed in May that a Switch successor is, indeed, in the works, fans are going to have to settle for Alarmo. The $100 motion controlled alarm clock brings sounds from titles like Breath […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hackers targeted Android users by exploiting zero-day bug in Qualcomm chips
EXC: Security researchers at Google and Amnesty International discovered hackers exploiting the bug in an active hacking campaign. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon’s new AI-powered vision tech tells drivers which packages to deliver
Amazon Wednesday announced the upcoming addition of new AI-powered package retrieval technology to its electric vehicle fleet. The vision-based tech is designed help drivers prioritize packages. Vision-Assisted Package Retrieval (VAPR) works by highlighting packages with either a green circle or red light, denoting which are designated for delivery at the current stop. The company says […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon Pharmacy to expand its same-day delivery service to 20 more US cities
Amazon Pharmacy is expanding its same-day delivery service to 20 more U.S. cities next year, the company announced on Wednesday. Amazon says the expansion will more than double the number of cities where customers can get same-day delivery of their medications. As part of the expansion, Amazon is opening up new pharmacies that will include […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Baidu to expand Apollo Go robotaxi service outside of China
Baidu, the Google of China, will roll out its driverless ride-hailing service overseas as it seeks to compete with the dearth of autonomous vehicle companies at home. The Beijing-based company seeks to deploy its Apollo Go robotaxi service in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Middle East, sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta AI launches in six countries including Brazil and UK
Meta is bringing its AI chatbot Meta AI to six countries today, including Brazil, the U.K., the Philippines, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Paraguay, Mark Zuckerberg said today in an announcement on his WhatsApp channel. The company said that apart from these countries, the company plans to release Meta AI in more countries in a gradual rollout, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla Robotaxi event: How to watch the reveal Thursday
Tesla loves to put on a show, and Thursday’s Robotaxi reveal might just be the flashiest of them all. The electric vehicle maker is slated to unveil its much-hyped Robotaxi vehicle at Warner Bros. Discovery’s movie studio in Burbank, California. For those attending, doors will open at 5 p.m. PT, with remarks beginning at 7 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon’s new warehouses will employ 10x as many robots
At its Delivering the Future event Wednesday, Amazon announced plans for new robot-powered delivery warehouses. The first “next-generation fulfillment center” is located in Shreveport, Louisiana. The three-million-square-foot warehouse spans five floors, constituting the rough equivalent of 55 football fields, per the company. The site represents the culmination of Amazon’s work in robotics, which dates back […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
5 big reasons to attend TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
As we approach the final stretch before TechCrunch’s biggest event of the year — one of the most highly anticipated tech conferences for startups and VCs alike — let’s take a look at the top five reasons you won’t want to miss Disrupt 2024, set to take place at Moscone West in San Francisco from […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon debuts AI-powered Shopping Guides
On Wednesday Amazon introduced the latest in a series of AI features and products aimed at consumers with the launch of AI shopping guides. The guides, arriving tomorrow, will span over 100 product types on Amazon.com and will help to consolidate the key information consumers tend to research before making a purchase as well as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Levy Health wants to help women identify fertility issues sooner
Caroline Mitterdorfer’s fertility journey began with an early-stage cancer diagnosis at age 27. Mitterdorfer told TechCrunch that her diagnosis made her realize how little she knew about her health and her fertility. She dove into researching the space and became a self-described fertility advocate. Through that work, Mitterdorfer noticed that it took a long time […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon revamps Ring subscriptions with AI video search
Amazon is introducing new Ring subscription plans, including a tier that'll bring 24/7 recording and AI-powered video search. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Billionaire Robinhood co-founder launches Aetherflux, a space-based solar power startup
It’s been the stuff of science fiction for decades: to provide gigawatts of cheap, clean power anywhere on Earth, day or night, using satellites that collect and transmit solar energy directly on orbit. Aetherflux, a new startup emerging from stealth Wednesday, says it is developing a novel design for space-based solar to unlock this energy […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zap Energy shows off its new fusion power prototype, Century
After keeping Century under wraps for several months, the startup gave TechCrunch a peek under the hood. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Glassdoor takes a leaf out of LinkedIn’s book, launches short videos, polls and images
Workplace and salary review platform Glassdoor is drawing inspiration from LinkedIn’s roadmap as it is launching short videos, polls, and images to foster engagement with the community. Professional platforms are launching experiments around short video formats after seeing the success of consumer apps like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Earlier this year, LinkedIn started testing a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Unhappy with their exit, these ex-Planetly employees are using AI to refine carbon accounting
Startup employees often go on to found interesting ventures, basing their new work on the experience gained from their time building a company from scratch. But not all of those experiences are positive, and sometimes, a less-than-satisfactory exit can do more to fuel a founder’s fervor than anything else. In the case of Forward Earth’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis and John Jumper scoop Nobel Prize in Chemistry for AlphaFold
It has been a big week for Nobel Prizes in the world of artificial intelligence (AI). The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences today announced the Nobel Prize in Chemistry winners for 2024, with DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis and DeepMind Director John Jumper sharing one-half of the prize, alongside David Baker who is head of the Institute for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Basecamp Research taps $60M to build a ‘GPT for biology’
While companies like OpenAI and Anthropic continue to popularize the idea of people using ordinary language to ask artificial intelligence agents to answer their questions, write their proposals, and draw pictures, a London startup called Basecamp Research has raised $60 million to tackle a new frontier: an AI that not only answer any question related […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US government considers historic break-up of Google in antitrust case
The U.S. Justice Department is considering asking a federal judge to force Google to sell off parts of its business, potentially leading to the first major corporate breakup in four decades and reshaping one of the world’s most valuable tech companies. The Department of Justice and a coalition of state attorneys general on Tuesday unveiled […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta is testing a feature to let you post Instagram Reels directly on Threads
Since its inception, Meta’s Threads has tried to leverage the network effects of its other social networks Facebook and Instagram by experimenting with cross-posting and highlighting Threads posts on a carousel. Now, the company is testing a new feature that will let you share Instagram Reels directly to Threads. App researcher Alessandro Paluzzi found that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI to open offices in Singapore, Paris, Brussels to facilitate global expansion
OpenAI said in a post on X that it is opening new offices in multiple cities, including NYC, Seattle, Paris, Brussels, and Singapore, in addition to its existing locations in San Francisco, London, Dublin and Tokyo, as part of the company’s global expansion efforts. The expansion effort follows the San Francisco-based ChatGPT maker’s whopping $6.4 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Atlassian’s Jira has had it with your issues
Atlassian recently announced its plans to combine its Jira Software tools for developers and Jira Work Management tool for business teams into a single product. Jira was originally for developers and the teams that directly support them, but over time, it also became popular with business teams. That’s a trend Atlassian quickly capitalized on with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Atlassian’s Rovo AI is now generally available
Atlassian first showed off Rovo six months ago. Rovo is what the company calls its “AI teammate” that combines smarter search and chat-based AI tools with agents that can help users automate some of their workflows in tools like Jira and Confluence. At its Team ’24 Europe event in Barcelona, the company has now announced […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Boring Company’s Las Vegas loop is attracting riders, and trespassers
The Boring Company’s 2.4-mile underground Loop in Las Vegas is proving anything but boring for management, with at least 67 trespassing occurrences since 2022, according to a deep dive by Fortune. Designed for Tesla models to shuttle passengers underneath the Las Vegas Convention center, others who’ve found their way into the tunnels include a skateboarder, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained
This story has been updated throughout with more details as the story has developed. We will continue to do so as the case and dispute are ongoing. The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ashton Kutcher, Effie Epstein, and Guy Oseary are coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Last year, Sound Ventures, the 9-year-old, Beverly Hills, California-based venture firm led by general partners Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary, and Effie Epstein, announced a new $265 million AI fund that was betting big on large language model companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Hugging Face. In fact, the plan was to invest in just six companies […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X is cleared to go back online in Brazil
Brazil’s Supreme Court said on Tuesday that Elon Musk’s X could return online in the country, marking the end to a months-long battle between the social media platform and Brazilian officials. Addressing the reasons that X was banned in the first place, Musk agreed to take down some user accounts and appoint a legal representative […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fei-Fei Li picks Google Cloud, where she led AI, as World Labs’ main compute provider
Cloud providers are chasing after AI unicorns, and the latest is Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs. The startup just tapped Google Cloud as its primary compute provider to train AI models, a deal that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But Li’s tenure as chief scientist of AI at Google Cloud wasn’t a factor, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The White House joins Reddit and shares hurricane information
VP Kamala Harris is on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, FEMA has a page dedicated to fighting the rumors circulating on social media about the hurricanes, and now the White House is on Reddit. It’s clear that the traditional means of disseminating news and information to the general U.S. population have changed. On Tuesday, a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
On TikTok, pop culture prevails over news and politics
TikTok is growing fast as a destination for news, but news and politics accounts make up less than one percent of accounts followed by U.S. adults, the Pew Research Center says. Around half of all TikTok accounts followed by U.S. adults are influencers and creators, the study shows. Plus, content related to news and politics […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla Robotaxi reveal: What to expect
Tesla is gearing up to reveal its Robotaxi this Thursday, and everyone wants to know what it will look like, whether Tesla will unveil a commercialization strategy, and what outrageous timelines Elon Musk might announce to bump Tesla’s stock. The “We, Robot” event will take place at 7 p.m. PT at Warner Bros. Discovery’s movie […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI mortgage startup LoanSnap loses license to operate in Connecticut
The revocation comes after TechCrunch's exclusive reporting on how LoanSnap was inundated with lawsuits. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fourteen AGs sue TikTok, claiming that it harms children’s mental health
Fourteen U.S. attorneys general sued TikTok on Tuesday, alleging that the platform negatively impacts minors’ mental health and harvests data without their consent. TikTok, a U.S. company owned by the Chinese conglomerate ByteDance, is embroiled in a number of lawsuits that could threaten its operations. In another recent lawsuit, the FTC and the Justice Department […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
North American robotics sales declined in first half of 2024
Even a category as hot as robotics is not immune from macroeconomic trends. According to figures from automation advocacy group, A3, the North American robotics market declined in the first half of 2024, both in terms of sales and revenue. The number of industrial robotics ordered in H1 declined 7.5% year-over-year to 15,705. Revenue dipped […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta’s Threads app references a communities feature, similar to Elon Musk’s X
Meta’s take on a Twitter/X rival, Instagram Threads, may be inching further into its competitor’s territory with the development of a communities feature that would presumably allow users to better organize their discussions on the platform by topics. At least that’s what references in the app’s code seem to imply. The code mentions a new […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Unify, an OpenAI Converge accelerator grad, lands $12M for ‘warm outbound’ messages
Unify, an AI-powered startup that uses data to reach prospective buyers, has raised a $12 million Series A led by existing investors Emergence Capital and Thrive Capital. OpenAI Startup Fund, Neo, Abstract, 20Sales, and AltCap also participated in the round. The 20-month-old company went through OpenAI’s Converge I accelerator last year and, following that program, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former Google Maps engineers get Sequioa backing to build out an AI-powered collboration board
When you talk to a chatbot like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, your responses are largely linear. You often have to ask follow-up questions to get more information. For instance, when you are planning a trip, you might first ask the chatbot about the place and follow it up with questions on meal planning, activities, tips […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Kasperksy says it’s closing down its UK office and laying off dozens
Russian cybersecurity giant Kaspersky is shutting down its office in the United Kingdom and laying off its staff, just three months after the company started closing down its U.S. operations and laying off dozens of workers, TechCrunch has learned. Kaspersky spokesperson Francesco Tius said in an email to TechCrunch that the company “will commence a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fisker bankruptcy hits major speed bump as fleet sale is now in question
Fisker’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy has hit a major snag, as the company buying the startup’s remaining fleet of electric SUVs says it might not complete the purchase because of a surprising technical issue. The buyer, a New York-area leasing company called American Lease, says in a new filing that Fisker now believes there is no […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Alaska Airlines’ venture lab spins out its first startup: Odysee
Odysee CEO Steve Casley sees dollar signs in data. Or more specifically, AI-powered software that can analyze reams of data to help commercial airlines get the most out of its complex flight schedules. Odysee, the first startup born out of an aviation-focused venture lab formed by Alaska Airlines and UP.Labs, is doing just that. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The New York Times is testing a new game called Zorse
The New York Times is working to expand its ever successful gaming section with Zorse, a game the company is testing in beta. Per a report in Semafor, this will be a phrase guessing game where each puzzle is a mash-up of two phrases. You know, like a Zorse — a zebra horse. Gaming has […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snapchat is bringing ads to the Chat tab
Snapchat is bringing ads to the app’s main Chat tab, the company announced on Tuesday. Up until now, Snapchat has kept the Chat tab free from ads, but users will now start to see “Sponsored Snaps” from advertisers alongside messages from their friends. Users won’t be notified about Sponsored Snaps and will be able to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Announcing True Anomaly, Slingshot Aerospace, and Space Workforce 2030 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
As government and defense sectors increasingly lean on commercial services, opportunities for startups in dual-use technology have never been more promising. Yet, for young, agile companies, the challenge of entering such a highly regulated and traditional landscape is significant. How can emerging businesses compete with established primes for contracts and attention? And how can investors […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Honda gave us a sneak peek of its 0 Series EVs — here’s what we learned
For years, Honda has relied on hybrids — not so much EVs — to drive its electrified mission. All of that is about to change with the Honda 0 Series, a portfolio of new electric vehicles that will go into production over the next several years. Honda has been teasing the Series 0 EVs since […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gropyus plans to use robots to help rebuild Ukraine better and faster
Construction tech startup Groypus has raised $100 million to scale up its factory that uses robots to make buildings 30% faster than traditional methods. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X rival Mastodon rolls out revamped notifications, a refreshed look and more
Mastodon, the open source, decentralized alternative to X (formerly Twitter), is rolling out a handful of new features, including refreshed notifications, new discovery tools, as well as an updated look. Although some of these changes were available in nightly releases, they are now officially rolling out in a stable release. Notifications on Mastodon will now look somewhat […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Dave Clark, formerly of Amazon and Flexport, just landed $100M for new supply chain venture
Dave Clark has had a rollercoaster of a time these past two years. After stepping down in June 2022 as CEO of Amazon’s worldwide consumer division — a role he held for over two decades — Clark relocated to Dallas to join supply chain logistics company Flexport. With a board mandate to prepare Flexport to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Distributional raises $19M to automate AI model and app testing
Distributional, an AI testing platform founded by Intel’s former GM of AI software, Scott Clark, has closed a $19 million Series A funding round led by Two Sigma Ventures. Clark says that Distributional was inspired by the AI testing problems he ran into while applying AI at Intel, and — before that — his work at […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google’s partnership with SpotHero brings parking reservations to Maps and Search
SpotHero, a parking startup that lets drivers reserve nearby parking spaces, announced on Tuesday that it has teamed up with Google to integrate its offering into Google Maps and Google Search, allowing users in the U.S. and Canada to reserve parking spots at over 8,000 locations. With the latest feature, users can find parking close […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Adobe proposes a way to protect artists from AI ripoffs
As the engine powering the world’s digital artists, Adobe has a big responsibility to mitigate the rise of AI-driven deepfakes, misinformation, and content theft. In the first quarter of 2025, Adobe is launching its Content Authenticity web app in beta, allowing creators to apply content credentials to their work, certifying it as their own. This […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Roli Airwave system uses AI and hand tracking to teach piano
Learning an instrument is difficult for most people. That’s doubly the case when attempting to learn on your own. It’s the reason so many of us have dusty guitars and keyboards jammed up in our attic rafters amid the croquet mallets and badminton birdies of days past. The latest product from London-based Roli offers a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Driver launches an AI-powered platform for creating technical documentation
The technical documentation for chips in the semiconductor industry is often thousands of pages long. Keeping those documents updated with every revision is a massive lift, as is generating the manuals and tutorials for engineers who then implement those chips in their own products. And to make matters even more complicated, very few products only […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TensorWave thinks it can break Nvidia’s grip on AI compute with an AMD-powered cloud
Chipmaker Nvidia notched $30 billion in revenue last fiscal quarter, driven in large part by the AI industry’s insatiable demand for GPUs. GPUs are essential for training and running AI models; they contain thousands of cores that work in parallel to quickly perform the linear algebra equations scaffolding the models. The appetite for AI remains […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Generative AI fact-checking firm Infactory lands a $4M seed
The generative AI-based fact checking firm launched by two Humane.AI expats is off to the races with $4 million in seed funding. The early round, led by Bee Partners, features a16z’s Scout Fund, Alumni Ventures, and FJ Labs. It values Infactory at $25 million. The San Francisco startup broke cover in July by ways of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Geoff Hinton and John Hopfield win Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in foundational AI
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has announced the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024. Geoff Hinton and John Hopfield are jointly sharing the prestigious award for their work on artificial neural networks starting back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. More specifically, Hinton and Hopfield were given the award for “foundational discoveries and inventions […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lithios takes inspiration from battery manufacturing to mine lithium from salty water
Lithios is part of a fresh crop of startups is trying to meet the booming demand for lithium by extracting it from subsurface brines. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Uber to launch OpenAI-powered AI assistant to answer driver EV questions
Uber is continuing its push to bring more electric vehicles onto the ride-hail and delivery platform, and it thinks giving drivers a chatbot to answer all their EV questions will help. Starting early 2025, Uber will launch an AI assistant for drivers in the U.S. powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o. At launch, the assistant will only answer […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Open source BI platform Lightdash gets Accel’s backing to bring AI to business intelligence
Lightdash, a business intelligence (BI) platform and open source alternative to Google’s Looker, is lifting the lid on a new product that allows companies to train “AI analysts” specific to individual teams’ use-cases, enabling anyone in a company to query aggregate business data. To help, the 4-year-old startup also on Tuesday announced that it has […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Revyze, a ‘TikTok for education’ startup, draws on Duolingo to add bite-sized learning too
Middle and high schoolers are both the easiest and most difficult audience. If you’re developing a neat little video game, chances are they’re willing to download it right away. But if, like the team behind Revyze, you’re working on a learning app, good luck pitching them. And yet, the French startup has defied the odds […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
French biotech Generare speeds up hunt for new drugs by cloning natural molecules
French biotech startup Generare has closed a €5 million seed round (around $5.5 million at current exchange rates) to step up development of what it touts as a highly scalable approach to identifying promising compounds for drug discovery that already exist in nature. It’s focused on sifting for molecules that are produced by microorganisms but […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Chainalysis CEO Michael Gronager steps down in move described as temporary
Michael Gronager, co-founder and CEO of Chainalysis, has taken a personal leave of absence from the company. The blockchain analysis outfit isn’t sharing why but says the development is temporary. According to The Block, which first reported the news, Chainalysis President and COO Sari Granat, who joined the outfit in 2022, is acting as interim […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
General Catalyst is working on a ‘continuation’ fund worth up to $1B, sources say
General Catalyst, one of Silicon Valley’s largest capital firms, is gearing up to launch what’s known as a “continuation fund” worth between $800 million and $1 billion, according to a person familiar with the plans. A continuation fund consists of a portion of stakes that the VC firm has in portfolio companies. With around $25 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VC firm NFX laid off 4 employees and plans to hire more investors
Venture capital firm NFX laid off four employees in September as the firm looks to “rebalance” its resources from its software and product teams to its investing team, general partner Pete Flint told TechCrunch. The layoffs included one product leader and three engineers, Flint said. About a week ago, Amy Lin, chief product officer since […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VESSL AI secures $12M for its MLOps platform that aims to cut GPU costs by up to 80%
South Korean MLOps platform VESSL AI is trying to carve out a niche for itself by focusing on optimizing for GPU expenses using hybrid infrastructure. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MoneyGram says hackers stole customers’ personal information and transaction data
The money transfer giant said hackers also stole some customer Social Security numbers during the September cyberattack. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Emma Watson invests in reproductive health company Hertility
Actress Emma Watson has made a previously undisclosed investment into the women’s health company Hertility, bringing its total funding to more than $14 million, the company told TechCrunch in an interview on Monday. Watson is known for her interest in the environment and supporting women-led initiatives. She is a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and helped […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US judge orders Google to open up Google Play to rivals
A federal judge has ordered Google to open up its app store to rivals and give Android users more choice when it comes to downloading apps. Judge James Donato issued his final ruling in the Epic and Google saga on Monday, detailing how Google has to change how it operates Google Play. According to the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla Robotaxi event: How to watch the reveal Thursday
Tesla loves to put on a show, and Thursday’s Robotaxi reveal might just be the flashiest of them all. The electric vehicle-maker is slated to unveil its much-hyped Robotaxi vehicle at Warner Bros. Discovery’s movie studio in Burbank, California. For those attending, doors will open at 5 p.m. PT, with remarks beginning at 7 p.m. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The 30-year-old internet backdoor law that came back to bite
China reportedly hacked the wiretap systems required by U.S. internet providers under a 1994 U.S. wiretapping law. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India regulator issues notice to Ola Electric over consumer rights concerns
The Central Consumer Protection Authority, India’s consumer rights regulator, has sent a show-cause notice to Ola Electric over alleged violation of consumer rights, escalating troubles for the leading electric vehicle maker whose shares dropped 9% earlier on Monday, The notice, issued on Monday, gives the Bengaluru-headquartered firm 15 days to respond to allegations that include […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla’s head of vehicle programs jumps to Waymo ahead of Robotaxi reveal
Tesla has lost a top executive to Waymo in the lead-up to the EV-maker’s Robotaxi unveiling on Thursday. Daniel Ho, Tesla’s former head of vehicle programs and new product integration, last week announced his new role as programs director at Waymo. Ho, who previously reported directly to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, oversaw the development and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple fixes bugs in macOS Sequoia that broke some cybersecurity tools
Apple said the new macOS release "improves compatibility with third-party security software," after the first operating systems release broke several cybersecurity tools. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fisker’s plan to make owners pay for recall repairs is illegal, DOJ says
The U.S. Department of Justice says bankrupt EV startup Fisker’s plan to make owners pay for labor costs related to multiple recalls is illegal, according to a new filing. The DOJ, writing on behalf of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), said in a filing submitted to Fisker’s bankruptcy docket Monday that the “scheme” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Space: Feeling a little Impulse-ive
Hello, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. The final agenda for the Space Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt is live and we’d love to see you there. Come hear the latest and greatest insights from top space entrepreneurs and investors! Want to reach out with a tip? Email Aria at [email protected] or send a message on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
American Water warns of billing outages after finding hackers in its systems
The company said it discovered “unauthorized activity” within its networks on October 3 and promptly moved to disconnect affected systems. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Join us for the future of launch on the Space Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
The future of space is ripe for reinvention, and TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is bringing together two visionaries determined to reshape how we reach and operate in orbit. Join Kelly Hennig, COO of Stoke Space, and Muhammad “Mo” Shahzad, president and CFO of Relativity Space, on the Space Stage as they explore how emerging technologies, software, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI-powered critical mineral startup Kobold Metals has raised $491M, filings reveal
Kobold Metals has raised $491 million of a targeted $527 million round, which could value the company at over $2 billion. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meet the ScaleUp Startups exhibiting at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
We’re excited to announce the debut of the ScaleUp Startup Exhibitor Program at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024! Join us at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30 to meet an exciting lineup of startups that are poised to make their mark in the tech world. The ScaleUp Startup Exhibitor Program offers Series A and B […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lucid Motors sets third straight quarterly sales record ahead of Gravity SUV launch
Lucid Motors has now officially sold more EVs this year than it did in all of last year, and with three months to go in 2024. The milestone comes after Lucid announced Monday it delivered 2,781 vehicles in the third quarter of 2024. That’s a third straight record quarter for deliveries, though Lucid is still […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Comcast says customer data stolen in ransomware attack on debt collection agency
The ransomware attack on a U.S. debt collection agency also affects customers of CF Medical and Truist Bank. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fintech OpenBB aims to be more than an ‘open source Bloomberg Terminal’
Fledgling fintech startup OpenBB is revealing the next step in its plans to take on the heavyweights of the investment research world. The company is launching a new, free version of a product that will open its arsenal of data and financial tooling to more users. OpenBB is the handiwork of software engineer Didier Lopes, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sonair takes a cue from dolphins to build autonomous 3D vision sans LIDAR
Ultrasound is perhaps best known as the technology that enables non-invasive body scans, underwater communication, and to help us park our cars. A young startup called Sonair out of Norway wants to employ it for something else: 3D computer vision used in autonomous hardware applications. Sonair’s founder and CEO Knut Sandven believes the company’s application […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Flutterwave’s chief on the company’s executive hires, product focus, and IPO plans
Flutterwave CEO GB discusses the company's recent product and administration changes and their implications for the company as it scales. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ola Electric stock tumbles as complaints ratch up, and market share erodes
Indian electric vehicle maker Ola Electric’s customers aren’t happy with its service and scooters, and it’s affecting the company’s stock and market share. The company’s shares fell by as much as 9.1% on Monday to ₹89.14, sending its market cap below $4.75 billion for the first time since its IPO in August. The company’s shares […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Klarna is about to oust another board member
Klarna, the Stockholm-based buy-now-pay-later outfit that’s barreling toward an IPO, isn’t done shaking up its board. According to the FT, seven directors just agreed to oust investor Mikael Walther from Klarna’s eight-person board, nearly eight years after he joined it. Walther is a confidante of Klarna co-founder Victor Jacobsson, who remains a major shareholder and, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
StrictlyVC comes to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
StrictlyVC is hosting its first event inside TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, and if you’re an investor keen to mingle with your peers, you won’t want to miss this opportunity. The StrictlyVC series — which brings the people and stories dominating the headlines straight to an audience of largely VCs, LPs, founders, and operators — is coming […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS CEO Matt Garman on generative AI, open source, and closing services
It was quite a surprise when Adam Selipsky stepped down as the CEO of Amazon’s AWS cloud computing unit. What was maybe just as much of a surprise was that Matt Garman succeeded him. Garman joined Amazon as an intern in 2005 and became a full-time employee in 2006, working on the early AWS products. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tony Fadell-backed Plumerai brings on-device AI to home security cameras
On Wednesday, some Harvard students made headlines by outfitting a pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses with facial recognition. The DIY project is the latest piece of news to stoke privacy concerns around the ubiquitous technology. As cameras become increasingly prevalent in society, the issue has grown in importance. Connectivity has a big role in this […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
New York’s top VCs under 30
The next generation of New York City investors are already making their mark in the Big Apple. They come from big-name venture firms like Female Founders Fund and Lerer Hippeau and smaller ones like Chai Ventures. They work in areas like growth, consumer, and health. They canoe, hike, and play pickleball on the weekends. We […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CPO Paul Gubbay says Squarespace is training its AI tools with curation and taste
Will generative AI tools help people build better websites, or will they just fill the web with spam? With the recent launch of Design Intelligence, a new website builder full of generative AI tools, Squarespace is betting on the former. I spoke with chief product officer Paul Gubbay about Design Intelligence and Squarespace’s broader AI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
23andMe’s future prompts more worries, as genomic data analysis improves
The roughly 15 million customers of genetic data outfit 23andMe may be at greater risk than they realize, suggests a new New York Times story that argues the company’s near-term woes could become problematic for others for a very long time if it can’t continue as a going concern. Certainly, with each passing day, the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI closes the largest VC round of all time
Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re diving into OpenAI’s $6.6 billion fundraising round, the fifth Cybertruck recall in less than a year, and a neat project that’s Shazam-ing songs heard on a San Francisco street. Let’s get into it. OpenAI closed the largest VC round of all time this week. The startup […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
New York tech investor and serial entrepreneur Kevin Ryan explains when to sell your company
Kevin Ryan has had a long and storied career as a pivotal force of New York City tech. He’s the founder and CEO of investment firm AlleyCorp, which has invested in a wide variety of startups, and is a serial founder, participating in the early stages of companies such as Business Insider, Zola, Gilt, Pearl […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What’s in the rug? How TikTok got swept into a real-time true crime story
A woman in Ohio is being haunted by ghosts. Or, maybe she’s not. There’s a dead body buried underneath her house, rolled up inside a rug. Or, there’s actually no body at all, despite signals from cadaver dogs. This week’s biggest drama on TikTok tells the story of a woman from Ohio who was building […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fisker’s HQ abandoned in “complete disarray” with apparent hazardous waste, clay models left behind
The headquarters Fisker used in its waning days was recently abandoned and left in “complete disarray,” with drums of apparent hazardous waste, automotive equipment, and even vehicles and full-size clay models left behind, according to the landlord. The chaos was described in a new filing that was submitted to Fisker’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy docket Friday […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SoCreate wants to transform screenwriting software with AI imagery and community sharing tools
Many screenwriters have embraced modern tools over traditional PDFs to craft their film or TV show pilots. SoCreate, the latest entrant in the screenwriting software arena, is challenging established players like Final Draft and Celtx with its fresh approach to storytelling. And, notably, generative AI imagery is involved. SoCreate offers many of the same features […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
5 ‘dumbphones’ that can still run WhatsApp
With the luddite revival in full-swing, here are five dumbphones that can still run WhatsApp — and a few others. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The ‘Mozart of Math’ isn’t worried about AI replacing math nerds — ever
Terence Tao, a UCLA professor considered to be the “world’s greatest living mathematician,” last month compared ChapGPT’s o1 reasoning model to a “mediocre, but not completely incompetent” graduate student that could correctly answer a complex analysis problem with “a lot of hints and prodding.” AI might never beat its human teachers, he now tells The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ashton Kutcher, Effie Epstein, and Guy Oseary are coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Last year, Sound Ventures, the 9-year-old, Beverly Hills, California-based venture firm led by general partners Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary, and Effie Epstein, announced a new $265 million AI fund that was betting big on large language model companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Hugging Face. In fact, the plan was to invest in just six companies […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI secured more billions, but there’s still capital left for other startups
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week once again brought us AI funding news, as well as some warnings: Some categories and stages are showing signs of overheating. Luckily, we also spotted […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Every fusion startup that has raised over $100M
Fusion startups have raised $7.1 billion to date, with the majority of it going to a handful of companies. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GM is working on an eyes-off, hands-off driving system
Seven years ago, GM became the first automaker to offer hands-free driving when it rolled out its Super Cruise advanced driver assistance system. Now, it’s looking to push that capability even further with a system that would allow drivers to keep their eyes off the road too, according to one of GM’s top software executives. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fisker faces SEC investigation as bankruptcy case drags on
Bankrupt EV startup Fisker is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a new filing from the financial regulator. The SEC says in the filing it has sent multiple subpoenas to Fisker as part of the investigation, and that it may send more. The agency does not say what the investigation […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Announcing the final agenda for the SaaS Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Software as a service (SaaS) is an ever-evolving industry. We’ll talk to some of the brightest minds and leaders in the industry — executives from early- and late-stage SaaS companies, leaders from the infrastructure companies that power the industry and the venture capitalists who fund them. Explore and enjoy by joining us at the SaaS […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon closes more of its cashierless convenience stores
Amazon continues to scale back efforts around its cashierless checkout technology, Just Walk Out. The e-commerce giant closed three of its Go convenience stores in New York last week, The Information confirmed on Friday, leaving just 17 across the nation. (Amazon notes it recently opened one in Washington.) These convenience stores use AI systems to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why EnergyX raised $75M from small investors, even after taking VC money from GM and others
EnergyX’s offering took advantage of SEC Regulation A, which allows companies to raise money from retail investors in exchange for modest regulatory oversight. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 Side Events schedule: Women in Tech, SignalFire, Llama Lounge, and more to host
With TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 right around the corner, we’re thrilled to introduce the companies hosting Side Events that will extend the buzz and excitement to the thousands of attendees and Silicon Valley locals alike. Whether it’s a fun happy hour, insightful panels, or energizing morning runs, Disrupt Week — happening from October 26 to November […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Announcing the Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, which takes place from October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco, is rapidly approaching. Today we’re thrilled to announce the 200 startups selected to participate in this year’s Startup Battlefield 200 (SB 200) cohort. TechCrunch’s editorial staff read, vetted and debated over thousands of applications. Narrowing the group down to 200 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Waymo picks its next robotaxi, Joby lands more Toyota bucks, and Cybertruck notches its fifth recall
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! I kicked off my week at UP.Summit, an invite-only event that was held this year in Bentonville, Arkansas, to meet up with founders and investors focused on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Detroit startup Grounded has a Lego-like way of designing EV vans for small businesses
When Also Capital managing partner Mike Annunziata walks around New York City these days, he sees lots of vans — and opportunity. It’s something he admits he never noticed until he met former SpaceX engineer Sam Shapiro, who is the founder of a new Detroit-based modular electric RV startup called Grounded. Sometimes, Annunziata told TechCrunch, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mark Zuckerberg is leg pressing chicken nuggets
Meta on Friday announced its Movie Gen model, which uses AI to turn prompts into realistic videos with sound. Though Movie Gen won’t be coming to Instagram or other Meta apps until next year, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a video showing how it works. In the Instagram post, we see the recent gym […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Impulse Space lands Space Force contract for “tactically responsive” orbital operations
Fresh on the heels of a massive funding round, Impulse Space has landed a $34.5 million contract from the Space Force for two ultra-mobile spacecraft missions. Under the Space Force’s Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) program, the two missions will demonstrate how highly maneuverable spacecraft can help the military rapidly respond to threats in space. For […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Swiggy escalates India quick commerce battle with 10-minute meals
Swiggy, India’s leading food delivery startup, said Friday it has started to deliver meals in 10 minutes across parts of major cities, intensifying the quick commerce race in the world’s second-largest internet market. The Bengaluru-headuartered startup, which is targeting to go public in about a month, said it has partnered with more than 2,700 restaurants, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Facebook launches a Gen Z-focused redesign
Facebook wants to woo more younger users to join its social network, instead of spending all their time on TikTok, Instagram, and other social apps. To do so, parent company Meta on Friday announced a series of changes to the older social network which will put greater emphasis on local community information, videos, and Facebook […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Kenya fines Baltic fintech Eleving’s local arm for misleading customers
Kenya’s competition authority has fined Baltic lender Eleving‘s Kenyan subsidiary for misleading its customers, casting a spotlight on the continuing unethical operations of a section of digital lenders in the country despite a new law. The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) imposed a fine of $84,120 on Eleving subsidiary Mogo Kenya for violating competition law […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Check, Remote, and Gusto discuss the future of work at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
The future of work is being redefined, and TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is the place to explore it. As companies look to leverage talent from around the globe, the landscape of hiring is transforming — and there’s a new wave of global HR startups that are making this change possible. Yet, the question remains: Can these […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube apologizes for falsely banning channels for spam, canceling subscriptions
A misfire of YouTube’s systems led to the accidental banning of YouTube channels impacting numerous creators who were informed their channels were removed for “Spam & Deceptive Practices.” YouTube has now apologized for the problem and says it’s rectifying the situation, but did not comment on the cause of the bans, leading creators to wonder […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gmail users on iOS can now ask Gemini questions about their emails
Select Gmail users on iOS can now chat with Google’s Gemini chatbot about their inbox directly within the app, the company announced this week. The feature, which is called Gmail Q&A, was first rolled out to Android users back in August. Now, it’s available on iOS to Google One AI Premium subscribers or Google Workspace […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Browser Company launches Arc Search on Android
The Browser Company, the startup behind the alternative web browser Arc, announced on Thursday it’s launching its Arc Search browser on Android in open beta in a move to become a cross-platform app. Arc, already had apps in the Apple ecosystem until last year, then launched a Windows client in April ahead of launching on Android. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta’s Movie Gen model puts out realistic video with sound, so we can finally have infinite Moo Deng
No one really knows what generative video models are useful for just yet, but that hasn’t stopped companies like Runway, OpenAI, and Meta from pouring millions into developing them. Meta’s latest is called Movie Gen, and true to its name turns text prompts into relatively realistic video with sound… but thankfully no voice just yet. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Many companies won’t say if they’ll comply with California’s AI training transparency law
California passed a law that'll require AI companies to say which data sets they used to train their models. But few are saying whether they'll comply. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rivian deliveries fall as component shortage slows production
Rivian says it will build fewer vehicles this year than it did in 2023, the result of a supply chain problem that popped up in the third quarter that has “become more acute in recent weeks.” The company did not specify what specific component is impacted. It only said that it is one shared by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta faces data retention limits on its EU ad business after top court ruling
The European Union’s top court has sided with a privacy challenge to Meta’s data retention policies. It ruled on Friday that social networks, such as Facebook, cannot keep using people’s information for ad targeting indefinitely. The judgement could have major implications on the way Meta and other ad-funded social networks operate in the region. Limits […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Waymo’s next robotaxi will be the Hyundai IONIQ 5
Waymo has struck a deal with Hyundai to bring the IONIQ 5 EV to its robotaxi network, adding another autonomous vehicle option as it scales up its business. The autonomous vehicle company announced Friday that it expects to start on-road testing a Waymo-equipped IONIQ 5 by late 2025, with the AV becoming available to riders […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
159 employees are leaving Automattic as CEO’s fight with WP Engine escalates
Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg said on Thursday that 159 employees (roughly 8.4% of staff) accepted a severance package that the company had offered to those who disagreed with his direction of WordPress and his handling of tussle with web hosting provider WP Engine. In a blog post, Mullenweg said the package offered $30,000 or six […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained
The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight between WordPress founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine, which hosts websites built on WordPress. WordPress technology is open source and free, and it powers […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Even the ‘godmother of AI’ has no idea what AGI is
Are you confused about artificial general intelligence, or AGI? It’s that thing OpenAI is obsessed with ultimately creating in a way that “benefits all of humanity.” You may want to take them seriously since they just raised $6.6 billion to get closer to that goal. But if you’re still wondering what the heck AGI even […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple plans four new retail stores in India
Apple is planning to open four new retail stores in India and has begun manufacturing the iPhone 16 Pro models domestically, the company said as it deepens its presence in the world’s second-largest smartphone market. The U.S. tech giant aims to launch stores in Bengaluru, Pune, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai, building on its first two Indian […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A co-lead on Sora, OpenAI’s video generator, has left for Google
One of the co-leads on OpenAI’s video generator, Sora, has left for Google. Tim Brooks, who was heading development on Sora with William Peebles, announced in a post on X this evening that he’ll be joining Google DeepMind, Google’s AI research division, to work on video generation and “world simulators.” “I had an amazing two […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Investors are scrambling to get into ElevenLabs, which may soon be valued at $3 billion
ElevenLabs, a startup that makes AI tools for audio applications, is being approached by existing and new investors about a new round, which could value the company as highly as $3 billion, TechCrunch has learned. The two-year-old company specializes in making AI tools to generate synthetic voices for audiobook narrations, and for real-time video dubbing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Announcing the final agenda for the Fintech Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
We’re incredibly excited to announce the final agenda for our dedicated Fintech Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. It joins Space, SaaS, AI and Builders as the other industry-focused stages — all under one big roof. As the fintech industry evolves, new opportunities abound for founders, investors, and customers. Areas such as mobile banking, global payroll, digital […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Announcing the final agenda for the Space Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
We’re out-of-this-world excited to announce that we’ve finalized our dedicated Space Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. It joins Fintech, SaaS and AI as the other industry-focused stages — all under one big roof. To top it off, we’re thrilled to share we’ll be hosting a pitch competition this year called “The Space Challenge, powered by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies. That growth has propelled OpenAI itself into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Initialized Capital restructures, and lets multiple partners go
Initialized Capital is restructuring its team to “meet the moment” in the venture market, according to a blog post from the firm’s managing partner Brett Gibson. The San Francisco-based venture capital firm, originally founded by Alexis Ohanian, Garry Tan, and Harjeet Taggar, announced yesterday that it let multiple people go and specifically named Jennifer Wolf, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The 13 biggest take-private PE acquisitions so far this year in tech
A roundup of the year's billion-dollar take-private deals in the technology sector. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DOJ sentences pair for Apple repair scheme involving 6,000 knockoff iPhones
The U.S. Department of Justice Thursday announced that it has sentenced a pair of Chinese citizens residing in Maryland following a massive bid to defraud Apple. According to the officials, the scheme involved sending more than 6,000 knockoff iPhones from Hong Kong to the company for repair. With the help of spoofed IMEI and serial […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The TechCrunch Cyber Glossary
This glossary includes some of the most common terms and expressions we use in our articles, and explanations of how — and why — we use them. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI launches new ‘Canvas’ ChatGPT interface tailored to writing and coding projects
OpenAI introduced a new way to interact with ChatGPT on Thursday: an interface it calls “canvas.” The product opens a separate window, beside the normal chat window, with a workspace for writing and coding projects. Users can generate writing or code directly in the canvas, then highlight sections of the work to have the model […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AirOps is an all-in-one platform for generating and managing AI-based marketing content
To some degree, every business that has a presence on the web is in the content business — whether that’s for informing customers, finding new clients, or for SEO. That means managing the production of those texts and images, updating them, and potentially optimizing them for a search engine to index and rank. Since large […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI also secured a massive credit line
In addition to OpenAI’s new $6.6 billion megaround of funding at a post-money valuation of $157 billion, the outfit has secured a $4 billion revolving line of credit, it disclosed in a post Thursday night. The arrangement gives it “access to over $10 billion in liquidity, which gives us the flexibility to invest in new […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google brings ads to AI Overviews as it expands AI’s role in search
Google is rolling out a redesigned AI Overviews experience — with ads — and expanding its test of AI-organized results pages. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google Lens can now answer questions about videos
Lens, Google's visual search app, can now analyze videos. Plus, it can identify products in photos — and, less excitingly, serve up related ads. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube takes on TikTok with longer Shorts, templates, trends, and more
YouTube on Thursday announced a series of updates for its short-form video product, YouTube Shorts. These include the ability for creators to upload videos up to three minutes in length. The company says it’s also updating the Shorts player, introducing templates, and adding a new Shorts trends page on mobile devices. Combined, the series of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FPV Ventures, Mill, and Bullish rise above the hype at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
In a world where tech trends often create a frenzy of investments, the temptation to follow the crowd can be overwhelming. But the business of trends is a dangerous game. When everyone is diving headfirst into the latest “next big thing,” the risk of falling off a cliff without genuine understanding grows exponentially. Join us […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport is coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
The tech world took a major double take this year when a security startup called Wiz founded out of Israel just four years earlier became the subject of a record-breaking, $23 billion acquisition attempt by Google — an offer the startup boldly proceeded … to refuse. Really? Yes, really. We will be talking to Assaf Rappaport, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
StrictlyVC comes to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
StrictlyVC is hosting its first event inside TechCrunch, and if you’re an investor keen to mingle with your peers, you won’t want to miss this opportunity. The StrictlyVC series — which brings the people and stories dominating the headlines straight to an audience of largely VCs, LPs, founders, and operators — is coming to the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ollie scoops up health startup to launch a tool that analyzes dog poop
The global pet food market has become fiercely competitive, with an estimated market share of $103.3 billion in 2023 and still growing. This growth has led many companies to target pet owners who are willing to invest in quality food to enhance their pets’ well-being and longevity. In a move to distinguish itself in the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CISA issues warning about another Ivanti flaw under active attack
The U.S. IT software giant confirmed this week that the vulnerability, fixed in May, is now being used to target a "limited number" of Ivanti customers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Video editing app Captions launches an AI-powered social media manager for sites
AI-powered video editing app Captions is rolling out a new tool for websites that manages their content publishing schedule for videos and even generates videos for those dates based on relevant topics to the site. The tool first scans the site to pull content, keywords, service offerings, and key selling points of a site and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Argo Space’s plan to power orbital tugs with Moon water pulls in $7.9M
There are many hypotheses about what capabilities will need to come online for the growing space industry to flourish, but two of the biggest concern in-space mobility and in-space refueling. To have a fully independent space economy, proponents argue, we’ll need to be able to move satellites around in space and we’ll need a way […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How Kapa uses LLMs to help companies answer users’ technical questions reliably
Generative AI and large language models (LLMs) have been all the rage in recent years, upending traditional online search via the likes of ChatGPT while improving customer support, content generation, translation and more. Now, one fledgling startup is using LLMs to build AI assistants capable specifically of answering complex questions for developers, software end-users, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Black Forest Labs, the startup behind Grok’s image generator, releases an API
Black Forest Labs, the Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup behind the image generation component of xAI’s Grok assistant, has launched an API in beta — and released a new model. The new API provides Black Forest Labs’ family of image generation models, Flux, in a managed package. Using it, developers can choose which Flux model to build […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla’s Cybertruck racks up fifth recall in under a year
Tesla’s 2024 Cybertrucks have been on the road for less than a year and they’ve already been recalled five times, as of Thursday. This time, it’s because the rearview camera image may be delayed by two seconds after shifting into reverse, and the display may appear blank for up to eight seconds when the vehicle […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Quoroom acquires Investory to scale up its capital-raising platform for startups
These days, private investors have a range of options for investing in startups without having to deal with them in real life. This ecosystem more or less started with AngelList, but there are now a plethora of options — such as Carta, Allocations, Vauban and Odin — that startups can use to raise funding and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Uber taps Yandex spinout Avride for autonomous delivery and ride-hail partnership
Uber is not done snatching up autonomous vehicle partnerships. The ride-hail and delivery giant on Thursday announced a multi-year deal with Yandex spinout Avride to bring the company’s sidewalk delivery robots and autonomous vehicles to both Uber Eats and Uber. It’s the latest in a series of deals from Uber over the last two months […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Voyage AI is building RAG tools to make AI hallucinate less
AI tends to make things up. That’s unappealing to just about anyone who uses it on a regular basis, but especially to businesses, for which fallacious results could hurt the bottom line. Half of workers responding to a recent survey from Salesforce say they worry answers from their company’s generative AI-powered systems are inaccurate. While […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hey, UK! Here’s how to ‘opt out’ of Meta using your Facebook and Instagram data to train its AI
After Meta recently reignited controversial plans to use the public posts of U.K. Facebook and Instagram users’ as AI training fodder, the social networking giant has taken the next step and begun to notify local users it will soon start helping itself to their information again. The bad news is the process Meta has devised […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify adds a new, automatically updating playlist for offline listening
Spotify introduced a new feature today called Offline Backup. This feature for premium users is essentially a list of songs you recently listened to and that you can consume offline. It updates automatically based on your listening history. Paid users can already download songs for offline consumption. But Spotify wants to give them more songs […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ETH Zurich spinoff Voliro’s flying robots save lives, but don’t tell its CEO
We have only touched the surface of what drones can do and how ubiquitous they will become. This is also true in industry, where they have the potential to replace human labor in risky activities such as inspection at height. Swiss startup Voliro operates in this space, with flying robots that can inspect wind turbines, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Scammed and exploited, she built an AI-driven app for immigrants like her
Immigrants face an enormous number of challenges and difficulties. In particular, without a local base of family or friends to depend on, new immigrants often find themselves in the dark about reliable information on essential services like housing, healthcare and banking. After being scammed and exploited, one immigrant founder decided to try to help other […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google pilots blocking some sideloaded apps in India
Google has announced that it is blocking the installation of certain apps automatically from getting sideloaded on Android devices in India. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google Maps will show AI-powered review summaries in India
Google is adding new AI-powered features on Maps in India including AI-powered summaries, the ability to search for experiences, and weather alerts. The Maps app will analyze reviews and show summaries of places, it said. The company made the announcement at its annual Google for India event on Thursday. Additionally, users will be able to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google taps India’s love for gold to boost its credit play
Google is leveraging India’s deep-rooted affinity for gold to expand its reach in the lending market of the world’s most populous nation. The company said on Thursday that Google Pay has partnered with Muthoot Finance, India’s largest gold-backed loans provider, to offer secured loans to users across the country. Google said the move aims to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google flexes its edge in India in AI showdown
Google is ramping up its artificial intelligence efforts in India to integrate AI across its products for Indians — a move that escalates the growing rivalry among U.S. tech firms in a market where competitors are lagging behind. At its 10th Google for India event on Thursday, the company said it was deploying its AI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Oura Ring 4 debuts slimmer design, additional sizes, and improved sensing starting at $349
The Oura Ring 4 is up for preorder starting Thursday and starts shipping October 15. Users get one month of membership to its software offering for free. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google is testing Gemini-powered video search in India
Google said it is now experimenting with Gemini-powered video search in India at its Google for India event. This feature enables users to shoot a small snippet and ask Gemini questions about it. Users, who would be part of this experiment, will be able to use this feature in Google Lens. The video search features […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As data center usage heats up, Submer raises $55.5M to cool things down
The race is on for better chips and data center capacity to handle AI workloads, but all that activity comes with a catch. Heavy processing power means heat — a lot of it — and that has massive implications, both for how well servers operate and the environment. With traditional cooling methods like air and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WP Engine sues Automattic and WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg
Hosting provider WP Engine has filed a lawsuit against Automattic and WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, accusing them of extortion and abuse of power. The lawsuit comes after nearly two weeks of tussling between Mullenweg, who is also CEO of Automattic, and WP Engine over trademark infringement and contributing to the WordPress community. WP Engine accused Automattic and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Judge blocks California’s new AI law in case over Kamala Harris deepfake Musk reposted
A federal judge blocked one of California’s new AI laws on Wednesday, less than two weeks after it was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom. Shortly after signing AB 2839, Newsom suggested it could be used to force Elon Musk to take down an AI deepfake of Vice President Kamala Harris he had reposted (and sparking […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s xAI moves into OpenAI’s old HQ
San Francisco’s Mission district isn’t known for corporate offices, but it’s now home to two of the world’s most well funded AI startups. Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, recently moved into a new office in the Mission: the same building that served as OpenAI’s headquarters for several years, according to the San Francisco Business […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Venture firm CRV returns $275 million citing overvaluation of mature startups
CRV, a more than 50-year-old venture firm, is returning to investors $275 million from its $500 million Select fund, which backs later-stage rounds of existing portfolio companies, the New York Times reported. The firm is one of the first Silicon Valley outfits to return committed capital to investors. (We reported yesterday that India’s largest venture […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Four-legged robot learns to climb ladders
The proliferation of robots like Boston Dynamics’ Spot has showcased the versatility of quadrupeds. These systems have thrived at walking up stairs, traversing small obstacles, and navigating uneven terrain. Ladders, however, still present a big issue — especially given how ever present they are in factories and other industrial environments where the systems are deployed. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta confirms it may train its AI on any image you ask Ray-Ban Meta AI to analyze
We recently asked Meta if it trains AI on photos and videos that users take on the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. The company originally didn’t have much to say. Since then, Meta has offered TechCrunch a bit more color. In short, any image you share with Meta AI can be used to train its AI. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cancer AI Alliance joins medical and tech expertise together with $40M to collaborate on next-gen care
A group of major medical institutions specializing in cancer care have formed a partnership to better take advantage of AI’s potential to advance the space. With $40 million of cash and resources from big tech backers, the Cancer AI Alliance (CAIA) could be a huge step forward in precision medicine. The members of the alliance […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former head of YC’s Continuity Fund Ali Rowghani launches new seed firm
Ali Rowghani, a former Y Combinator managing director and former Twitter executive, is launching a venture firm called Maxq. Maxq is targeting $250 million for its debut fund, Maxq Fund I, according to an SEC filing. The firm will focus on seed-stage investments, Axios reported on Wednesday. Rowghani’s former YC colleagues Mia Mabanta, Simon Lu, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenStack is ready for the VMware refugees
Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware has left a lot of customers uneasy (and with rising bills). For the longest time, VMware was the de facto standard for enterprise virtualization. Now, a lot of businesses are looking for alternatives, and with that, the OpenStack project for managing cloud infrastructure (and one of the world’s largest open source […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ray-Ban Meta + facial recognition = Terminator vision for doxxing
Any piece of popular consumer electronics will eventually be hacked, often to prove a point. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: OpenAI is stretched thin
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. After a brief hiatus, we’re back with a few show notes on OpenAI’s DevDay. The keynote yesterday morning in San Francisco was remarkable for its subdued tone — a contrast to the rah-rah, hypebeast-y address from […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI raises $6.6B and is now valued at $157B
ChatGPT maker OpenAI has closed the largest VC round of all time. The startup today announced that it raised $6.6 billion in a funding round that values OpenAI at $157 billion pre-money. Led by previous investor Thrive Capital, the new cash brings OpenAI’s total raised to $17.9 billion or so, per Crunchbase. Microsoft, Nvidia, SoftBank, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
J.B. Hunt and UP.Labs launch venture lab to build logistics startups
Transportation and freight network giant J.B. Hunt is on the hunt for software and digital products that will fuel its business and help it adapt to the modern world — and even dominate the industry. And it’s tapping startup incubator UP.Labs to help build them. On Wednesday at the UP Summit event in Bentonville, Arkansas, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Facebook says it paid content creators $2B this year
Are creators sleeping on Facebook? Though the social network has been more enticing for AI Shrimp Jesus than young people, Facebook is consolidating its monetization programs into a more streamlined Facebook Content Monetization hub, which will reward creators for their Reels, longer videos, photos and text posts. This change could incentivize more creators to work […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI coding startup Poolside raises $500M from eBay, Nvidia and others
Poolside, the AI-powered software dev platform, has raised half a billion dollars in new capital. The cash came in the form of a Series B led by Bain Capital Ventures, which also had participation from a who’s who of big tech firms including eBay (via eBay Ventures) and Nvidia. It brings Poolside’s total raised to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Waymo begins offering robotaxi rides via Uber in Austin
Waymo has gotten one step closer to a commercial launch in Austin by early 2025. This week, the company will open its fully autonomous ride-hailing service to certain members of the public in the city as part of an ongoing partnership with Uber. The expansion in Austin marks the second city after Phoenix where Waymo […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gmail’s new ‘summary cards’ help you take action on your emails, like tracking packages and checking into flights
Competition in the email market is heating up. After Apple’s iOS 18 introduced a slew of Gmail-like features to Apple’s Mail app, including categorization of transactions, updates, and promotions, as well as the addition of Smart Replies (in the coming iOS 18.1 update), Google on Wednesday announced a set of enhancements for Gmail, too. Google’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instant harkens back to a pre-Google Firebase
Instant wants to recapture some of the magic of the pre-Google-acquisition Firebase by building a modern, Postgres-based open source version of it. Like the original Firebase, San Francisco-based Instant focuses on giving front-end developers easy access to a real-time database with offline capabilities without the need to manage any of the back-end architecture. The service […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
News agency AFP notifies French authorities of potential data breach
The Paris-based news giant said it notified French regulators of a potential data breach following a recent cyberattack. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pallet uses AI to bring logistics into the 21st century
Transportation and warehousing are multi-trillion-dollar industries, but the technologies that power them are often outdated, inefficient and siloed. Pallet, which is announcing an $18 million Series A funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures today, has built an all-in-one transportation and warehouse management system that uses AI to help these businesses streamline their operations from […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Starling Bank fined $39 million for ‘facilitating financial crime’
Starling Bank, a popular challenger bank based in the U.K., has received a £29 million fine from the country’s financial regulator (around $39 million at current exchange rates). The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found the startup didn’t have proper financial crime controls from 2021 to 2023. Starling has been around for more than a decade. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch reimagined: welcome to our new design
Sometimes, you have to start from scratch to make something amazing. Sometimes, you already have most of the ingredients, but you have to do some improvising to make the thing sing. Until today, TechCrunch was in the latter camp. Top reporters who know how to get to the bottom of a story? Check. Must-read news […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Livestream shopping app Whatnot adds a rewards program as GMV tops $2B
Whatnot, the livestream marketplace platform for trading card collectors and sneakerheads alike, is offering a bit of positive news at a time when the overall livestream shopping industry is failing to gain traction in the U.S. The company announced on Wednesday that its annual gross merchandise volume (GMV) in livestream sales surpassed $2 billion this […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Whatnot’s annual GMV hits $2B, introduces new rewards program
Whatnot, the livestream marketplace platform for trading card collectors and sneakerheads alike, announced on Wednesday that its annual gross merchandise volume (GMV) surpassed $2 billion this year. The GMV milestone comes on the heels of its recent product launch: Rewards Club, a customizable loyalty program where sellers can create their own rewards for buyers to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Character.AI hires a YouTube exec as CPO, says it will raise money next year with new partners
Erin Teague, who has been working at Google since 2016, will join the company next week. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Permanent wants to permanently change where commercial buyers get their food
Permanent is building a marketplace that connects commercial buyers with farms that use regenerative growing practices. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spill, the Black-owned Twitter alternative, scores investment from Kerry Washington
as the second anniversary of Spill rolls around, Spill has something else to celebrate: Emmy-winning actress Kerry Washington has made an investment in his app. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why is ChatGPT so bad at math?
You might've noticed that ChatGPT — and AI in general — isn't good at math. There's a reason, and it has to do with how modern AI is built. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This device charger has Apple’s Find My tech built in
PlugBug starts at $70 and has earned the title of "first USB-C charger that includes Find My.” © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The lawmaker behind California’s vetoed AI bill, SB 1047, has harsh words for Silicon Valley
The lawmaker behind California’s recently vetoed AI bill, SB 1047, is going down swinging. For months, Silicon Valley debated whether SB 1047 would have a chilling effect on California’s AI boom or would protect against catastrophic harms from advanced AI systems. The answer never became clear, since California governor Gavin Newsom decided it was the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TuSimple founder Xiaodi Hou is back with a new autonomous truck startup
Two years ago, Xiaodi Hou was ousted from his position as CEO of TuSimple, an autonomous trucking startup he co-founded that has since shut down U.S. operations and delisted from the stock exchange — and, in an odd twist, the company has pivoted to AI animation and gaming in China. Now Hou is back with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Juno, the YouTube app for Vision Pro, pulled from App Store
Juno, the popular app that brought YouTube videos to Apple’s Vision Pro, is shutting down, its developer announced on Tuesday. As YouTube had not launched its own app for Vision Pro, Juno filled an important hole in the app ecosystem, by allowing users watch videos in the immersive environment and interact with the player using […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Toyota pours another $500M into electric air taxi startup Joby Aviation
Toyota is doubling down on Joby Aviation with a $500 million investment into the California-based company that’s developing electric air taxis. Toyota’s total investment in Joby, which includes a $394 million capital injection back in 2020, is now $894 million. The funds will be used to help Joby complete the lengthy Type 2 certification process […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meat replacement startup Heura has a new mission to slay junk food with healthier plant-based swaps
The offices of plant-based protein startup Heura are tucked away down a narrow street a short distance from one of Barcelona’s main tourist draws. But the team of entrepreneurs and food scientists won’t be remixing their protein cocktails in close proximity to La Sagrada Família for much longer — they’re moving to new, larger digs […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EU’s DSA enforcers send more questions to Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube about AI risks
On Wednesday the European Union requested more information from Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube about their respective content recommendation algorithms under the bloc’s online governance rulebook, the Digital Services Act (DSA). In a press release the Commission said it’s sent requests for information (RFI) to the three social media platforms asking them for more details about […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hedosophia leads $7M seed round into retail supply chain AI startup Ameba
Ameba takes the unstructured data in a retailer’s supply chain systems, sprinkles in some generative AI, and makes the whole thing more efficient. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Femtech startup Perelel is acquiring Founders Fund-backed sexual health startup LOOM
The past few years have seen the topic of women’s health thrown into the sociopolitical spotlight. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Motier Ventures unveils La Maison, a community space for the French tech ecosystem
On Tuesday evening local time, Motier Ventures, an early stage tech investment firm based in Paris, unveiled a startup hub called La Maison. This relatively new investor in the French tech ecosystem is the family office of the Houzé family — the owners of upmarket fashion retailer the Galeries Lafayette Group. As the Galeries Lafayette […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Peak XV, top India-SEA venture firm, trims fund size and fees
Peak XV, the largest India and Southeast Asia-focused venture firm, is reducing the size of some of its funds and lowering fees as it seeks to become “deeply aligned” with its limited partners. The firm, which raised $2.85 billion funds in mid-2022, informed its backers on Tuesday evening that it would cut $465 million from […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Palmer Luckey: Every country needs a ‘warrior class’ excited to enact ‘violence on others in pursuit of good aims’
Palmer Luckey raged against America’s adversaries, endorsed completely autonomous weapons, and hinted at an Anduril IPO. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Impulse bets shuttling satellites between orbits is big business, and raises $150M to scale up
Impulse Space has raised a massive new tranche of funding as big-name investors bet that moving satellites around in orbit will soon be a high demand service. The startup, which was founded by Tom Mueller three years ago, announced the $150 million Series B round on Tuesday. Impulse is developing a line of orbital transfer […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A hidden microphone on a San Francisco street pole is spotting ‘bops’ in the wild
In San Francisco’s Mission district, good music is all around you. That’s why, high up on a street pole at an undisclosed location in the Mission, Riley Walz installed a solar-powered box containing an old Android phone running the song identifying service, Shazam, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The so called “Bop […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads users can now see who follows them from other fediverse servers
Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced on Tuesday that users who have connected their accounts to the fediverse, also known as the open social web, can now see who follows them and likes their posts from other fediverse servers, such as Mastodon and Pixelfed. The company said users will now have up to 15 minutes to make […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anthropic hires OpenAI co-founder Durk Kingma
Durk Kingma, one of the lesser-known co-founders of OpenAI, today announced that he’ll be joining Anthropic. In a series of posts on X, Kingma revealed that he’ll be working mostly remotely, from the Netherlands (where he’s based), but didn’t say which Anthropic org he’ll be joining — or leading. We’ve reached out to the company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Direct ocean capture may be the next frontier for carbon removal
Amsterdam-based Brineworks, a company specializing in seawater electrolysis technology, says its innovative method is expected to cost under $100 per ton of CO2 at scale. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s DevDay brings Realtime API and other treats for AI app developers
It’s been a tumultuous week for OpenAI, full of executive departures and major fundraising developments, but the startup is back at it, trying to convince developers to build tools with its AI models at its 2024 DevDay. The company announced several new tools Tuesday, including a public beta of its “Realtime API”, for building apps […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pinterest rolls out genAI tools for product imagery to advertisers
The new capability, rolling out Tuesday, will help advertisers who want to enhance their Pinterest Product Pins (ads) and attract more clicks, according to Pinterest. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Aspect Build gets $3.85M to help developers create software with Bazel
Monorepos are becoming an increasingly popular way to manage source code, but they require a slightly different toolset. Google developed its own internal build and test tool on top of its monorepo and then, in 2015, open sourced it as Bazel. Nine years on, there is a thriving ecosystem of Bazel-adjacent startups like NX and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Runware uses custom hardware and advanced orchestration for fast AI inference
Sometimes, a demo is all you need to understand a product. And that’s the case with Runware. If you head over to Runware’s website, enter a prompt and hit enter to generate an image, you’ll be surprised by how quickly Runware generates the image for you — it takes less than a second. Runware is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Acceleron Fusion has raised $15M to take another stab at cold fusion, filing reveals
Where most startups aim to recreate the superheated, super-pressurized conditions inside of a star, Acceleron takes a different approach. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft HoloLens 2 discontinued with no successor in sight
Microsoft was ahead of the game in the world of enterprise AR. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The complete agenda for the Disrupt Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Get ready for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, our signature event for startups of all stages, taking place at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30. This year, we’re expecting a massive turnout of 10,000+ leaders from the startup, VC, and broader tech community. As part of the program, we’re thrilled to unveil the complete agenda […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ashton Kutcher, Effie Epstein, and Guy Oseary are coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Last year, Sound Ventures, the 9-year-old, Beverly Hills, California-based venture firm led by general partners Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary, and Effie Epstein, announced a new $265 million AI fund that was betting big on large language model companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Hugging Face. In fact, the plan was to invest in just six companies […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Numa raises $32M to bring AI and automation to car dealerships
Numa, a startup developing AI-powered automation tech for car dealerships, has raised fresh capital in a Series B round. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How the FBI and Mandiant caught a ‘serial hacker’ who tried to fake his own death
Jesse Kipf was a prolific hacker who sold access to systems he hacked, had contacts with a notorious cybercrime gang, and tried to use his hacking skills to get off the grid for good. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ford cuts price of BlueCruise hands-free driving feature
Ford is slashing both the monthly and annual cost of its hands-free driver assistance feature, BlueCruise, for new and existing owners in response to “customer and dealer” feedback, the company tells TechCrunch. The automaker announced Tuesday that it will now charge $49.99 per month or $495 annually for BlueCruise, which allows drivers to take their […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Serve Robotics and Wing to trial robot-to-drone delivery in Dallas
Drones and sidewalk delivery robots promise to make last-mile delivery cheaper and more efficient, but they both have their limitations. Drones have trouble touching down in dense urban areas, and sidewalk robots tap out after a couple of miles. Uber-backed Serve Robotics and Alphabet’s Wing are betting that combining forces might just create the ultimate […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Croissant debuts a cross-posting app for Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon
People participating on the open social web have a problem: it’s not yet possible to post on one of the social networking sites and have that post reach everyone across multiple sites, like Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads. While third-party tools are available, most are designed for small businesses and creators, not individual consumers, often costing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft Copilot can now read your screen, think deeply, and speak aloud to you
Microsoft has given its Copilot assistant on Windows a makeover — and a voice. Copilot can now read your screen, speak aloud, and more. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft brings AI-powered overviews to Bing
Microsoft has broadly launched Bing Generative Search, its answer to Google's AI Overviews and other AI-powered search apps. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft starts paying publishers for content surfaced by Copilot
Microsoft is paying publishers for content as part of a new Copilot feature, Copilot Daily, that gives a spoken summary of current events. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK unmasks LockBit ransomware affiliate as high-ranking hacker in Russia state-backed cybercrime gang
Evil Corp maintains a "privileged" relationship with the Kremlin, and was often tasked with launching cyberattacks on behalf of Russia. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
eBay removes UK seller fees to counter new wave of marketplace startups
E-commerce giant eBay, facing stiff competition from newer rivals, has removed final-value sales fees for all items excluding cars sold domestically in the U.K. This mirrors a similar move the company made in Germany last year and notably puts eBay in line with the likes of Vinted and Depop, two newer arrivals winning business among […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google adds a multi-functional quick insert key and new AI features to Chromebook Plus
Google is announcing new Chromebook models today with Samsung and Lenovo. With Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook Plus model in particular, the company is also introducing a new multifunctional quick insert key. But Google doesn’t want to leave existing Chromebook users behind as it added new AI-powered features for existing devices. The quick insert key, which also […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Palmer Luckey tried to crush aeronautics startup Salient Motion. But Anduril backer a16z invested.
Anduril sued defense tech startup Salient Motion. It still raised $12 million with participation from Anduril investor a16z. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sonos outlines turnaround plan following app disaster
The company laid out a plan it hopes will go a long way toward reversing fortunes and repairing relationships. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Eon emerges from stealth with $127M to bring a fresh approach to back up cloud infrastructure
A team of founders who sold their last company to Amazon to build a new business within AWS is setting out to reinvent the tricky business of backing up an organization’s cloud infrastructure. Today, Eon — as their new startup is called — is coming out of stealth with a product, a set of customers, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Air Doctor raised $20M to plug a gap in how people find doctors when they’re travelling
Travelling abroad comes with its unique set of stresses, and one of the biggest is what to do if you find yourself unwell. Can you find a doctor who speaks your language, will accept your insurance, and let you avoid the costs and stress of visiting an unfamiliar hospital emergency room? A startup called Air […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sequoia backs Pydantic to expand beyond its open source data-validation framework
Sequoia is investing $12.5M in UK startup Pydantic to help it expand beyond its open source data-validation framework. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Invesco raises its valuation of Swiggy to $13.3B
Invesco has raised the value of its stake in Swiggy, ascribing an implied valuation of about $13.3 billion to the Indian food delivery and quick-commerce startup. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained
The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight between WordPress founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine, which hosts websites built on WordPress. WordPress technology is open source and free, and it powers […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anduril speeds up launch of defense payloads by buying Apex satellite buses off the shelf
Anduril is expanding even further into the “ultimate high ground.” The company, which is best known for AI-powered defense products that span air, land and sea, is partnering with satellite bus manufacturing startup Apex Space to rapidly deploy payloads on orbit for the U.S. Department of Defense. It is a rare instance of the growing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tier becomes Dott following the merger of the two micromobility companies
With this merger, Dott and Tier didn’t want to build a conglomerate of micromobility services; the operation was all about scale. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta won’t say whether it trains AI on smart glasses photos
Meta’s AI-powered Ray-Bans have a discreet camera on the front, for taking photos not just when you ask them to, but also when their AI features trigger it with certain keywords such as “look.” That means the smart glasses collect a ton of photos, both deliberately taken and otherwise. But the company won’t commit to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Y Combinator is being criticized after it backed an AI startup that admits it basically cloned another AI startup
A Y Combinator startup named PearAI launched with a tweet thread and YouTube video on Saturday and caused an immediate backlash. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
11x.ai, a developer of AI sales reps, has raised $50M Series B led by A16Z, sources say
11x.ai, a startup that develops AI-powered sales development bots, has secured roughly $50 million in Series B funding, TechCrunch has learned. The new round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, valuing the company at around $350 million, multiple sources told TechCrunch. The recent deal follows the company’s $24 million Series A, which was led by Benchmark […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Space: The dawn of the space age
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. Flagging again that the final agenda for the Space Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt is now live. I’ll be pushing this event for the next few weeks, given that we’re just a bit over a month away! We’d love for you to join us. Want to reach out with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The VC buying up prized real estate in SF says not to “listen to agitators”
VC Neil Mehta, the Greenoaks Capital co-founder tied to a growing number of building purchases across several blocks of San Francisco’s once-glittering Fillmore Street commercial district, defended himself on Monday via an op-ed in The San Francisco Standard, saying the moves are solely about revitalizing a “city that has given me more than I could […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snapchat’s new Footsteps feature tracks your location history
Snapchat is quietly rolling out a new “Footsteps” feature to all iOS users this week, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Monday. The new feature, which was previously only available to Snapchat+ subscribers, uses Snap Map to let you see how much of the world you’ve explored and track where you’ve traveled to. The first […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After delivering astronauts to ISS, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 grounded after third anomaly in three months
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is grounded again after the vehicle’s second stage did not come down in the expected area of the ocean, following an otherwise successful mission that delivered a Dragon capsule and its crew to orbit. “We will resume launching once we better understand root cause,” the company said in a statement posted […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After delivering astronauts to ISS, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 grounded after 3rd anomaly in 3 months
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is grounded again after the vehicle’s second stage did not come down in the expected area of the ocean, following an otherwise successful mission that delivered a Dragon capsule and its crew to orbit. “We will resume launching once we better understand root cause,” the company said in a statement posted […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
iOS 18 Control Center: 18 apps that add useful actions to your iPhone
We’ve compiled a list of iOS 18 apps that users can try in order to take advantage of the redesigned Control Center. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cruise gets $1.5 million penalty for keeping pedestrian crash details from safety regulator
General Motors’ self-driving subsidiary Cruise must pay a $1.5 million penalty to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, after its initial reports to the safety regulator about last year’s pedestrian crash omitted that the company’s robotaxi dragged the woman 20 feet. The penalty is part of a consent order announced by the regulator on Monday. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A Waymo robotaxi stalled in front of VP Harris’ motorcade
A Waymo robotaxi got stuck making a U-turn in front of Vice President Kamala Harris’ motorcade Friday evening in San Francisco. ABC 7 reported that a San Francisco police officer had to manually drive the vehicle out of the way. Waymo has not yet responded to TechCrunch’s questions, including what went wrong on the backend […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Series, a GenAI game development platform, has quietly raised $28M from Netflix, Dell, a16z, others
It’s been quite the year for game industry exec Pany Haritatos. Last month, he quietly closed an oversubscribed $28 million from Netflix, Dell a16z, and others. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Think you need a VPN? Start here.
Not everyone actually needs to use a VPN. This simple guide will help you decide if you need a VPN for your situation. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to make your own encrypted VPN server in 15 minutes
The best encrypted VPN is one that you have set up and secured yourself. Here's how to get started. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VPN providers don’t protect your privacy online. Here’s what can.
You probably don't need a VPN. Instead, these free and open-source tools, and other services, can help protect your privacy online. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Reddit communities will require permission while going private or swithcing to NSFW
Last year, while opposing Reddit’s API changes, a large number of subreddits turned from public to private or turned NSFW (Not Safe for Work) to impact ads on the platform. To prevent this kind of change, Reddit is bringing new rules where moderators will have to submit a request when updating community-type public or private […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lapsi is rebooting the stethoscope as a health tracking data platform
The consumerization of medtech marches on: Amsterdam-based startup Lapsi Health has just clinched FDA approval for its first clinical support tool, a digital stethoscope. The U.S. medical devices regulator, the Food & Drug Administration, has cleared it as a Class IIA (medium risk) medical device. The startup’s debut sensing gadget is called Keikku, which means […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Reddit communities will require permission while going private or switching to NSFW
Last year, while opposing Reddit’s API changes, a large number of subreddits turned from public to private or turned NSFW (Not Safe for Work) to impact ads on the platform. To prevent this kind of change, Reddit is bringing new rules where moderators will have to submit a request when updating community-type public or private […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Everything you need to know about VPNs
We break down what virtual private networks, or VPNs, do and don’t do, because using a VPN can be as dangerous as not using one. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
We are skeptical of VPN providers, and you should be, too
You cannot and and should not trust either free or paid-for VPN providers. Here's why. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Oasis opts out of Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing, calling it ‘an unacceptable experience for fans’
When Oasis announced its reunion tour last month, fans of the British rock icons rejoiced — by some miracle, brothers and frontmen Noel and Liam Gallagher managed to resolve their fifteen-year-long feud and got the band back together. But for fans, getting tickets to see Oasis seemed even more unlikely than the band’s reunion. Thanks […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla’s Cybertruck gets Supervised Full Self-Driving
Tesla’s end-of-September deadline for bringing Supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) to Cybertruck owners has arrived. In typical Tesla fashion, the superfans are getting first access. Members of the Cybertruck Owners Club say they’ve been able to install the FSD update on their vehicles, according to Electrek. FSD is Tesla’s advanced driving assistance system that still requires […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI reading coach startup Ello now lets kids create their own stories
Ello, the AI reading companion that aims to support kids struggling to read, launched a new product on Monday that allows kids to participate in the story-creation process. Called “Storytime,” the new AI-powered feature helps kids generate personalized stories by picking from a selection of settings, characters, and plots. For instance, a story about a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Last chance to become a volunteer at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
We are officially less than a month away from TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, taking place at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30. We’re currently seeking dedicated and highly motivated volunteers to support our events team and help bring this amazing experience to life. If you’re dreaming of becoming a startup founder, marketer, or event […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft to face higher competition scrutiny in Germany, including over its use of AI
Germany's Federal Cartel Office (FCO) said the software giant could face restrictions if the competition authority deems an intervention is necessary. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Beta Technologies unveils first passenger carrying electric aircraft
Beta Technologies unveiled Monday the next electric aircraft in its lineup — a passenger-carrying version of its ALIA vertical takeoff and landing and fixed-wing vehicles. Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles don’t rely on a runway, whereas fixed-wing aircraft do. The Vermont-based startup, which has raised over $860 million to date from heavy hitters […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Augmented Intelligence claims its symbolic AI can make chatbots more useful
Augmented Intelligence claims that its 'symbolic AI' techniques can help lead to better chatbot experiences. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Airship wants to build better sales tools for HVAC contractors
The HVAC industry is going through a transformation. The old guard of tradespeople are on the cusp of retiring while private equity firms are consolidating the industry. Airship is building a software solution for HVAC’s next chapter. Airship is building a point-of-sale software for HVAC contractors to give them the knowledge they need, on things […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Qodo raises $40M Series A to bring quality-first code generation and testing to the enterprise
At first glance, Qodo, the startup previously known as CodiumAI, may appear to be yet another AI code generation tool. But the team, which is announcing a $40 million Series A round led by Susa Ventures and Square Peg today, is just as much focused on generating code as on generating the tests and code […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Queer social app Lex acquired by the former Musical.ly CEO’s conglomerate
Lex's users have high standards for the app, since it serves a community that has been historically overlooked and mistreated by mainstream social platforms. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Podcasting startup Podeo gets $5.4M to go beyond the Arab world
Podcast listeners crossed half a billion people at the end of last year as listenership maintained steady growth. With countries in the Arab world having some of the most engaged listeners, a podcasting startup out of Dubai is doubling down on the opportunity. Podeo is a UAE-based podcast distribution platform that has made a name […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
HungryPanda, a food ordering app for the Asian diaspora, picks up $55M
Apps catering to the Chinese and wider Asian diaspora, especially urban consumers focused on food, can be big business. Now, HungryPanda, one of the trailblazing startups in that market is announcing more funding. The food ordering and delivery app, founded in London and aimed squarely at Chinese and other Asian consumers living outside their home […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pinnit Android app lets you search through your notification history
The notification drawer on Android can be both useful and distracting because of the sheer number of notifications that come in. You have to manage per-app notifications better through settings or set up a system to avoid missing important updates. An app called Pinnit helps you look through notifications that you missed with its notifications […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Raspberry Pi launches camera module for vision-based AI applications
Raspberry Pi, the company that sells tiny, cheap, single-board computers, is releasing an add-on that is going to open up several use cases — and yes, because it’s 2024, there’s an AI angle. Called the Raspberry Pi AI Camera, this image sensor comes with on-board AI processing and is going to cost $70. In more technical […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained
The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight between WordPress founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine, which hosts websites built on WordPress. WordPress technology is open source and free, and it powers […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fidelity has cut X’s value by 79% since Musk purchase
Elon Musk’s X is now valued at less than a quarter of its $44 billion purchase price, according to a new estimate from investor Fidelity. The asset manager, which helped Musk acquire the social network formerly known as Twitter, has further reduced the value of its holding in X to a total markdown of 78.7% […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here is what’s illegal under California’s 18 (and counting) new AI laws
In September, California Governor Gavin Newsom considered 38 AI-related bills, including the highly contentious SB 1047, which the state’s legislature sent to his desk for final approval. He vetoed SB 1047 on Sunday, but signed more than a dozen other AI bills into law over the course of the month. These bills try to address […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gov. Newsom vetoes California’s controversial AI bill, SB 1047
California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed SB 1047, a high-profile bill that would have regulated the development of AI. The bill was authored by State Senator Scott Wiener and would have made companies that develop the largest AI models liable for implementing safety protocols to prevent “critical harms.” It was opposed by many in Silicon […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube blocks videos from Adele, Green Day, Bob Dylan, others in dispute with SESAC
A number of YouTube videos featuring music from artists such as Adele, Green Day, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, and R.E.M. have been unplayable in the United States since Saturday. For example, if you try to play Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone” (whether it’s the classic album recording or a live performance), you are instead told: “This […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
New York tech investor and serial entrepreneur Kevin Ryan explains when to sell your company
Kevin Ryan has had a long and storied career as a pivotal force of New York City tech. He’s the founder and CEO of investment firm AlleyCorp, which has invested in a wide variety of startups, and is a serial founder, participating in the early stages of companies such as Business Insider, Zola, Gilt, Pearl […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elastic founder on why they returned to open source 4 years after going proprietary
Licensing kerfuffles have long been a defining facet of the commercial open source space. Some of the biggest vendors have switched to a more restrictive “copyleft” license, as Grafana and Element have done, or gone full proprietary, as HashiCorp did last year with Terraform. But one $8 billion company has gone the other way. Elastic, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How I Podcast: Hyperfixed’s Alex Goldman
This week, Alex Goldman shares his setup. A former producer for WYNC's On the Media, Goldman co-founded Reply-All with Emmanuel Dzotsi in 2014. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: Bigger, mostly better
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is back, bigger and better than before, with a thinner design and excellent tri-camera system. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
In war-torn Sudan, a displaced startup incubator returns to fuel innovation
Businesses need stability to thrive. Unfortunately for anyone in Sudan, stability has been hard to come by for the past year and a half as the country quakes amidst a raging civil war. More than 20,000 people have been killed, and about 7.7 million people have been displaced just within the country; millions have had […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X faces additional $1.9M fine to end ban in Brazil
X (formerly Twitter) could soon resume service in Brazil — if it’s willing to pay an additional fine. Reuters and other publications have reported on an order from the country’s Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes stating that the Elon Musk-owned social network could “immediately return to its activities in national territory” if it pays […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta rethinks smart glasses with Orion
Meta Connect 2024 was this week, showcasing new hardware and software to support two of the company’s big ambitions: AI and the metaverse. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced new Quest headsets, updates to Meta’s Llama AI model, and real-time video capabilities of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. The biggest reveal, though, was Orion, a true AR glasses […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Brian Williams might host a live election night special for Amazon
Amazon Prime Video could be getting into the live news business, if only for one night. Variety reports that the company is in talks with longtime NBC and MSNBC news anchor Brian Williams to host a live Election Night special, competing with more traditional TV news broadcasts to offer non-partisan coverage of the U.S. presidential […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Judge is unimpressed by Apple’s deadline extension request in Epic Games dispute
Apple faces a looming deadline to produce what it says are more than 1 million documents related to recent App Store changes. On Friday, Judge Thomas S. Hixson denied the company’s attempt to extend that deadline, describing the request as “bad behavior.” So Apple’s deadline is still Monday, September 30: “It’s up to Apple to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta offers a glimpse through its supposed iPhone killer: Orion
For years, Silicon Valley and Wall Street have questioned Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to invest tens of billions of dollars into Reality Labs. This week, Meta’s wearables division unveiled a prototype of its Orion smart glasses, a form factor the company believes one day could replace the iPhone. That idea sounds crazy… but maybe a little […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VCs expect a surge in startups offering lower rate mortgages, other loans now that the Feds cut rates
When the U.S. Feds cut interest rates by half a percentage point last week, it was a dash of good news for venture capitalists backing one particularly beleaguered class of startups: fintechs, especially those that rely on loans for cash flow to operate their businesses. These companies include corporate credit card providers like Ramp or […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Robot hand can detach from arm, crawl over to objects, and pick them up
The video debuted along with a research paper of the same name at IEEE’s International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Rotterdam this week. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Best iPad apps to boost productivity and make your life easier
There are many iPad apps to help you organize recipes; sync tasks across devices; be more productive; and manage your notes. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why Index Ventures is bulking up its investment team in NYC
While online discourse would make it seem that venture has retreated to the Bay Area, with San Francisco being the most important place to build a startup, Index Ventures is looking to bulk up its New York-based investing team. The firm is currently looking to hire another New York-based investor with plans to add three […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A Russian warlord said he’s taking Cybertrucks into Ukraine; some experts think that’s unwise
In August, a Russian warlord posted a video on Telegram, showing a pair of Cybertrucks patrolling a road in Chechnya, armed seemingly with heavy machine guns. Leaving aside unanswerable (for now) questions about how the vehicles were obtained, Wired thought it worth digging into whether a Cybertruck actually makes sense as a “technical,” the term […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WordPress.org temporarily lifts its ban on WP Engine
WordPress.org has lifted its ban on hosting provider WP Engine until October 1, after putting a block on it earlier this week. The block prevented several sites from updating their plug-ins and themes and exposing them to potential security risk. WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, who has been in a tussle with WP Engine for over […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained
The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight between WordPress founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine, which hosts websites built on WordPress. WordPress technology is open source and free, and it powers […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI might raise the price of ChatGPT to $22 by 2025, $44 by 2029
ChatGPT could get more expensive to use in coming years. The New York Times, citing internal OpenAI docs, reports that OpenAI is planning to raise the price of individual ChatGPT subscriptions from $20 per month to $22 per month by the end of the year. A steeper increase will come over the next five years; […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Binance founder ‘CZ’ released from custody after four-month sentence
Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao was released from US custody on Friday after serving out his four-month sentence in a low-security correctional facility. CZ’s sentence was the product of a federal investigation that found Binance had failed to stop widespread criminal activity on the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. CZ pleaded guilty to the DOJ’s charges, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Canoo hit with two supplier lawsuits as last remaining co-founder leaves
EV startup Canoo has been hit with two new lawsuits from suppliers linked to the drivetrains that power its electric vehicles, just weeks after the company kicked off a major reorganization that included the departure of its chief technology officer. Canoo has also parted ways with senior director of advanced vehicle engineering Christoph Kuttner, who […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI dominated both YC Demo Day and startup news
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week was a busy one for the startup and VC world, with its fair share of funding news and, of course, the latest edition of YC’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Iranian hackers charged with hacking Trump campaign to ‘stoke discord’
Three Iranian hackers working for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeted the Trump campaign in an attempted hack-and-leak operation, according to the Department of Justice. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
U.S. government charges three Iranian hackers with Trump campaign hack
Three Iranian hackers working for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeted the Trump campaign in an attempted hack-and-leak operation, according to the Department of Justice. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Wordy’s new app helps you learn vocabulary while watching movies and TV shows
Wordy is a new iOS app that offers a unique way to learning English. The app automatically translates and defines unknown words while you watch your favorite movies or TV shows. Wordy has over 500,000 titles available, including popular series such as HBO’s “The Penguin” and the new Disney+ show, “Agatha All Along.” Created by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s $6.5B funding round may close as soon as next week
ChatGPT maker OpenAI’s next funding round, said to be around $6.5 billion, could close as soon as the end of next week. That’s according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal, which also reveals that OpenAI’s rumored conversion from a nonprofit org into a for-profit company is now a virtual certainty. Investors in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bret Taylor of Sierra joins TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
We’re thrilled to welcome Bret Taylor to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. As the former co-CEO of Salesforce, founder of Quip, former CTO of Facebook, the co-creator of Google Maps, and current chairman of the board at OpenAI, Taylor needs very little introduction. Bret Taylor is one of the most influential players in the world of enterprise […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon dodges antitrust scrutiny in UK over Anthropic investment
The U.K.s' antitrust authority has concluded that Amazon's partnership and equity investment in AI startup Anthropic can't be investigated under current merger rules due to the size and scope of the deal. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Last hours to snag up to $600 off TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 passes
We’re in the final hours to save up to $600 on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 tickets! Grab your tickets now and seize this final opportunity for major savings before the countdown to Disrupt 2024 starts. This special discount offer ends tonight at 11:59 p.m. PT. Join a global community of over 10,000 tech, startup, and VC […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta fined $101.5M for 2019 breach that exposed hundreds of millions of Facebook passwords
Reset your clocks: Meta has been hit with yet another privacy penalty in Europe. On Friday Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced a reprimand and a €91 million fine — around $101.5M at current exchange rates — after concluding a multi-year investigation into a 2019 security breach by Facebook’s parent company. The DPC opened a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK data watchdog confirms it’s investigating MoneyGram data breach
The world’s second-largest money transfer provider, which filed a data breach notice with U.K. authorities, serves over 50 million people. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Napkin is a note-taking app that is not about making you more productive
Note-taking apps typically aim to make you more efficient and productive. A lot of those apps concentrate on quickly jotting down your thoughts, organizing them better, or a mix of both. Napkin (not to be confused with the Accel-backed startup of same name) wants to stand out amid these apps by focusing on mindfulness. Think […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
9 startups that stood out on YC Demo Day 2
Here are the startups from YC Demo Day 2 that we thought stood out from the flock. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Indian game streaming startup Loco sells majority stake to Redwood
UAE-based Redwood has acquired a majority stake in the game streaming platform Loco as the Indian firm looks to expand focus to international markets, TechCrunch has learned and confirmed. Redwood, a newly-formed investment firm, has signed a $65 million deal with Loco, an investment that also gives full exit to all existing Loco backers. This […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Starlink hits 4 million subscribers
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet network is expected to hit a new customer milestone this week, company President Gwynne Shotwell told Texas legislators on Tuesday. “This week, by the way, we will pass 4 million customers for Starlink, which is quite exciting,” she said while testifying before a state House Appropriations Committee meeting. (The milestone was confirmed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Runway earmarks $5M to fund up to 100 films using AI-generated video
AI video generators need to believe that filmmakers will use their models in the production process. Otherwise why exist? To jump start the new AI film ecosystem, Runway has set aside $5 million in cash and more in service credits to fund up to 100 original films. If you’re an AI-curious director, now’s your chance […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s VP of global affairs claims o1 is ‘virtually perfect’ at correcting bias, but the data doesn’t quite back that up
Departures might be dominating the week’s OpenAI-related headlines. But comments on AI bias from Anna Makanju, the company’s VP of global affairs, also grabbed our attention. Makanju, speaking on a panel at the UN’s Summit of the Future event on Tuesday, suggested that emerging “reasoning” models such as OpenAI’s o1 have the potential to make […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former Brex COO who now heads unicorn fintech Figure says GPT is already upending the mortgage industry
Lending startup Figure will be launching an AI tool powered by GPT-4 to help catch errors in lending documents. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Security compliance unicorn Drata lays off 9% of its workforce
Drata, a security compliance automation platform that helps companies adhere to frameworks such as SOC 2 and GDPR, has laid off 9% of its workforce, amounting to 40 people. Founded in 2020, Drata integrates with dozens of clouds, SaaS apps, developer tools, security systems, and more, helping businesses collate the necessary evidence to prove that their data privacy and security […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nomi AI wants to make the most emotionally intelligent chatbots on the market
As OpenAI boasts about its o1 model’s increased thoughtfulness, a small, self-funded startup Nomi AI is building the same kind of technology. Unlike the broad generalist ChatGPT, which slows down to think through anything from math problems or historical research, Nomi niches down on a specific use-case: AI companions. Now, Nomi’s already-sophisticated chatbots take additional […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zap Energy investors in recent $130M round included Soros Fund and Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective
The company recently closed a $130 million round, according to an SEC filing, bringing the total to $327 million. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Uber snags another robotaxi deal, aviation startups land VC bucks, and where Rivian Foundation money is going
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! I’ve been thinking a bit about time — and specifically what trends, music, cultural practices, and even ways we move around that encapsulate a season or particular […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Kaspersky defends force-replacing its security software without users’ explicit consent
That lack of user interaction — or request for consent — is what confused and concerned some former Kaspersky customers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The WordPress vs WP Engine drama, explained
The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight between WordPress founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine, which hosts web sites built on WordPress. WordPress technology is open-source and free, and it powers […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla Superchargers: GM, Ford, Rivian, and other EV brands with access
EV owners of GM vehicles like the Chevrolet Silverado EV and Cadillac Lyriq will now officially have access to Tesla’s Superchargers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
BMW says we need both battery and hydrogen EVs for a zero-emissions future
Despite hydrogen’s challenges, BMW thinks the only way to actually achieve a shift to zero emissions transportation is through a mix of BEVs and hydrogen vehicles. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google’s NotebookLM enhances AI note-taking with YouTube, audio file sources, sharable audio discussions
Google's NotebookLM has been updated with YouTube and audio files as new source types and sharable links for Audio Overviews. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EVA, an entertainment booking platform for events, raises $2M as it expands to more cities
EVA, the platform that connects event bookers with local performers, has secured $2 million in funding as the popularity of in-person events comes back in full force. The round, which the Nashville-based startup says was more than double the target amount, values EVA at $15 million. The recent round is timely as event organizers are […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Subscription management platform RevenueCat acquires a ‘spicy’ audiobooks app (??!!)
The idea here is to bring a subscription-based app in-house to serve as a testing ground for RevenueCat's new features. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta Connect 2024: Orion glasses, Quest 3S headset, Meta AI upgrades, Ray-Ban Meta real-time video, and more
Meta Connect 2024 is a developer-centric event featuring a keynote from CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He showcased new hardware and software to support two of Meta’s big ambitions: AI and the metaverse. This included everything from new Quest headsets, updates to Meta’s Llama AI model, and even a new fully AR glasses prototype. Meta Connect 2024 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Announcing the final agenda for the AI Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
We’re thrilled to announce that the agenda for our dedicated AI Stage presented by Google Cloud to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is complete and ready to go! It joins fintech, SaaS, and space as the other industry-focused stages — all under one big roof. We couldn’t possibly host TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 without a huge deep dive […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s Star Health says it’s investigating after hacker posts stolen medical data
The health insurance giant is investigating an incident that allegedly leaked sensitive customer medical data. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
2 days left to save up to $600 on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 tickets
We’re in the final stretch of Ticket Reboot Week with just 48 hours remaining! You can still save up to $600 on individual ticket types to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Don’t wait — this offer ends on September 27 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Don’t miss out on this last big sale before the countdown to Disrupt […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After is a new dating app that tries to tackle ghosting
A new female-founded dating app called After is launching in Austin, Texas on Thursday with the mission of tackling ghosting and holding people accountable. What sets the app apart from the rest of the dating app scene is that After requires users to share why they have unmatched a person before they are allowed to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Tor Project merges with Tails, a Linux-based portable OS focused on privacy
The Tor Project is merging operations with Tails, a portable Linux-based operating system focused on preserving user privacy and anonymity. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Prepared, which wants to ‘revolutionize’ emergency 911 calls, raises $27M
A company that claims its tech can “revolutionize” emergency calls has raised $27 million in a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The company, Prepared, enables 911 dispatchers to get a caller’s real-time GPS location if their phone supports it. Via Prepared, dispatchers can also receive and respond to texts and images, and — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As war rages in Ukraine, investment in European defense and dual-use tech skyrockets
A new Dealroom report shows that VC investment in defense-related tech is outpacing any other type of investment across NATO member states and allies. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Peak XV has reaped $1.2B in the year since it split from Sequoia
Peak XV Partners, the largest India-focused venture fund, has realized about $1.2 billion in exits since it separated from Sequoia last year. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WordPress.org bans WP Engine, blocks it from accessing its resources
WordPress drama went up another notch today after WordPress.org, the free-open source web content hosting software, banned web hosting provider WP Engine from accessing their resources. In a post on WordPress.org, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg wrote that, pending their legal claims, WP Engine doesn’t have access to the platform’s resources, such as themes and plug-ins. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Marvel Fusion lands $70M for laser-powered fusion bet
Marvel Fusion is one of several companies pursuing what’s known as inertial confinement fusion. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s chief research officer has left
OpenAI’s chief research officer, Bob McGrew, and a research VP, Barret Zoph, have left the company hours after OpenAI’s CTO, Mira Murati, announced she would be departing. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed the two latest resignations in a post on X Wednesday evening, along with transition plans. “Mira, Bob, and Barret made these decisions independently […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Dinii, a cloud-based restaurant management platform, raises $45M Series B
Japan has always been a strong market for bringing technology into the experience of consuming food, and now one of the startups leading on this idea is attracting investors from across the ocean. Dinii, which lets diners order food from restaurants and shops through a mobile platform, has raised $48 million (7.46 billion JPY). Bessemer […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pear wants to empower up-and-coming VCs with its new emerging managers in residence program
When seed-focused Pear VC raised a $432 million fund last year, the firm co-founder Pejman Nozad said that it meant his firm had reached its “own product-market-fit.” That fourth fund was nearly three times larger than its previous $160 million fund. The eleven-year-old firm wants to help emerging venture funds follow in Pear’s footsteps. On […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
13 companies from YC Demo Day 1 that are worth paying attention to
Unsurprisingly, AI companies dominated the day, with startups looking to apply the technology to problems like estate planning and automating clinical trial data. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sam Altman reportedly poised to get equity in OpenAI for the first time
Following the abrupt departure of OpenAI’s CTO, Mira Murati, CEO Sam Altman is reportedly poised to receive equity in the company for the first time as OpenAI moves away from its longstanding nonprofit structure. Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, reports that OpenAI plans to restructure into a for-profit benefit corporation — similar to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zuckerberg chats with AI clone as human creator looks on in year’s weirdest demo
The demo showcased AI Studio, a platform for designing custom chatbots. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI CTO Mira Murati says she’s leaving the company
The decision comes just a few weeks before OpenAI's Dev Day, its annual developer conference. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What does Mark Zuckerberg’s shirt say?
Three years ago, Mark Zuckerberg’s big day was a flop. At his company’s annual developer conference – then called Facebook Connect – he unveiled his grand plans to turn his trillion dollar social network into “a metaverse company.” He changed the name of his company to Meta, and we braced for a world where we […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta pitches VR to mobile developers with new support for Android apps on Quest
Meta says it's working to make it easier for mobile developers to make the shift to Meta's Horizon OS. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta teases Orion, brain-powered true AR glasses in a tiny package
The Orion glasses, which are notably significantly smaller than Snap's recently announced Spectacles 5, are true AR. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Y Combinator’s next Demo Day will include in-person seats for top VCs, Garry Tan says
Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan wants to bring the famed accelerator’s Demo Day presentations back as in-person events by the end of the year. During Tan’s opening remarks during Wednesday’s YC summer cohort Demo Day, he said this week’s Demo Day presentations will “knock on wood” be the final ones held entirely online. Tan added […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta Connect 2024: Orion glasses, Quest 3S headset, Meta AI upgrades, Ray-Ban Meta real-time video and more
Meta Connect 2024 is starting soon, and with it comes the expectation of reveals and updates to Meta’s latest AI model and metaverse ambitions. The developer-centric event will feature a keynote from CEO Mark Zuckerberg, during which he will likely showcase new hardware and software to support two of Meta’s big ambitions: AI and the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta developed a ‘neural interface’ for its next-gen Orion AR glasses
Meta's next-gen Orion AR glasses come with a wrist-worn "neural interface" for navigation and control. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta teases Orion, ‘the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen’
At Wednesday’s Meta Connect event, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced what he described as Meta teases Orion, ‘the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen.’ The glasses, which are notably significantly smaller than Snap’s recently announced Spectacles 5, are true AR. Orion utilize tiny projects built into the glasses temples to create a heads-up display […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta Ray-Bans are getting live translation
During Wednesday’s Meta Connect event, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announce a slew of new AI-fueled features for the company’s Ray-Ban collaboration. The most interesting of the bunch is the addition of real-time translation through the glasses’ speakers. Meta explains, Soon, your glasses will be able to translate speech in real time. When you’re talking to someone […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mark Zuckerberg says Meta AI has nearly 500 million users
Mark Zuckerberg said today that Meta AI is one of the most used AI assistant across the world with “almost” 500 million monthly active users. Speaking at the company’s Meta Connect event, Zuckerberg said that Meta AI is on track to become the most used assistant across the world. “We’re almost at 500 million monthly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta Connect 2024: Quest 3S headset, Meta AI upgrades, Ray-Ban Meta real-time video and more revealed
Meta Connect 2024 is starting soon, and with it comes the expectation of reveals and updates to Meta’s latest AI model and metaverse ambitions. The developer-centric event will feature a keynote from CEO Mark Zuckerberg, during which he will likely showcase new hardware and software to support two of Meta’s big ambitions: AI and the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta updates Ray-Ban smart glasses with real-time AI video, reminders, and QR code scanning
The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses got an update with new familiar smartphone features and AI capabilities coming later in 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta’s Hyperscape lets you scan and explore real-life spaces in VR
Onstage during its Connect 2024 developer conference, Meta showed Hyperspace, a feature that lets users scan real-life spaces and explore them in VR. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta has rebuilt Instagram and Facebook for its Quest headsets
At its annual Meta Connect event on Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company has rebuilt its social apps for mixed reality. “We’ve got all new Instagram and Facebook experiences to bring your feeds and your Reels with you into mixed reality,” Zuckerberg said. “A really nice interface so you can lean back […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Canva adds new abilities for app developers and improves discoverability
Canva just announced new enhancements to its developer platform, such as including premium apps with its Pro subscription, a translation feature for apps, better discovery mechanisms, and new API functionalities. The creative tool company started its developer program in June 2023 to let developers build add-ons that people can use in Canva. Think of them […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta AI can now understand and edit your photos
Meta announced that Meta AI will now be able to help you edit photos using AI technology as well as answer questions about the photos you share. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta AI’s genAI ‘Imagine’ features expand across Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger
With the update, users will be able to use prompts to generate AI photos directly in their feed, Stories, and for their Facebook profile pictures. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta lets businesses create ad-embedded chatbots
Meta is now allowing businesses to create ads that, when clicked, bring up a chatbot customers can speak with about common topics. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta AI gets lip-synced translations and celebrity voices, like Judi Dench and John Cena
Meta is bringing a voice mode to its AI assistant, Meta AI, along with an Meta AI-powered translation feature for Instagram Reels. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta AI gets celebrity voices and lip-synced translations
Meta is bringing a voice mode to its AI assistant, Meta AI, along with an Meta AI-powered translation feature for Instagram Reels. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta discontinues Quest 2 and Quest Pro
With the budget Quest 3S now up for preorder, Meta will no longer sell the Quest 2 and Quest Pro once back stock is deleted. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta announces $300 Quest 3S, a cheaper take on mixed reality
The Meta Quest S3 is up for preorder Wednesday. It starts shipping October 15. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Convergence AI played with agents ‘for years’ until raising $12M to give them long-term memory
The strategy is to create consumer agents, but then use those to inform how they train agents in the enterprise. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta Connect 2024: Everything announced on AI, the metaverse, Quest headsets and more
Meta Connect 2024 is starting soon, and with it comes the expectation of reveals and updates to Meta’s latest AI model and metaverse ambitions. The developer-centric event will feature a keynote from CEO Mark Zuckerberg, during which he will likely showcase new hardware and software to support two of Meta’s big ambitions: AI and the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Diagrid launches Catalyst to help enterprises build their microservices
Back in 2019, Microsoft launched Dapr, a new open-source project that made building event-driven distributed applications easier for developers. Like so many popular open-source projects, Dapr spawned its own ecosystem, especially after Microsoft donated it to the Linux Foundation. And as is also so often the case, some of the creators of Dapr — and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon employees beg management to reverse 5-day RTO mandate
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced to employees last week that they will be expected to work from the office five days a week, starting in 2025. Employees who have grown accustomed to a hybrid work structure are “strongly dissatisfied,” according to an anonymous survey created by Amazon employees. As Fortune reports, hundreds of employees responded […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Consumer, culture, and creators with Erin and Sara Foster at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Two of the industry’s most famous sisters, Erin and Sara Foster, sit down alongside business partner Phil Schwarz at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 to talk about consumer investing, culture curation, and what it means to be a creator in the modern age. Moderated on the Disrupt main stage, the conversation will surround the creator economy, consumer […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Longshot Space closes over $5M in new funding to build space gun in the desert
Why use a rocket when you could use a giant, miles-long “gun” instead? That’s the question posed by Longshot Space, a company that’s completely rethinking how to send mass to orbit. The company is developing a kinetic launch system that will gradually accelerate payloads to hypersonic speeds before launching them to orbit. While Longshot’s full-scale […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After losing a peering lawsuit in Germany, Meta says it’s never getting back together with Deutsche Telekom
Consumer apps can generate a lot of traffic and revenue, but some carriers have complained that they’re not getting a fair cut of the pie for carrying all that traffic across their network infrastructure. But if you were looking for a test case that demonstrated how the two sides might be able to work together, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ayrton Energy mimics margarine to store hydrogen safely
As the universe’s lightest gas, hydrogen is tricky to contain. But there’s an alternative: attaching hydrogen atoms to a carrier molecule that’s easier to move. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta’s Llama AI models get multimodal
At Meta Connect 2024, the company announced a new family of Llama models, Llama 3.2. It's somewhat multimodal. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Audible experiments with new AI features for tailored audiobook recommendations
Audible, the Amazon-owned audiobook service, continues to experiment with AI to improve audiobook discovery and offer customized recommendations. Recent tests involve AI-powered tags, which analyze customer feedback to offer tailored suggestions according to individual preferences, and topic pages that recommend tags to help you find closely related subjects. The experiments are only available to 50% […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta acquires the Threads.com domain name
Meta has acquired the Threads.com domain name, according to Whois records of the URL that were updated on September 24. Users on domain-related forums pointed out this transfer, and TechCrunch confirmed the Whois records of Threads.com separately, which list Meta’s Instagram as the registrant. TechCrunch reached out to Meta to understand if it plans to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Early sign-ups to EU’s AI Pact include Amazon, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI — but Apple and Meta are missing
The European Commission has revealed a list of the first 100-plus signatories to the AI Pact — an initiative focused on getting companies to publish “voluntary pledges” on how they approach and deploy artificial intelligence. While the bloc’s legally binding risk-based AI rulebook (the AI Act) entered into force last month, it will be several […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Final 3 days to score up to $600 in savings on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 passes
Ticktock! The countdown is on to lock in your ticket for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 at a huge discount. Save up to $600 on individual ticket types if you register before September 27 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Secure your spot before prices go up — this offer won’t last long Disrupt 2024 is your gateway to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta Connect 2024: How to watch the metaverse and generative AI event today
Meta Connect starts Wednesday at 10 a.m. PT and is set to focus on Meta's XR platforms, the metaverse, and its generative AI platform, Llama. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google files antitrust complaint against Microsoft in Europe over cloud licensing practices
Google has filed a complaint with the European Commission (EC), alleging that Microsoft uses anti-competitive licensing practices to strongarm companies into staying on its Azure cloud infrastructure. The complaint relates to a 2019 licensing change which made it more expensive to run Windows Server software on rival clouds. That change prompted European not-for-profit trade association, Cloud Infrastructure […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Backyard Baseball ’97 is back, with a re-release coming soon on Steam
Backyard Baseball 1997 is being remastered and will be available October 10 for $10. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI2’s Molmo shows open source can meet, and beat, closed multimodal models
The common wisdom is that companies like Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic, with bottomless cash reserves and hundreds of top-tier researchers, are the only ones that can make state-of-the-art foundation model. But as one among them famously noted, they “have no moat” — and AI2 showed that today with the release of Molmo, a multimodal AI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tomasz Tunguz’s Theory Ventures bets $12M on Initia, the ‘iOS for web3’
The promise of blockchain to change the world hasn’t materialized. For the most part, the technology has instead enabled people to speculate on a new asset class. A big hurdle to realizing blockchain’s full potential, web3 proponents argue, is that decentralized services are incredibly hard to build. Tomasz Tunguz, best known for his popular startup […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Raycast raises $30M to bring its Mac productivity app to Windows and iOS
At its core, Raycast all about bringing a little order to the chaos with what it calls a "shortcut to everything." © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Supabase, a Postgres-centric developer platform, raises $80M Series C
With this, Supabase has now raised a total of $196 million, including a Series B round in 2022, which was also an $80 million round. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Uber will soon offer WeRide robotaxis in Abu Dhabi
The ride-hail and delivery giant announced a new deal to bring WeRide’s robotaxis to the Uber platform starting in Abu Dhabi. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mozilla hit with privacy complaint in EU over Firefox tracking tech
Mozilla, the non-profit that develops the Firefox web browser, has been hit with a complaint by European Union privacy rights group noyb, which accuses it of violating the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by tracking Firefox users by default without their permission. It’s unusual to see a privacy complaint targeting Mozilla, an organization which […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Radian Aerospace completes ground tests of prototype space plane
Radian Aerospace has moved one step closer to achieving the “holy grail” of spaceflight: a reusable space plane that can take-off from an airfield and land on a runway like a conventional airplane. The startup just announced completion of a series of ground tests in Abu Dhabi earlier this summer. The tests were completed with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WhatFix raises a whopping $125M for its in-app user guides
Digital transformation — upgrading a company’s legacy apps and processes with new tech — has long been a buzzy and lucrative business. But the pandemic supercharged the market. Covid pandemic lockdowns and the widespread move to work-from-home spurred brands relying on old technology to modernize their organizations. According to Statista, worldwide spending on digital transformation […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google’s revised ad targeting plan triggers fresh competition concerns in UK
What is going on with Google’s long-touted migration to an alternative adtech stack (aka its Privacy Sandbox proposal)? What indeed. The entire multi-year endeavour to reshape the commercial web looks dangerously close to being killed off after the latest intervention by the U.K.’s antitrust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). This comes on top […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Reddit is bringing AI-powered, automatic translation to dozens of new countries
Reddit is bringing machine learning-powered translations to more than 35 new languages, including Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Legal ping-pong in the WordPress world continues as Automattic sends WP Engine a cease-and-desist letter alleging trademark infringement
The brouhaha in the WordPress community looks likely to escalate into a legal battle around trademarks. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Vsim, founded by Nvidia alums, raises $21.5M for robotics simulation tech
One of the most fundamental breakthroughs at Nvidia has been building processors that power and integrate with highly detailed, compute-intensive graphical simulations, which can be used in a wide range of applications, from games and industrial developments through to AI training. Now two of the engineers who helped build those physical simulations for Nvidia and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Airtel taps AI to combat India’s rampant spam calls problem
Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator, said on Wednesday it’s rolling out an AI-powered spam detection solution to all its customers as it vowed to curb the rising spam calls and messages in the world’s most populous nation. The company, which counts Google among its backers, announced the launch of what it claims is India’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hone Capital, a Silicon Valley firm, is being probed by the FBI
According to the FT, the FBI is now poking around nine-year-old Hone Capital, a Palo Alto, Ca.-based venture firm funded by a Chinese private equity firm, to determine whether some of its capital came from the Chinese government — and if it shared sensitive startup data with Beijing. Originally launched with $115 million from China’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Salesforce snatches up Zoomin, a tool for organizing company knowledge
Salesforce is on a buying spree. After snatching up data management firm Own earlier in the month, Salesforce today announced its plans to buy Zoomin, an enterprise knowledge platform. Zoomin — which we’ve covered a handful of times before — unifies a company’s docs, like product user guides and tutorials, in one portal. The terms […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies. That growth has propelled OpenAI itself into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Caroline Ellison sentenced to two years in prison for FTX fraud
Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of FTX affiliate Alameda Research, was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday. Ellison had pled guilty to conspiring with FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried to steal $8 billion worth of customers’ funds, but she was an exceedingly cooperative witness, helping law enforcement to investigate the massive fraud scheme. Her two-year […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Commvault acquires data backup provider Clumio
It must be acquisition season. Commvault, a publicly traded data protection and data management software company, today announced that it intends to acquire data backup and recovery provider Clumio for an undisclosed amount. The deal is expected to close in early October. Commvault says it’s not material to its earnings and that it’ll be funded […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The best Twitter alternatives worth checking out
We’ll be straight with you. There’s no 1:1 Twitter replacement, but there are plenty of social apps that might be worth substituting into your obsessive timeline-checking routines if you’re done with Twitter for whatever reason (we can think of plenty). Twitter’s current situation — advertisers leaving, Nazis logging back on — presents an opportunity to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EGYM, a connected fitness startup conceived after the founder hit a wall at the gym, lands $200m at a $1.2B+ valuation
Getting healthy is big business these days. Now a startup that’s come up with a unique approach leveraging tech to help people with their exercise regimes is announcing a big round of funding, putting some weight behind its own push for growth. Munich-based EGYM — a maker of connected fitness equipment and personalized training tech […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The beloved Rodecaster board get a video production counterpart
The Rodecaster Video is up for preorder starting today. It ships October 10. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How one female VC is teaching kids about startups and women in tech
Lux Capital's Deena Shakir wrote a picture book to explain startups to children. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Northvolt lays off 1,600 workers, but it’s not the end for Europe’s battery champion
Europe’s attempt at building a battery manufacturing powerhouse announced that it had halted work on a factory expansion and laid off about 20% of its employees. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI rolls out Advanced Voice Mode with more voices and a new look
OpenAI announced it is rolling out Advanced Voice Mode (AVM) to an expanded set of ChatGPT’s paying customers on Tuesday. The audio feature, which makes ChatGPT more natural to speak with, will initially roll out to customers in ChatGPT’s Plus and Teams tiers. Enterprise and Edu customers will start receiving access next week. As part […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nothing launches a slick pair of $149 open-ear headphones
The Nothing Ear Open costs $149 and will ship starting October 1. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Toyota Ventures’s Jim Adler says climate tech startups need to secure future buyers
Jim Adler, founder and general partner at Toyota Ventures, is concerned that climate technology gains could fall into the “valley of death” if companies fail to drum up enough demand to survive. And he’s not wrong to be worried. Climate tech investments in the first half of 2024 dipped for the second consecutive year, both […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
From dinners with Travis Kalanick to fired after maternity leave: One of CloudKitchens’ earliest employees is suing
Isabella Vincenza, one of CloudKitchens’ earliest employees, never imagined she would be suing her now-former employer. Hired as a full-time salesperson in 2018, she became a mainstay at President’s Club dinners hosted by CEO Travis Kalanick at his Bel Air home throughout 2020 and 2021. These dinners were prized, invite-only events for top salespeople at […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rivian reveals first $10M in grants for long-promised Rivian Foundation
Rivian has revealed the first $10 million worth of grants from the Rivian Foundation, three years after the EV maker vowed the philanthropy would receive 1% of its equity to make the “natural world” a “stakeholder in our success.” The company launched Monday a website for the foundation that details 41 grantees who will collectively […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Moxie, which helps nurses launch medspas, raises a preemptive Series B from Lachy Groom
Moxie helps nurses open medspas by providing them with most of the tools they need to run their businesses, from billing software and marketing services to discounted supplies. The startup has raised a $10 million Series B led by existing investor Lachy Groom, a solo VC, with participation from SignalFire. The round comes only a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Just 4 days left to save up to $600 on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 passes
Time is running out to grab savings of up to $600 on individual tickets for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024! This limited-time offer ends on September 27 at 11:59 p.m. PT, so now’s your last opportunity to score a great deal before the final countdown begins. Disrupt 2024 is the ultimate gathering for the startup world. From […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Data platform Airbyte can now create API connectors by reading the docs
If your startup is only remotely related to working with data pipelines, you’re probably trying to figure out how to capitalize on the current moment: Enterprises are trying to figure out how to best use data to power generative AI products, and to do that, they need robust data services. Airbyte, which launched in 2020, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tech YouTuber MKBHD’s Panels app is a bit underwhelming
Tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, or MKBHD, is stepping out of the reviewer role and into the mindset of a builder. This week, he launched a wallpaper app called Panels on iOS and Android, where he’s personally curating high-quality digital wallpapers from artists — but of course, there’s a catch. In order to access high-resolution wallpapers […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As the open social web movement grows, a new nonprofit launches to expand the ‘fediverse’
A new project launching today aims to capitalize on the momentum now being seen within the fediverse — also known as the open social web, which describes a network of interconnected social networking services powered by the ActivityPub protocol. Co-founded by the co-author and current editor of ActivityPub, Evan Prodromou, a new nonprofit organization called […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A startup from ex-Revolut employees uses AI to automate accounts — but hopes to keep accountants in jobs
Often successful startups can give rise to ‘startup mafias’ – groups of former founders who go on to create other startups. But at least as often, new startups can be founded by employees. In the case of LiveFlow, that’s exactly what happened — and it’s now raised $13.5 million. A few years ago, Anita Koimur […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft claims its new tool can correct AI hallucinations, but experts advise caution
Microsoft today revealed Correction, a service that attempts to automatically revise AI-generated text that's factually wrong. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Workera’s CEO was mentored by Andrew Ng. Now he wants an AI agent to mentor you
Kian Katanforoosh has one of the best mentors in the AI world: renowned researcher Andrew Ng, who also served as his graduate school advisor at Stanford. The two went on to create Stanford’s deep learning program, and now, Ng serves as Chairman of Katanforoosh’s startup, Workera. Ng has been a meaningful guide in Katanforoosh’s career, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sequoia’s first space investment since SpaceX is in sunlight-seller Reflect Orbital
Imagine a future where the diurnal cycle, at least in some parts of the world, is adjustable. Where humans are no longer beholden to the 24-hour pattern of daylight and darkness. Instead of being constrained by the physical reality which constrains the sun to its daily cycle, imagine a future where the sun can be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok comes for Google’s ad business as it starts letting advertisers target its search results page
After building out its Search product over the past few years to take on Google, TikTok is now taking its Search ambitions even further by allowing advertisers to target its search results page. TikTok announced on Tuesday that it’s launching the “TikTok Search Ads Campaign,” a new keyword-based search solution that enables brands to appear […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify’s AI playlist feature rolls out to the U.S. and more markets
Spotify has expanded the availability of its AI Playlist tool to the U.S., Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand after initially launching it for Premium subscribers in the U.K. and Australia. This feature, currently in beta on Android and iOS devices, allows users to create personalized playlists based on written prompts. For instance, users can enter […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snapchat taps Google’s Gemini to power its chatbot’s generative AI features
Snap has entered into an expanded partnership with Google Cloud to power generative AI experiences within Snapchat’s My AI chatbot. The chatbot will leverage the multimodal capabilities of Gemini AI to enable the chatbot to understand different types of information like text, audio, images, and videos. Gemini is powering the Google Lens-like features that Snapchat […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MoneyGram blames ‘cybersecurity issue’ for ongoing days-long outage
The world's second largest money transfer provider said it doesn't have a timeline for when its services will return following a cyberattack. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Vista Equity Partners and Blackstone offer to buy Smartsheet for $8.4B in cash
Vista Equity Partners and Blackstone have agreed to acquire Smartsheet, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) workplace collaboration and management platform, for $8.4 billion in cash. The companies say that the deal values Smartsheet’s shares at a 41% premium over its 90-day average share price. Should regulators and shareholders approve it, shareholders would receive $56.50 per share in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fintech Mesa promises 1% cash back on mortgages, up to 3x on other home needs
Mortgage fintech Mesa has emerged from stealth on Tuesday with $9.2 million in seed capital and a novel idea for homeowners. It’s offering cash back and rewards on all spending done on the home, including the mortgage itself. Mesa is offering mortgage loans, original or refinancing, that include a credit-card-style 1% cash back on the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Insta360’s excellent Link webcam gets a pair of successors
Insta360 is announcing two additions to its Link webcam line: the Link 2 and Link 2C. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Torq, which automates cybersecurity workflows, raises $70M in new capital
As the volume of cyberattacks grows, there’s increasing interest from the corporate sector in tech to help automate responses to breaches. Per a 2023 survey from analytics firm Devo, 80% of security leaders expected expanded investments in security automation technology this year; most cited the tech’s potential to support cyber threat mitigation. Projections say that the market […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ByteDance is shutting down TikTok Music globally
ByteDance is shuttering its music streaming service TikTok Music worldwide in November, according to its website. “We are sorry to inform you that TikTok Music will be closing on 28 November 2024,” the notice on the site read. The Spotify and Apple Music competitor was available in Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, and Mexico. ByteDance didn’t […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pinterest launches a feature to let users remix collages created by others
Pinterest created an engaging format with collages last year, which allows users to combine images and cutouts to create new content. The company is now banking on people creating more of them by introducing a Remix feature. Just like the Remix feature on short video apps, such as Instagram and Snap, the idea behind Pinterest’s feature is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WP Engine sends cease-and-desist letter to Automattic over Mullenweg’s comments
Mullenweg, who co-created WordPress, last week criticized WP Engine for raking in profits without giving much back to the open source project. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GitHub will allow enterprise cloud customers to store data in the EU
Starting from October 29, GitHub says that all enterprise cloud customers will be able to select an EU region to store all their code. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fintech Jupiter in talks to buy a stake in SBM Bank India
Neobank Jupiter is in talks to acquire a stake in SBM India, three sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch, the latest example of an Indian fintech startup pursuing strategic partnerships with traditional banking institutions. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup — backed by Tiger Global and NuBank — is engaging to buy a 5% to 9.9% stake […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Crypto scammers hack OpenAI’s press account on X
OpenAI’s official press account on X was compromised by cryptocurrency scammers.Or, at least that’s what appears to have happened.Late Monday afternoon, OpenAI Newsroom, an account OpenAI recently launched to spotlight product- and policy-related announcements, tweeted about an “$OPENAI” cryptocurrency token that “[bridges] the gap between AI and blockchain technology.” “All OpenAI users are […]
Venture capitalists continue to play musical chairs
From Keith Rabois to Ethan Kurzweil, a lot of VCs have switched firms or spun out of storied VC institutions to launch their own funds this year. These employment changes are surprising because unlike in many other fields, venture capitalists don’t traditionally move around very much — especially those who reach the partner or general […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Venture capitalists continue to play musical chairs
From Keith Rabois to Ethan Kurzweil, a lot of VCs have switched firms or spun out of storied VC institutions to launch their own funds this year. These employment changes are surprising because unlike in many other fields, venture capitalists don’t traditionally move around very much — especially those who reach the partner or general […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Space: SpaceX calls out ‘systematic challenges’ with FAA
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. I wanted to flag once again that the final agenda for the Space Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt is now live. I’ll be pushing this event for the next few weeks, given that we’re just a bit over a month away! We’d love for you to join us. Want […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here is what’s illegal under California’s 9 (and counting) new AI laws
California Governor Gavin Newsom is currently considering 38 AI-related bills, including the highly contentious SB 1047, which the state’s legislature sent to his desk for final approval. These bills try to address the most pressing issues in artificial intelligence: everything from futuristic AI systems creating existential risk, deepfake nudes from AI image generators, to Hollywood […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sam Altman catapults past founder mode into ‘god mode’ with latest AI post
Founder mode? Pffft. Who needs that when you can be the father of creation, ushering in a new age of humanity? Welcome to “god mode.” Sam Altman, the CEO of the AI startup headed for a $150B valuation, OpenAI, has historically pitched AI as the solution to the world’s problems, despite its significant impact on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How Big Tech embraced nuclear power
Companies are eyeing nuclear power as a way to reconcile their breakneck data center growth with their commitments to hit net zero carbon emissions. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X will soon make your public posts visible to accounts you’ve blocked
X will soon change the functionality behind its block button so that if you block an account, they will still be able to see your public posts, according to changes to X’s website spotted by independent app researcher, Nima Owji. Elon Musk confirmed these changes on Monday, noting that blocked accounts will still not be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Some Kaspersky customers receive surprise forced-update to new antivirus software
After U.S. ban, Kaspersky's American customers were automatically migrated to UltraAV antivirus, in some cases without the customers' knowledge. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla Superchargers: GM, Ford, Rivian and other EV brands with access
EV owners of GM vehicles like the Chevrolet Silverado EV and Cadillac Lyriq will now officially have access to Tesla’s Superchargers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rivian reveals first $10M in grants for long-promised Rivian Foundation
Rivian has revealed the first $10 million worth of grants from the Rivian Foundation, just three years after promising to make the “natural world” a “stakeholder in our success.” The company launched a website for the foundation on Monday that details 41 grantees who will collectively receive just north of $10 million in funding. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ephos wants to shatter the market for AI and quantum chips with a new design based on glass
A theoretical physicist believes he has made a breakthrough in photonics research that will enable us to have faster and better processors — a major need in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and other tech with heavy workloads. Now, his startup has received early backing from NATO, the European government, and other key investors to produce […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rabbit’s web-based ‘large action model’ agent arrives on r1 as early as this week
The Rabbit r1 was the must-have gadget of early 2024, but the blush fell off it pretty quick when the company’s expansive promises failed to materialize. CEO Jesse Lyu admits that “on day one, we set our expectations too high” — but that an update coming to its devices this month will finally set their […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Boston Dynamics’ Spot can now autonomously unlock doors
The “embedded digital access credentials” work over Bluetooth. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Letta, one of UC Berkeley’s most anticipated AI startups, has just come out of stealth
AI memory management startup Letta just emerged from stealth with $10 million in seed led by Felicis and a bunch of big-name angels. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
First TikTok, now smart cars: How Biden’s new proposed ban will affect U.S. automakers
The White House issued a long-anticipated proposal Monday that would ban Chinese smart cars because internet-connected vehicles pose a national security risk. The proposal, made amid an escalating trade war, could affect U.S. automakers and suppliers that rely on certain hardware to enable connected vehicle systems. “This is both strategic political theater designed to head […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta Connect 2024: How to watch the metaverse and generative AI event
Meta Connect starts Wednesday at 10 a.m. PT and is set to focus on Meta's XR platforms, the metaverse, and its generative AI platform, Llama. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 Side Events schedule: Women in Tech, SignalFire, Llama Lounge, and more to host
With TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 right around the corner, we’re thrilled to introduce the companies hosting Side Events that will extend the buzz and excitement to the thousands of attendees and Silicon Valley locals alike. Whether it’s a fun happy hour, insightful panels, or energizing morning runs, Disrupt Week — happening from October 26 to November […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google TV receives a major update ahead of the launch of its new streaming box
Ahead of the launch of Google TV Streamer, the company’s new set-top streaming box, the tech giant is also bringing new updates to all Google TV devices. This includes a home panel that can control smart home devices, AI-powered screensavers, a new sports page, and more. The company announced on Monday a host of new […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zin Boats’ bigger, faster electric leisure craft is built from the hull up with PNW pride
After taking on water during the pandemic, Zin Boats is back with a bigger, better electric watercraft that it has built from the hull up — again. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Consumer, culture, and creators with Erin and Sara Foster at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Two of the industry’s most famous sisters, Erin and Sara Foster, sit down alongside business partner Phil Schwarz at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 to talk about consumer investing, culture curation, and what it means to be a creator in the modern age. Moderated on the Disrupt main stage, the conversation will surround the creator economy, consumer […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
5 days left to grab rebooted ticket prices for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
The countdown to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is on, and so are rebooted ticket prices! Save up to $600 on individual ticket types before September 27. Take advantage of these huge last-minute discounts while you still can. Disrupt 2024 is where the startup ecosystem converges. Taking place at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok launches expanded subscriptions feature for creators
TikTok announced on Monday that its redesigned “Subscription” monetization offering is rolling out to eligible creators in select regions, including Brazil, France, Germany, Spain, the U.K., Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and the U.S. The company says it plans to expand the feature to more markets in the coming weeks. The official rollout comes as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pyka fields interest from defense as $40M round goes to scaling up its electric autonomous planes
Though it briefly worked on a passenger plane, the company decided after raising some money in 2022 that a cargo variant of the Pelican was more practical in the short term. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
All Iron Ventures rebrands as Acurio Ventures with a new €150M ‘follow-on’ fund
The new fund has already made around 20 investments, and it will operate with a generalist thesis, investing across the whole of Europe © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cloudflare’s new marketplace will let websites charge AI bots for scraping
Cloudflare announced plans on Monday to launch a marketplace in the next year where website owners can sell AI model providers access to scrape their site’s content. The marketplace is the final step of Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince’s larger plan to give publishers greater control over how and when AI bots scrape their websites. “If […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cloudflare’s new marketplace lets websites charge AI bots for scraping
Cloudflare announced plans on Monday to launch a marketplace in the next year where website owners can sell AI model providers access to scrape their site’s content. The marketplace is the final step of Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince’s larger plan to give publishers greater control over how and when AI bots scrape their websites. “If […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Thor and Harbinger Motors’ new hybrid RV will let you spend more time at the campsite
Legacy automakers are experiencing a sort of existential crisis as they grapple with whether to stick to plans to go all-electric or hedge with hybrids. This sudden appetite for options across the industry is creating opportunity for EV startups like Los Angeles’ Harbinger Motors, which announced Monday that it has developed its first hybrid powertrain […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The new Reeder app is built for RSS, YouTube, Reddit, Mastodon and more
For the longest time, RSS readers have followed an “Inbox Zero” design philosophy by showing an unread count against each source. If you have more than a dozen feeds plugged into your RSS reader, good luck getting that to zero. Silvio Rizzi, the developer who built the popular RSS app Reeder, wants to cater to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Kestra raises another $8M for its open-source orchestration platform
Data orchestration platform Kestra just raised an $8 million funding round led by Alven, with existing investors Isai and Axeleo participating once again. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
David Energy is going up against Goliath energy incumbents
James McGinniss has been obsessed with decarbonization and the energy grid since he was a high schooler over a decade ago. Now, his startup David Energy has a lofty goal: getting the energy grid to run entirely on clean energy in the next 10 years. Brooklyn-based David Energy is a software-enabled retail energy provider. It […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Jump raises $12M to help freelancers get benefits just like employees
Jump offers full-time contracts to freelancers looking for some stability and the benefits involved with a full-time job. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son has been planning his comeback
A new Financial Times profile of Mayayoshi Son opens with SoftBank CEO seeming to hit bottom, staring at his “ugly” face on Zoom and telling himself, “I have done nothing I can be proud of.” The scene is presented as the prelude to a hoped-for a comeback, with Son largely disappearing from the public eye […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Matt Mullenweg calls WP Engine a ‘cancer to WordPress’ and urges community to switch providers
Automattic CEO and WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg unleashed a scathing attack on a rival firm this week, calling WP Engine a “cancer to WordPress.” Mullenweg criticized the company — which has been commercializing the open source WordPress project since 2010 — for profiteering without giving much back, while also disabling key features that make WordPress […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Synex founder, once detained at the border with a 80-pound magnet, is building portable MRIs to test glucose
Synex Medical just raised $28.1 million to build a portable MRI capable of testing glucose and other important molecules without the need to extract blood. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Yup, Jony Ive is working on an AI device startup with OpenAI
Jony Ive, the legendary designer who left his full-time role at Apple five years ago, is working on a new startup with OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman. The collaboration was first reported last year, and Ive confirmed it in a New York Times profile about what he’s been up to since leaving Apple. If […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pedego’s Cargo e-bike: Sporty, stylish and powerful for $4,000
The Pedego’s Cargo e-bike is marketed as a powerful and sporty ride that’s geared towards parents toting kids around town and anyone who needs to schlep heavy gear. I spent the summer testing out this cargo e-bike to find out if it met that mission. My take: It’s a stylish ride that can hold plenty […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ibotta’s CEO explains why startups shouldn’t try to time the IPO market
The IPO market has not roared back in 2024 as many investors hoped it would — not yet, at least. Elevated interest rates (this week’s 50 bps rate cut notwithstanding) and uncertainty related to the U.S. election have prompted many companies to stay private and wait for better market conditions. But a handful of companies […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A guide to iOS 18’s hidden features and smaller updates
We put together a list of some of our favorite under-the-radar features that you might have missed. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Linus Torvalds explains why aging Linux developers are a good thing
Linux's luminary linchpin, Linus Torvalds, says that despite longstanding reports of burnout in the open source software development realm, Linux is as strong as ever. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The TechCrunch Cyber Glossary
This glossary includes some of the most common terms and expressions we use in our articles, and explanations of how — and why — we use them. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Some startups are going ‘fair source’ to avoid the pitfalls of open source licensing
The fair source concept is designed to help companies align themselves with the "open" software development sphere, without encroaching into existing licensing landscapes. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announces $120M fund for global AI education
Speaking Saturday at the UN Summit of the Future, Google CEO Sundar Pichai described AI as “the most transformative technology yet” and announced a new fund for AI education and training around the world. Pichai pointed to four broad opportunities he sees for AI and sustainable development, according to a transcript of his prepared remarks […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X reverses course in Brazil
It seems that Elon Musk-owned social network X (formerly Twitter) is backing down from a confrontation with Brazil’s Supreme Court. The New York Times reported on a new court filing in which the company’s lawyers said X had complied with the court’s orders — removing designated accounts, paying fines, and naming a new formal representative […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon says no to remote work
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is calling for a full return to office at the start of 2025. For the last 15 months, employees have been expected to work in the office three days per week. Now employees will be expected to be in the office five days a week, with work from home being OK […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Qualcomm may be trying to buy Intel
Chipmaker Qualcomm is trying to buy rival Intel, according to multiple reports. The Wall Street Journal broke the news late Friday that Qualcomm had approached Intel about a takeover. The New York Times subsequently corroborated the story, while adding that no official offer has been made. Even if there is an offer, it’s not clear […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s Oyo acquires Motel 6 for $525M
One of India’s largest startups, budget hotel company Oyo, has reached a deal to acquire G6 Hospitality, which operates Motel 6. Oyo says it will pay Blackstone Real Estate $525 million in an all-cash transaction. The acquisition also includes the Studio 6 extended stay brand and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Electric outboard startup Pure Watercraft is selling itself for parts
A tough market seems to have put an end to Pure's ambitions. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Moksha, the gamified meditation device, makes breath work exercises more engaging
Moksha’s meditation tool aims to kick traditional breath work exercises to the curb. As most breathing tools on the market are designed to do, Moksha aims to help train you to breathe longer and deeper, which studies have shown naturally calm you down, relax your muscles, slow your heart rate, and stabilize your blood pressure. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla Superchargers: All the EV brands that have access
EV owners of GM vehicles like the Chevrolet Silverado EV and Cadillac Lyriq will now officially have access to Tesla’s Superchargers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Shelf is a social network based on the media you consume
Shelf lets you show what you listen to, play, read and watch online through your dedicated digital storefront. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The EU’s 10 biggest antitrust actions on tech
While it's fair to say the EU's antitrust tech enforcement outcomes have varied, one lasting legacy is that some of these major cases served as inspiration for the bloc's Digital Markets Act. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk threatened with SEC sanctions for failing to appear in court
Elon Musk, the CEO of X and various other companies with the letter “X” in their names, is in regulators’ crosshairs after skipping testimony this month in an investigation related to Musk’s takeover of Twitter. In a filing today, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said that it intended to seek sanctions against Musk […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Adam Neumann’s startup Flow opens co-living community in Saudi Arabia
Flow, Adam Neumann’s co-living startup, opened a compound with 238 apartments in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, and Forbes has some details. The opening included an Aztec-themed hot chocolate ceremony and tote bags with the words “holy s— I’m alive” on them. The rent for the furnished units starts at $3,500 a month and includes hotel-style […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Musk dodged Brazil’s X ban by ‘coincidence,’ says Cloudflare CEO
X went back online in Brazil earlier this week, three weeks after Elon Musk’s platform was blocked under orders from Brazil’s Supreme Court. That prompted Brazil’s top court to fine X Corp. nearly $1 million for every day the platform remained accessible in the country. However, Cloudflare’s CEO Matthew Prince tells TechCrunch that X going […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cards Against Humanity sues Elon Musk’s SpaceX for trespassing
Cards Against Humanity is suing Elon Musk’s space exploration company, SpaceX, for $15 million after it allegedly dumped construction equipment all over the game company’s private land in Texas. An email, posted on Threads, went out to around 150,000 Cards Against Humanity Saves America donors. Those donors contributed $15 seven years ago to help the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Grok’s image generator, Black Forest Labs, is raising $100M at a $1B valuation, say sources
Black Forest Labs, an image GenAI startup that only came out of stealth two months ago, has closed a a monster new round, sources say. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Black Forest Labs, the company that powers Grok’s image generation, is raising another $100M on a $1B valuation, say sources
Black Forest Labs, an image GenAI startup that only came out of stealth two months ago, has closed a a monster new round, sources say. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here are the hottest product announcements from Apple, Google, Microsoft and others so far in 2024
We’ve poked through the many product announcements made by the biggest tech companies and product trade shows of the year, so far, and compiled them into this list. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple breaks down iPhone 16 repair process
Apple published step-by-step instructions for swapping out the new handset’s battery. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The 25 battery tech startups that just got a piece of $3B in federal funds
This tranche of funding went to startups across 14 states, but there were certain winners that will see the bulk of the expected 18,000 jobs to be created as a result of this funding. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The iPhone 16 launches today, without its most hyped feature: Apple Intelligence
The iPhone 16 officially goes on sale Friday. But for its earliest adopters, it arrives with a fundamental compromise baked into the deal. Put simply, this is not the iPhone 16 that they were promised. Tim Cook said it would be “first iPhone built for Apple Intelligence.” But that “for” is key: the handsets actually […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Internet surveillance firm Sandvine says it’s leaving 56 “non-democratic” countries
Sandvine sold its internet surveillance products to authoritarian regimes, including Belarus, Egypt, Eritrea, the United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Plaud’s $169 ChatGPT-powered NotePin has a permanent place in my travel bag
The $169 Plaud NotePin is a tiny magnetic recording device. Recordings are transcribed and AI provide summaries of meetings. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
M&As and AI are in the spotlight, but there’s still capital left for quick commerce and more
This week brought reassuring signs that dealmaking is still happening on both sides of the table. New unicorns are being minted, and more capital is flowing into AI. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Intelligence: Its biggest features and when you can expect them
If you're not using the beta version of Apple Intelligence, here's when you can expect to get the new features. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube tests a new way for creators to avoid takedowns
YouTube is now testing a new feature that will let creators edit their videos to remove age restrictions and restore videos that had been impacted due to certain Community Guidelines violations. Until now, if a video received an age restriction label or was removed for breaking YouTube’s Community Guidelines, creators had to go through an […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: Amazon announces AI-powered tools for creating video ads
Businesses that sell on Amazon will have access to new generative AI tools allowing them to create video ads from a single product image. There are actually two related products that Amazon announced — live image and video generator. Both of them are being pitched as a way for sellers to easily create video ads […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After X’s ban in Brazil, Tumblr reports ~350% user growth
According to Tumblr, in the days since the X ban in Brazil, the site saw 222.99% growth in communities and 349.55% growth in users. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tumblr reports ~350% user growth following X’s ban in Brazil
According to Tumblr, in the days since the X ban in Brazil, the site saw 222.99% growth in communities and 349.55% growth in users. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Last day to Apply: Boost your brand at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Keep the energy of TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 alive and leverage your brand by hosting an after-hours Side Event. Act fast — today is your last chance to apply! Showcase your brand to 10,000 Disrupt attendees and the vibrant Bay Area tech scene during “Disrupt Week” — taking place from October 26 to November 1. From […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LinkedIn has stopped grabbing U.K. users’ data for AI
The U.K.’s data protection watchdog has confirmed that Microsoft-owned LinkedIn has stopped processing user data for AI model training for now. Steven Almond, executive director of regulatory risk for the Information Commissioner’s Office, wrote in a statement on Friday: “We are pleased that LinkedIn has reflected on the concerns we raised about its approach to training […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SignalFire, CapitalG, and Comprehensive.io coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
As the startup landscape evolves, so do hiring strategies. With Big Tech downsizing and the labor market tightening, founders must navigate a conservative job market to attract and retain top talent. The hiring landscape in 2025 will offer challenges and opportunities for those who can adapt. Founders now hold increased leverage, but respect for staff […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ticket Reboot Week: TechCrunch Disrupt 2024’s last sale has begun
We’ve rebooted regular ticket prices for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, giving you one last chance to save big before the event. Enjoy up to $600 off individual tickets until September 27. Disrupt 2024 is the ultimate startup hub, taking place at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30. Join 10,000 startup, tech, and VC leaders; […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
She sat down in the COVID Lockdown and started coding — now she’s taking on Bolt
Sitting in Athens during the first Covid-19 lockdown, entrepreneur Rania Lamprou watched as online e-commerce exploded because of social distancing. But merchants still struggled with low conversion rates because their checkout processes were complicated, and they had to integrate multiple providers for payments, shipping, and loyalty programs. “I knew there had to be a better […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft taps Three Mile Island nuclear plant to power AI
The data centers that train all the large language models behind AI consume unimaginable amounts of energy, and the stakes are high for big tech companies to ensure they have enough power to run those plants. That’s why Microsoft is now throwing its weight behind nuclear power. The tech giant on Friday signed a major […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Health insurance startup Alan reaches $4.5B valuation with new $193M funding round
Belfius is leading Alan’s Series F funding round of €173 million (around $193 million at current exchange rates). © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s Physics Wallah raises $210M at $2.8B valuation even as edtech funding remains scarce
An Indian edtech startup has secured $210 million in fresh financing amid a tough funding environment for edtech companies in the country. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
John Mulaney skewers San Francisco at Dreamforce
Attendees of the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco love being the butt of the joke. Last year, Seth Myers entertained them during a 40-minute set that poked fun at the tech industry’s liberal use of self-affirmations. “You are achieving, you are amplifying, you are accelerating,” Myers said. “‘Architect?’ I saw ‘architect’ used as a verb. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Indian filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma abandons human musicians for AI-generated music
Indian filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma is ditching human musicians for artificial intelligence, saying he’ll use only AI-generated tunes in future projects, a move that underscores AI’s growing reach in creative industries. The filmmaker and screenwriter, known for popular Bollywood movies including Company, Rangeela, Sarkar, and Satya has launched a venture, called RGV Den Music, that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here is what’s illegal under California’s 8 (and counting) new AI laws
California Governor Gavin Newsom is currently considering 38 AI-related bills, including the highly contentious SB 1047, which the state’s legislature sent to his desk for final approval. These bills try to address the most pressing issues in artificial intelligence: everything from futuristic AI systems creating existential risk, deepfake nudes from AI image generators, to Hollywood […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here is what’s illegal under California’s 8 (and counting) new AI laws
California Governor Gavin Newsom is currently considering 38 AI-related bills, including the highly contentious SB 1047, which the state’s legislature sent to his desk for final approval. These bills try to address the most pressing issues in artificial intelligence: everything from futuristic AI systems creating existential risk, deepfake nudes from AI image generators, to Hollywood […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gaming Lyft’s Citi Bike algos was a lucrative side hustle for a while
A New York Times article Thursday highlighted a lucrative side hustle that is emblematic of the times we live in: gaming algorithms to earn money. In this case, folks figured out they could maximize the payout from Lyft’s Citibike “bike angels” program by taking advantage of a company algorithm used to meet its supply-and-demand needs. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Chipmaker Qualcomm lays off hundreds of workers in San Diego
This is the chipmaker's second round of layoffs over the past year, while the company recorded billions in revenue. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX disputes $633K FAA fine, citing “systematic challenges” with agency
SpaceX sent a letter to top Congressional leaders on Wednesday denying allegations that it violated its launch licenses on two separate occasions last year, which has resulted in regulators seeking $633,009 in penalties from the company. Instead, the company asserts that the inability of the Federal Aviation Authority’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s reposts of Kamala Harris deepfakes may not fly under new California law
California’s newest law could land social media users who post, or repost, AI deepfakes that deceive voters about upcoming elections in legal trouble. Governor Gavin Newsom suggests that AB 2839, which went into effect immediately after he signed it on Tuesday, could be used to reel in Elon Musk’s retweets, among others who spread deceptive […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MIT develops recyclable 3D printed glass blocks for construction
The team points to glass’ optical properties and its “infinite recyclability” as reasons for turning to the material. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FTC report on predatory social media data hoarding hints at future regulations
A new FTC report on how social media and streaming sites collect and monetize their hoards of user data doesn’t really feature a lot of surprises for anyone who’s followed the space. It’s more helpful to consider this part of a paper trail the agency is laying down in order to justify new regulations in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This robotic knee exoskeleton is made from consumer braces and drone motors
Test subjects were required to move a 30-pound kettlebell up and down a flight of stairs. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple, Google wallets now support California driver’s licenses
California residents can now store their driver’s license or state ID in their Apple Wallet apps, the state’s government announced on Thursday. California started allowing digital IDs through Google Wallet just last month. Californians with an ID in the Apple Wallet or Google Wallet app can use their mobile devices to present their ID in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Virtuous, a fundraising CRM for nonprofits, raises $100M from Susquehanna Growth Equity
I recently adopted a kitten from a local animal shelter. The modern, well-staffed three-story facility relies almost entirely on donations to operate. It’s just one of the 1.8 million nonprofits in the U.S. that need to continually solicit contributions from donors to maintain its services. But Virtuous founder and CEO Gabe Cooper says that many […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
No, the FAA isn’t fining SpaceX because of Elon Musk’s politics, former FAA head says
Elon Musk is suing the FAA over fines he claims are "politically-motivated." The former head of the FAA disagrees. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Intelligence is now live in public beta. Here’s what it offers and how to enable it.
Starting Thursday, those who are enrolled in Apple’s public beta program will be able to experience the generative AI-fueled platform the company has been talking up since June. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A leadership shake-up at Motional, inside the fight over TuSimple’s cash, and Fisker waffles on recall repairs
This week's Mobility newsletter looks at a leadership shakeup at Motional, and we go inside the fight over TuSimple's cash and much more. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cruise robotaxis return to the Bay Area nearly one year after pedestrian crash
Cruise is returning to the streets of Sunnyvale and Mountain View for the first time since it paused operations in the Bay Area after a robotaxi struck a pedestrian in October 2023. The company said Thursday that it will put “several” vehicles driven by humans in the two cities that will initially perform mapping. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
For $5, Photon Library brings back the feel of the old iOS Photos app
The company said it was inspired to create an alternative Photos app after seeing how frustrated iOS 18 early adopters were with Apple's new design. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple’s new macOS Sequoia update is breaking some cybersecurity tools
On Monday, Apple released its latest computer operating system update called macOS 15, or Sequoia. And, somehow, the software update has broken the functionality of several security tools made by CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Microsoft, and others, according to posts on social media, as well as messages posted in a Mac-focused Slack channel. At this point, it’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple’s new macOS Sequoia update breaks cybersecurity tools, experts say
On Monday, Apple released its latest computer operating system update called macOS 15, or Sequoia. And, somehow, the software update has broken the functionality of several security tools made by CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Microsoft, and others, according to posts on social media, as well as messages posted in a Mac-focused Slack channel. At this point, it’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google rolls out automatic passkey syncing via Password Manager
Passkeys, the digital credentials that let you sign into apps and websites without entering a password, are getting easier to use for Chrome users. Starting today, you can save passkeys to Google’s password manager, Google Password Manager, built into Chrome on Windows, macOS, and Linux so that your passkeys automatically sync across all your signed-in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: United will use SpaceX’s Starlink to bring free Wi-Fi to flights
United Airlines announced last week that it came to an agreement with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring the Starlink internet service to its entire fleet. That’s a huge partnership for both parties, and as this rollout takes place, anyone who flies United will be able to access free Wi-Fi on their flight. Right now, United […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Quilt, Furno Materials, and RA Capital Management share the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Launching a new product is challenging, but doing it in a space dominated by tech giants requires bold innovation, sharp strategy, and the ability to scale quickly. TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 — taking place at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30 — brings together three experts who are doing just that, while simultaneously addressing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Back Market lays out its plan to make refurbished phones go mainstream
Back Market held a press conference on Thursday morning in Paris to talk about upcoming product launches and give an update on the company’s current situation. If you’re not familiar with the French startup it operates a marketplace of refurbished electronics devices — mostly smartphones. It’s attracted a lot of investor cash in recent years […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Upchieve, an online tutor app for low-income students, launches a free tool for teachers
Upchieve, the free, 24/7 online tutoring and college counseling app for low-income students, announced Thursday it’s giving teachers in Title 1 middle schools and high schools a new tool to ensure their students get the academic support they need. The new offering, called “Upchieve for Teachers,” allows teachers to offer 1:1 support to their students. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Dcode Capital, Albedo, and Biofire are coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
In a world where innovation knows no borders, a new trend is rising in the tech ecosystem: national-interest startups. From aerospace and defense to critical infrastructure, these firms are ensuring that innovation directly supports national growth, security, and prosperity. As we approach an inflection point in Silicon Valley’s evolution, the question arises: Can startups rebuild […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Announcing our next wave of Startup Battlefield judges at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Startup Battlefield 200 is a major highlight at every Disrupt, and we’re thrilled to find out which of the thousands of startup applicants will get the chance to pitch to top-tier VCs at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Join us at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28–30 to witness the epic showdown where every contender […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon releases a video generator — but only for ads
Like its rival, Google, Amazon has launched an AI-powered video generator — but it’s only for advertisers at the moment, and somewhat limited in what it can do. Today at its Accelerate conference, Amazon unveiled Video generator, which turns a single product image into a few-seconds-long video clip after a few minutes of processing. In […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tidal Metals sees seawater as the solution to a critical mineral shortage
The startup, previously known as GreenBlu, was working on desalination when it realized there was more value in the minerals that were left behind. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon debuts an AI assistant for sellers, Project Amelia
Amazon sellers now have access to an AI assistant designed to help them grow their business by answering questions about their metrics, and later, may be able to help them directly resolve issues that arise. The assistant, code-named Project Amelia and built on AWS’s Amazon Bedrock, will initially be available in beta to U.S. sellers, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zeno emerges from stealth to crib Tesla’s master plan for Africa and beyond
The startup has been methodically exploring how batteries might transform life in emerging markets © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI notetaker Fathom raises $17M
In many meetings today, it sometimes feels like there are more AI notetaking and transcription bots than people. There are seemingly dozens of options to choose from these days, but one I’ve seen with increasing regularity is Fathom. The company was one of the earlier players when it launched in 2020. Fathom then raised a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Harbor is building a better baby monitor and an army of night nannies
Like most good startup stories, Harbor began life as a product of disappointment. Kevin Lavelle, the co-founder and CEO of innovative clothing company Mizzen and Main, couldn’t find a baby monitor to suit his needs. He and his wife, Jen, had homed in on Nanit, a popular product renowned for its AI smarts and and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Kiwibot acquires an ad startup to turn its delivery robots into mobile billboards
There’s ample opportunity in the form of a mobile billboard. Kiwibot is so convinced of this fact that it plunked down $25 million to purchase Nickelytics. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Karman Industries hopes its SpaceX-inspired heat pumps will replace industrial boilers
The startup will use turbomachinery to develop a heat pump capable of generating industrial-grade heat. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EU to tell Apple how to do interoperability, DMA style
The European Union has opened two “specification proceedings” on Apple under the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) that will see it instructing the iPhone maker on how to comply with certain interoperability provisions in the market fairness regulation. If Apple fails to meet the Commission’s requirements it could risk fines of up to 10% of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This founder grew up in wine country — nows he’s built a platform for wine makers
Growing up in the Hunter Valley, a region of Australia renowned for its fine wine production, Mitchel Fowler never realized he might one day come up with an idea that may revolutionize the wine industry. But after a long career in finance, he’s returned to that heritage to launch a platform that could solve the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Picus Security, founded by Turkish 3 mathematicians, raises $45M after simulating 1B cyberattacks
For as long as coding has existed, we have had a plethora of methods — white-hat testers, software, and more — to validate that code works as it was intended. These days, all that has been kicked into high gear: the growing sophistication of security breaches has turned the process of software verification into a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Brightband sees a bright (and open-source) future for AI-powered weather forecasting
With an explosion of weather and climate data that the last generation of tools can’t handle, is AI the future of forecasting? Research certainly suggests so, and a newly funded startup called Brightband is taking a shot at turning machine learning forecast models into both a business and open source standard. Today’s weather prediction and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI governance can’t be left to the vested interests
A final report by the UN’s high level advisory body on artificial intelligence makes for, at times, a surreal read. Named ‘Governing AI for Humanity’, the document underlines the contradictory challenges of making any kind of governance stick on such a fast developing, massively invested and heavily hyped technology. On the one hand, the report […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Phlair’s carbon sucking technology could lower direct air capture’s costs
The startup is taking a different approach to removing carbon dioxide from the air than most of its competitors. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India weighs easing market share limits for UPI payment operators
The governing body overseeing India's popular UPI payments rail is considering increasing its proposed market share cap for operators like Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Palmer Luckey back in the headset biz, as Anduril partners with Microsoft on U.S. military system
Palmer Luckey, the Hawaiian-shirt wearing founder who sold Oculus VR for $2 billion before co-founding the military tech company Anduril, is back in the headset business. Anduril has teamed up with Microsoft to embed its software into the Integrated Visual Augmentation System headset developed by Microsoft for the U.S. military in 2021. According to Wired, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CEO of self-driving startup Motional is stepping down
Motional, the autonomous vehicle startup backed by Hyundai, is shaking up its leadership ranks. Karl Iagnemma, an early pioneer in the autonomous vehicle industry whose startup Nutonomy lies at the foundation of Motional, is stepping down as president and CEO. Iagnemma will move over to a senior strategy advisor role, while CTO Laura Major will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Craig Newmark pledges $100M to fight hacking by foreign governments
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark plans to donate $100 million to further strengthen U.S. cybersecurity, addressing what he sees as a growing threat from foreign governments, he tells the WSJ. Half the funds will focus on protecting power grids and other infrastructure from cyberattacks; half will be earmarked to educate people about so-called cybersecurity hygiene. Newmark, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky addresses trust and safety concerns around abuse, spam, and more
The company is in various stages of developing and piloting a range of initiatives focused on dealing with bad actors, harassment, spam, fake accounts, video safety, and more. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fal.ai, which hosts media-generating AI models, raises $23M from a16z and others
Fal.ai, a dev-focused platform for AI-generated audio, video, and images, today revealed that it’s raised $23 million in funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Black Forest Labs co-founder Robin Rombach, and Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas. It’s a two-round deal. $14 million of Fal’s total came from a Series A tranche led by Kindred Ventures. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bill requiring AM radio in new cars gets closer to law
A House committee overwhelmingly voted to approve a bill that would require new cars to be built with AM radio at no additional cost to the owner. The AM for Every Vehicle Act will now head to the House floor for final approval. If successful, it’ll go to the president’s desk to be signed into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
HTC takes on Apple’s Vision Pro and PC Gaming with $1,000 Vive Focus Vision
The Vive Focus Vision has enough firepower under the hood to appeal to PC gamers tethered via the DisplayPort. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fisker reverses course on making Ocean owners pay for recall repairs
The reversal comes as EV startup Fisker prepares to enter the fourth month of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Three new ways to personalize your iPhone’s Home Screen in iOS 18
iOS 18 offers the most control over the look and feel of your iPhone's user interface than any other version of Apple's mobile operating system to date. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LinkedIn scraped user data for training before updating its terms of service
LinkedIn may have trained AI models on user data without updating its terms. LinkedIn users in the US — but not the EU, EEA, or Switzerland, likely due to those regions’ data privacy rules — have an opt-out toggle in their settings screen disclosing that LinkedIn scrapes personal data to train “content creation AI models.” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: Why OpenAI’s o1 changes the AI regulation game
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. It’s been just a few days since OpenAI revealed its latest flagship generative model, o1, to the world. Marketed as a “reasoning” model, o1 essentially takes longer to “think” about questions before answering them, breaking down […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
U.S. government ‘took control’ of a botnet run by Chinese government hackers, says FBI director
The FBI, NSA and other U.S. government agencies detailed a Chinese-government operation that used 260,000 of internet-connected devices to launch cyberattacks. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Luminate’s hair-saving chemo helmet nears release, as new funding goes toward home cancer care
The pitch sounds a bit sci-fi: a helmet called Lily that people undergoing chemotherapy wear to prevent the hair loss, which is a common side effect of the treatment. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: Everything you need to know about iOS 18
It’s time to upgrade your iPhone to iOS 18. We know – updating your phone is annoying, and sometimes those software downloads can take a weirdly long time. But if you like customization and fun perks like iMessage text effects, it’s worth the upgrade. And if you’re often texting friends and family who use Androids, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube launches Communities, a Discord-like space for creators and fans to interact with each other
At its Made on YouTube event on Wednesday, the company announced a new dedicated space for creators to interact with their fans and viewers. The space, called “Communities,” is kind of like a Discord server built into a creator’s channel. With Communities, YouTube is hoping creators won’t need to use other platforms like Discord or […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon adds PayPal as a payment option to Buy with Prime
Amazon’s Buy with Prime program, which lets shoppers with a Prime membership purchase items from third-party stores and check out using their Amazon account, is getting a new payment option: PayPal. Today, Amazon announced that Prime customers can use PayPal to check out on websites that’ve integrated the Buy with Prime API. The company also […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Edera is building a better Kubernetes and AI security solution from the ground up
Edera, a startup looking to simplify and improve how Kubernetes containers and AI workloads are secured by offering a new hypervisor, today announced that it has raised a $5 million seed funding round led by 645 Ventures and Eniac Ventures. Kubernetes is now 10 years old, but Edera founders Ariadne Conill (distinguished engineer), Emily Long […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube unveils ‘Hype,” a new way for fans to help smaller creators grow their reach
YouTube creators no longer have to rely solely on the recommendation algorithm, search results, or collabs to help them grow their audience. At the company’s Made on YouTube event on Wednesday, YouTube announced a new feature that will allow a creator’s existing viewers to help “hype” a video with a click of a button, allowing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Last Week: Amplify your brand by hosting a Side Event at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Extend the buzz of TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 beyond the main event by hosting an exclusive Side Event. Expose your brand to 10,000 Disrupt attendees and the surrounding Bay Area tech community during “Disrupt Week” — October 26 through November 1. Whether it’s a cocktail party, happy hour, meetup, workshop, silent disco, or comedy show, create […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube Shorts to integrate Veo, Google’s AI video model
The main attraction of YouTube’s Made On event on Wednesday morning was, you guessed it, artificial intelligence. The company announced that it is integrating Google DeepMind’s AI video generation model, Veo, into YouTube Shorts, letting creators generate high-quality backgrounds as well as 6-second clips. At Google’s I/O 2024 developer conference, Veo was unveiled as a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube Studio now lets creators brainstorm video ideas with the help of AI
At its Made on YouTube event on Wednesday, the company announced that creators can now brainstorm ideas for videos with the help of AI right within YouTube Studio. YouTube will also soon start letting creators create AI-generated thumbnails and quickly respond to users with new AI-assisted comments. After beta testing the ability for creators to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Era Ventures raises $88M first fund for transforming the “built” environment
The real estate market and many real estate-focused startups were hit hard when mortgage rates skyrocketed in 2022, but that didn’t stop industry veteran Clelia Warburg Peters from leaving her role as a venture partner at Bain Capital Ventures to launch her own proptech venture firm. Peters, unlike many other specialist proptech funds, invests in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Generative AI startup Runway inks deal with a major Hollywood studio
Runway, a startup developing AI video tools, including video-generating models, has partnered with Lionsgate — the studio behind the “John Wick” and “Twilight” franchises — to train a custom video model on Lionsgate’s movie catalog.Lionsgate vice chair Michael Burns said in a statement that the studio’s “filmmakers, directors and other creative talent” will get […]For personal use only.
The 22-year-old building Roblox developer tools to make gaming more efficient
Gamebeast is a live operations tooling platform that lets developers modify games without needing to release a new version or interrupt an ongoing game. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Intelligence will support German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, and Vietnamese in 2025
Apple Wednesday announced that its generative AI offering will be available in even more languages in 2025. New additions to Apple Intelligence include English (India), English (Singapore), German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and “others” yet to be announced. The feature will launch in American English, when it arrives as part of the iOS 18.1 update. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
iPhone 16 Pro Max review: A $1,200 glimpse at a more intelligent future
The iPhone 16's headliner features are Apple Intelligence, which will be rolled out next month, and its camera system. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here’s how Apple is making iPhone 16 more repairable
The most interesting of the bunch is a new adhesive design that can be loosened by applying low voltage from a 9-volt battery. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nurture teaches kids important life skills through interactive gameplay and entertainment
Parents understand the challenge of keeping young kids engaged in online learning. Nurture is a new app designed for children aged 4 to 7 that features interactive content and games to capture their interest. The company’s mission is to equip children with critical life skills such as socializing, basic financial understanding, mindfulness, fitness, nutrition, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nurture wants to teach kids important life skills through interactive gameplay and entertainment
Parents understand the challenge of keeping young kids engaged in online learning. Nurture is a new app designed for children aged 4 to 7 that features interactive content and games to capture their interest. The company’s mission is to equip children with critical life skills such as socializing, basic financial understanding, mindfulness, fitness, nutrition, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google nets court win against EU’s $1.7B AdSense antitrust decision
Google has succeeded in overturning a $1.7 billion antitrust penalty handed down by the European Union back in March 2019. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
23andMe sees independent board directors quit en masse
23andMe, the personal genomics company, went public in early 2021 via a merger with a blank check company that valued it at $3.5 billion. Then its fortunes began to sink. Fading interest in DNA kits – 23andMe’s main product – was one driver. So was news last year that hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Governor Newsom on California AI bill SB 1047: ‘I can’t solve for everything’
California Governor Gavin Newsom said there are 38 bills on his desk that would create laws around artificial intelligence on Tuesday, but one looms larger than all of them: SB 1047, California’s bill that tries to prevent AI systems from causing catastrophes. For the first time, California’s Governor shared how he’s thinking about the controversial […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon taps veteran to lead India business as competition intensifies
Amazon has named long-time executive Samir Kumar as the new head of its India consumer business, following an abrupt leadership change in one of its key markets last month. Kumar, who has been with the e-commerce giant for 25 years, will assume the role of Country Manager for India, the company said. This appointment comes […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Al Gore roasts corporations and politicians, comparing their climate crisis promises to ‘New Year’s resolutions’
Al Gore has enjoyed a very successful career, including as a U.S. senator, U.S. Vice President, U.S. presidential nominee, and even Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2007 for “informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change.” This past May, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his lifetime of service. What […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
California’s 5 new AI laws crack down on election deepfakes and actor clones
On Tuesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed some of America’s toughest laws yet regulating the artificial intelligence sector. Three of these laws crack down on AI deepfakes that could influence elections, while two others prohibit Hollywood studios from creating an AI clone of an actor’s body or voice without their consent. “Home to the majority […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Intuitive Machines lands $4.8B NASA contract to build Earth-Moon communications infrastructure
NASA wants to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon, but right now, astronauts have to be in direct line of sight with Earth to phone home. The space agency is looking to change that with its developing Near Space Network, and it’s willing to pay potentially huge sums to private companies to help […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
JPMorgan could take over Goldman’s Apple Card business
JPMorgan Chase is in talks to take over the Apple Card business from Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street Journal reports. Goldman has issued credit for the Apple Card since its launch in 2019, but the Wall Street and Silicon Valley giants have been trying to untie their partnership since last year. In 2023, Goldman decided […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why United chose SpaceX’s Starlink to power its free Wi-Fi
Late last week, United Airlines announced that it signed an agreement with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring its Starlink internet service to its entire fleet and — for the first time — offer free Wi-Fi to all passengers. To dig a bit deeper into why United went with Starlink, what that rollout will look like […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Patreon launches features to automate away creators’ administrative workload and help them make more money
Every month, 400,000 free members upgrade to paid memberships, the company says. According to Patreon, Autopilot improved the rate of free-to-paid membership upgrades by an average of 19% in testing. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
BlackRock and Microsoft are reportedly planning a $30B AI-focused megafund
Investment powerhouse BlackRock is set to launch a massive AI-focused investment fund, exceeding $30 billion, in collaboration with Microsoft and the Abu Dhabi-backed investment outfit MGX, the FT reported today. According to the outlet, the fund — among Wall Street’s largest — will focus on creating data centers and funding energy infrastructure to support AI. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Neuralink’s ‘breakthrough device’ clearance from FDA does not mean they have cured blindness
Neuralink, the Elon Musk-owned brain-computer interface company, has received “breakthrough device” clearance from the FDA. But this does not mean they have developed a cure for blindness, whatever Musk might say. The breakthrough devices program at the FDA is a voluntary program that developers can apply to that, if granted, “offers manufacturers an opportunity to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Discord launches end-to-end encrypted voice and video chats
Discord will now offer audio and video calls that even the company won't be able to listen in on. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mozilla exits the fediverse and will shutter its Mastodon server in December
Users will be able to download their data or migrate their account to another Mastodon instance, if they choose. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mistral launches a free tier for developers to test its AI models
Mistral AI launched a new free tier to let developers fine tune and build test apps with the startup’s AI models, the company announced in a blog post Tuesday. The startup also slashed prices for developers to access its AI models through API endpoints, and added image processing to its free consumer AI chatbot, Le […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ursa Major nabs $12.5M from U.S. Navy, DoD for 3D printed rocket motors
Ursa Major, a startup that produces rocket motors through 3D printing, received a $12.5 million grant to develop new solid fuel rocket engines © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snap’s extremely large Spectacles bring impressive AR to developers at $99 a month
The Spectacles 5 are designed specifically for developers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS shuts down DeepComposer, its MIDI keyboard for AI music
AWS’ weird AI-powered keyboard experiment, DeepComposer, is no more. In a blog post today, the company announced it’s shutting down the five-year-old DeepComposer, a physical MIDI piano and AWS service that let users compose songs with the help of generative AI. “After careful consideration, we have made the decision to end support for AWS DeepComposer,” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snap’s new AI feature lets you create Snapchat Lenses by simply describing them
Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, is expanding its suite of AI tools for creators. At this year’s Snap Partner Summit in Santa Monica, Snap announced a new feature, Easy Lens, that translates plain-English descriptions into Lenses, Snap’s brand of augmented reality (AR) objects, 3D effects, characters, and transformations for photos and videos. Available in Snap’s developer […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snapchat launches video comments and tools for creators seeking brand deals
At Tuesday’s annual Snap Partner Summit, the Snapchat maker unveiled new tools for creators designed to bring its app more in line with its competitors, like TikTok and Instagram. The company also said it will make it easier for creators to connect with brands for sponsored deals and partnerships. Catching up to rivals, creators on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snap is introducing an AI video generation tool for creators
At its annual Snap Partner Summit on Tuesday, Snapchat announced that it’s introducing a new AI video generation tool for creators. The tool will allow select creators to generate AI videos from text prompts, and soon, from image prompts. Snap says the tool will be available in beta on the web starting today for a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snapchat tests ‘simple’ version of the app without Snap Map or Stories tab
Snapchat is rolling out a simplified version of the app to some users, the company announced on Tuesday during its Snap Partner Summit, as part of a test to make the disappearing photo app easier to use. “Simple Snapchat” declutters the app’s home screen, removing the Snap Map and Stories tabs, and consolidates its navigation […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snapchat’s My AI chatbot is getting new Google Lens-like features
At its annual Snap Partner Summit on Tuesday, the Snapchat maker announced a series of new AI features coming to its app. Most notably, the app’s My AI chatbot is being updated to work more like Google Lens, as it can now respond to more complex Snaps. You can now snap a picture of a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Epic Games Store — and Fortnite — now available on iPad in the EU
Just a day after third-party app stores were officially allowed on the iPad in the European Union, Epic Games announced on X that the Epic Games Store can now be installed on iPadOS. However, you need to live in a EU country and have an Apple account registered for that country in order to install […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
IBM acquires Kubernetes cost optimization startup Kubecost
IBM today announced that it has acquired Kubecost, a FinOps startup that helps teams at companies like Allianz, Audi, Rakuten and GitLab monitor and optimize their Kubernetes clusters with a focus on efficiency and, ultimately, cost. Today’s announcement follows IBM’s $4.3 billion acquisition of Apptio in 2023, another company in the FinOps space. In previous […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google will begin flagging AI-generated images in Search later this year
Google says that it plans to roll out changes to Google Search to make clearer which images in results were AI-generated — or edited by AI tools. In the next few months, Google will begin to flag AI-generated and -edited images in the “About this image” window (see below) on Search, Google Lens and Circle […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: It’s never been easier to migrate your Spotify playlists to Apple Music
A pair of friends turned founders, Thomas Magnano and Benoit Herbreteau, have created a service that can make your life a little easier if you want to migrate your music listening between streaming services. They founded their company Soundiiz in 2013, which was originally supposed to be a music search interface, but they found that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
iOS 18 lets you replace Apple’s camera app with Halide or Obscura on the lock screen: Here’s how
With iOS 18, users can replace the default camera app on the lock screen with a third-party app. Halide and Obscura — two popular camera apps designed as alternatives to Apple’s default camera app with manual controls and different image processing algorithms — have already taken advantage of that possibility and released updates with shortcuts […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SocialAI offers a Twitter-like diary where AI bots respond to your private posts
Are we at peak social media yet? It’s an interesting question to ponder after the launch of an iOS app offering a social media experience just for one (i.e. you). At a glance, SocialAI — which is billed as a pure “AI Social Network” — looks like Twitter but there’s one very big twist on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Londoners will soon see drones ferrying blood between hospitals
A joint pilot by Apian, Alphabet’s drone company Wing, and the U.K.’s NHS will see drones used to fly urgent blood samples between two hospitals in London. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Announcing the final agenda for the Fintech Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
We’re incredibly excited to announce the final agenda for our dedicated Fintech Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. It joins Space, SaaS, AI and Builders as the other industry-focused stages — all under one big roof. As the fintech industry evolves, new opportunities abound for founders, investors, and customers. Areas such as mobile banking, global payroll, digital […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SocialAI offers a Twitter-like diary where AI bots respond to your posts
Can AI help you to break your social media addiction? That’s one of the questions raised by an odd new app SocialAI, which offers its users a private social network where they can post their thoughts and receive AI-generated comments and feedback in return. Developer Michael Sayman describes the app as something more akin to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Workday acquires AI-powered document platform Evisort
Workday today announced it’s acquiring Evisort, an AI-powered contract management platform, for an undisclosed amount. In a statement, Terrance Wampler, group general manager at Workday, said that Evisort’s tech will enable Workday to add a range of AI-powered document processing tools to its existing finance and HR software. “Evisort will help us deliver on our […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cisco’s second layoff of 2024 affects thousands of employees
Cisco's executives made tens of millions in compensation, while cutting thousands of jobs in two separate rounds of layoffs. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hgen draws on lessons from Tesla and SpaceX to drive down the cost of hydrogen
The startup focuses on optimizing the entire widget, from the electrolyzer’s electrodes to the tangle of pipes and pumps that support them. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ome’s $129 smart knob lets you turn off stove burners remotely
Quick confession: I take a picture of my stove before I leave on long trips. I’ve been living with OCD my entire life, and this is one of the little lifehacks I’ve created to silence that anxiety. In this case, it’s the very real and perfectly understandable concern that I’ve left the gas on and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Arzeda is using AI to design proteins for artificial sweeteners and more
AI is increasingly being applied to protein design, the process of creating new proteins with specific, target characteristics. Protein design’s applications are myriad, but it’s a promising way of discovering drug-based treatments to combat diseases and creating new homecare, agriculture, food-based and materials products. One among the many vendors developing AI tech to design proteins, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The cybersecurity labor gap now stands at 4M+ open jobs. Intezer has raised $33M for AI tools to plug it
When it comes to talent shortages in tech, cybersecurity is one of the biggest and most urgent that needs filling. Malicious attacks are on the rise, and the techniques being used to worm into networks are also scaling up. Yet the World Economic Forum recently found that there are 4 million positions unfilled globally — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Greenlite, founded by an ex-Gopuff exec, automates construction permitting
Construction permitting often involves drafting lengthy applications, leading to unpredictable timelines for developers and businesses. There are tens of thousands of jurisdictions — each with their own different forms and application processes for building permits. Ben Allen knows a thing or two about permitting. While leading business expansion and strategy at Gopuff, Allen was charged […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Orb founders grew so frustrated dealing with billing at Asana, they built their own billing software
Billing might not be something that the average person thinks about on a regular basis. But for companies — particularly those in the business of selling software — it’s massively important. They rely on billing systems to ensure that customers pay on time and have a range of ways to pay. The trouble is, configuring […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Watch Series 10 review
In the release announcing its Watch Series 10’s availability, Apple refers to the device’s “refined” design. It’s an accurate word for the device overall. Whereas early rumors pointed to a potentially fundamental rethink for the device’s 10th edition on-par with the iPhone X, the new smartwatch prioritizes refining over redesigning. Given that roughly one in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instagram tightens restrictions on teen use, putting parents in control
Instagram is introducing Teen Accounts to automatically enroll young users into an app experience with built-in protections. The company announced that starting on Tuesday, it will start placing all current and future accounts held by a teenager into a Teen Account. Instagram is also rolling out new updates to its parental supervision feature that allows […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How Google and Yahoo’s shift to stricter email standards proved a windfall for this Armenian startup
EasyDMARC, a B2B SaaS startup out of Armenia that aims to simplify email security and authentication, said it has raised $20 million in a Series A round. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MacPaw launches its alternative iOS app store for EU in open beta
Ukraine-based Mac and iOS app developer MacPaw announced today that it is releasing its alternative mobile app store Setapp thanks to the new Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules in the EU. The company has been testing the app store under closed beta for a few months now with select users. MacPaw is now allowing all […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Flink, the quick commerce startup, raises another $150M at a valuation of just under $1B
Flink, the quick commerce startup out of Berlin that was an acquisition target first of Gorillas, then Getir, and then Amazon, and then Gopuff, today made a move that spells out how it plans to go forth on its own. The company has confirmed a fresh fundraise of $150 million — $115 million in equity […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon will host its Prime Big Deals Day sales event on October 8 and 9
Amazon said today that it will host its Prime Day-like sales event, “Prime Big Deals Day,” on October 8-9. For the last two years, the ecommerce company has scheduled its fall event in October and has continued that tradition this year. Apart from the U.S., this event will take place in countries including Australia, Austria, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky now has 10 million users
Social network Bluesky said Monday that it now has more than 10 million users on the platform. This is largely thanks to the rapid growth of the network in the past few weeks after Elon Musk-owned X was shuttered in Brazil. “If you’re reading this, you’re one of the first 10 million users on Bluesky!” the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Slack is turning into an AI agent hub. Should it?
The head of Slack, Denise Dresser, tells TechCrunch she is shifting the business chat platform into a “work operating system,” specifically by making Slack a hub for AI applications from Salesforce, Adobe, and Anthropic. The company’s CEO sees Slack as more than a place to chat with your coworkers, but do users want that? And […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Intel inks AI chip deal with AWS, pauses plans in Poland and Germany
Intel has announced a key customer win and changes to its foundry business as the beleaguered chipmaker looks to mount a turnaround. In a blog post, Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger said the company would pause its chip fabrication projects in Poland and Germany by two years “based on anticipated market demand,” and consider pulling back […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tech’s emissions may be way higher than disclosed due to ‘creative accounting’ of carbon
Accounting for the emissions of a global tech empire is not a simple task, and what industry standards we do have for disclosure may allow tech companies to systematically understate their carbon footprint. A Guardian report compares official declarations of carbon emissions, including what amount to offsets purchased elsewhere, with “location-based” emissions, another standard metric […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK’s privacy watchdog takes credit for rise of ‘consent or pay’
The UK’s data protection watchdog claims a crack down on websites that don’t ask for consent from visitors to track and profile their activity for ad targeting is bearing fruit. However it’s admitted some of the changes driven by the intervention have seen sites adopting a controversial type of paywall that demands users pay a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sam Altman departs OpenAI’s safety committee
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is leaving the internal commission OpenAI created in May to oversee “critical” safety decisions related to the company’s projects and operations. In a blog post today, OpenAI said the committee, the Safety and Security Committee, will become an “independent” board oversight group chaired by Carnegie Mellon professor Zico Kolter, Quora CEO […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Space: The dawn of Polaris
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. In case you missed it, the final agenda for the Space Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt is now live. Join us from October 28-30 in San Francisco to hear from the space industry’s top leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors. You won’t want to miss it. Want to reach out with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mammoth’s founder returns with new iOS app for Mastodon, Saturn
After founding and selling the popular Mastodon client Mammoth, developer Shihab Mehboob is returning to compete with it with the launch of his new app, Saturn. Not to be confused with the social calendar of the same name, Mehboob’s Saturn works with the decentralized social network Mastodon and specifically offers a unique “Highlights” feature that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google and Muon Space join forces to continuously scan the Earth for wildfires
The company is working with Muon Space, the Earth Fire Alliance, and others to launch FireSat. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft Copilot: Everything you need to know about Microsoft’s AI
In this post, we explain the many Microsoft Copilots available and what they do, and highlight the key differences between each. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fisker Ocean owners stuck paying for recall repairs
As EV startup Fisker prepares to enter the fourth month of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, existing owners have received some bad news: they will have to pay labor costs to resolve two of the five outstanding recalls on their Ocean SUVs. Fisker broke the bad news Sunday night in an FAQ posted to its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Salesforce Ventures ups its AI fund to $1 billion, doubling it again
Salesforce Ventures just doubled its AI fund with another $500 million, and is helping San Francisco grow its attraction as the city for AI startups. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon mandates full five-day return to office
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent a memo to the company’s employees Monday morning, calling for a full return to office at the start of 2025. For the last fifteen months, Amazon employees have been expected to work in the office three days per week. Now, Jassy expects five days of in-person work from employees, with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gogoro CEO resigns as subsidy fraud investigation continues
Gogoro, the Taiwanese electric scooter manufacturer and battery swapping giant, said its CEO and chairman Horace Luke has stepped down amid subsidy fraud allegations, according to a regulatory filing. Gogoro allegedly used Chinese parts for e-scooters to reduce manufacturing costs, despite reporting that it used locally made parts to qualify for government subsidies. In a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
iOS 18 is out: Here’s what’s new
Apple’s newest software update, iOS 18, is rolling out today to all iPhone users. While AI technology was heavily hyped as a key part of this upgrade, Apple Intelligence features aren’t part of this release. Instead, Apple says it will release Apple Intelligence with iOS 18.1 starting with the U.S. before gradually rolling them out […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple’s iOS 18 is now available to download
On Monday Apple released the new version of iOS, the company’s operating system for the iPhone. iOS 18 is a free download and it works with the iPhone XR & XS or later, as well as the second- and third-generation iPhone SE. In other words, if your iPhone supports iOS 17, you can install iOS […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison says that AI will someday track your every move
Speaking with investors this month at an Oracle financial analysts meeting, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said that he expects AI to one day power massive law enforcement surveillance networks. “We’re going to have supervision,” he said. “Every police officer is going to be supervised at all times, and if there’s a problem, AI will report […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: FDA approval sets the stage for Apple’s AirPod hearing aids
During last week’s GlowTime event, Apple announced that iOS 18 will include a feature allowing users with mild to moderate hearing loss to use AirPods as hearing aids. But Apple was still waiting on approval from the FDA — approval that was announced just a couple days later. The FDA describing this as the first […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
11xAI raises $24M led by Benchmark to build AI digital employees
The Series A comes about a year after 11xAI raised a $2 million seed round led by Project A Ventures. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As TikTok ban heads to court, ByteDance’s Lemon8 surges
As TikTok heads to court on Monday to argue against a U.S. ban, parent company ByteDance’s newer social app, Lemon8, is once again surging to the top of the App Store in the U.S. The push is due, in part, to increased advertising. Described by TikTok influencers as a cross between Pinterest and Instagram — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
U.S. government expands sanctions against spyware maker Intellexa
This latest round of government sanctions land months after Intellexa's founder Tal Dilian was sanctioned for selling the Predator spyware. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Life360’s Tile introduces its first new Bluetooth trackers since its acquisition
It’s been three years since Life360’s $205 million acquisition of AirTag competitor Tile. The company announced Monday its new lineup of lost-item Bluetooth trackers, featuring a sleeker redesign in new colors—aqua blue, green, navy blue, and pink. The devices now have several new functionalities, such as an integrated SOS feature, an extended Bluetooth range, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Generative AI startup Typeface acquires two companies, Treat and Narrato, to bolster its portfolio
Typeface, a generative AI startup focused on enterprise use cases, has acquired a pair of companies just over a year after raising $100 million at a $1 billion valuation. Typeface revealed on Monday that it’s purchased Treat, a company using AI to create personalized photo products, and Narrato, an AI-powered content creation and management platform. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Colin Kaepernick is coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Earlier this year, former NFL quarterback and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick launched his AI startup, Lumi. Kaepernick has had thousands of stories written about him, and he knows a thing or two about losing control of his narrative. Now with Lumi, he’s trying to help creators take control of their own narratives, offering AI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Runway announces an API for its video-generating models
Runway, one of several AI startups developing video-generating tech, today announced an API to allow devs and organizations to build the company’s generative AI models into third-party platforms, apps and services. Currently in limited access (there’s a waitlist), the Runway API only offers a single model to choose from — Gen-3 Alpha Turbo, a faster […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
IBM makes developing for quantum computers easier with the Qiskit Functions Catalog
IBM today launched the Qiskit Functions Catalog, a new set of services that aims to make programming quantum computers easier by abstracting away many of the complexities of working with these machines. “I do think it’s the next big transition ince we put the quantum computer on the cloud,” Jay Gambetta, IBM’s VP in charge […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI coding assistant Supermaven raises cash from OpenAI and Perplexity co-founders
Supermaven, an AI coding assistant, has raised $12 million in a funding round that had participation from OpenAI and Perplexity co-founders. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TeamBridge, founded by former Uber execs, raises $28M to build HR software for hourly workers
Arjun Vora and Tito Goldstein were working on the corporate side of Uber when they realized that HR software largely wasn’t built to manage hourly staff. Many hourly workers lacked a way to complete basic self-service tasks, the pair perceived, like clocking in and changing payment accounts. After interviewing hundreds of Uber drivers, Vora, an […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Watch sleep apnea detection gets FDA approval
The US Food and Drug Administration Monday published approval for sleep apnea detection on the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10 and Watch Ultra 2. The green light comes four days ahead of the Series 10’s September 20 release date. The feature, announced at last week’s iPhone 16 event, will arrive as part of the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation review
I can’t recall another consumer electronics product category becoming a commodity as quickly as Bluetooth earbuds. Apple’s AirPods played a key role in that growth, of course, recapturing a kind of excitement not seen in consumer music tech since the original iPod. AirPods’ fundamentals haven’t changed much in the eight years since they debuted. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Myntra bets on 4-hour delivery amid India’s quick commerce boom
Myntra, India’s largest fashion e-commerce platform, is trialling a four-hour delivery service in four Indian cities, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch, a dramatic acceleration from its standard 2-3 day delivery timeframe as the surge of quick commerce reshapes consumer behavior. The Flipkart Group-owned firm is piloting the fast-tracked delivery service in cities […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AWS brings OpenSearch under the Linux Foundation umbrella
AWS today announced that it is transitioning OpenSearch, its open source fork of the popular Elasticsearch search and analytics engine, to the Linux Foundation with the launch of the very aptly named OpenSearch Foundation. AWS first launched the OpenSearch project in 2021, after Elastic changed its license for its Elasticsearch and Kibana projects to its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Insight Partners is closing in on a whopping $10B+ new fund
Insight Partners is reportedly on the cusp of on more than $10 billion in capital commitments for its 13th fund, per the FT. The FT report notes that two of Insight’s portfolio companies were acquired in the last week. One of these, the threat intelligence company Recorded Future, which sold to Mastercard for $2.65 billion, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Port of Seattle shares ransomware attack details
The Port of Seattle released a statement Friday confirming that it was targeted by a ransomware attack. The attack occurred on August 24, with the Port (which also operates the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport) saying it had “experienced certain system outages indicating a possible cyberattack.” The Port is now describing this as “a ‘ransomware’ attack by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Flappy Bird’s creator disavows ‘official’ new version of the game
A decade after the wildly popular game Flappy Bird disappeared, an organization calling itself The Flappy Bird Foundation announced plans to “re-hatch the official Flappy Bird® game.” But this morning, the game’s creator Dong Nguyen posted a characteristically terse comment stating that he has nothing to do with the revival, and that he “did not […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DryMerge promises to connect apps that normally don’t talk to each other — and when it works, it’s great
Platforms to connect apps that wouldn’t normally talk to each other have been around for a minute (see: Zapier). But they have not gotten dramatically simpler to use if you’re nontechnical. Generative AI has lowered the barrier to entry somewhat. However, getting the most out of these platforms — and fixing things when they break […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cohere co-founder Nick Frosst’s indie band, Good Kid, is almost as successful as his AI company
Nick Frosst, the co-founder of $5.5 billion Canadian AI startup Cohere, has been a musician his whole life. He told TechCrunch that once he started singing, he never shut up. That’s still true today. In addition to his full-time job at Cohere, Frosst is also the front man of Good Kid, an indie rock band […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A walk through the crypto jungle at Korea Blockchain Week
Blockchain technology is all about decentralization and virtualization. So it’s a little ironic that humans love to come together in person at big blockchain events. Such was the case last week in Seoul, where a record 17,000 people and 300 speakers came together for Korea Blockchain Week. Like traditional tech conferences, the event featured a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The LinkedIn games are fun, actually
I have a guilty pleasure, and it’s not that I just rewatched “Glee” in its entirety (yes, even the awful later seasons), or that I have read an ungodly amount of Harry Potter fan fiction in my time. My guilty pleasure is that I play the LinkedIn games. To answer the obvious question: Wait, LinkedIn […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI could shake up its nonprofit structure next year
It’s looking increasingly likely that OpenAI will soon alter its complex corporate structure. Reports earlier this week suggested that the AI company was in talks to raise $6.5 billion at a $150 billion pre-money valuation. Now Reuters says the deal is contingent on whether OpenAI can restructure and remove a profit cap for investors. In […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Every fusion startup that has raised over $300M
Fusion startups have raised $7.1 billion to date, with the majority of it going to a handful of companies. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Hot Ones’ could add some heat to Netflix’s live lineup
Netflix has never quite cracked the talk show formula, but maybe it can borrow an existing hit from YouTube. According to Bloomberg, the streamer is in talks with BuzzFeed to create live episodes of the popular YouTube talk show “Hot Ones.” Netflix and BuzzFeed did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. The show […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why ORNG’s founder pivoted from college food ordering to real-time money transfer
Alex Parmley has been thinking about building his latest company, ORNG, since he was working on his last company, Phood. Launched in 2018, Phood was a payments app that let students use dining dollars to order food from third-party apps and merchants anywhere in the world. It built the first campus-integrated debit card and worked […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sam Bankman-Fried appeals conviction, criticizes judge’s ‘unbalanced’ decisions
Lawyers representing Sam Bankman-Fried, the FTX CEO and co-founder who was convicted of fraud and money laundering late last year, are seeking a new trial. Following crypto exchange FTX’s collapse, Bankman-Fried was found guilty on all seven counts, then sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay $11 billion in forfeiture. He has […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI previews its new Strawberry model
OpenAI this week unveiled a preview of OpenAI o1, also known as Strawberry. The company claims that o1 can more effectively reason through math and science, as well as fact-check itself by spending more time considering all parts of a query. The family of models is available in ChatGPT and via OpenAI’s API, though OpenAI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DeepWell DTx receives FDA clearance for its therapeutic video game developer tools
There’s something oddly refreshing about starting the day by solving the Wordle. According to DeepWell DTx, there’s a scientific explanation for why our brains might feel just a bit better after a quick break to play a game. In fact, DeepWell now has the FDA clearance to support its claim that video games can treat […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These two friends built a simple tool to transfer playlists between Apple Music and Spotify, and it works great
Soundiiz is a free third-party tool that builds portability tools through existing APIs and acts as a translator between the services. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This is how bad China’s startup scene looks now
In early 2018, famed VC Mike Moritz wrote in the FT that “Silicon Valley would be wise to follow China’s lead,” observing that the pace of work at tech companies was “furious” and that China offered “investment opportunities in the best companies.” Soon after, it all imploded. Worse, as the FT notes in a new […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fei Fei Li’s World Labs comes out of stealth with $230M in funding
Fei Fei Li, the Stanford professor many deem the “Godmother of AI,” has raised $230 million for her new startup, World Labs, from backers including Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and Radical Ventures. World Labs is valued at over $1 billion, and the capital was raised over two rounds spaced a couple of months apart, TechCrunch reported […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fintech Bolt is buying out the investor suing over Ryan Breslow’s $30M loan
Bolt says it has settled its long-standing lawsuit with its investor Activant Capital. One-click payments startup Bolt is settling the suit by buying out the investor’s stake “after which Activant will no longer hold any interest in Bolt,” the company said in a statement. Activant’s suit accused founder and then CEO Ryan Breslow of adding […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Dave and Varo Bank execs are coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
The rise of neobanks has been fascinating to witness, as a number of companies in recent years have grown from merely challenging traditional banks to being massive players in and of themselves. Dave and Varo Bank are just two examples of such neobanks. Hear Dave co-founder and CEO Jason Wilk and Varo Bank founder and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
First impressions of OpenAI o1: An AI designed to overthink it
OpenAI released its new o1 models on Thursday, giving ChatGPT users their first chance to try AI models that pause to “think” before they answer. There’s been a lot of hype building up to these models, codenamed “Strawberry” inside OpenAI. But does Strawberry live up to the hype? Sort of. Compared to GPT-4o, the o1 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
First impressions of ChatGPT o1: An AI designed to overthink it
OpenAI released its new o1 models on Thursday, giving ChatGPT users their first chance to try AI models that pause to “think” before they answer. There’s been a lot of hype building up to these models, codenamed “strawberry” inside OpenAI. But does strawberry live up to the hype? Sort of. Compared to GPT-4o, the o1 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A fight is brewing as TuSimple tries to move $450M to China and pivot from self-driving trucks to AI animation
TuSimple, once a buzzy startup considered a leader in self-driving trucks, is trying to move its assets to China to fund a new AI-generated animation and video game business. The pivot has not only puzzled and enraged several shareholders, but also threatens to pull the company back into a legal morass mere weeks after reaching […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Some startups and investors are more risk-averse than others
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week once again proved that the startup world isn’t homogeneous when it comes to risk-taking. Let’s have a look. Most interesting startup stories from the week […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Y Combinator expanding to four cohorts a year in 2025
Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator will expand the number of cohorts it runs each year from two to four starting in 2025, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Y Combinator president Garry Tan told the site that approximately the same number of companies will go through YC each year, despite the change. This means each cohort will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: Meta acknowledges it’s scraping all public posts for AI training
If you’re wondering if your Facebook and Instagram posts have been used to train AI models at parent company Meta, the answer is almost certainly yes. That’s probably not a huge surprise. Meta already announced that it’s using user content and data to train AI — but this week, its global privacy director Melinda Claybaugh […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Telegram CEO Durov’s arrest hasn’t dampened enthusiasm for its TON blockchain
Telegram has had a tough few weeks lately. The messaging app’s founder, Pavel Durov, was arrested in late August and later released on a €5 million bail in France, charged with running a company complicit in distributing child sexual abuse material, and facilitating drug trafficking and organized fraud. Predictably, that crashed the price of the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A fireside chat with Andreessen Horowitz partner Martin Casado at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Martin Casado, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, will tackle one of the most pressing issues facing today’s tech world — AI regulation — only at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, taking place at Moscone West in San Francisco on October 28-30. Casado is a pioneering figure in software-defined networking and is a key player in the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Vanta’s Christina Cacioppo takes the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Christina Cacioppo, CEO and co-founder of Vanta, will be on the SaaS Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 to reveal how Vanta is redefining security and compliance automation and driving innovation through AI. Under her leadership, Vanta has achieved a $2.45 billion valuation in just five years and has scaled rapidly to serve over 8,000 companies, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fortinet confirms customer data breach
On Thursday, cybersecurity giant Fortinet disclosed a breach involving customer data. In a statement posted online, Fortinet said an individual intruder accessed “a limited number of files” stored on a third-party shared cloud drive belonging to Fortinet, which included data belonging to “less than 0.3%” of its customers. The company said that the incident “did […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta reignites plans to train AI using UK users’ public Facebook and Instagram posts
Meta has confirmed that it’s restarting efforts to train its AI systems using public Facebook and Instagram posts from its U.K. userbase. The announcement comes three months after Facebook’s parent company paused its plans due to regulatory pressure in the U.K., with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) raising concerns over how the company might use U.K. user data […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify begins piloting parent-managed accounts for kids on family plans
Following the moves of other tech giants, Spotify announced on Friday it’s introducing in-app parental controls in the form of “managed accounts” for listeners under the age of 13. The new feature will initially be offered as a pilot program for parents or guardians on a Family plan in select markets, including Denmark, New Zealand, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Waymo robotaxis will be on the Uber app in Austin, Atlanta in early 2025
Uber riders in Austin and Atlanta will be able to hail a Waymo robotaxi through the app in early 2025 as part of an expanded partnership between the two companies. Waymo’s autonomous vehicles have been available on the Uber app in Phoenix since October 2023. This expansion comes at a time when Uber has been […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Howbout raises $8M from Goodwater to build a calendar that you can share with your friends
There are plenty of calendar and scheduling apps that take care of your professional life and help you slot in meetings with your teammates and work collaborators. Howbout is all about finding time with your friends to catch up. The company is banking on the fact that some Gen Z users are very happy to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SoftBank-backed Delhivery contests metrics in rival Ecom Express’ IPO filing
Indian logistics firm Delhivery has publicly contested the accuracy of metrics presented by competitor Ecom Express in its draft initial public offering prospectus, a rare confrontation in the lead-up to the latter’s market debut. Delhivery, which is backed by SoftBank and already publicly listed, claims that Ecom Express has inaccurately represented Delhivery’s business metrics when […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Alternative app stores will be allowed on Apple iPad in the EU from September 16
It was a matter of time, but Apple is going to allow third-party app stores on the iPad starting next week, on September 16. This change will occur with the next major release of iPadOS, the operating system specifically designed for the iPad. The move is related to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Three and Vodafone’s $19B merger hits the skids as UK rules the deal would adversely impact customers and MVNOs
The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has delivered its provisional ruling in a longstanding battle to combine two of the country’s major telecommunication operators. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says that Three and Vodafone’s planned $19 billion merger could lead to higher prices for consumers, diminished service such as smaller data packages in contracts, and reduced […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Oprah just had an AI special with Sam Altman and Bill Gates — here are the highlights
Late Thursday evening, Oprah Winfrey aired a special on AI, appropriately titled “AI and the Future of Us.” Guests included OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, tech influencer Marques Brownlee, and current FBI director Christopher Wray. The dominant tone was one of skepticism — and wariness. Oprah noted in prepared remarks that the AI genie is out […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
XP Health grabs $32M to bring employees more affordable vision care
Antonio Moraes, the grandson of a late prominent Brazilian billionaire, was never interested in joining the family-owned conglomerate of construction companies and a bank. Shortly after graduating from college, he founded one of Brazil’s first impact funds, which invested primarily in companies that made healthcare more accessible and affordable. But while attending Stanford University, where […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Polaris Dawn astronauts perform historic private spacewalk while wearing SpaceX-made suits
A crew of four private astronauts made history in the early hours of Thursday when they opened the hatch of their SpaceX Dragon capsule and conducted the first commercial spacewalk. The spacewalk, the riskiest part of the five-day Polaris Dawn mission, kicked off at 6:12 AM ET when oxygen started flowing into the astronauts’ spacesuits. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta is making its AI info label less visible on content edited or modified by AI tools
By making the AI info label harder to find, it might be easier for users to be deceived by content that was edited with AI, especially as editing tools become more and more advanced. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cohost, the X rival founded with an anti-Big Tech manifesto, is running out of money and will shut down
Cohost, a would-be X rival launched to the public in June 2022, is shutting down, the company announced via the social network’s staff account earlier this week. The service had operated much like Twitter, offering users the ability to follow others, view posts in a feed, and like and repost content shared by others. However, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Shopsense AI lets music fans buy dupes inspired by red-carpet looks at the VMAs
At the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) on Wednesday night, new technology allowed fans to shop their favorite artist’s styles as they appeared on the screen. Though the drama from last night’s event focused on Chappel Roan confronting a rude paparazzi and Sabrina Carpenter‘s on-stage kiss with an alien, fans were also raving about the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Keith Rabois says Miami is still a great place for startups, even as a16z leaves
Keith Rabois, managing director of Khosla Ventures, was having dinner with a “very successful CEO” in October 2018 when the CEO asked him a question. How many people does it take to create a whole new Silicon Valley? Is it 10,000? 100,000? Rabois didn’t know, but he decided to accept the challenge and set about […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies. That growth has propelled OpenAI itself into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This startup is making manure out of other biogas power plants, and now has $62M to play with
Working away on his PhD in Munich only a few years ago, Stephan Herrmann (now a Dr.) couldn’t have conceived of a time when his idea for a carbon-negative power plant would attract millions in funding. But now, together with co-founder Felix Fischer, he has a $100 million backlog of orders for his invention, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Faraday Future gives CEO and founder raises and bonuses after delivering 13 cars
Faraday Future is doling out big raises and bonuses to its CEO as well its founder, despite having delivered just 13 cars in its 10-year history, and recently laying off or furloughing the majority of its workforce. The company announced in a regulatory filing Wednesday that CEO Matthias Aydt’s salary is getting bumped from $400,000 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Announcing the final agenda for the Space Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
We’re out-of-this-world excited to announce that we’ve finalized our dedicated Space Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. It joins Fintech, SaaS and AI as the other industry-focused stages — all under one big roof. To top it off, we’re thrilled to share we’ll be hosting a pitch competition this year called “The Space Challenge, powered by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bolt has quietly settled its lawsuit with Fanatics amid ongoing boardroom drama
Online sports apparel retailer Fanatics has agreed to settle and drop a lawsuit that it filed against troubled one-click payments provider Bolt in March, according to court documents obtained by TechCrunch. The settlement occurred as Bolt was in the thick of a new gambit to raise a large round of financing, including a “cramdown” threat […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why Y Combinator companies are flocking to banking and HR startup Every
Rajeev Behera’s new all-on-one HR startup, dubbed Every, is either brilliant or crazy. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads makes it easier to evangelize the open social web with a new direct link feature
It’s a small advance, but one that speaks to Meta’s enginerring team paying attention to how the fediverse community is trying to educate Threads users about the possibilities. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Autonomous delivery startup Nuro pivots and another Indian EV scooter startup takes the IPO road
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! The transportation beat just keeps on truckin’ — or scooting along, depending on your preferred vehicle and speed. And this week, our coverage ran the gamut from […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI unveils a model that can fact-check itself
ChatGPT maker OpenAI has announced its next major product release: An generative AI model code-named Strawberry, officially called OpenAI o1. Coming soon in both chatbot form and to OpenAI’s API, o1 (which is actually a new family of models) avoids some of the reasoning pitfalls that normally trip up generative AI models — at least […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Australian plan for misinformation law riles Elon Musk
The Australian government wants to introduce powers to fine social media platforms up to 5% of their global revenue if they fail to stop the spread of misinformation under a revised legislative plan introduced Thursday, Reuters reports. The planned law, which looks similar to the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), drew swift condemnation from […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon and Flipkart violated competition laws in India, report says
Indian antitrust regulator has found that Amazon and Flipkart, owned by Walmart, violated local competition laws, according to a report. The finding presents a new challenge for the e-commerce giants in a market where online retail growth remains modest at under 15% and quick-commerce is increasingly snatching business from Amazon India and Flipkart. The Competition […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tune.FM wants to take on Spotify by using crypto to pay artists up to 100x more per stream
Tune.FM is a decentralized music streaming service where users pay for each song they stream using Tune.FM's crypto token JAM. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: The latest SpaceX mission saw the first private spacewalk
When I told our video producer that I wanted to make a video today about the SpaceX Polaris Dawn launch, she responded, “This story has everything! Space, mars colony, crazy space suits, and a billionaire in space.” She’s right. Polaris Dawn is intriguing, to say the least. The commercial SpaceX mission will travel further than […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google DeepMind teaches a robot to autonomously tie its shoes and fix fellow robots
DeepMind employed a new learning platform, ALOHA Unleashed, paired with its simulation program, DemoStart, to teach robots by watching humans. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple AirPods Pro granted FDA approval to serve as hearing aids
The FDA on Thursday announced that it has granted what it calls “the first over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid software device, Hearing Aid Feature.” © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google Wallet to test a feature that turns your US passport into a digital ID
Google announced on Thursday that it’s introducing new Wallet updates for travelers and commuters. Most notably, Google Wallet will soon start beta testing the ability to create a Digital ID from your U.S. passport. The ID pass will work at select TSA checkpoints when traveling domestically. In addition to TSA checkpoints, Google says it’s working […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
White House extracts voluntary commitments from AI vendors to combat deepfake nudes
The White House has announced that several major AI vendors, including OpenAI and Microsoft, have committed to taking steps to combat nonconsensual deepfakes and child sexual abuse material. Adobe, Cohere, Microsoft, OpenAI and data provider Common Crawl said that they’ll “responsibly” source and safeguard the datasets they create and use to train AI from image-based […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft lays off another 650 from gaming division
Microsoft is laying off around 650 employees from its gaming division, according to an internal memo shared online by IGN. The latest cuts come eight months after the company laid off 1,900 in its gaming division, following its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. In Xbox chief Phil Spencer’s memo to staff, he notes that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hacker tricks ChatGPT into giving out detailed instructions for making homemade bombs
An explosives expert told TechCrunch that the ChatGPT output could be used to make a detonatable product and was too sensitive to be released. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta, TikTok and Snap pledge to participate in program to combat suicide and self-harm content
In an attempt to prevent suicide and self-harm content from spreading online, the nonprofit Mental Health Coalition (MHC) today announced a new program, Thrive, aimed at encouraging online platforms to share “signals” of potentially harmful material. Thrive, which counts Meta, Snap and TikTok as founding members, will provide ways for platforms to share hashes — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bitcoin and NFTs may get greater legal protections as ‘personal property’ under proposed UK law
The U.K. government has introduced a new bill to Parliament which proposes new legal protections for digital assets such as Bitcoin. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X is working on a new way for people to block DMs
Elon Musk’s social network X is exploring a feature to let users block users from DMing them separately from the account block. Currently, when you block an account, they can’t engage with you through public posts or chat messages. With the new feature, the company wants to separate personal messaging and public posting layers. Yesterday, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X is working on a separate blocking layer for DMs
Elon Musk’s social network X is exploring a feature to let users block users from DMing them separately from the account block. Currently, when you block an account, they can’t engage with you through public posts or chat messages. With the new feature, the company wants to separate personal messaging and public posting layers. Yesterday, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Face to face with Figure’s new humanoid robot
Figure is testing Figure 02’s efficacy for helping out in the kitchen and picking up around the house. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After using a business coach to shift careers, AceUp founder wants to drive coaching based on data
Is a business coach really worth the investment? Execs often seek coaches to bolster aspects of their work, like communication skills and their productivity. At least anecdotally, these skills do appear to get better with coaching — a survey from the nonprofit International Coach Federation found that 80% of execs who hired a coach saw […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Humanz brings its influencer marketing platform to the U.S.
Humanz, a marketing platform for content creators and brands, has entered the U.S. market, the company announced on Thursday. Having launched in Israel in 2017, Humanz has gained strong traction in global markets, including Europe, Latin America, South Africa, and the Middle East. Currently, Humanz works with over 300,000 content creators and has facilitated more […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
iFixit marks iPhone 16 arrival with battery-powered soldering iron launch
iFixit, everyone’s favorite gadget repair gadfly, is launching a portable soldering iron. The gadget is designed to make component repair more accessible for home users. The timing of the announcement isn’t lost on anyone, dropping the same week as Apple’s “It’s Glowtime” event. While Apple has been more open to user repairs in recent years, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Irish Big Tech watchdog digs into platforms’ content reporting mechanisms after DSA complaints
Ireland’s media regulator said it is reviewing how major platforms let users report illegal content, following a high number of complaints. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Novatus nabs $40M to help financial institutions quell their RegTech nightmares
Banks, investments and financial services are not known to be bastions of transparency — not to the general public, and, as the last financial crisis laid bare, sometimes not even to the people who operate within them. This was a fact known all too well by Andrew Hedley. Working in the area of risk at […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OffDeal wants to help small businesses find big exits with AI agents
Small businesses are the unsung heroes of the American economy, employing nearly half of America’s workforce and making up 44% of the country’s GDP. But when it’s time for small business owners to sell their companies, their options are limited. Some go to small business brokers or pass the business on to their children, while […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google’s GenAI facing privacy risk assessment scrutiny in Europe
Google’s lead privacy regulator in the European Union has opened an investigation into whether or not it has complied with the bloc’s data protection laws in relation to use of people’s information for training generative AI. Specifically it’s looking into whether the tech giant needed to carry out a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bad credits: consumer group files EU suit over ‘manipulative’ payments in games like Fortnite and Minecraft, calls for a ban
Video games are some of most lucrative apps in the world, thanks in part because of how they lure people into spending money on credits to play games and buy digital goods, to the tune of more than $50 billion annually worldwide. But a powerful consumer group in Europe believes games publishers are “purposefully tricking […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WhatsApp brings Meta Verified, customized messages to small businesses in India
WhatsApp is now letting small businesses in India sign up for a Meta Verified badge and giving them the ability to send customized messages to customers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Drama at OpenWeb, as a new CEO is announced – and the founding CEO says he’s staying
OpenWeb, a New York startup whose tools help publishers engage users, has a unique problem. Its co-founding CEO reportedly won’t leave, even though it announced a new CEO. According to CTech, on Tuesday, OpenWeb’s chairman, Tim Harvey, sent an email to employees, saying he’s becoming CEO and thanking longtime CEO Nadav Shoval for his “incredible […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Adam Neumann’s crypto comeback company is reportedly refunding investors
In a development that will surprise few, former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann’s climate/crypto/carbon-credit startup Flowcarbon appears to be in the process of curling up to die, Forbes reported today. Buyers of its “Goddess Nature Token,” pitched as the first step in putting carbon credits on the blockchain, have reportedly been contacted about receiving refunds over […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon starts testing ads in its Rufus chatbot
Rufus, Amazon’s recently launched, shopping-focused chatbot, is getting ads soon. That’s according to a changelog published by Amazon this week (first spotted by AdWeek), which states that sponsored ads could soon start appearing in placements for Rufus users in the U.S. Ads will be shown based on Amazon search and conversational context, Amazon says, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
LineLeap lets users pay to skip the line at bars
No one likes standing in line. I was reminded of just how awful the experience can be last Saturday, while being herded like cattle through a two-hour queue for a nightclub in unseasonably cold weather. I’d not soon repeat the experience. Fortunately, there’s a startup for that. LineLeap, backed by Y Combinator, lets people pay […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI reportedly in talks to raise at $150B valuation
OpenAI is reportedly in talks with investors to raise $6.5 billion in new funding, valuing the startup at $150 billion, according to Bloomberg and the Financial Times. That’s significantly higher than OpenAI’s previously reported valuation from earlier this year, $86 billion, and far higher than any other AI startup today. The funding round will reportedly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These sub-1mm robots morph and crawl with an electric zap
Along with biological organisms, the robots were inspired kirigami, a variation of origami wherein objects are cut in addition to folded. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube Shorts’ collaborative Add Yours sticker is now available to all users
YouTube confirmed on Wednesday that its collaborative “Add Yours” sticker for YouTube Shorts is now fully rolled out. The Google-owned company first announced the feature back in July. The sticker works just like Instagram’s feature of the same name, as it prompts users to share their own take on a creator’s video. Both platforms’ “Add […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky catches up to X with native support for video
With native video support, Bluesky will be able to better compete with other X rivals, including Instagram Threads and the decentralized service Mastodon, among others. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Taylor Swift cites ‘fears around AI’ as she endorses the Democratic ticket
After a historic presidential debate replete with discourse about eating pets, Taylor Swift ended the evening with a bang. Arguably the most powerful figure in American pop culture, the singer-songwriter chose debate night to announce on Instagram that she plans to vote for Kamala Harris in the presidential election. Swift’s endorsement is monumental. She holds […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mark Zuckerberg says he’s done apologizing
The home of the Golden State Warriors was packed on Tuesday evening this week, but it wasn’t to watch Steph Curry. Thousands of fans gathered at the Chase Center in downtown San Francisco to watch one of Silicon Valley’s biggest ballers, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, sit down for a conversation with the hosts of the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: OpenAI’s new Strawberry model may be smart, yet sluggish
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. This week in AI, OpenAI’s next major product announcement is imminent, if a piece in The Information is to be believed. The Information reported on Tuesday that OpenAI plans to release Strawberry, an AI model that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Media talent app HUSSLUP shuts down as workers in Hollywood continue to face job slowdown
HUSSLUP, the job search and networking app for the entertainment industry, goes on an indefinite hiatus starting Friday. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: Why this entrepreneur is running the Oakland Ballers like a startup
The coolest startup in the Bay Area isn’t making AI robots or self-driving taxis. It’s actually a baseball team. As his beloved Oakland A’s plan to leave the Bay, serial entrepreneur Paul Freedman sought out a different type of venture. What if he could take what he learned from leading edtech startups to build the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google’s AI note-taking app NotebookLM can now explain complex topics to you out loud
Google announced on Wednesday that its AI note-taking and research app, NotebookLM, is adding a new “audio conversations” feature. Audio conversations will give users another way to digest and comprehend the information in the documents they have uploaded to the app, such as course readings or legal briefs. Since its launch, the NotebookLM has used […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple’s newly available ‘win-back’ offers let developers reach lapsed subscribers
Apple explains that these offers are designed to reach an app or game's previous subscribers and encourage them to return. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Oura has acquired metabolic health startup Veri
Blood sugar levels are foundational to the Veri platform. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fearless Fund is shutting down its contested Strivers Grant program
Fearless Fund has settled its case with the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER), agreeing to shut down its Strivers Grant program. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nuro pivots to license self-driving tech to carmakers, mobility companies
After multiple rounds of layoffs in 2022 and 2023, Nuro is pivoting its business strategy to focus more on the startup’s core autonomous driving technology instead of owning and operating a fleet of low-speed, on-road delivery bots. The company said on Wednesday it would start licensing its autonomous vehicle technology to automakers and mobility providers, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Connectly, now backed by Alibaba, taps AI to personalize text messages to customers
Stefanos Loukakos, formerly a director at Meta’s business-focused Messenger division and, briefly, the tech giant’s blockchain org, noticed several years ago that online retailers were struggling to connect with potential shoppers.The problem, in his opinion, was that their marketing campaigns weren’t tailored enough.Merchants were sending generic social media, text, and email blasts that failed to […]
Adobe says video generation is coming to Firefly this year
Users will get their first chance to try out Adobe’s AI model for video generation in just a couple months. The company says features powered by Adobe’s Firefly Video model will become available before the end of 2024 on the Premiere Pro beta app and on a free website. Adobe says three features – Generative […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meet Verse, an AI-powered creative app that helps Gen Z design and publish expressive content
Verse, a new AI-powered creative app, is aiming to help Gen Z users create hyper-visual and expressive content. The iOS app allows users to design and publish multimedia content on an interactive canvas with the help of an AI assistant. You can create a mini website, called a Verse, for things like moodboards, greeting cards, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Atomico backs Tem to help businesses buy renewable energy directly from sources
Tem wants to do for utilities what neobanks have done for the financial sector: disrupt an industry using tech, streamline it, and cut out the middlemen. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mistral releases Pixtral, its first multimodal model
French AI startup Mistral has released its first model that can process images as well as text. Called Pixtral 12B, the 12-billion-parameter model is roughly 24GB size. (Parameters roughly correspond to a model’s problem-solving skills, and models with more parameters generally perform better than those with fewer parameters.) Available on GitHub as well as the AI and machine […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Chrome wants to make sure your tabs and groups are accessible across devices
Google Chrome is trying to make its browser more sticky by ensuring that you have access to your tab groups and recently opened tabs across all your devices. The company is adding tab groups to iOS devices. In the Chrome app, you can long-press on a tab from the tab switcher view to create a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Paymob, started by three college friends, lands another $22 million and is profitable in Egypt
Paymob has evolved into an omnichannel gateway offering over 50 methods for offline and online payments to more than 350,000+ merchants. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
InMobi secures $100 million for AI acquisitions ahead of IPO
Adtech startup InMobi has raised $100 million in debt financing as the profitable Indian firm looks to “significantly deepen” its artificial intelligence initiatives and fund potential AI acquisitions ahead of a planned IPO next year. Mars Growth Capital, a joint venture between MUFG and Liquidity Group, has financed the funding, InMobi said Wednesday. The investment […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sergey Brin says he’s working on AI at Google ‘pretty much every day’
Google co-founder and ex-Alphabet president Sergey Brin said he’s back working at Google “pretty much every day” because he hasn’t seen anything as exciting as the recent progress in AI — and doesn’t want to miss out. Brin revealed the tidbit in an interview during the All-In Summit in L.A. this week. Last year, several […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Beats makes iPhone 16 cases now
The $49 cases work with MagSafe and the iPhone’s new Camera Control button. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Senate leaders ask FTC to investigate AI content summaries as anti-competitive
A group of Democratic senators is urging the FTC and Justice Department to investigate whether AI tools that summarize and regurgitate online content like news and recipes may amount to anti-competitive practices. In a letter to the agencies, the senators, led by Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), explained their position that the latest AI features are hitting […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Neurode wants to treat and track ADHD symptoms through a wearable headband
Sydney-based Neurode has come up with a novel way to offer some relief to people with ADHD: a wearable headband that can track and treat ADHD symptoms. And you only have to wear it for 20 minutes a day. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bumble to leverage AI to help users with profile creation and conversations
Bumble is increasing its investments in AI and branching out with new features to stay relevant amid a generational shift in dating behavior among younger users. During Goldman Sachs’ annual technology conference on Monday, Bumble CEO Lidiane Jones unveiled more details about the app’s upcoming AI capabilities, including a photo selection tool as well as features […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The real power of Apple Intelligence will show up in third-party apps
Apple Intelligence, the iPhone maker’s new set of AI capabilities arriving in iOS 18, is laying the groundwork for a new way to use apps. Today, the dated App Store model is under constant regulatory attack. Meanwhile, users can accomplish a lot of tasks with fairly simple questions to an AI assistant like ChatGPT. Proponents […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX calls out “superfluous” regulatory delays holding up Starship flights
SpaceX has put on its most public and aggressive offensive against regulators to date, with a blog post published Tuesday urging more expeditious launch licensing — lest the country lose its place as the leader in the global space race. Orbital launch is a tightly regulated industry governed chiefly by the Federal Aviation Administration, though […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What is Bluesky? Everything to know about the app trying to replace Twitter
Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is most certainly bluer. It’s been almost two years since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now X, leading people to set up shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (which has already shuttered operations) and Spill have been presented as potential replacements, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Watch blood oxygen detection won’t be available on the Series 10 in the U.S.
Apple has not discussed whether the feature’s removal was a hardware change on the Series 10 or if it was simply disabled via the software, like with the Series 9. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Drybaby is a dating app for the ‘sober curious’ movement
Drybaby is the newest dating app designed for singles who are sober or interested in reducing their alcohol consumption. The app arrives as 41% of Americans are cutting back on drinking as part of the so-called “sober curious” movement. According to a recent study commissioned by NCSolutions, Gen Zers have expressed particular interest in the movement, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google Gemini: Everything you need to know about the new generative AI platform
Gemini is Google’s long-promised, next-gen generative AI model family. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
London’s transit agency drops claim it has ‘no evidence’ of customer data theft after hack
The London transport authority removes a claim that said there was no evidence that customer data was compromised during a recent hack. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here’s how the new AirPods Pro hearing test works
Hearing Test will be built into iOS 18, though Apple is currently awaiting FDA approval for both it and the newly announced hearing aid feature before launch. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple punts on AI
One would have expected that "Apple's first phone made from the ground up for Apple Intelligence" would justify being so. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Finally, a bunch of SMB-focused fintechs get investor love while M&A activity heats up
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! It’s finally cooling down here in my home base of Austin, Texas, and that makes me happy. In this week’s newsletter, we’re looking at a big raise in the embedded fintech software space, a flurry of M&A activity and SMB-focused fundraises and more. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Huawei’s $2,800 triple-screen phone laughs at your puny foldable
The Mate XT Ultimate Design costs roughly $2,800 and is only available in China for now. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
iPhone 16, Apple Intelligence, AirPods 4 and more: Everything revealed at Apple Event 2024
Apple's lineup of announcements echoed many of the anticipated hardware reveals, including the new iPhone 16, AirPods 4, the Apple Watch Series 10 and more. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
French embedded insurance startup Neat secures $55 million
Neat helps other companies sell insurance products to their own customers. In insurance lingo, it focuses on affinity insurance contracts linked to another service or product. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EV warranty startup Amber launches a remote diagnostic service for Teslas
EV warranty startup Amber is expanding nationwide, bringing on new vehicles and offering a new remote diagnostic scan — all signs that the one-year-old company is putting its recent $3.18 million seed round to good use. The startup launched an aftermarket warranty product for Tesla vehicles called AmberCare — which is a suite of warranty […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: Everything announced at Apple’s Glowtime event
Yesterday was Apple’s Glowtime event, and you know what that means – lots of new hardware for us to geek out on. As we anticipated based on the WWDC event in June, Apple is embedding a lot of new AI features into its devices. From the iPhone 16, to the AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SpaceX launches Polaris Dawn, where astronauts will venture further than any humans in more than 50 years
A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off in the early hours of Tuesday morning carrying a crew that will attempt the first commercial spacewalk and travel higher than any crewed mission in fifty years. The Polaris Dawn mission lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 5:23 AM EST after several delays due to inclement weather. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon trials last-mile deliveries by tram in Frankfurt
Amazon has announced a new pilot package delivery service in Frankfurt, Germany, that meshes electric road and rail transport. The e-commerce giant will use vans from its delivery depot to the first tram stop on the outskirts of Frankfurt, with the city’s new Gütertram service transporting the goods to awaiting cargo bikes. Gütertram constitutes part […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple partners with third parties, like Google, on iPhone 16’s visual search
Apple’s relationship with Google as its search partner is taking a new turn with Apple’s introduction of visual search, or “Visual Intelligence” as the iPhone maker dubbed it yesterday during its iPhone 16 event. Already, Apple pays Alphabet roughly $20 billion per year to make Google the default search engine in its Safari browser. Now, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple looks to third parties, like Google, to help power iPhone 16’s visual search
Apple’s relationship with Google as its search partner is taking a new turn with Apple’s introduction of visual search, or “Visual Intelligence” as the iPhone maker dubbed it yesterday during its iPhone 16 event. Already, Apple pays Alphabet roughly $20 billion per year to make Google the default search engine in its Safari browser. Now, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Creator startup Spotter raises another $7.4M
Spotter, a startup that underwrites creators and offers AI tools, raised $7.4 million, according to a Form D filing viewed by TechCrunch. A representative for Spotter confirmed the filing’s legitimacy, but did not offer further details. This additional funding is much smaller than Spotter’s most recent raise, a $200 million Series D round led by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spare fixes cities’ outdated transport services for disabled residents
Cities spend hundreds of millions each year on paratransit services, or public rides for disabled residents, yet those services remain limited and unpredictable. Wheelchair users often face late pickups, hindering them from getting to work or medical appointments on time. As populations age, the strain on these services and city budgets continues to grow. Vancouver-based […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lucid Motors’ Gravity SUV will have Tesla charging built in
Lucid Motors is just a few months away from finally launching its electric SUV, and the company now says the upcoming vehicle — dubbed Gravity — will have Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) built right in, making an adapter unnecessary. Lucid announced the news ahead of a planned “Technology and Manufacturing Day” event at […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
MariaDB goes private with new CEO as K1 closes acquisition
MariaDB‘s short-lived tenure as a public company is all but over, as the struggling database business is now fully under the auspices of K1 Investment Management. MariaDB also announced a new CEO in the form of former Micro Focus executive Rohit de Souza, who replaces Paul O’Brien after just 16 months in the hotseat in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
JFrog deepens its partnership with GitHub, launches runtime security service
In addition, JFrog is also launching a runtime security solution, as well as an integration with Nvidia's NIM microservices. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Qualifyze swallows $54M to improve pharmaceutical supply chains
In the world of pharmaceuticals, companies aim to operate under GMP guidelines — a set of production and manufacturing measures to assure standards for medicinal products. But too often, the realities can be anything but that. “Officially, GMP stands for ‘Good Manufacturing Practices,’” said Dr. David Schneider, the founder of CEO of Qualifyze. “But people […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
StackGen raises $12.3M for its infrastructure-from-code service
In addition to the code, StackGen also visualizes what the new infrastructure will look like, and users can drag and drop additional resources in this interfaces as needed. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Inversion Space accelerates orbital reentry vehicle tech with $71M Space Force contract
Goods are shipped around the world via roads, rail and air. Why not space, too? That’s the question posed by Inversion Space, a Los Angeles-based startup that’s developing a reentry capsule that it says will be capable of autonomously landing anywhere on Earth to a football field-sized degree of accuracy. Equipped with a new $71 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hardware companies dominate a list of promising climate tech startups
A new report from Congruent Ventures and SVB highlights startups that could significantly reduce carbon emissions, mitigating climate change. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Smartcat secures $43M for its AI-powered translation platform
Smartcat, founded in 2016, is among the vendors providing automated translation tools geared toward enterprises, and its co-founder and CEO, Ivan Smolnikov, says business is good. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Form3, a quiet giant in UK fintech, raises $60M at a $570M valuation
The global economy remains in a sticky spot, in the words of the International Monetary Fund, so banks and other financial players are looking to do what they can to bring down operating costs while spurring more financial activity. Today, Form3 — one of the startups building pipes to do just that by connecting financial […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads is not working on its own DM system yet, but it might make it easier to send Instagram messages
The Threads team is not yet working on a separate inbox or a direct messaging system for the social network, despite user demands and will continue to use Instagram inbox. However, the company might make it easier to send messages to Instagram right from the Threads app. App researcher Adwaith Varma posted on Threads an unreleased Threads […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google loses appeal against EU’s €2.4B Shopping antitrust decision, as bloc also wins Apple state aid appeal
Google has once again lost in its bid to overturn a 2017 antitrust decision by the European Commission. The bloc found its shopping comparison service had broken competition rules — hitting Alphabet, Google’s parent, with an at-the-time record-breaking €2.42 billion penalty (around $2.7 billion at current exchange rates) and ordering changes to how it operates […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Formo gets investors’ mouths watering with Koji protein-based animal-free cheese
A love of food — and, well, cheese — has landed German fermentation startup Formo‘s co-founder Roman Plewka and its team a hefty $61 million Series B round to keep scaling production of their climate-friendly, animal-free cheese. The Berlin-based startup’s first products use a base of Koji protein, a type of fungal microorganism that’s been […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Swiggy weighs $150M boost for up to $1.4B India IPO
Indian food delivery startup Swiggy is weighing increasing the fresh issue component of its initial public offering by $150 million, aiming to raise a total of up to $1.4 billion in what is shaping up to be one of the largest public listings in India this year. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup will ask shareholders to approve […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sri Mandir helps Hindus visit sacred temples and offer donations, virtually from their phones
AppsForBharat, the startup behind Hindu devotional app Sri Mandir, has raised $18 million to penetrate into global markets and add new features. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sad Seattle Cybertruck became fleeting tourist destination
You could argue whether Cybertruck owners crave attention, but attention they receive, often by critics poking fun at the vehicles. People seem to particularly delight at Cybertruck mishaps, as when one arrived on Nantucket back in May and promptly got stuck in the sand. Perhaps it’s little wonder then that a damaged Cybertruck in Seattle’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Heart disease is the world’s biggest killer — this Cambridge Uni spinout is using AI to find new treatments
Cambridge University spinout CardiaTec is striving to tackle cardiovascular diseases, one of the world's leading causes of death, with AI. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Online, led by social media, overtakes TV as the most popular source of news in the UK, Ofcom says
Online platforms have now overtaken TV for the first time as the most popular resource for news among adult consumers, at 71% versus 70%, according to new research. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Space: Boeing’s Starliner returns to Earth
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. Let’s dive into the news! Want to reach out with a tip? Email Aria at [email protected] or send a message on Signal at 512-937-3988. You also can send a note to the whole TechCrunch crew at [email protected]. For more secure communications, click here to contact us, which includes SecureDrop instructions […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why Apple added yet another button to the iPhone 16
Apple giveth and taketh away — particularly when it comes to ports and buttons. The company has long taken a “less is more” approach to any detail that might disrupt its devices’ feng shui. The company is feeling a lot more bullish about buttons these days. After introducing the Action Button on the Apple Watch […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Audible recruits voice actors to train audiobook-generating AI
Audible, Amazon’s audiobook business, on Monday announced that it’ll use AI trained on professional narrators’ voices to generate new audiobook recordings. A select, U.S.-based cohort of audiobook narrators will be invited to train AI on their voices starting this week, Audible said. The trained AI will be used to make recordings, and narrators will have […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Climate change was a lot less prominent in this year’s iPhone event
The lack of climate announcement's at Apple's annual event shows just how hard meaningful progress on carbon emissions can be, even for one of the world’s most valuable companies. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Confluent acquires streaming data startup WarpStream
Confluent plans to use WarpStream's cloud-native solution to fill out its portfolio by offering a new service (Confluent WarpStream) that can sit in between its fully-managed Confluent Cloud and self-managed Confluent Platform. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple sets lower iPhone 16 Pro prices in India
Apple will sell the just launched iPhone 16 Pro lineup in India at prices approximately 15,000 rupees ($178) lower than its predecessor’s launch prices, as it extends the benefits from reduced import duties and expanding local manufacturing to consumers. The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max models now start at 119,900 rupees ($1,428) and 144,900 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here are all the devices compatible with iOS 18
iOS 18 will be available in the fall as a free software update. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
All the iPhone 16 models compared
All the iPhones now have an action button and a dedicated camera button. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
iPhone 16, Apple Intelligence, AirPods 4 and more: Live updates on everything revealed at Apple Event 2024
Apple's lineup of announcements echoed many of the anticipated hardware reveals, including the new iPhone 16, AirPods 4, the Apple Watch Series 10 and more. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What is Apple Intelligence, when is it coming and who will get it?
Apple Intelligence was designed to leverage things that generative AI already does well, like text and image generation, to improve upon existing features. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Here’s the full list of 35 US AI startups that have raised $100M or more in 2024
In the first half of 2024 alone, more than $35.5 billion was invested into AI startups globally. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple will make iOS 18 available to all users on September 16
Apple Intelligence might be the new hotshot in town, but iOS 18 is offering many features beyond that. The company announced today at its iPhone 16 “Glowtime” event that the new software update for iPhones will arrive on September 16. iOS has some notable aesthetic updates, including the ability to place icons anywhere on the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple to release AI-focused macOS Sequoia on September 16
The swift macOS Sequoia release deviates from Apple's usual late September or October timeline for desktop OS updates. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple to release AI-focused macOS Sequoia September 16 in record time
The swift macOS Sequoia release deviates from Apple's usual late September or October timeline for desktop OS updates. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple’s Voice Memos app will soon let you layer vocals on top of music
When the upgraded Voice Memos app rolls out, you'll be able to sing over a track you recorded earlier — a guitar track, say — by tapping on a new "layer" button before you hit record. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
With Apple Intelligence, iPhone users will finally get a better Siri
While consumers won't get the full impact of the Siri upgrade until Apple Intelligence launches, Apple promises it will upend the user experience © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Finally, a better Siri?
While consumers won't get the full impact of the Siri upgrade until Apple Intelligence launches, Apple promises it will upend the user experience © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro models arrive with 6.3- and 6.9-inch displays, larger battery and new A18 Pro chip
Apple revealed the full iPhone 16 line at Monday’s GlowTime event. According to CEO Tim Cook, the new handsets are “build around Apple Intelligence from the ground up.” Along with the base-level models, the company debuted the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, which both feature the new A18 Chip. The Pro Displays […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI-powered visual search comes to the iPhone
Visual intelligence will launch along with other Apple Intelligence features in beta in October for U.S. English language users. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple adds a dedicated camera button on iPhone 16
Pressing the button for the first time will open the camera app. You press it to take a photo and press and hold to start a video recording. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple announces its new A18 iPhone chip
To nobody’s surprise, Apple today debuted its A18 system-on-a-chip, the successor to the A17 Pro chip it announced at its last iPhone event. If you recall, at that time, Apple only announced an A17 Pro, which was featured in the iPhone Pro and Pro Max models, leaving some to speculate that a regular A17 chip […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple updates AirPods Max headphones with a USB-C port and new colors
Apple released a new version of its premium over-the-ear headphones, AirPods Max, on Monday during its 2024 Apple Event. The revamp replaces the AirPods Max’s lightning port with a USB-C port, and comes in five new colors: midnight, blue, purple, orange, and starlight. The updated version of Apple’s AirPods Max are still $549, and can […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple’s iPhone 16 arrives with AI features and devoted camera button
Apple Monday unveiled the iPhone 16 at the “It’s Glowtime” event in Cupertino, CA. CEO Tim Cook claimed that the new handset is “designed around Apple Intelligence, from the ground up,” a reference to new generative AI features announced at WWDC in June. The new handset is made from “aerospace grade” aluminum, according to the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple says AirPods Pro 2 can be used as ‘clinical-grade’ hearing aids
Both the hearing aid feature for AirPods Pro 2 and the hearing test for iOS 18 will launch this fall via a software update in over 100 countries and regions. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple says AirPods 2 can be used as ‘clinical-grade’ hearing aids
Apple says that AirPods 2, its latest wireless earbuds, can be used as clinical-grade hearing aids. This feature hasn’t been FDA-cleared, however — although the company says that it expects approval “soon.” The feature, when enabled, boosts specific sounds in real time, like parts of speech or elements of an environment. Apple says this will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple is adding a sleep apnea detection feature to the Apple Watch Series 10, 9 and Ultra 2
At its Glowtime event on Monday, Apple announced that it’s adding a new Apple Watch feature that can alert users to sleep apnea, a health condition that causes you to stop breathing when you’re asleep. Apple says it expects to receive FDA clearance for the feature “very soon.” The feature will available on the new […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple upgrades watchOS with AI-powered features, including translation
Apple has announced new features for the latest version of watchOS, watchOS 11, including translation and an upgraded Smart Stack. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple debuts redesigned AirPods 4 with active noise canceling option
At any Apple event, new AirPods are never a given. The earbuds have been around nearly as long as the Apple Watch, but the company has only released three generations of the baseline model — until today. Three years after their predecessors hit the market, the AirPods 4 have debuted at Monday’s “It’s Glowtime” event. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Watch Series 10 debuts with bigger screen, thinner display and sleep apnea detection
Apple Watch Series 10 debuted at Monday’s “It’s Glowtime”event, just under a decade after the iPhone maker released its first smartwatch. Headlining the new wearable is a redesign — arguably the largest since the device’s launch. The Apple Watch Series 10 has “our biggest screen and thinnest design,” CEO Tim Cook noted. The company says […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
iPhone 16, Apple Intelligence and more: Everything revealed at Apple Event 2024
Apple’s biggest event of the year has arrived, and with it, the iPhone 16 lineup and a slew of AI-related updates for iOS 18. Apple Intelligence is expected to be the star of the Apple event this year, like it was at WWDC in June, despite the many anticipated hardware reveals like new Apple Watches, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
U.S., China and other nations convene in Seoul for summit on AI use in military
More than 90 nations, including the U.S. and China, will convene at a two-day summit in Seoul starting Monday to attempt to establish a blueprint for the use of AI in the military. As Reuters reports, participants hope to establish minimum guardrails and suggest principles for “responsible” AI deployment aligned with NATO principles. The summit […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: Another blow to the Internet Archive’s lending library
The Internet Archive’s online lending library recently suffered a big defeat in court. The organization is best known for operating the Wayback Machine, which stores old versions of web pages, a task that’s felt increasingly important as more of the web disappears. But the Archive also operated a digital lending library, called the Open Library, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Alpha Partners raises $153M third fund for pro-rata investments
Steve Brotman started Alpha Partners in 2014 with a novel idea at the time: investing alongside early-stage VCs to help preserve their ownership in promising companies as they transition to later funding rounds. Alpha’s first fund was a mere $10 million. But as startups started staying private for longer, the VC industry invented various mechanisms […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Progress acquires file management platform ShareFile for $875M
Progress, a Bedford, Massachusetts-based software firm, on Monday announced that it intends to acquire file management platform ShareFile for $875 million in cash and credit. Progress CEO Yogesh Gupta said that the deal, which is expected to close by November 30, will bolster Progress’ portfolio with tools to help businesses more efficiently share — and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Announcing the final agenda for the Space Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
We’re out-of-this-world excited to announce that we’ve finalized our dedicated Space Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. It joins Fintech, SaaS and AI as the other industry-focused stages — all under one big roof. To top it off, we’re thrilled to share we’ll be hosting a pitch competition this year called “The Space Challenge, powered by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to watch the iPhone 16 reveal during this year’s big Apple Event
Apple is likely to unveil its iPhone 16 series of phones and maybe even some Apple Watches at its Glowtime event on September 9. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bug lets anyone bypass WhatsApp’s ‘View Once’ privacy feature
A flaw in the design of WhatsApp's "View Once" privacy feature let's anyone save pictures and videos that should be ephemeral. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Event 2024: iPhone 16, Apple Intelligence and all the other expected ‘Glowtime’ reveals
Apple's Glowtime iPhone event will include the iPhone 16, but may also feature new AirPods, a new Apple Watch and possibly even new Macs. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YC alum Odigos aims to help enterprises find errors and stamp out latency in their systems
Companies’ data architecture today looks nothing like it did 20 years ago, but monitoring and tracing tools haven’t followed suit, making it difficult for engineering teams to identify the root cause of errors and latency issues. Israeli developer Eden Federman thinks the solution is distributed tracing, a more advanced observability method, but he found adoption […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Miami-based AI bookkeeping startup finally has raised another big round: $200M in equity and debt
finally, an SMB-focused bookkeeping, accounting and finance startup, has raised $50 million in a Series B round of funding and secured a $150 million credit line, TechCrunch is the first to report. The financing comes just seven months after the fintech company announced it had raised $10 million in funding, and brings Miami-based finally’s total […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Thousands of Avis car rental customers had personal data stolen in cyberattack
The car rental giant says personal information, credit card information, and driver's license numbers were stolen in the August cyberattack. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sonos delays set-top box after flawed app update
It’s been an infamous year for software updates gone wrong. But what’s the worst-case scenario for a buggy update? Sonos may be trying to find the answer as its mobile app update continues to derail its best laid plans. In its most recent earnings call, the company announced that it had no choice but to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
EV startup Ather seeks to raise $370 million in India IPO
Indian electric scooter manufacturer Ather Energy plans to raise about $370 million by issuing fresh shares in an initial public offering, according to its draft prospectus filed on Monday (PDF), as the startup seeks to capitalize on growing demand for electric vehicles in the world’s third-largest auto market. The Bengaluru-based lossmaking startup, which competes with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Electro-hydraulic muscles help these robot legs stand straight on uneven terrain
Along with the ability to automatically adjust to the surface they’re traversing, the legs move faster and jump higher than their more standardized electric counterparts. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
European VC Atomico closes $1.24B across two funds for early and growth-stage startups
Atomico has historically leaned toward earlier funding rounds while dipping into later stages where it made sense; now it's setting itself up to focus just as much on the later stages of a startup's journey. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Try Guys say their subscription strategy is starting to work
After a rough couple years, YouTube creators The Try Guys said they’re on-track to reach profitability, with subscriptions to their three-month-old, ad-free service 2nd Try now accounting for 20% of the company’s revenue. Of course, those numbers also mean The Try Guys remain reliant on other revenue streams, including YouTube advertising. But in an interview […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Intelligence delays could impede iPhone 16 ‘supercycle’
When Apple unveiled its AI plans at WWDC in June, analysts suggested the feature could put the iPhone 16 on track for another “supercycle.” Like the addition of 5G before it, industry watchers believed that Apple Intelligence’s arrival might convince holdouts to bite the bullet and upgrade their device. We’ll have a much better picture […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk says Tesla has ‘no need’ to license xAI models
Elon Musk has denied a report that one of his companies, Tesla, has discussed sharing revenue with another of his companies, xAI, so that it can use the startup’s AI models. The Wall Street Journal wrote yesterday that under a proposed agreement described to investors, Tesla would use xAI models in its driver-assistance software (known […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
La French Tech gears up to go in a new direction
After weeks in political limbo, France now has a new prime minister, former EU’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. But parliament remains bitterly divided, generating uncertainty for many economic sectors — including the country’s dynamic startup ecosystem, which had so far benefited from public support. La French Tech isn’t just a term referring to France’s 25,000 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bending Spoons plans to lay off 75% of WeTransfer staff after acquisition
Italy-based app company Bending Spoons, which owns Evernote and Meetup, is planning to lay off 75% of the staff of file transfer service WeTransfer, TechCrunch has learned. Bending Spoons acquired the Dutch company in July for an undisclosed amount. The company confirmed the plans for the WeTransfer layoff to TechCrunch. The staff that is being […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta Llama: Everything you need to know about the open generative AI model
Like other generative AI models, Llama can perform a range of different assistive tasks, like coding and answering basic math questions, as well as summarizing documents in eight languages. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Event 2024: iPhone 16, Apple Intelligence and all the other expected ‘Glowtime’ reveals
Apple's Glowtime iPhone event will include the iPhone 16, but may also feature new AirPods, a new Apple Watch and possibly even new Macs. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sunamp’s thermal battery uses a chemical found in salt-and-vinegar potato chips
The startup has devised a durable way to store solar power as heat that can then be used for household heating or hot water. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The coolest startup in the Bay Area is a baseball team called the Oakland Ballers
This year, the B’s made their debut in the Pioneer League, a professional baseball organization that’s partnered with the MLB, but unlike the minor leagues, it’s not tied to any existing MLB teams. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Electro-hydraulic muscles help these robot legs stand straight on uneven terrain
Along with the ability to automatically adjust to the surface they’re traversing, the legs move faster and jump higher than their more standardized electric counterparts. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Telegram reportedly ‘inundated’ with illegal and extremist activity
A New York Times analysis of more than 3.2 million Telegram messages from 16,000 channels found that the messaging platform has been “inundated” with illegal and extremist activity. Specifically, The Times found 1,500 channels operated by white supremacists, two dozen channels selling weapons, and at least 22 channels where MDMA, cocaine, heroin and other drugs were […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky grows to 9M+ users
Bluesky keeps growing: The company announced that as of Friday morning, it had added 3 million new users, bringing its total user count to more than 9 million. In other words, the social platform’s user base has grown by around 50 percent in the week or so since a Brazilian court banned X (formerly Twitter). […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Payroll startup Warp disavows ‘affiliate’ who posted about white superiority
Warp is under the spotlight following controversial posts from an account tied to the company. On Thursday, an account posting under the name Vittorio wrote on X, “i like White people more, they do more, they are better for the roles i need to climb the kardashev scale i’ll let blacks run and play basketball.” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Canva wants you to pay a lot more for its AI features
Canva is dramatically increasing prices for some customers. Canva Teams subscribers on older pricing plans will see a 300% increase for a five-person plan, jumping from $119.99 per year to $500 per year. Users will get a 40% discount for the first 12 months before the switch takes effect. The company is pointing to its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Boeing’s Starliner performs flawless touchdown without on-board crew, program’s future remains uncertain
After months of delays and uncertainty, Boeing’s Starliner capsule has returned from the International Space Station, touching down in White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico, just after midnight on Saturday. The capsule returned autonomously to Earth without its two crew members, NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will remain aboard the station until […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Aptos CEO Mo Shaikh shares his journey to web3 and market opportunities in Asia and Middle East
TechCrunch sat down with Shaikh this week at the Korea Blockchain Week 2024 conference in Seoul to talk about Aptos' expansion; its partnerships with major Asian web2 companies; and how Aptos uses blockchain to make financial transactions seamless and cost-effective. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Startups are getting fined, or sometimes banned, by individual states
The problem, experts say, is that each state has its own complex fees, tax, and business registration requirements. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
For security, we have to stop picking up the phone
Today's scams can be as simple as picking up a phone call. To avoid the next fraud, there are good reasons to let your calls run to voicemail. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How a viral AI image catapulted a Mexican startup to a major adidas contract
Antonio Nuño, Fatima Alvarez, and Enrique Rodriguez have been friends since they were five years old. As teenagers, they became volunteers helping indigenous communities — first in Mexico, then in other countries — and saw that many of the women were artisans. The trio came to realize that these artists “made very beautiful things in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Second Byju’s auditor exits in a year as financial turmoil deepens
BDO, the auditor for Indian edtech startup Byju’s, has resigned with immediate effect, marking the second auditor departure for the embattling startup in about a year and further intensifying concerns about its financial health and governance. In a scathing resignation letter, BDO subsidiary MSKA highlighted multiple issues with Byju’s, including significant delays in financial reporting, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google to receive punishment for search monopoly by next August, says judge
A federal judge says he will deliver a punishment in Google’s antitrust case by August 2025, according to The New York Times, after ruling earlier this month that Google had abused its monopoly power over the search industry. Judge Amit P. Mehta established a timeline for the remedies phase of Google’s antirust trial during a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies. That growth has propelled OpenAI itself into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The maiden voyage of Blue Origin’s massive new rocket won’t be for NASA
The world will have to wait a little longer to see Blue Origin’s massive New Glenn rocket fly for the first time. That rocket had been scheduled to launch two spacecraft to Mars for NASA during an eight-day window that opens on October 13. But NASA announced on Friday that it was pushing the mission, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Watch live as Boeing and NASA attempt to bring empty Starliner back to Earth
After 93 days on orbit, Starliner is coming home. The spacecraft is a “go” for undocking from the International Space Station at 6:04 PM EST, though it will be leaving its two-person crew behind, and you can watch the drama unfold live. Those crew members, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, closed the hatch […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Wealthy Harris donors are reportedly pressing for ouster of FTC Chair Lina Khan
Some of Vice President Kamala Harris’s wealthier donors are informally asking for FTC Chair Lina Khan to be replaced, reports Bloomberg. It’s not really surprising: her expansive definition of antitrust enforcement has countless industries frantic, and the largest corporations opposed her appointment from the start. Khan’s FTC, which has opposed mergers that would have been […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How a cold email to a VC helped salon software startup Mangomint raise $35M
Mangomint seeks to make it easier for spa and salon owners to run their businesses. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
University of Texas opens robotics program up to incoming freshmen
The honors program is one of the first in the U.S. that allows incoming freshmen to apply for the program as part of their initial admission application. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
C-Zero is raising $18M to make emission-free hydrogen using natural gas, filings reveal
By using readily available natural gas as the feedstock, C-Zero hopes to produce emission-free hydrogen for less than other green hydrogen startups. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta will let third-party apps place calls to WhatsApp and Messenger users…in 2027
Meta on Friday published an update on how it plans to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European law that aims to promote competition in digital marketplaces, where the law concerns the company’s messaging apps, Messenger and WhatsApp. As Meta notes in a blog post, the DMA requires that it provide an option […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Roblox introduces new earning opportunities for creators, teases generative AI project
At the annual Roblox Developers Conference, the company announced on Friday a series of upcoming changes coming to the platform in the next few months and years. Most notably, Roblox is adding more ways for creators to earn money through their experiences, and the company is unveiling a project that will power generative AI creation […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to watch the iPhone 16 reveal during this year’s big Apple Event
Apple is likely to unveil its iPhone 16 series of phones and maybe even some Apple Watches at its Glowtime event on September 9. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Startups have to be clever when fighting larger rivals
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. You won’t find any Founder Mode discourse in this week’s newsletter, although the memes keep coming. Instead, here’s your usual dose of startup news, from oversized rounds, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
NFL season kicks off in Brazil, but reporters and fans can’t post on X due to nationwide ban
The Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers will face off tonight their first game of the NFL season. But this season opener is a bit different. As the league seeks to expand into international markets, the two football teams have traveled to Brazil to make history by playing the first ever regular season NFL […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VC pitch show ‘Meet the Drapers’ partners with TikTok
Venture capitalist Tim Draper’s international pitch competition, “Meet the Drapers,” is partnering up with TikTok as it heads into its seventh season. Under the new tie-up, entrepreneurs will pitch their startups to the public through the short-form video app for one of the show’s upcoming episodes. The general public will then be able to vote […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Public EV startup with an indicted CEO is looking to raise an additional $100 million
It’s tempting to think the trend of EV startups merging with special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) to go public has ended, seeing how many of them are struggling or defunct. But that’s not quite true. A startup called Thunder Power Holdings went public on the Nasdaq exchange in June through a SPAC, and is now […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: Canva faces backlash over price hikes
Some Canva customers are experiencing serious sticker shock, while the company is pointing to new AI features to justify the price hike. The company has established itself as a simpler, more affordable alternative to legacy design software, but the “more affordable” part of the equation is becoming a little less true, with some Canva Teams […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The New Data Pipeline: Fivetran, DataStax and NEA are coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
In the world of modern AI, data is more than just a resource — it’s the fundamental core that aligns decision-makers, supports processes and enables innovation. As AI applications become more robust and pervasive, the pace of such advancement is only as good as the evolution of the data infrastructure behind it. We are delighted […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Transport for London outages drag into weekend after cyberattack
In a brief update ahead of the weekend, the London transport network said it has no evidence yet that customer data was compromised. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Instagram DMs get upgraded with new features
Instagram is jazzing up the inbox by adding new features for photo editing, sticker creation, and themes. The company is trying to make Instagram more appealing as a messaging app with features to make conversations more engaging. While some of these features might not sound new, it’s all about removing friction for users that might […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Last call: Boost your brand by hosting a Side Event at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Keep the excitement of TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 alive by hosting an exclusive Side Event after hours. Don’t miss out — today is the final day to apply for free! Maximize your brand’s exposure to 10,000 Disrupt attendees and the dynamic Bay Area tech scene during “Disrupt Week” — taking place October 26 through November 1. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Students and recent grads: Last day to save on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 Student Passes
Today’s your final chance to secure your TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 Student Pass with a $200 discount! Maximize your savings by opting for the Student 4+ Bundle and bring four or more of your friends along for the experience. Prices go up after midnight, so don’t miss your opportunity to save. Now that the semester is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Real estate revolutions and beanie baby economies
The Equity podcast crew is wrapping up another eventful week, with real estate, AI agents, gambling, and secondary markets — which are, of course, a form of legalized gambling. Mary Ann Azevedo, Becca Szkutak, and Devin Coldewey started off this Friday’s episode with the acknowledgment that the X/Twitter ban situation in Brazil is possibly too […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google faces provisional antitrust charges in UK for ‘self-preferencing’ its ad exchange
More antitrust woes for Google. The U.K’.s competition watchdog said on Friday that it suspects the company of adtech antitrust abuses. The tech giant will now have a chance to respond to the provisional findings before the regulator reaches a final decision. Confirmed violations of U.K. competition law can lead to corrective orders and fines […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Karo is a to-do app that lets you assign tasks to your friends and family
You can build a reminder and task management system for yourself, and use a service that works for your team. But it might not be easy to get your family members or friends to use the same task management app. iOS app Karo (which means “do it” in Hindi) aims to solve the problem even […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s X could still face sanctions for training Grok on Europeans’ data
Earlier this week, the EU’s lead privacy regulator ended its court proceeding related to how X processed user data to train its Grok AI chatbot, but the saga isn’t over yet for the Elon Musk-owned social media platform formerly known as Twitter. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has confirmed to TechCrunch that it’s received […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Telegram quietly enables users to report private chats to moderators after founder’s arrest
Telegram has quietly updated its policy to allow users to report private chats to its moderators following the arrest of founder Pavel Durov in France over “crimes committed by third parties” on the platform. The messaging app, which serves nearly 1 billion monthly active users, has long maintained a reputation for minimal supervision of user […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Stop harassing Starlink,’ SpaceX President tells Brazilian judge
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell made a public plea to one of Brazil’s top judicial figures on Thursday, asking him to “please stop harassing Starlink” amid the ongoing battle in the country against Elon Musk’s social media business X. Musk has been engaged in a months-long dispute with the Brazilian courts, who have been waging a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OSOM is shutting down on Friday
OSOM always had a difficult road, with plans to launch a privacy-focused handset. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Salesforce acquires data management firm Own for $1.9B in cash
Salesforce has acquired Own Company, a provider of data management and protection solutions, for $1.9 billion in cash. In a press release, Salesforce GM Steve Fisher said in a statement that Own “underscores [Salesforce’s] commitment to providing secure, end-to-end solutions that protect our customers’ most valuable data.” “Data security has never been more critical, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US charges five Russian military hackers with targeting Ukraine’s government with destructive malware
The U.S. government indictment demonstrated deep knowledge of the Russian spies' activities, including their real-world meetings at a cafe in Moscow. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lyft restructures its micromobility business and Volkswagen brings ChatGPT to US vehicles
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Short week, shorter newsletter. For all the U.S.-based readers, I hope you had an enjoyable Labor Day. Before we jump into the news fray, here is one […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft gives deepfake porn victims a tool to scrub images from Bing search
The advancement of generative AI tools has created a new problem for the internet: the proliferation of synthetic nude images resembling real people. On Thursday, Microsoft took a major step to give revenge porn victims a tool to stop its Bing search engine from returning these images. Microsoft announced a partnership with StopNCII, an organization […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Driverless car-sharing startup Vay steers toward B2B services
The new business-to-business division is a bet on what co-founder and CEO Thomas von der Ohe thinks is the future of mobility. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Drip Capital, a fintech that provides working capital to SMBs, picks up $113M
Drip Capital has raised $113 million in a combination of $23 million in equity and $90 million in debt to provide credit to more small businesses in India and the U.S. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google’s AI-powered Ask Photos feature begins U.S. rollout
First announced at Google’s I/O developer conference this May, Google Photos’ AI-powered search feature, “Ask Photos,” is rolling out to users starting today. The feature, which allows users to ask the AI to find photos using more complex queries, will initially be available in “early access” to select customers in the U.S. before expanding to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Endolith is using ‘Olympic caliber’ copper microbes to address the copper shortage
The stealthily operating startup thinks it can narrow the gap by helping miners extract more copper from their mines. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
All Hands AI raises $5M to build open source agents for developers
As with many open source startups, All Hands AI expects to monetize its service by offering paid, closed-source enterprise features. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: This robotic wheelchair can climb stairs
Korea’s Institute for Machinery and Materials unveiled a pretty cool robotic wheelchair this week. By creating a compliant wheel that conforms to the terrain around it, these engineers have created an early version of a wheelchair that can climb stairs and traverse rocky terrain. The wheel uses a “smart chain” structure, which means that a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mintlify is building a next-gen platform for writing software docs
Mintlify offers a collection of documentation-authoring tools, including tools that can auto-generate docs from codebases. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
German LLM maker, Aleph Alpha, pivots to AI support
Europe doesn’t have many large language model (LLM) makers but one of these rare AI beasts — Germany’s Aleph Alpha — appears to be preparing to rule itself out of the running, per Bloomberg, which has an interview with CEO Jonas Andrulis on its pivot to a broader generative AI-support play. The idea with a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The AI industry is obsessed with Chatbot Arena, but it might not be the best benchmark
LMSYS' Chatbot Arena is perhaps the most popular AI benchmark today — and an industry obsession. But it's far from a perfect measure. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rivian’s chief software designer is coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Every automaker is aiming to build and sell the so-called software-defined vehicle. Rivian may have actually done it, but getting there wasn’t easy. Just ask Rivian’s chief of software Wassym Bensaid. In a bid to drive down manufacturing costs and improve the performance of its EVs, Rivian changed 600 parts on its flagship R1S SUV […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google expands AI-powered virtual try-on tool to include dresses
Google announced Thursday that it expanded its generative AI-powered virtual try-on tool to support dresses, allowing users to virtually wear thousands of dresses from hundreds of brands, including Boden, Maje, Sandro, Simkhai and Staud. According to the company, dresses were one of the most searched apparel categories for the tool. However, as Google explained in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zamp targets growing demand for sales tax solutions
Until six years ago, many e-commerce and SaaS businesses could have avoided paying sales tax to states where they had customers, but no physical presence. But as online shopping grew, states realized they were losing out on tax revenue. The era of free-riding for online retailers ended in 2018 when South Dakota took Wayfair to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Announcing the Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, which takes place from October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco, is rapidly approaching. Today we’re thrilled to announce the 200 startups selected to participate in this year’s Startup Battlefield 200 (SB 200) cohort. TechCrunch’s editorial staff read, vetted and debated over thousands of applications. Narrowing the group down to 200 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube to limit teens’ exposure to videos about fitness and weight across global markets
YouTube is going limit teens’ exposure to videos that promote and idealize a certain fitness level or physical appearance, the company announced on Thursday. The safeguard first rolled out in the U.S. last year and is now being introduced to teens globally. The announcement comes as YouTube has faced criticism over the past few years […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube is developing AI detection tools for music and faces, plus creator controls for AI training
YouTube on Thursday announced a new set of AI detection tools to protect creators, including artists, actors, musicians and athletes from having their likeness, including their face and voice, copied and used in other videos. One key component of the new detection technology involved the expansion of YouTube’s existing Content ID system, which today identifies […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US, UK and EU sign on to the Council of Europe’s high-level AI safety treaty
We’re not very close to any specifics on how, exactly, AI regulations will be implemented and ensured, but today a swathe of countries including the U.S., the U.K. and the European Union signed up to a treaty on AI safety laid out by the Council of Europe (COE), an international standards and human rights organization. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
French cleantech startup Calyxia nets $35M to tackle microplastics pollution
With a fresh $35M in the bank, French cleantech startup Calyxia has profitability within sight. But it's just getting started. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ZipRecruiter’s new tool will quickly match and schedule an intro call with potential candidates
Hiring platform ZipRecruiter is launching a new tool, called ZipIntro, to let employers schedule introductory calls with potential candidates at a set time. The tool will also help recruiters suggest potential candidates using AI. Employers can input information about the role and select a date and time for introductory calls. After that, ZipIntro matches them […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DJI takes another crack at palm-sized drones, and this one is $199
This week at IFA in Berlin, DJI is once again going small with the new Neo. Like the Spark before it, the drone’s ability to land in the palm of the user’s hand is a major selling point. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Portex founder Brittany Ennix learned the importance of supply chains from Uber and Flexport
Brittany Ennix launched Portex, a company that allows SMBs to connect with freight partners and manage shipments and operations in one place. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Verizon bets on fiber’s staying power as it acquires Frontier for $20B
Some major consolidation is afoot in the world of internet communications — and it will have implications for competition and consumer internet access in U.S. On Thursday, Verizon announced that it would gobble up Frontier Communications for $20 billion — more than double Frontier’s market cap at the close of trading the night before. Frontier […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sedric monitors the communications of employees at financial institutions to ensure compliance
For financial institutions, complying with regulations is becoming a costlier proposition. According to a recent poll, 76% of financial services firms increased their compliance expenditure from 2022 to 2023, with most blaming new laws. With the cost of compliance averaging out to around $10,000 per employee these days, many firms are searching for ways to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Kinsome aims to bridge the generation gap with its new app for kids and grandparents
Over a year ago, former Session M exec Eben Pingree received the news that his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Two days later, his father-in-law was given the same diagnosis. To create lasting memories and help his three young children bond with their grandparents, Pingree — along with his co-founders Mike Gerbush, Ashley Hawking, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Reonic raises €13 million to help small installers of green tech like heat pumps and solar panels
European regulators are pushing hard for greener energy. The REPowerEU plan calls for 10 million additional heat pumps to be added by 2027, and solar panels are also on the rise. But most installations are done by small businesses that could be more productive with better work processes. This is where German startup Reonic comes […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Boom’s macOS camera app lets you customize your video call appearance
As someone who talks to many people outside my time zone, I often spend at least a few minutes on a video call explaining my location, time, and weather. That information became easier to convey with a Mac app called Boom, now available as a freemium product. Boom is a bootstrapped company built by former […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Those ‘Founder mode’ memes keep coming
If you spend time on X or Threads, where snarky memes rise and fall, you’ve probably seen posts referencing “founder mode” over the last few days, like this: https://www.threads.net/@carnage4life/post/C_eaQAxyIcV Or maybe this: You may even have seen this parody about “goblin mode.” The chatter ties to a recent blog post that Y Combinator founder and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Andreessen Horowitz shutters its Miami office after two years
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has closed a satellite office in Miami Beach just two years into a five-year lease it signed for an 8,300-square-foot space. The reason? Disuse, reports Bloomberg. Miami — once a hotspot for crypto, an area of interest for a16z — has struggled to retain venture cash and entrepreneurial talent in recent years, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Boeing and NASA prepare to bring Starliner home without its crew on Friday
These final maneuvers will bring to a close a troubled first crewed mission for the Boeing-made Starliner. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Facebook says, ‘How do you do, fellow kids?’
Back in my day, Facebook was cool. Gaggles of middle schoolers trolled the local mall, where we would stop into the Apple Store, find an early MacBook Pro, and take dozens of pictures with gaudy Photo Booth filters to post on Facebook. Sometimes, other teens would forget to log out of their accounts, and we […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
E-bike maker Cowboy raises a small funding round as it targets profitability next year
Cowboy has closed funding of around $5.5 million. With this recent funding round, Cowboy is now valued at €40 million on a pre-money basis. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Paylocity acquiring corporate spend startup Airbase for $325M
HR and payroll software company Paylocity has agreed to acquire corporate spend startup Airbase for $325 million, the companies announced Wednesday. The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the first or second quarter of Paylocity’s fiscal year, which would be sometime in the next 30 to 60 days. It’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Publishers prevail in lawsuit over Internet Archive’s unauthorized ebook lending
A long-running lawsuit over the Internet Archive’s “emergency” ebook lending practices during the COVID-19 pandemic has ended in a loss for the website and a victory for publishers. The lawsuit concerned the Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library, a program it established at the beginning of the pandemic to allow wider access to some 1.3 million […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ryan Breslow’s lofty $450M Bolt deal is in trouble
Ryan Breslow’s plan to get himself re-installed as CEO of fintech company Bolt — and push through a $450 million fundraising deal that would value the startup at a staggering $14 billion — has apparently stalled. According to Forbes, Breslow sent an email to shareholders thanking them for signing off on the deal. The problem is that many […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Short series app My Drama takes on Character.AI with its new AI companions
Maybe a lack of AI characters is what Quibi got wrong. At least, that’s what one startup appears to believe. My Drama is a new short series app with over 30 shows, with a majority of them following a soap opera format in order to hook viewers. The app is now launching an AI-powered chatbot […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Woman who allegedly killed two people using Ford BlueCruise charged with DUI homicide
A 23-year-old woman who allegedly killed two men in March while using Ford’s hands-free system, BlueCruise, has been charged with DUI homicide by Pennsylvania State Police. The woman, Dimple Patel, turned herself in on Tuesday. Patel was also charged with homicide by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, tampering with evidence, careless driving, reckless driving and prohibited text-based […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X is hiring staff for security and safety after two years of layoffs
The hiring effort comes after X, formerly known as Twitter, laid off 80% of its trust and safety staff since Musk's takeover. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: VCs (and devs) are enthusiastic about AI coding tools
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. This week in AI, two startups developing tools to generate and suggest code — Magic and Codeium — raised nearly half a billion dollars combined. The rounds were high even by AI sector standards, especially considering […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Cosmos Institute, whose founding fellows include Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark, launches grant programs and an AI lab
The Cosmos Institute, a nonprofit whose founding fellows include Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark and former Defense Department technologist Brendan McCord, has announced a venture program and research initiatives to — in the organization’s words — “cultivate a new generation of technologists and entrepreneurs equipped with deep philosophical thinking to navigate the uncharted territory of our […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As remote working keeps rolling, Oyster raises $59M Series D at $1.2B valuation
No one is putting the remote working genie back in the bottle. Which is good news for Oyster, a payroll and HR platform that specializes in distributed workforces – or “global employment” as its marketing paints it. The 2019-founded U.S. startup has just closed a $59 million Series D funding round led by Silver Lake […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: X lost 40 million monthly active users after Brazil ban
Bluesky has gained 2 million new users over the last week, which can only mean one thing: something fishy is going on at X. And, indeed, X was banned in Brazil, which means the platform will lose an estimated 40 million monthly active users. The dispute between X and the Brazilian government started in April, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tinder update targets college students as dating apps struggle
For the college students who are satisfied with dating apps, which may not be many, Tinder announced Wednesday a series of updates to Tinder U, its in-app feature that caters to current college students ages 18 to 24. This includes new badges to add to their profiles, such as graduation year, major, clubs, and Greek […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube debuts new parental controls aimed at teens
Once linked, parents will be alerted to their teen's channel activity, including the number of uploads, subscriptions and comments. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ireland’s privacy watchdog ends legal fight with X over data use for AI after it agrees to permanent limits
The exact contents of X's (now permanent) undertaking with the DPC have not been made public, but it's assumed the agreement limits how it can use people's data. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X doubles down on video with a new TV app
Years ago, Twitter tried but eventually walked away from building TV apps after getting a lukewarm reception. Now, as it looks to revive its advertising business, its new incarnation X is hoping for a rerun. The company announced a new TV app available “on several app stores” as part of a wider effort to court […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple event 2024: How to watch the iPhone 16 launch
Apple is likely to unveil its iPhone 16 series of phones and maybe even some Apple Watches at its Glowtime event on September 9. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Watch this robot wheelchair’s compliant wheels take on bumps, rocks and stairs
Korea’s Institute for Machinery and Materials this week showcased a robotic wheelchair with large, deformable wheels that can manage rocks, stairs and other obstacles. During normal operation, the wheel maintains a standard rigid circular form. When it encounters an obstacle, however, it becomes compliant, conforming to the object’s height and shape. The system, which also […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mayfield allocates $100M to AI incubator modeled after its entrepreneur-in-residence program
Mayfield is launching AI Garage, a $100 million initiative for ideation-stage founders interested in building "AI teammate" companies. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anthropic launches Claude Enterprise plan to compete with OpenAI
Anthropic is launching a new subscription plan for its AI chatbot, Claude, catered towards enterprise customers that want more administrative controls and increased security.Claude Enterprise will compete with OpenAI’s business-specific solution, ChatGPT Enterprise, released roughly a year ago.Claude Enterprise allows businesses to upload proprietary company knowledge into Anthropic’s AI chatbot.
Students and recent grads: Only 3 days left to save on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 Student Passes
Time is running out to take advantage of our Student Pass discount for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Students and recent graduates can still save up to $200 until September 6 at 11:59 p.m. PT. With classes back in full swing and the job market tougher than ever for recent grads, we know how tight money can […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Slauson & Co. raises $100M Fund II proving appetite for inclusion persists
Fast forward to today, Slauson & Co. remains even more committed to the mission of inclusivity in its funding, and it seems limited partners have its back. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ilya Sutskever’s startup, Safe Superintelligence, raises $1B
Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the AI startup co-founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, has raised over $1 billion in capital from investors including NFDG (an investment partnership run by Nat Friedman and SSI CEO Daniel Gross), a16z, Sequoia, DST Global and SV Angel. SSI told Reuters that it plans to use the tranche to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DubClub wants amateur sports betters to win more
The American sports betting market produced $10.9 billion in revenue in 2023 for casinos, sportsbooks and iGaming, according to the American Gambling Association. One of the reasons this industry is so lucrative is because the majority of people who bet on sports lose. A three-year-old San Francisco-based startup called DubClub is trying to change that. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Dutch clean energy investor SET Ventures lands new €200 million fund, which will go toward digital tech
New climate tech VC firms have emerged in recent years, but existing ones are also raising larger funds. Founded in 2007, Dutch firm SET Ventures is one of the latter. Its fourth fund, which just closed at €200 million, is twice the size of its previous one, and will be deployed into 20 to 25 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Revefi seeks to automate companies’ data operations
Revefi connects to a company's data stores and databases (e.g. Snowflake, Databricks and so on) and attempts to automatically detect and troubleshoot data-related issues. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
You.com ‘refocuses’ from AI search to deeper productivity agents with new $50M round
If you build an AI search product, you compete with Google. But Google has a lot easier time answering queries with a single, simple answer, such as “how many is a dozen?” than it does answering complex questions like “what influence did Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ have on Enlightenment ideals?” That’s why You.com is betting […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
reMarkable’s Paper Pro adds color, light and more but keeps the focus on ‘focus’
The $499 Paper Pro — a new naming convention to indicate it is a higher-end alternative to the now-$379 reMarkable 2, not a direct successor — is momentous for its addition of both color and a "frontlight," though both features are what you might call muted. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK regulator greenlights Microsoft’s Inflection acquihire, but also designates it a merger
Good news for Microsoft: The U.K.’s antitrust regulator says that the tech titan’s high-profile acquihire of the team behind AI startup Inflection doesn’t cause competition concerns, and thus it won’t be pursuing a full-scale investigation. However, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says that the deal does fall under its regulatory purview as a “relevant […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why Lyft’s CEO says ‘it would be insane’ not to go all in on bikeshare
In the summer of 2023, Lyft was contemplating the sale of its micromobility business after receiving strong interest from prospective buyers. Today, the ride-hail company is doubling down on its docked scooter and bikeshare operations, positioning itself as the ideal partner for cities looking to enhance their urban transportation networks. Since acquiring shared bike and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How Apple Intelligence is changing the way you use Siri on your iPhone
Here’s a look at what’s going to change with Siri, and what the introduction of Apple Intelligence will allow you to do with the digital assistant. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What is Apple Intelligence, when is it coming and who will get it?
Apple Intelligence was designed to leverage things that generative AI already does well, like text and image generation, to improve upon existing features. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify launches its evolving playlist, daylist, globally
Spotify is launching daylist globally. It’s a personalized playlist that evolves throughout the day depending on your listening habits. This rollout comes after the company introduced it first to English-speaking markets last year. The playlist will be available to both free and premium users. The company said it is also adding support for 14 additional […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Impact investors FMO and BlueOrchard back Ghana’s digital lender Fido in $30M Series B round
Digital lending platforms have become an easy and swift alternative source of credit for microenterprises and individuals overlooked by traditional banking institutions. These platforms have turned into a lifeline for millions of underbanked and demand will keep growing, pushing the value of the digital lending platform market in the Middle East and Africa to reach […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
PharmEasy still 92% below its peak $5.6 billion valuation, investor estimates
Indian online pharmacy startup PharmEasy, once valued at $5.6 billion, is still about 92% below its peak valuation, according to estimates by its investor Janus Henderson. According to the British-American global asset firm, which disclosed how it values its shares in the Indian startup in a securities filing, PharmEasy’s implied valuation at the end of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
From their experiences at Uber and PayPal, Palm founders want to make moving cash easier for big companies
Palm launched in 2023 with the goal of making cash management for enterprise treasury teams easier. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Canva has increased prices for its Teams product
Canva, the design platform, is increasing prices steeply for some customers. And it’s blaming the move in part on generative AI. In the U.S., some Canva Teams subscribers on older pricing plans are seeing the sticker price for a five-person plan jump from $119.99 per year to $500 per year (with a 40% discount for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Event 2024: iPhone 16, Apple Intelligence and all the other expected ‘Glowtime’ reveals
Apple's Glowtime iPhone event will include the iPhone 16, but may also feature new AirPods, a new Apple Watch and possibly even new Macs. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snap CEO says the company is testing a ‘simplified’ Snapchat
Snap is testing a “simplified version of Snapchat,” CEO Evan Spiegel wrote in a letter to employees published on Snap’s website Tuesday. The CEO says the simplified version aims to improve the platform’s accessibility and usability. For those that remember Snapchat’s 2018 redesign, this news may do little to stoke confidence. Spiegel attempted to rally […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Neko Health, the body-scanning AI health startup from Spotify’s Daniel Ek, opens in London
Prevention is better than cure, as the saying goes. Today, a splashy startup that has taken that concept to heart — literally and figuratively — is expanding. Neko Health was co-founded by Spotify’s Daniel Ek and Hjalmar Nilsonne with a mission to improve preventative healthcare with annual full body scans and AI-powered insights that can […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bitcoin ATMs are a hotbed for scams, FTC says
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a report about increasing fraud at Bitcoin ATMs. These ATMs allow people to turn their cash into crypto, but they’ve become a tool for scammers to perpetrate fraud. Since 2020, the FTC says, fraud at Bitcoin ATMs has ballooned nearly tenfold, and just in the first half of 2024, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Volkswagen is rolling out its ChatGPT assistant to the US
Volkswagen is taking its ChatGPT voice assistant experiment on the road. Or more, specifically to vehicles it sells in the United States. The German automaker announced in January at CES 2024 plans to add an AI-powered chatbot into all Volkswagen models equipped with its IDA voice assistant. But the U.S. was excluded in that initial […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Learn startup best practices with MongoDB, Venture Backed, InterSystems and others at Disrupt 2024
From idea to IPO, Disrupt charts startups at every stage on the roadmap to their next breakthrough. TechCrunch will gather some of the startup world’s leading companies — but our partners provide more than just financial support. Their presence at Disrupt gives new and prospective founders the tools, knowledge and community they need to build […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Android’s latest update improves text-to-speech, Circle to Search, earthquake alerts and more
Android introduced five updates on Tuesday as part of its latest release of the mobile operating system. Available for smartphones, tablets, and Wear OS watches, the new features include audio descriptions of images, text-to-speech technology for web pages in Chrome, and the ability to look up songs with “Circle to Search,” among other things. Initially […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Android 15 will be available on supported Pixel devices in the coming weeks
Google announced on Tuesday it’s releasing Android 15 and making its source code available ahead of the coming consumer launch, which will bring the new mobile operating system to supported Pixel devices in the coming weeks. The company also revealed that Android 15 will launch on select devices from Samsung, Honor, iQOO, Lenovo, Motorola, Nothing, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky continues to soar, adding 2M more new users in a matter of days
As new users downloaded the app, Bluesky jumped to becoming the app to No. 1 in Brazil over the weekend, ahead of Meta's X competitor, Instagram Threads. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The flat-rate real estate startup that’s got big players worried and BNPL’s turning a corner
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at a new real estate startup that’s making big waves with its offering, Klarna and Affirm’s financials, a neobank focused on immigrants that’s growing fast, and more! To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Tuesday at 8:00 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As more Instagram users engage with Stories, the app adds a comments feature
Instagram’s latest feature aims to boost user interaction within Stories. The social media platform now allows followers to comment on each other’s Stories, making the experience more community-focused, akin to livestreaming where users can engage in larger discussions. A few users have already spotted the feature, including marketing strategist Taylor Loren (@taylor.loren on Threads). Meta […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Dragonfly Capital, Galaxy Ventures and NFX share insights on crypto scaling and strategy at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Curious about how top venture capitalists are positioning themselves for the next wave in the crypto market? Dragonfly Capital’s Haseeb Qureshi, Galaxy Ventures’ Will Nuelle, and NFX’s Morgan Beller will share their perspectives on the Fintech Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Get a rare glimpse into the evolving strategies, general consensus and anticipated trends of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Announcing the final agenda for the Builders Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Get ready for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, our signature event for startups, happening at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30. This year, we’re expecting a massive turnout of 10,000 leaders from the startup and VC community. Exciting news! We’re thrilled to unveil the complete agenda for the Builders Stage, the culmination of months of hard […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotter launches AI tools to help YouTubers brainstorm video ideas, thumbnails and more
Spotter, the startup that provides financial solutions to content creators, announced Tuesday the launch of its new AI-powered creative suite. Dubbed Spotter Studio, the solution aims to support YouTubers throughout the creative process, such as helping them brainstorm video concepts, generate thumbnail and title ideas, plan projects, organize tasks, and collaborate with their team. Most notably, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former Citi, Battery VC has new $378M fund that helps startups land Prudential, Mutual of Omaha, others as investors and customers
This second fund is significant because Gupta expanded it beyond a corporate fund with one main LP – Prudential Financial – into one supported by a number of financial and insurance LPs. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Halliburton confirms data was stolen in ongoing cyberattack
The oil and fracking giant says it is "working to identify effects" of the ongoing cyberattack on its oil and fracking operations. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk’s Brazil battle wages on
Is Elon’s rumble in the Amazonian jungle on course for a technical knockout? Over the weekend, the Brazilian high court voted to uphold a ban on X that another judge issued the week before for failing to comply with take-down requests. The court will issue fines of up to $9,000 to those who use VPNs to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Oxylus Energy strikes “beautiful balance” to make e-fuels for aviation and shipping
Flexible green methanol, which is made without fossil fuels, could rid carbon pollution from a range of industries. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Xavier Niel replaces Coatue’s Laffont on board of TikTok parent ByteDance
French billionaire Xavier Niel is joining the board of directors of TikTok’s parent, ByteDance, the company told the South China Morning Post. It’s an interesting move as Niel isn’t a name that comes up very often for high-profile board positions. He is replacing Philippe Laffont, the founder of the New York-based investment firm Coatue Management, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Clearview AI hit with its largest GDPR fine yet as Dutch regulator considers holding execs personally liable
The Netherlands' data protection authority has imposed a penalty of €30.5M on Clearview AI for GDPR violations. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X lets you edit DMs — here is how to use the feature
X, the social network owned by Elon Musk, is finally rolling out one of the most sought-after features for direct messages: the ability to edit the message. Over the weekend, X made the edit message feature available to iOS users. One of the engineers at the company posted about the roll-out and said the edit […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ziina banks $22M as growth explodes for the UAE-based fintech for small businesses
The Dubai-based startup, which now counts 50,000 retail and business customers in the UAE, has netted $22 million led by Altos Ventures. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Laptop-leasing startup Fleet wants to become the IT companion for small companies
Fleet is launching several software services on top of its hardware-as-a-service proposition, from device management to cybersecurity and insurance. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Payroll startup Cercli inks $4M to build the “Rippling for the Middle East and North Africa”
The potential of Cercli's payroll platform has attracted investor interest, leading to $4 million in seed funding. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Hospital at home’ startup Doccla raises $46 million for its European expansion
Hospitals around the world regularly face bed shortages — an issue that can get exacerbated to breaking point when a health scare or other large-scale disaster occurs. A startup called Doccla is bringing technology to bear address the issue: it’s building “virtual bed” tech to help doctors remotely manage patients who have either been discharged […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
BigEndian founders hope to use their deep chip experience to help establish India in semiconductors
India's fabless semiconductor startup BigEndian has raised $3 million in a seed round led by Vertex Ventures SEA and India. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SparkLabs closes $50M fund to back AI startups
SparkLabs — an early-stage venture capital firm that has made a name for itself for backing OpenAI as well as a host of other AI startups such as Vectara, Allganize, Kneron, Anthropic, xAI, Glade (YC S23) and Lucidya AI — is gearing up to double down more startups in the space. The VC firm announced […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Accel, Docker and Redis will discuss what’s next in open source as a business model at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
As companies grapple with the challenge of developing a sustainable business without sacrificing their core principles, open source has evolved from a niche approach to software development into the business model of many successful tech companies. Its principles of transparency and collaboration have fueled innovation, but balancing these ideals with the practical demands of leading […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Enhance your brand at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 by hosting a Side Event
Whether it’s a sophisticated cocktail party, a casual happy hour, a niche meetup, or a skill-building workshop, “Disrupt Week” offers you the flexibility to host a Side Event that truly represents your brand. Take advantage of this opportunity to increase your brand visibility in front of over 10,000 TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 attendees and the vibrant […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A16z’s Joshua Lu says AI is already radically changing video games and Discord is the future
After joining the firm as an investor in 2022, Lu has seen how AI and new distribution platforms are changing the industry for the better. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Students and recent grads: 5 days left to save on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 tickets
Only 5 days remain to grab a $200 discount on Student Passes for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. This special offer ends on September 6 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Don’t miss out! Now that classes are back in session, it’s normal to feel the pressure of rising expenses. Or maybe you’ve recently graduated and are hunting for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sign or veto: What’s next for California’s AI disaster bill, SB 1047?
The tech industry has responded with a resounding outcry against SB 1047. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CrowdStrike faces onslaught of legal action from faulty software update
Even before Delta came forward, shareholders were looking for their pound of flesh, filing a class action lawsuit against CrowdStrike. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Want to branch out beyond Google? Here are some search engines worth checking out
If you have never considered a search engine beyond Google, you might be surprised to see what else is out there. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Customers of Indian crypto exchange WazirX unlikely to recover full funds
Customers of WazirX, the Indian cryptocurrency exchange that suffered a $234 million hack in July, are unlikely to recover their funds in full through the ongoing restructuring process, a company legal adviser said on Monday. George Gwee, a director at restructuring firm Kroll working with WazirX, said that at least 43% of the money any […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Validus, a Singapore-based digital SME lending platform, secures $50M debt financing to help enterprises in Indonesia
Validus, a Singapore-based digital lending platform for small and medium businesses, has secured $50 million in debt financing from HSBC under the ASEAN Growth Fund strategy. Validus will use the proceeds to support the financial inclusion of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia, addressing the challenges they face in accessing financial resources. With […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple may ditch those old familiar USB-A ports in the new Mac mini
The Mac mini will be the next Apple device to say goodbye to USB-A, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Apple customers have probably gotten used to seeing the familiar, rectangular USB-A ports replaced with their thinner USB-C siblings. And while USB-C has its advantages, the transition can sometimes leave users confused and scrambling for adapters. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The case against AI art
No matter who powerful generative AI becomes, writer Ted Chiang says it will never create true art. Chiang is one of the most admired science fiction authors writing today, best known for the novella “Story Of Your Life” (which was adapted into the movie “Arrival”). But he’s also published terrific pieces for The New Yorker […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Palantir’s CTO, and 13th employee, has become a secret weapon for Valley defense tech startups
Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar is determined to help Palantir become a driving force for defense tech startups. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Palantir’s CTO, and 13th employee, has become a secret weapon for Valley defense tech startups
Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar is determined to help Palantir become a driving force for defense tech startups. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Emotion AI’ may be the next trend for business software, and that could be problematic
As businesses experiment with embedding AI everywhere, one area starting to gain more attention is Emotion AI. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why do so many home robots still suck?
Home robots’ unfulfilled potential is neither because of lack of demand on the part of consumers nor lack of effort from manufacturers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
From InstaDeep to Paystack: Here are Africa’s biggest startup exits and how much they raised
As we continue to monitor the growth of Africa's tech ecosystem, it’s essential to highlight and analyze the biggest disclosed acquisitions. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bolt reportedly threatens legal action against Silverbear Capital
In the latest twist in Bolt’s aggressive fundraising efforts, the fintech company’s CEO appears to have made a veiled threat of legal action against Silverbear Capital, the investment bank whose involvement in the deal remains in some dispute. “We believe there was some internal miscommunication at Silverbear Capital, one of our lead investors, which has […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky tops app charts and sees ‘all-time-highs’ after Brazil bans X
A Brazilian court’s decision to ban X (formerly Twitter) seems to benefiting its rivals, especially Bluesky. The microblogging platform announced late Friday that it was seeing “all-time-highs for activity” with 500,000 new users joining in the previous two days. It’s also number one on the free iPhone app chart in Brazil today, ranking just ahead […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Is OpenAI worth $100B?
OpenAI could reportedly increase its valuation to $100 billion. Nvidia and Apple are apparently in talks to contribute to the company’s next fundraising round, and Thrive Capital would lead the deal should it happen, according to The New York Times. OpenAI’s annualized revenue reportedly eclipsed $3.4 billion early this year, but it’s said to be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon hires the founders of AI robotics startup Covariant
Amazon announced Friday evening that it has hired Covariant’s founders — Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, and Rocky Duan — along with “about a quarter” of the startup’s employees. It’s also signed a non-exclusive license to use Covariant’s robotic foundation models. Earlier this year, Chen told TechCrunch that Covariant is building “a large language model, but […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Grammy CEO says music industry also has AI concerns
The rise of AI has consumed the arts, just as it has Silicon Valley. Everyone is pondering: Will AI replace me? © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Before Midjourney, there was NightCafe — and it’s still kicking
Learn about NightCafe's origins, some of the challenges the platform faces, and where NighCafe will evolve from here. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI brings a whole new dimension to the challenge of organizational transformation
Organizations are people and people are messy, and you have to look beyond the tech to the end goal: implementing new software that could transform the business. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Watch out for these 10 hot startups from South Korea
Most of the biggest South Korean tech startups intend to pursue public offerings in either South Korea or the United States as part of their exit strategy. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Top court orders ban on Elon Musk’s X in Brazil
A top court in Brazil ordered an immediate, country-wide suspension of the X platform on Friday after a months-long legal battle with Elon Musk’s social media company over content moderation, according to Bloomberg. Earlier this month, X closed its operations in Brazil in protest against court orders asking it to remove accounts that allegedly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Investors are already valuing OpenAI at over $100B on the secondaries market
OpenAI is in talks to raise a new round of funding at an eye-popping $100 billion-plus valuation, sources told the Wall Street Journal this week. It turns out investors have already proven they are willing to value the company that high to get on OpenAI’s coveted cap table. Multiple companies that track or facilitate secondaries […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
California AI bill SB 1047 aims to prevent AI disasters, but Silicon Valley warns it will cause one
SB 1047 has drawn the ire of Silicon Valley players large and small, including venture capitalists, big tech trade groups, researchers and startup founders. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Carta’s ill-fated secondaries business finally found a buyer
Stock-trading startup Public has acquired the brokerage accounts of Carta’s secondaries business, TechCrunch has confirmed. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Redfin is already trying to defend against a new flat-fee real estate startup
Redfin is responding to a new startup that is hoping to upend the way people search for and buy homes by offering a flat-see service. On August 29, TechCrunch reported that a startup called Landian had emerged from stealth to offer homebuyers a way to tour and make offers on homes through a flat-fee service, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple stands by decision to terminate account belonging to WWDC student winner
Apple moved to terminate the Appstun developer account after multiple rejections of its app that Apple says violates its App Store guidelines. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Airbnb and fashion app By Rotation partner for free destination wedding outfits
By Rotation has a partnership with Airbnb to let those who’ve booked an Airbnb receive a complimentary outfit rental. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The org behind the data set used to train Stable Diffusion claims it has removed CSAM
LAION, the German research org that created the data used to train Stable Diffusion, among other generative AI models, has released a new data set that it claims has been “thoroughly cleaned of known links to suspected child sexual abuse material (CSAM).” The new data set, Re-LAION-5B, is actually a re-release of an old data […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
North Korean hackers exploited Chrome zero-day to steal crypto
The North Korean hackers’ attack started by tricking a victim into visiting a web domain under the hackers' control. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fundraising is a lot easier when you have traction
Some stories emerge and die in a matter of days. Others require us to stay tuned for more, and this week brought us several of these. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google rolls out safeguards for more of its AI products ahead of the US presidential election
Google is gearing up for the upcoming U.S. presidential election by rolling out safeguards for more of its generative AI products. Although the company already previously announced that it would restrict Gemini queries related to the election, it’s now applying additional restrictions to its other generative AI products. These safeguards will be applied to Search […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hello Wonder is building an AI-powered browser for kids
Across the world, regulators have ramped up their efforts to try and increase the safety of kids on the internet. Major social networks are facing scrutiny, and as a countermeasure, trying to roll out tools to protect kids. The core issue in the focus is the content that shows up on children’s screens and how […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: Plaud’s NotePin is a wearable, AI-powered notetaker
Startups aren’t giving up on the idea of AI-powered pins, with the latest device from Plaud focused on just one task: taking notes. A few months ago, companies like Humane and Rabbit launched their own gadgets powered by generative AI. It’s probably too early to fully write off any of those companies or products, but […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former Riot Games employees leverage generative AI to power NPCs in new video game
Jam & Tea Studios is the latest gaming startup implementing generative AI to transform the way players interact with non-playable characters (NPCs) in video games. Traditionally, video game NPCs are directed by predetermined scripts, which can feel repetitive, unrealistic, and boring. It also may restrict the number of potential experiences for players. However, when generative […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elle Family Office and Keebeck Wealth Management are coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Traditionally seen as private financial entities, family offices are key players in the supply of venture capital, using startup investments as a way to diversify their portfolios and engage with groundbreaking technologies. Catch Eti Lazarian, principal of Elle Family Office, and Bruce Lee, CEO and founder of Keebeck Wealth Management, on the Builder’s Stage at […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Be a volunteer at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San Francisco is just two months away, and we’re still looking for enthusiastic and driven volunteers to assist our events team. Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of something big! If you aspire to be a startup founder, marketer or event coordinator, this experience is a rare chance to see […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Last Day: Exhibit your startup with big savings at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Don’t miss out! Today is the last day to apply and scale your Series A to B startup at a significantly reduced exhibit cost with the ScaleUp Startup Exhibitor Package. Maximize your startup’s exposure without stretching the budget. Pay just a fraction of the regular exhibit price and showcase your Series A to B startup […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Dailyhunt parent VerSe’s valuation gets slashed 42% to $2.9B: investor note
Indian tech and media startup VerSe, which operates popular news aggregator Dailyhunt, is worth about 42% below its last private valuation, according to estimates by its investor 360 One. The wealth and asset manager disclosed in a June update to its investors that it values VerSe at $2.9 billion, according to an internal document reviewed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Uber drives deeper into South Korea to take on Kakao Mobility
After seeing double-digit growth in South Korea, Uber Technologies has announced a strategic plan to double down in the country — directly challenging market leader Kakao Mobility, the ride-hailing unit majority-owned South Korean messaging and tech giant Kakao. Uber chief executive officer Dara Khosrowshahi outlined the plans in a press conference in Seoul, where he […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TikTok’s new ‘Manage Topics’ tool gives you more control over your For You feed, here’s how to use it
TikTok is introducing a new “Manage Topics” feature that will give you more control over what you see on your For You feed, the company announced on Friday. The new feature is rolling out to users in the U.S. With the new tool, you can tailor your For You feed to show you more or […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google is working on AI that can hear signs of sickness
Given everything you’ve already heard about AI, you may not be surprised to learn that Google is among other outfits beginning to use sound signals to predict early signs of disease. How? According to Bloomberg, Google has trained its foundation AI model with 300 million pieces of audio that included coughs, sniffles, and labored breathing, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple and Nvidia could be OpenAI’s next big investors
Nvidia and Apple are reportedly in talks to contribute to OpenAI’s next fundraising round — a round that could value the ChatGPT maker at $100 billion. Per its sources, the New York Times says earlier OpenAI investor Thrive Capital would lead the deal should it happen. (Bloomberg was the first to report Nvidia’s involvement, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s Agrim snags $17.3M to help farmers get inputs like seeds and pesticides more easily
Agrim has raised $17.3 million to expand its B2B agri-inputs platform to more manufacturers and retailers in India. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Intuitive Machines wins $116.9M contract for a moon mission in 2027
Intuitive Machines, the venture-backed startup that went public last year, will send a moon lander to the lunar south pole in 2027 as part of a $116.9 million contract awarded by NASA on Thursday. This is NASA’s tenth award under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program; of these, four have gone to Intuitive Machines. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
South Korean tech giant Naver launches crypto wallet in partnership with Chiliz
Many tech companies are expanding their reach into the web3 market, integrating blockchain and web3 technologies into their products and services. In the latest development, South Korean internet giant Naver is launching its first digital asset wallet, Naver Pay Wallet, for the Korean market. It is partnering with Chiliz, a blockchain provider for sports and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Atlassian acquires Rewatch as it gets into AI meeting bots
Atlassian plans to integrate Rewatch into its recently launched Rovo AI platform so that transcripts become searchable within the overall business context. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sub.club aims to fund the fediverse via premium feeds
Sub.club thinks premium feeds could also serve other use cases, like supporting helpful bots or generating funds to help maintain a community's Mastodon server, for instance. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gmail users on Android can now chat with Gemini about their emails
Gmail users on Android devices can now chat directly with Google’s AI assistant, Gemini, about their emails in the Gmail app. Google rolled out the new feature, Gmail Q&A, on Thursday to users who pay for Gemini, according to a blog post, and announced the feature would be coming to iOS devices. With Gmail Q&A, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla keeps putting its digital history in the memory hole
It seems that the Ministry of Truth has been busy at Tesla. Some sharp-eyed folks, including reporters at Electrek, noticed that Tesla has deleted all of its blog posts prior to 2019. Those blog posts are a digital history of the company, covering everything from CEO Elon Musk’s original master plan, to the first Autopilot […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Spotify points finger at Apple over an unwelcome change to volume control technology
When streaming to connected devices via Spotify Connect on iOS, users were previously able to use the physical buttons on their iPhone to adjust the volume. But this will no longer work. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Generative AI coding startup Magic lands $320M investment from Eric Schmidt, Atlassian and others
Magic, an AI startup developing models to generate code and automate a range of software development tasks, says that it’s raised a large tranche of cash from investors including ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt. In a blog post this morning, Magic said that it closed a $320 million funding round with contributions from Schmidt, Jane Street, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Uber cozies up to more AV companies, Canoo loses another founder and Waymo sees potential in teen riders
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! The EV industry sure is rough and tumble these days. And it’s affecting every company, from the legacy automakers like Ford to the upstarts. Take Polestar, for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Sports gets updated ahead of football season with Live Activities, play-by-play and more
Ahead of the NFL and college football (NCAAF) seasons, Apple announced new updates for its sports-focused app, including Live Activities for all leagues, a new “dynamic drive tracker” that visualizes where the ball is on the field, as well as support for play-by-play of football games. Launched in February, Apple Sports is a free iOS […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X caught blocking links to NPR, claiming the news site may be ‘unsafe’
X, the Elon Musk-owned platform formerly known as Twitter, is marking some links to news organization NPR’s website as “unsafe” when users click through to read the latest story about an altercation between a Trump campaign staffer and an Arlington National Cemetry employee. The warning being displayed is typically applied to malicious links, like those […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple event 2024: How to watch the iPhone 16 launch
Apple is likely to unveil its iPhone 16 series of phones and maybe even some Apple Watches at its Glowtime event on September 9. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: Here’s why AI has a hard time spelling ‘strawberry’
Is AI going to take my job one day? I hope not. But in the meantime, I can do something that ChatGPT can’t: I can spell the word “strawberry.” Once again, some posts are circulating around social media that expose how high-powered AI text generators fail to know how to count, for example, how many […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GitHub Copilot competitor Codeium raises $150M at a $1.25B valuation
Codeium, a startup developing an AI-powered tool to rival GitHub Copilot, has raised $150 million at a $1.25 billion valuation. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Flying through Sea-Tac’s hacked airport
Several days after the Port of Seattle announced a “possible” cyberattack on its systems, Sea-Tac Airport is still largely offline, causing chaos among travelers and acting as a standing warning against taking security lightly. Ask me how I know. The outage resulting from the recent hack has not, fortunately, caused planes to fall out of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The guy who sued NAR over real estate fees has co-founded a startup
One of the people who successfully sued the National Association of Realtors (NAR) to change real estate commissions has co-founded a new real estate startup. It all began in 2017 when Josh Sitzer and his wife listed their home for sale in Kansas City. The couple was frustrated by the fact they had to pay […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Two Oxford PhDs are building an app to let you remix photos into memes
Earlier this month, Google released a new feature with the Pixel 9 series phone to let users add the photographer in the group photo by swapping someone out and taking another photo. A new social network by a duo of Oxford PhDs is working on an app to let you add friends to a photo […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta now allows preteens to explore Horizon Worlds with parent’s permission
Meta is now letting preteens with parent-managed accounts explore different experiences in its online virtual reality (VR) platform, Horizon Worlds, with certain restrictions in place. The company announced that parents will soon be able to approve age-appropriate worlds they’d like their preteens (aged 10 to 12) to experience, including hanging out in The Space Station, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
IBM Cloud to offer Intel’s Gaudi 3 AI chips next year
Intel has found its first -- and perhaps only -- cloud customer for its Gaudi 3 AI accelerator chips: IBM Cloud. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Russian government hackers found using exploits made by spyware companies NSO and Intellexa
Google said the findings were an example of how exploits developed by spyware makers can end up in the hands of "dangerous threat actors." © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Social network Butterflies AI adds a feature that turns you into an AI character
Butterflies AI, the new social network where humans and AIs interact with each other, is launching a new Clones feature that turns you into an AI character. This latest addition builds on a feature launched to the public back in June that lets users create AI personas, called Butterflies, that automatically create posts on the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK’s Wayve secures strategic investment from Uber to further develop self-driving tech
Uber is making a strategic investment into Wayve as an extension of the U.K.-born startup’s previously announced $1.05 billion Series C round. The partnership will also see the two companies work with automakers to integrate Wayve’s AI into consumer vehicles that will one day operate on the ride-hail giant’s platform. The tie-up comes a week […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK’s Wayve secures strategic investment from Uber to further develop self-driving tech
Uber is making a strategic investment into Wayve as an extension of the U.K.-born startup’s previously announced $1.05 billion Series C round. The partnership will also see the two companies work with automakers to integrate Wayve’s AI into consumer vehicles that will one day operate on the ride-hail giant’s platform. The tie-up comes a week […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
France formally charges Telegram founder, Pavel Durov, over organized crime on messaging app
After spending four days in police custody, the founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, was put under formal investigation in France on Thursday for a wide range of criminal charges. He was also released from custody on the condition that he does not leave French territory during the investigation. Bail was set […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI dominates India’s Reliance annual general meeting
Reliance Industries, India’s largest company by market capitalization, is not sitting out the AI frenzy that has gripped the tech world. At the company’s annual general meeting Thursday, Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani made over 50 mentions of AI, detailing plans to integrate the technology across Reliance’s vast business empire. Reliance announced plans for large-scale AI-ready […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Durex India spilled customers’ private order data
Durex India has exposed its sensitive customer data, including their full names, email IDs and order details. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple introduces AI-powered object removal in photos with the latest iOS update
Apple released the new developer betas for iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS 15.1 Sequoia. With this update, the company is launching new Apple Intelligence features including the ability to remove objects from photos. The feature, called Clean Up, lets users identify and remove an object from the photo without effecting the picture. The system […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
NEA quietly reenters the secondaries market
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is getting back into the secondaries game. The Silicon Valley-based VC raised more than $468 million for NEA Secondary Opportunity Fund, according to an SEC filing. The fundraise closed on July 3, according to a source familiar with the matter, but hasn’t received much attention. The fund raised capital from more […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
One of Bolt’s proposed new backers, the London Fund, has been scrubbing its web page
One-click checkout tech company Bolt is still waiting to find out if shareholders will sign off on a proposed funding round with stipulations that founder Ryan Breslow would return as CEO. In the meantime, Axios’s Dan Primack did some digging around on The London Fund, a firm that is supposed to provide up to $250 million in “marketing credits” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI reportedly in talks to close a new funding round at $100B+ valuation
OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, could be in talks to raise a massive tranche of cash. The Wall Street Journal reports that OpenAI may be close to closing a fundraising round led by Thrive Capital, a previous investor, that’d value the AI company at over $100 billion. That’s substantially higher than OpenAI’s previous $86 billion […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Reddit back online after a software update took it down
Reddit’s mobile and web applications went down on Wednesday afternoon, with more than 150,000 users reporting outages on Downdetector as of 1:30 p.m. in San Francisco. When trying to access Reddit’s homepage, users were met with the message, “Server error. Try again later.” The company itself reported a “degraded status” for Reddit.com as of 1:16 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
It’s not just you: Reddit is down
Reddit’s mobile and web applications went down on Wednesday afternoon, with more than 150,000 users reporting outages on DownDetector as of 1:30 PM in San Francisco. When trying to access Reddit’s homepage, users were met with a message reading, “Server error. Try again later.” While third-party reports can be unreliable at times, the company itself […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s Converge 2 program has been shrouded in mystery
For months, a tech forum ran wild asking if the Converge 2 accelerator program actually happened. We finally found out. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky adds ‘anti-toxicity’ tools and aims to integrate ‘a Community Notes-like’ feature in the future
Bluesky on Wednesday introduced the ability to hide replies, as well as a way to detach your original post from someone's quote post. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fluid Truck’s board ousted its sibling co-founders amid allegations of mismanaging funds
Fluid Truck, a startup that was founded to disrupt the commercial vehicle rental industry, has ousted its sibling co-founders – CEO James Eberhard and chief legal counsel Jenifer Snyder – according to sources familiar with the matter. The shakeup, which employees have described as a hostile takeover, was led by two minority investors on the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads deepens its ties to the open social web, aka the ‘fediverse’
Meta announced Wednesday that users on Threads will be able to see fediverse replies on other posts besides their own. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Polestar is getting a new CEO amid EV sales slump
Just weeks ago, during an interview with TechCrunch, Thomas Ingenlath laid out his plan to turn Polestar into a self-sustaining company. Now, he’s out. Polestar said Tuesday Ingenlath has resigned as CEO, a position he has held since the EV startup spun out of Volvo in 2017. He will be replaced by Michael Lohscheller, who was […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Midjourney says it’s ‘getting into hardware’
Midjourney, the AI image-generating platform that’s reportedly raking in more than $200 million in revenue without a single dime of VC investment, is officially getting into hardware. The company made the announcement in a post on X on Wednesday. Midjourney’s new hardware team will be based in San Francisco, it revealed. Exactly what sort of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: AI is rapidly being commoditized
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. Say what you will about generative AI. But it’s commoditizing — or, at least, it appears to be. In early August, both Google and OpenAI slashed prices on their budget-friendliest text-generating models. Google reduced the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SEC takes aim at NFT marketplace OpenSea
OpenSea, which calls itself the “world’s largest” nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, received a Wells notice from the SEC, the company said in a blog post Wednesday, indicating the regulator may soon bring a lawsuit against the company. In a tweet, CEO Devin Finzer says the SEC is claiming NFTs on OpenSea’s platform are unregistered securities. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ex-Twitter CISO Lea Kissner appointed as LinkedIn security chief
Kissner previously served as Twitter's chief information security officer, and held senior security and privacy positions at Apple, Google, and Lacework. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tesla’s Supercharging network is still unavailable to non-Tesla EVs
It’s been more than a year since Tesla agreed to open its Supercharger network to electric vehicles from other automakers, like General Motors and Ford. But Tesla’s network of nearly 30,000 fast-charging plugs in the U.S. and Canada still remains unavailable to non-Tesla vehicles, according to a New York Times report. The delays come amid […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tumblr to move its half a billion blogs to WordPress
Tumblr is making the move to WordPress. After its 2019 acquisition by WordPress.com parent company Automattic in a $3 million fire sale, the new owner has focused on improving Tumblr’s platform and growing its revenue. Now, Automattic will shift Tumblr’s back end over to WordPress, Automattic said in a blog post published on Wednesday. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google says it’s fixed Gemini’s people-generating feature
Back in February, Google paused its AI-powered chatbot Gemini’s ability to generate images of people after users complained of historical inaccuracies.Told to depict “a Roman legion,” for example, Gemini would show an anachronistic group of racially diverse soldiers while rendering “Zulu warriors” as stereotypically Black.Google CEO Sundar Pichai apologized, and Demis Hassabis, the co-founder of Google’s AI […]
TechCrunch Minute: The company behind Pokémon GO wants to build a 3D map of the world
Niantic wants to build a richer 3D map of the world, and it’ll use its 2021 acquisition of Scaniverse to do that. After a major update to the app, Scaniverse 4 will allow iOS users to scan landmarks by walking around them and recording video for about one to three minutes. Niantic has had functionality […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The CEO of Boeing’s satellite maker, Millennium Space, has quietly left the company
Exclusive: Millennium Space Systems will soon have a new CEO as Jason Kim has departed the company, TechCrunch has learned. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple reportedly cuts 100 jobs working on Books and other services
As of the company's most recent financial quarter, Apple's Services bsuiness represented about one-quarter of the tech giant's revenue. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Born from San Francisco’s AI hackathons, Agency lets you see what your AI agents do
After a long week of coding, you might assume San Francisco’s builders would retreat into the Bay Area’s mountains, beaches, or vibrant clubbing scene. But in reality, when the week stops, the AI hackathons begin. In the last few years, San Francisco has exploded with AI hackathons. On any given Saturday or Sunday, technologists give […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VCs and founders talk finding (and keeping) product-market fit at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
You’ve got the product — now how do you find customers? And once you find those customers, how do you keep them coming back for more? At TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, taking place October 28-30 in San Francisco, we’re bringing Spenser Skates, April Underwood and Tamar Yehoshua to the Builders Stage to discuss how startups can […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Snapchat releases new teen safety resources for educators
Snapchat announced on Wednesday that it’s releasing new resources for educators to help them create safe environments in their schools by better understanding how their students use the app. The company debuted a new website dedicated to helping educators familiarize themselves with the app, along with a resource document to help them protect students. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pylon lands $17M investment to build a full service B2B customer service platform
Marty Kausas, Pylon’s CEO and co-founder, says they quickly learned that the omnichannel approach the company originally took was just a first step, and customers were clamoring for more. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Polaris Dawn will push the limits of SpaceX’s human spaceflight program — here’s how to watch it launch live
Update 8/27: The Polaris Dawn launch has been pushed back a day and is now planned for Wednesday, August 28 after a helium leak was detected ahead of its takeoff. Update 8/28: The mission was delayed yet again, this time due to unfavorable weather conditions – not at liftoff, which is normally the case, but […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Pryzm is a new kind of defense tech startup: one that helps others win lucrative contracts
Pryzm announced its $2 million pre-seed round, led by XYZ Venture Capital and Amplify.LA. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fast-growing neobank Comun has secured $21.5M in new funding just months after its last raise
Comun, a digital bank focused on serving immigrants in the United States, has raised $21.5 million in a Series A funding round less than nine months after announcing a $4.5 million raise, TechCrunch is the first to report. This is a crowded space, filled with a number of startups, including Tanda, Bloom Money, Majority, Welcome […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Calm’s new Story-like mindfulness exercises offer an alternative to social media
Calm is rolling out a suite of new features to make it easier for people to fit mindfulness into their lives. Most notably, the app is launching “Taptivities,” which are interactive text-based stories that take a minute or two to complete. The app is also adding Playlists and personalized search. While users tend to spend […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Plaud takes a crack at a simpler AI pin
The NotePin, which hits preorder Wednesday, is $169 and comes with a free starter plan or a Pro Plan, which costs $79 per year. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CoinSwitch sues WazirX to recover trapped funds
CoinSwitch, a prominent Indian cryptocurrency exchange, is suing rival platform WazirX to recover trapped funds. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Brave lays off 27 employees
Web browser and search startup Brave has laid off 27 employees across the different departments, TechCrunch has learned. The company confirmed the layoffs but didn’t give more details about the total headcount left and the reason for the layoffs. It represents a significant portion of the company’s staff — PitchBook estimates that Brave has around […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zepto, snagging $1 billion in 90 days, projects 150% annual growth
Zepto co-founder Aadit Palicha told a group of analysts and investors on Tuesday that the Indian delivery startup anticipates growth of 150% in the next 12 months, a remarkable figure suggesting the fast-growing quick commerce market in India is showing no signs of slowing down. Palicha shared these insights during a call organized by an […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s VerSe buys Valueleaf to boost digital marketing
VerSe Innovation, India's content tech startup, has acquired digital marketing firm Valueleaf Group to bolster its presence in the Indian digital ad space. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
One busted valve led to the failure of Astrobotic’s $108M Peregrine lunar lander mission
Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander failed to reach the moon because of a problem with a single valve in the propulsion system, according to a report on the mission released Tuesday. Company leadership said in a press conference that engineers have redesigned the valve and introduced additional redundancy into the propulsion system of its next lander, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta and Instagram spotted developing a new social music-sharing feature
Meta and Spotify are exploring deeper music integration in Meta’s Instagram app. New findings indicate the companies are testing a feature that would allow users to continuously share what music they’re listening to through Instagram’s Notes. The new functionality was first spotted by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi, who often finds unreleased features while they’re still […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How Techstars, Meta helped profitable LatAM startup Mercately raise a $2.6M seed
In Latin American countries like Brazil and Chile, messaging platform WhatsApp has become one of the most popular apps to buy things online. It was even the ecommerce platform of choice in the region during the pandemic. But WhatsApp is designed to be a messaging platform, not an e-commerce site. A startup called Mercately is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Will HP still demand $4B from Mike Lynch’s estate?
Before entrepreneur and investor Mike Lynch died along with six others after the yacht they were on capsized in a storm last week, the party was celebrating Lynch’s victory in the U.S. criminal courts. In June, he was acquitted of all counts of fraud connected to HP’s 2011 acquisition of his company, Autonomy. But it […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why AI can’t spell ‘strawberry’
How many times does the letter R appear in the word “strawberry?” According to formidable AI products like GPT-4o and Claude, the answer is twice. Large language models can write essays and solve equations in seconds. They can synthesize terabytes of data faster than humans can open up a book. Yet, these seemingly omniscient AIs […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The SEC just made life a little easier for smaller VCs
The SEC has updated its limits to the amount of money a “qualified venture fund” can raise to $12 million from $10 million. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The U.S. military’s latest psyop? Advertising on Tinder
Tinder removed the U.S. military ads, saying the campaign violated the company's policies. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Just how much cash does Stripe have?
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at the craziness that is Bolt’s proposed fundraise, how much money Synapse’s founder has raised for his new venture and just how much cash Stripe has. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lyft follows in Uber’s footsteps with a rider verification program
In an effort to improve its security measures, Lyft announced Tuesday a new rider verification pilot program to help drivers verify riders’ identities and ensure that they are indeed who they say they are. Starting today, Lyft’s new program is rolling out to nine markets, including Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville, Miami, Phoenix, and Seattle. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is returning home empty
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are stuck aboard the International Space Station (ISS) after their test flight on Boeing’s Starliner went awry. This weekend, NASA announced that these astronauts will remain aboard the ISS until February, when SpaceX’s Dragon will retrieve them as part of the crew-9 mission. Eight months is a long time […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Polaris Dawn will push the limits of SpaceX’s human spaceflight program — here’s how to watch it launch live
Update: The Polaris Dawn launch has been pushed back a day and is now planned for Wednesday, August 28 after a helium leak was detected ahead of its takeoff. After a nearly three-year interlude, Jared Isaacman is returning to space. The billionaire entrepreneur first went to orbit as part of the Inspiration4 mission, which made […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Creators are angered by Meta’s Spark AR shutdown, saying they’ll be out of work with little notice
Meta will be shutting down Spark AR, its platform of third-party AR tools and content, effective January 14, 2025. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Waymo expands its curbside robotaxi service to Phoenix airport
Waymo said Tuesday it will start offering riders 24/7 access to curbside pickups and dropoffs at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport terminals 3 and 4 — yet another example of the Alphabet-owned company’s push to expand its robotaxi services. Waymo first started offering driverless trips to the Phoenix Airport in November 2022, but it was […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Is open source AI possible, let alone the future? Find out at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Some believe open source AI is a way to break out of the familiar proprietary software quagmire that the technology has predictably fallen into. Hugging Face’s Irene Solaiman and AI2’s Ali Farhadi will discuss this complex issue on a panel at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 — taking place in San Francisco from October 28-30. AI may […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Students and recent grads: Save on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 tickets
It’s back-to-school season, and that often means a surge in expenses. Or perhaps you’ve recently graduated and are navigating the job hunt. Either way, your wallet might be feeling the pinch. We’re here to help with a limited-time offer: $200 off the Student Pass for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Don’t miss out — this discount is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
13 years later, Snapchat finally rolls out native support for iPads
Snapchat is officially rolling out native support for iPad, the company announced in the app’s latest release notes. Since Snapchat’s launch in 2011, the social networking app has only been available on iPads as an iPhone app with large black borders around it, not as a native app for the iPad’s bigger screen. With this […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Chinese government hackers targeted U.S. internet providers with zero-day exploit, researchers say
A group of hackers linked to the Chinese government used a previously unknown vulnerability in software to target U.S. internet service providers, security researchers have found. The group known as Volt Typhoon was exploiting the zero-day flaw — meaning the software maker was unaware of it before having time to patch — in Versa Director, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Whisper Aero is working with NASA to bring its ultra-quiet tech to outer space
At the end of the six-month effort, the startup is aiming to have prototype parts to show to NASA © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X is testing a video conferencing tool
Elon Musk’s X has already declared it aims to compete with LinkedIn for job listings and PayPal for payments. Now, it wants to take on the likes of Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams with a video conferencing tool. One of X’s employees, Chris Park, posted last week that the company had its first internal […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Data infrastructure startup Cribl raises $319M at a $3.5B valuation
San Francisco-based data infrastructure startup Cribl has raised $319 million in a Series E funding tranche led by new investor GV (Google’s corporate venture arm) with participation from GIC, CapitalG, IVP and CRV. Bringing Cribl’s total raised to $600 million, the cash injection values the company at $3.5 billion — up around 40% from Cribl’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s Airtel to shut down music streaming app Wynk
Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom firm, said Tuesday it will be shutting down its Wynk Music streaming service, marking another exit for a music app in one of the globe’s biggest entertainment markets. An Airtel spokesperson said in a statement that Wynk Music employees will be moved to other parts of the Airtel business. Airtel offers […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Food delivery is seeing more consolidation: GrubMarket snaps up FreshGoGo
GrubMarket, the $3.6-billion, food delivery and supply chain startup backed by Tiger Global, BlackRock and nearly 100 other investors, has snapped up another food delivery startup on its consolidation march: It is acquiring FreshGoGo, a New York-based, B2C platform selling Asian groceries and ready-made dishes. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed, but we […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mavely, the platform for everyday influencers, achieves $675M in GMV
Coined as the “Everyday Influencer” platform, Mavely is a social commerce app that enables users to earn commission by sharing and recommending products from more than 1,250 brands, including Adidas, Anthropologie, Foot Locker, Lululemon, Macy’s, Nordstrom Rack, and Old Navy. The company announced Tuesday that it reached a gross merchandise value (GMV) run rate of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Supio brings generative AI to personal injury cases
Supio uses generative AI to automate bulk data collection and aggregation for legal teams. It emerged from stealth Tuesday with a $25 million investment. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Planera raises $13.5M to help solve the gnarly problem of scheduling for construction contractors
Planera, scheduling and planning software for commercial construction projects, has raised $13.5 million to expand its reach and help general contractors with more features. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Markforged adds metal printing to its industrial 3D printer
The world of metal 3D printing has been in-flux this past year, the most notable example being Nano Dimension’s acquisition of Desktop Metal. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
nOps lands $30M to optimize AWS customers’ cloud spend
nOps sells software designed to "optimize" the budgets that businesses allocate to cloud products and services. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Paris court explains why it’s arrested Telegram founder, Pavel Durov
When Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, was arrested on August 24, French authorities did not respond to requests for comment. The secrecy of pre-trial investigations and inquiries is an important principle in the French judicial system. French television network TF1 reported that the main issues are Telegram’s (lack of) moderation processes […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google’s AI overviews in Hindi need a quality upgrade
Given India’s language diversity, digital content companies already face a challenge in trying to show and translate content accurately. Google is facing a similar problem with AI overviews recently rolled out in the country. The company introduced Hindi support for AI overviews in the country earlier in August. Users in India can also switch between […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
African B2B e-commerce startups Wasoko and MaxAB complete merger: Interview with co-CEO Daniel Yu
Two of Africa's largest B2B e-commerce platforms, Wasoko and MaxAB, have finally completed the continent’s much-talked-about merger. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Calendar tool Clockwise adds new AI-powered interface called Prism
Clockwise is changing up its interface with an AI-powered assistant called Prism that lets you manage calendar invites and scheduling with text prompts. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Science-heavy Swiss VC firm Redalpine raises fresh $200M fund for early-stage investments
Many VC funds, especially recent vintages, have failed to return money to their investors. Swiss VC firm Redalpine is one exception, and this largely explains why its newly announced $200 million seventh early-stage fund was oversubscribed. Redalpine Capital VII, or RAC VII, is already well under way to back 15 to 20 European early-stage companies, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Wait, what? Pavel Durov says he has fathered more than 100 children
Pavel Durov, the founder of the messaging platform Telegram, has been in the headlines since his arrest at a private airport near Paris on Saturday, reportedly in connection with an investigation into criminal activity on the his app. While many stories since have centered on free speech (i.e, should what happens on Telegram stay on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elon Musk unexpectedly offers support for California’s AI bill
Elon Musk has come out in support of California’s SB 1047, a bill that requires makers of very large AI models to create and document safeguards against those models causing serious harm. “This is a tough call and will make some people upset, but, all things considered, I think California should probably pass the SB […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI, Adobe, and Microsoft support California bill requiring watermarks on AI content
OpenAI, Adobe, and Microsoft have thrown their support behind a California bill requiring tech companies to label AI-generated content, according to letters from the companies viewed by TechCrunch. The bill is headed for a final vote in August. AB 3211 requires watermarks in the metadata of AI-generated photos, videos and audio clips. Lots of AI […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Space: The Starliner saga comes to a close — for now
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. NASA leadership have made their decision: Starliner will be coming back to Earth — empty. More on that below. Want to reach out with a tip? Email Aria at [email protected] or send a message on Signal at 512-937-3988. You also can send a note to the whole TechCrunch […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Polaris Dawn will push the limits of SpaceX’s human spaceflight program – here’s how to watch it launch live
After a nearly three-year interlude, Jared Isaacman is returning to space. The billionaire entrepreneur first went to orbit as part of the Inspiration4 mission, which made history for having a crew composed entirely of private citizens, not professional astronauts. But with this next mission, Polaris Dawn, he and mission partner SpaceX have set their sights […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI supports California bill requiring watermarks on AI content
OpenAI threw its support behind a California bill requiring tech companies to label AI-generated content, according to a letter from OpenAI’s chief strategy officer viewed by Reuters. The bill is headed for a final vote in August. AB 3211 requires watermarks in the metadata of AI-generated photos, videos, and audio clips. Lots of AI companies […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple will replace CFO Luca Maestri next year
Apple announced today that Chief Financial Office Luca Maestri will step away from his executive role, effective January 1. Kevan Parekh, Apple’s current VP of Financial Planning, will be promoted to CFO after 11 years at Apple. Maestri has been CFO at Apple since 2014, and he’s now transitioning to a different role in the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anthropic publishes the ‘system prompt’ that makes Claude tick
Generative AI models aren’t actually human-like. They have no intelligence or personality — they’re simply statistical systems predicting the likeliest next words in a sentence. But like interns at a tyrannical workplace, they do follow instructions without complaint — including initial “system prompts” that prime the models with their basic qualities, and what they should […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Durov arrest boosts Telegram app downloads
The arrest of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov in France is starting to impact the app’s traction and ranking. On Saturday, the founder was arrested for allegedly allowing illegal activity to thrive on the social app by failing to moderate messages adequately, particularly in areas involving drug trafficking, money laundering, and the distribution of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Care.com to pay customers $8.5M in FTC settlement for deceiving caregivers, families
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is requiring Care.com, a platform for gig workers in the elder-care and childcare space, to pay $8.5 million in refunds for deceiving caregivers who were looking for jobs, and making it difficult for families to cancel their paid memberships. The agency said on Monday that the company’s marketing messages […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Palico is now the first FINRA-approved company to facilitate online LP-led secondaries deals
Limited partners selling their investment stakes in venture capital funds to other LPs on the secondary market is nothing new. But traditionally these transactions happen offline through an opaque network of brokers that could charge costly fees and prove prohibitive for certain LPs to participate. Palico is looking to change that. Paris-based Palico quietly got […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Niantic aims to build a richer 3D map of the world with a new version of Scanniverse app
Niantic is releasing a new version of its Scanniverse app to let users capture objects around them with more details. Scanniverse 4 will allow users to capture places and objects in 3D through a Gaussian Splitting technique, which captures more data points about an object for accurate and rich representation with faster rendering. The company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple iPhone 16 event set for September 9 with ‘Glowtime’ invite
Apple will unveil its iPhone 16 lineup on September 9, as the company has started sending out press invites on Monday for the upcoming event. The official announcement comes as previous reports had claimed that the event would take place on September 10. Apple is using the tagline “It’s Glowtime” for the event, which will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Beam Mobility secretly deployed ‘phantom’ e-scooters in Australia and NZ to dodge fees and boost profits
Shared e-scooter startup Beam Mobility has placed hundreds of extra “phantom” scooters on city streets in Australia and New Zealand to avoid paying vehicle registration fees to local governments, according to a two-part report from The Australian. Cities place caps on the number of vehicles operators can deploy to avoid saturating streets and sidewalks with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These fintech companies are hiring, despite a rough market in 2024
While the rapid pace of funding has slowed, many fintechs are continuing to see growth and expand their teams. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple sets iPhone 16 event for September 9
Apple officially announced on Monday that it will unveil its iPhone 16 lineup on September 9th. The official announcement comes as reports previously claimed that the event would take place on September 10th. The company just sent out invites for the event, once again scheduled for its Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino. Apple is using the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The biggest trends young NYC investors are bullish on — and why
As twenty-something-year-old investors enter the venture landscape, they spot new trends that could become the next multi-billion tech businesses. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: Boston Dynamics’ new Atlas robot shows off its push-up skills
When we mention Boston Dynamics, there are probably two things that come to mind: Cool robots and viral videos showing off what those robots can do. The latest video that the company shared with TechCrunch doesn’t disappoint on either front. It features the new Atlas humanoid robot dropping to the mat and doing a bunch […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tidal launches royalty tracking features for artists
Music streaming service Tidal has launched new features that let artists track royalties and manage their work on the platform. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Red Hat’s OpenStack Services are now generally available on its OpenShift platform
The idea here is to essentially turn OpenStack into a container-based workload that can be managed on OpenShift. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Elevate your brand’s impact: Host a Side Event at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Maximize your brand’s presence by hosting your Side Event in San Francisco during Disrupt Week — October 26 through November 1. Connect with more than 10,000 attendees of Disrupt 2024, as well as your network and the dynamic Bay Area tech community. You have the flexibility to host events that reflect your brand, including industry […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cancer survivor launches Oncology Ventures to improve care
Ben Freeberg was an associate at a venture firm Alpha Partners when he suddenly passed out in the middle of the day. He sought medical help, and after running a few diagnostic tests, doctors didn’t find anything wrong with him. “They told me I was overreacting,” Freeberg told TechCrunch. But a little less than twelve […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Final week: ScaleUp your startup at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Are you a Series A or B startup ready to make waves in the tech industry? The ScaleUp Startups Exhibitor Program at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 can be your launchpad to success. This program offers unparalleled exposure, connecting you with top industry leaders, investors, and potential partners. Don’t miss out — less than a week left […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Five months after Microsoft hired its founders, Inflection adds usage caps to Pi
Inflection will cap free access to its AI chatbot Pi in the coming months, the startup tells TechCrunch. Users can also now export their conversations off the AI chatbot, as the new CEO shifts the company’s focus towards enterprise products. The usage caps come just a year after Inflection raised $1.3 billion to build out […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Viggle makes controllable AI characters for memes and visualizing ideas
You might not know Viggle AI, but you’ve likely seen the viral memes it created. The Canadian AI startup is responsible for dozens of videos remixing the rapper Lil Yachty bouncing on stage at a summer music festival. In one video, Lil Yachty is replaced by Joaquin’s Phoenix’s the Joker. In another, Jesus seemed to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How to tell if your online accounts have been hacked
This is a guide on how to check whether someone compromised your online accounts. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Uber fined $324M over EU driver data transfer breach
Ride-hailing platform Uber has been fined €290 million — around $324 million at current exchanges rates — by the Netherlands’ privacy watchdog for breaching the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The penalty is related to transfers of personal data of drivers out of the European Union to the US, where Uber’s main business […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Loft Orbital forms joint venture with UAE-based firm to scale satellite production in the Middle East
A holding company affiliated with an Emirati royal family is injecting a new joint venture between Abu Dhabi-based Marlan Space and startup Loft Orbital with over $100 million to grow the region’s domestic satellite manufacturing capabilities. The joint venture, called Orbitworks, will be the first commercial firm in the United Arab Emirates to mass manufacture […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
In 2024, it really is better to run a startup in San Francisco, according to data and founders who’ve relocated
San Francisco’s AI startup boom is so big, even international founders who don’t run AI startups are relocating there to help their companies grow, according to several founders who recently moved. This is largely because the tech talent and investor money is still overwhelmingly concentrated there, according to new data that VC firm SignalFire exclusively […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Y Combinator backs its first defense startup, Ares Industries
Y Combinator’s first defense startup, Ares Industries, launched earlier this week. In a post on the YC website, the startup outlined a vision to build low-cost cruise missiles that will be compatible with existing launch platforms, saying it will “deliver the capabilities that the [Department of Defense] wants in a form factor that’s 10x smaller […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Port of Seattle and Sea-Tac Airport say they’ve been hit by ‘possible cyberattack’
The Port of Seattle, which also operates the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, said it was hit with a “possible cyberattack” that appeared to affect websites and phone systems. The port first noted the outages via social media on Saturday morning, with the airport then posting that it had “experienced certain system outages indicating a possible cyberattack.” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Travly lets travelers submit videos for a chance to earn a 5% commission from hotel bookings
Travly is a new social-first discovery and hotel booking platform designed to cater to the growing number of travelers who rely on short-form video content for trip ideas. The platform features user-generated content that provides authentic reviews of hotels instead of generic information and often outdated images. Creators who submit videos of hotels have the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov reportedly arrested in France
Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, was arrested on Saturday evening while leaving his private jet at France’s Bourget airport, according to French television network TF1. Reports of Durov’s arrest sparked widespread discussion and speculation on social media, including on Telegram itself, though news reports have been largely based on unnamed police […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Stephen Wolfram thinks we need philosophers working on big questions around AI
As AI developers and others start to think more deeply about how computers and people intersect, Stephan Wolfram says it is becoming a much more of a philosophical exercise © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The 12 biggest take-private PE acquisitions so far this year in tech
A roundup of the year's billion-dollar take-private deals in the technology sector. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TPG nears $150M funding in India’s Eruditus at $2.3B valuation
Eruditus, an Indian edtech startup, is in advanced stages of talks to secure about $150 million in new funding, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch, in what would be the largest fundraise by an Indian education firm in years. TPG, a major private equity player, is discussing to lead the investment, the sources […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov reportedly arrested in France
Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, was arrested on Saturday evening while leaving his private jet at France’s Bourget airport, according to French television network TF1. Neither Telegram nor a spokesperson for France’s national anti-fraud office ONAF immediately responded to a request for comment. According to TF1, Durov faced a warrant in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple reportedly announcing iPhone 16 lineup and more on Sept. 10
Apple will be unveiling new products on September 10, with the announced phones going on sale on September 20, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. That lineup will reportedly include the iPhone 16, with larger screens on the Pro models and a new button just for taking pictures. The phones should also support […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The fallout after Bolt’s aggressive fundraising attempt has been wild
After fintech Bolt surprised the industry with a leaked term sheet that revealed it is trying to raise at a $14 billion valuation, things got weird. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Starliner will return to Earth uncrewed, astronauts staying on ISS until February
Boeing’s Starliner mission is coming back to Earth — empty. After months of data analysis and internal deliberation, NASA leadership announced today that Starliner will be coming back to Earth without a crew, with a planned return in September. Meanwhile, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will remain on-board the International Space Station until February, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Do you know where your children are? Maybe on X
A surprising number of “iPad kids” — aka Generation Alpha’s 7- to 9-year-old demographic — are using X, according to new data from parental control software maker Qustodio. The firm found that over 30% of this group of children have an X account. Qustodio theorizes that X may be gaining the attention of this young […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google just made a $250M deal with California to support journalism — here’s what it means
This week, Google joined a $250 million deal with the state of California to support California newsrooms. While the deal offers a much-needed cash infusion for an industry that’s seen crippling layoffs this year, the deal’s been criticized by some as a half-measure — and a cop-out. By agreeing to this deal, Google averts bills […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X shareholders as of June 2023 included funds tied to Bill Ackman, Binance, and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
A court order recently forced Elon Musk’s X to reveal its full list of shareholders, as of June 2023, to the public. Many of the recognizable tech industry names had already been reported as backers of Musk’s effort to buy the social media company then known as Twitter and take it private, inculding VC firms […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VCs are so eager for AI startups, they’re buying into each others’ SPVs at high prices
VCs are increasingly buying shares of late-stage startups on the secondary market as they try to get pieces of the hottest ones — especially AI companies. But they are also increasingly doing so through financial instruments called special purpose vehicles (SVPs). Some of those SPVs are becoming such hot commodities that they are commanding premium […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The top AI deals in Europe this year
Cumulatively, there have been more than 1,700 funding rounds for AI startups in Europe so far in 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The founder building a wealth-management product her grandmother would have loved
Mical Jeanlys-White built WealthMore out of frustration. She spent years on Wall Street, building products at American Express and serving as a managing director at JPMorgan Chase. She realized the finance industry still had a long way to go when it came to helping consumers build and understand wealth. “Seventy percent of Americans do not […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These 74 robotics companies are hiring
From the looks of things, companies in the category — including Agility Robotics and Formlogic — can’t hire quickly enough. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: Tech billionaires want to build a utopian city in California
A crew of tech billionaires have been trying to get the California Forever project off the ground, which would create a new, supposedly utopian city on land north of the Bay Area. That project is on hold until 2026, when it’s likely to appear on local ballots, but TechCrunch learned that this isn’t the only […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads confirms it is experimenting with ephemeral posts
Disappearing posts on social networks are handy if you have a habit of deleting them through third-party tools or the context of those posts is short-lived. Earlier this month, Threads said it is testing ephemeral posts only as an internal prototype. But now, the company told TechCrunch that it is testing posts that disappear within […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The VC quietly nabbing prized SF property is planning a ‘Y Combinator for restaurants’
Neil Mehta, the VC behind the acquisition of a string of properties on San Francisco’s tony Fillmore Street, made waves earlier this week for reportedly throwing long-established local restaurants to the curb to bring in more high-end retailers. The San Francisco Chronicle talked, for example, to the owner of Ten-Ichi, a neighborhood sushi restaurant for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Justice Department sues RealPage over allegedly helping landlords collude to drive up rents
RealPage, which makes property management software, was sued Friday by the U.S. Justice Department and eight attorneys general for allegedly helping apartment and building managers around the country collude to drive up unit prices. The Richardson, Texas-based outfit is accused of contracting with rival landlords to absorb info about their rates and lease terms to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Colorful Capital will stop trying to raise for a fund
Colorful Capital, which launched in 2022 to focus on investing in LGBTQIA+-identifying founders, will end its attempts at raising a fund, according to an email seen by TechCrunch. It’s unclear if the firm is shutting down for good. Colorful Capital’s co-founders, William Burckart and Megan Kashner, declined to comment. A former employee who used to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Andrew Ng steps back at Landing AI after announcing new fund
Andrew Ng is stepping down from his role as CEO at Landing AI, the computer vision platform he founded in 2017. Dan Maloney, formerly the COO, will take the reins as Ng transitions to Executive Chairmanm to “continue to help drive” the tech and collaborate on “key decisions.” Formerly of Google Brain, Coursera, and Baidu, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Piramidal’s foundation model for brainwaves could supercharge EEGs
AI models are being applied to every dataset under the sun, but are inconsistent in their outcomes. This is as true in the medical world as anywhere else, but a startup called Piramidal believes it has a sure thing with a foundational model for analyzing brain scan data. Cofounders Dimitris Sakellariou and Kris Pahuja have […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
M&A can open up the playing field for the competition
No two businesses are the same, and that's good news: As we saw again this week, it opens up space for companies to try opposite approaches, join forces or challenge leaders. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Marc Andreessen’s family plans to build a ‘visionary’ subdivision near the proposed California Forever utopia city
Marc Andreessen's family is planning to build a large housing development near the proposed California Forever city. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Canoo’s chief technology officer is out amid wider reorg
EV startup Canoo’s chief technology officer Sohel Merchant has left the company, two people familiar with his departure have told TechCrunch. Merchant was one of the members of Canoo’s founding team, who created the startup in late 2017. His departure from the company means that only one of those founding team members remains — chief […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Halliburton shuts down systems after cyberattack
A company spokesperson for the oil drilling and fracking giant declined to name the executive overseeing cybersecurity, if any. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Disappointed but not surprised’: former employees speak on OpenAI’s opposition to SB 1047
Two former OpenAI researchers who resigned this year over safety concerns say they are disappointed but not surprised by OpenAI’s decision to oppose California’s bill to prevent AI disasters, SB 1047. Daniel Kokotajlo and William Saunders previously warned that OpenAI is in a “reckless” race for dominance. “Sam Altman, our former boss, has repeatedly called […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Peloton adds $95 activation fee for used equipment
The move is an effort to squeeze additional revenue from second-hand products, over concerns that cheaper, slightly used bikes, treadmills and rowers could cannibalize used sales. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Last day for massive ticket savings to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Time is running out! These are the last hours to save up to $600 on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 tickets — offer ends tonight at 11:59 p.m. PT. Join 10,000+ startup and VC leaders from October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Be part of one of the year’s most anticipated tech events. Reserve your […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta and Spotify CEOs criticize AI regulation in the EU
Meta and Spotify are once again teaming up — this time, on the matter of open-source (or to be precise, open-weight) AI which the companies claim are being hampered by regulations. In joint statements published to both companies’ respective websites on Friday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek complain that EU privacy […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tingit is building a marketplace for ‘zero-effort’ repairs, starting with fashion
Tingit, a startup out of Lithuania, wants to help people restore their used clothing to their former glory with its newly launched repairs marketplace. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
After changing its license, Redis drops its biggest release yet
Redis, the company behind the popular in-memory data store, which is often used as a cache, vector database or streaming engine, today announced the launch of Redis 8. With this release, the company is doubling down on Redis as a vector database for AI use cases and launching an AI Copilot the help developers more […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
360 One lifts its valuation of India’s National Stock Exchange to $29.9B
360 One Asset, an investor in National Stock Exchange (NSE), has increased its valuation for India's top stock exchange to $29.9 billion. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Get in on the ground floor with Tesla’s humanoid by pretending to be one for pay
Tesla is hiring individuals standing between 5’7 and 5’11 to carry up to 30 pounds for seven hours a day to train its Optimus robot. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
DeepMind workers sign letter in protest of Google’s defense contracts
At least 200 workers at DeepMind, Google’s AI R&D division, are displeased with Google’s reported defense contracts — and according to Time, they circulated a letter internally back in May to say as much. The letter, dated May 16, says the undersigned are concerned by “Google’s contracts with military organizations,” citing articles about the tech […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
NASA to decide Saturday whether astronauts will ride Boeing’s Starliner home — or use SpaceX’s Dragon instead
NASA officials will announce their final decision on Saturday as to whether two NASA astronauts will return to Earth on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft or hitch a ride home with SpaceX instead — a decision that could have huge impact across the rapidly evolving space industry. Here’s the backstory. Boeing launched its first crewed Starliner mission […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gimbal Space takes on legacy suppliers with fast-paced component supply chain
America’s space industry seems mature, but the supply chain that provides all the parts and components for rockets, satellites, and other spacecraft is considerably less so. Gimbal Space is aiming to change that, starting with components in the crucial subsystem that enables a spacecraft to orient itself in space — but delivered cheaper and a whole […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Waymo wants to chauffeur your kids
Soon, parents in range of Waymo robotaxis might not have to worry about picking up their kids from after-school activities — or anytime, really. The San Francisco Standard reports that Waymo, the Alphabet subsidiary, is considering a subscription program that would let teens hail one of its cars solo and send pickup and drop-off alerts […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Synapse’s collapse has frozen nearly $160M from fintech users — here’s how it happened
Here is a timeline of Synapse’s troubles and the ongoing impact it is having on banking consumers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Founder of failed fintech Synapse says he’s raised $11M for new robotics startup
Tens of millions of customer dollars remain unaccounted for at his previous startup, fintech Synapse. But that’s not deterring Sankaet Pathak from forging full steam ahead with his new robotics venture. Foundation is a robotics startup with a self-proclaimed mission “to create advanced humanoid robots that can operate in complex environments” to address the labor […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cruise’s robotaxis are coming to the Uber app in 2025
Cruise, General Motors’ self-driving subsidiary, said it has signed a multi-year partnership with ride-hailing giant Uber to bring its robotaxis to the ride-hailing platform in 2025. Cruise didn’t say when exactly customers would see its vehicles on Uber’s platform, but a spokesperson told TechCrunch that this partnership will follow the re-launch of Cruise’s own driverless […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Boston Dynamics’ new electric Atlas can do push-ups
Until today, we’ve seen exactly 40 seconds of Boston Dynamics’ new electric Atlas in action. The Hyundai-owned robotics stalwart is very much still in in the early stages of commercializing the biped for factory floors. For now, however, it’s doing the thing Boston Dynamics does second best after building robots: showing off in viral video […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI sales rep startups are booming. So why are VCs wary?
When you really probe venture capitalists about investing in AI startups, they’ll tell you that businesses are experimenting wildly but are very slow to add AI solutions into their ongoing business processes. But there are some exceptions. And one of them appears to be an area known as AI sales development representatives, or AI SDRs. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former Alphabet X spinout Mineral sells technology to John Deere
Citing a crowded market and profit concerns, Mineral ceased operation and pivoted to technology licensing. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Relive the Myspace days by adding a favorite song to your Instagram profile
A nod to the Myspace era, Instagram just launched a new feature that allows you to add music to your profile. The feature is in collaboration with singer Sabrina Carpenter, who released a teaser of her new song “Taste” on her Instagram profile ahead of her album release on Friday. To add a song to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ford pivots on EVs, Waymo doubles its robotaxi ridership and Canoo leaves California
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Monterey Car Week is a wrap. And while it is still steeped in tradition, the collection of parties, auctions and car shows that were held throughout the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ecovacs says it will fix bugs that can be abused to spy on robot owners
After saying users "do not need to worry excessively" about a series of security flaws, Ecovacs said it will — in fact — roll out fixes. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Alphabet X’s latest spinout brings computer vision and AI to salmon farms
Tidal, which quietly spun out of the department in mid-July, has its own grand ambitions to “feed humanity sustainably.” © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s open commerce network expands into digital lending
India's ONDC has launched digital lending on its network as it expands into financial services after powering e-commerce, mobility and logistics with its standardized framework. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Under DMA probe, Apple tweaks design of EU browser choice screens, expands app default settings
Apple continues to adjust its approach to compliance with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA): Announcing another batch of changes Thursday, the iPhone maker showed off redesigned browser choice screens it said would be coming to iOS and iPadOS “later this year”, with version 18 of its mobile software platforms. The tweaked browser choice […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: AI could help design and test F1 cars faster
Formula One teams are looking at a startup called BeyondMath to bring their car construction to the next level. BeyondMath is working in the field of computational fluid dynamics, which attempts to digitally model how an object moves through water or air. But that’s a lot easier said than done – even with excessive computing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads explores ads, but says ‘no immediate timeline’ toward monetization
These findings indicate that Threads engineers are exploring ad technology, but that doesn't mean Threads will debut ads anytime soon, as some suspect. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cruise recalls robotaxi fleet to resolve federal safety probe
General Motors’ AV company, Cruise, has recalled its fleet of 1,194 self-driving cars to resolve long-standing trouble with unexpected braking. Cruise has shipped software updates to those vehicles that should mitigate the braking problems, and as such, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has closed nearly two-year probe into the issue. The recall and the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cache Energy’s mysterious white pellets could help kill coal and natural gas
The pellets can be stored in piles or silos, moved around using conveyor belts, and transported via rail cars. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Creatopy, which automates ad creation using AI, raises a $10M Series A
The startup — which was developed in Romania but has a U.S. TopCo — now considers more than 5,000 brands and agencies as its clients. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Tilt raises $18M Series A to build on its live-shopping app’s success
Live-shopping has grown into a massive sector in Asia, but the phenomenon is yet to see similar uptake in Western markets. But two tech founders are hoping the growth-hacking skills they learned at Revolt will power up their startup in the U.K. live shopping arena, and now they have the confidence of major investors. That […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former Expedia VP’s startup uses AI to help smaller companies book travel
Small businesses and startups often lack a dedicated travel desk, forcing executives and founders to rely on human assistants or consuming and cumbersome travel apps. Expedia’s former VP of global product, Michael Gulmann, is betting on AI to bridge the gap. His company, Otto, is emerges from stealth Thursday, with plans to launch an alpha […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Final 48 hours to secure your discounted tickets for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
We’re down to the last 2 days to save up to $600 on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 tickets! Prices will rise after August 23 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Don’t miss your chance to save big on one of the most epic tech events of the year, happening October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Why […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
China autonomous vehicle startup WeRide delays US IPO
WeRide is delaying plans to go public, according to CNBC. The self-driving tech company aimed to hit the Nasdaq this week, but now says it needs more time to complete the necessary IPO documents. The firm, which develops autonomous vehicle technology for robotaxis, mini-buses and street sweepers, is seeking an IPO at a $5 billion […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Trace Machina is building a simulation testing platform to update safety-critical applications
When a faulty CrowdStrike update brought down airports, 911 call centers and hospitals last month, it showed how a defective update could impact critical infrastructure. Now imagine that this update was for something like an autonomous vehicle or a warehouse robot, and the implications of a bad update could be even more severe. Trace Machina, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta lets you cross-post from Instagram and Facebook to Threads. Here’s how to do it.
Connecting Threads more closely to Meta's larger app ecosystem and its billions of users could also help boost Threads' app — which recently surpassed 200 million active users — even more. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Harmonyze built AI agents that sit between franchisors and their franchisees
For some businesses, there is a clear path to growth that doesn’t involve acquiring other companies or expanding organically: franchising. The U.S. has more than 800,000 franchise businesses, according to Statista, and that number is predicted to keep growing year over year. But franchising a business — licensing a business model and brand to an […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lux Capital made its first investment in Brazil, a $4M seed for AI fintech Magie
Brazil fintech Magie raised $4 million in a seed round led by Lux Capital, marking the firm’s first investment in Brazil. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Dropbox acquires Index Ventures-backed AI scheduling tool Reclaim.ai
Dropbox has acquired AI-powered scheduling tool Reclaim.ai, which counts Calendly and Index Ventures among its backers. The development was revealed in a blog post on Reclaim.ai’s website Tuesday. Dropbox hasn’t disclosed the terms of the deal. Reclaim.ai, which was founded in 2019 by Henry Shapiro and Patrick Lightbody, said the company plans to continue developing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Opkey, an AI-based ERP testing platform, raises $47M
Companies are experimenting with services like ChatGPT to help workers write memos, answer questions, and much more, yet one of the clearest signs of how much traction AI is really getting in the world of enterprise IT is how often it figures in the more routine applications that organizations use. Today, a startup that exemplifies […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Kenyan HR and payroll startup Workpay lands Visa as investor in $5M round
Workpay provides cloud-based HR, payroll, and benefits solutions for businesses with employees across Africa. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
VC leading Bolt’s hoped-for $450M deal confirms he’s offering ‘marketing credits’
Ashesh Shah, the founder and CEO of The London Fund is, as you might imagine, bullish on Bolt. The London Fund is a UK venture firm with over $1 billion in assets under management that is leading a proposed $450 million raise for Bolt, a one-click checkout startup that has been embroiled in a number […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This new accessible Xbox nunchuck controller has 3D-printable joystick parts
Microsoft demonstrated its leadership in accessible gaming hardware again on Wednesday with the announcement of a new one-handed joystick controller for Xbox and PC. The Xbox Adaptive Joystick works with the company’s already robust accessibility hardware stack, and even includes support for custom 3D-printed parts. The Adaptive series of devices and controllers has been around […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Telecom that enabled Biden deepfake scam will pay FCC $1M
Early this year, AI-powered fake audio of President Biden reached voters in New Hampshire. The FCC struck back swiftly, identifying the perpetrator as the Texas-based Life Corporation, which has been behind similar scams over the years, and whacked them and an associated individual with a $6 million fine. But the scammers also enlisted the help […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s opposition to California’s AI law ‘makes no sense,’ says state Senator
OpenAI broke its silence on California’s most controversial AI bill on Tuesday, officially expressing opposition in a letter to California state Senator Scott Wiener and Governor Gavin Newsom. The AI giant argued SB 1047 would stifle innovation and push talent out of California — a position Wiener quickly replied “makes no sense.” “The AI revolution […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bolt’s wild ultimatum to its VCs will only succeed if they agree, expert says
Bolt’s aggressive ultimatum to its existing shareholders will be an expensive uphill battle, an expert familiar with Bolt’s corporate charter tells TechCrunch. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies. That growth has propelled OpenAI itself into […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
August was Medium’s first profitable month — ever
August was online publishing platform Medium’s first profitable month — ever. That’s according to Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine, who on Wednesday published a recap of Medium’s recent digital Medium Day 2024 conference. Stubblebine says that Medium had over one million members as of April, and that more members “than ever before” are subscribing to the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This founder had to train his AI not to rickroll people
Flo Crivello was monitoring outputs from the AI assistants his company Lindy makes when he noticed something strange. A new client had asked her Lindy AI assistant for a video tutorial that would better help her understand how to use the platform, and the Lindy responded in kind – that’s when Crivello knew something was […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple is bringing audio sharing to Beats Studio Pro via firmware update
A firmware update is delivering multi-user audio sharing, allowing music to be streamed to multiple headphones at once. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gamified rower startup Aviron branches out into bikes
At around $2,000, the Fit Bike places the system between Peloton’s entry-level Bike ($1,500) and Bike+ ($2,500). © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
First look at the Startup Battlefield judges at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
The Startup Battlefield is the crown jewel of Disrupt, and we can’t wait to see which of the thousands of applicants will be selected to pitch to panels of top-tier VCs at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, taking place on October 28–30 in San Francisco. It’s always epic, and every contender is on the road to making a huge […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
D-ID launches an AI video translation tool that includes voice cloning and lip sync
AI video creation platform D-ID is the latest company to ship a tool for translating videos into other languages using AI technologies. However, in this case, D-ID also clones the speaker’s voice and changes their lip movements to match the translated words as part of the AI editing process. The technology stems from D-ID’s earlier […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Typing these four characters could crash your iPhone
A bug in the iPhone makes it crash just by typing four characters. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Anthropic’s Claude surpasses $1M in mobile app revenue
However, Claude is still ranking far behind top rival ChatGPT. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This Week in AI: Gen Z has mixed feelings on AI
This week, surveys suggest that Gen Z — regularly the subject of mainstream media fascination — has very mixed opinions on AI. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Volkswagen ID.Buzz electric minivan will cost $59,995 for just 234 miles of range
For the price, buyers will get a well-equipped electric minivan that falls a bit short on range. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bodies of Autonomy founder Mike Lynch and his daughter recovered from sunken Bayesian yacht
Grim news coming in from Sicily, Italy. Mike Lynch, the U.K. investor and founder of IT company Autonomy, has been identified as one of two bodies recovered from the Bayesian, the yacht that sunk off the coast of Sicily early Monday, according to several reports coming out of the country citing the Chief of Civil […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: This startup wants to mine water on the moon
Meet Starpath, a startup that wants to make it possible for you to live on Mars one day. Starpath is building robots that it hopes will be able to autonomously mine liquid oxygen from the moon. That liquid oxygen can then be used to develop fuel for spacecrafts, which could make it possible for humans […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zomato buys Paytm’s entertainment ticket business for $244 million
Zomato has acquired financial services firm Paytm’s entertainment ticketing business for $244.1 million as the Indian food delivery giant expands its focus into new areas of growth. Paytm’s entertainment ticketing business includes movies, sports and events. The Indian financial services firm’s eponymous app will continue to host the offerings on its app for up to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Two incident management startups join forces as FireHydrant nabs Blameless
FireHydrant, a NYC incident management startup that launched in 2019, announced on Wednesday that it has acquired Blameless, a former competitor. The companies did not share the purchase price. Both companies help SREs (site reliability engineers) deal with the daunting job of keeping software and websites up and running. When things go wrong, they help […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Only 3 days left for massive savings on tickets to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Tick-tock! We’re in the last 3 days to save up to $600 on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 tickets. Lock in these low prices before August 23 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Be part of the 10,000+ innovators, founders and investors gathering at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30. Disrupt 2024 is your chance to scale […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ring’s new battery doorbell has head-to-toe video
Ring announced on Wednesday the next generation of its Battery Doorbell. For $100, customers get extended battery life, color night vision, a head-to-toe view of visitors, and a new push-pin mounting system. Head-to-toe HD video was previously only available with the Doorbell Plus and Pro models. Now, according to Ring, the Battery Doorbell provides a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Openmart wants to make it easier for enterprises to sell to local businesses
In 2020, Kathryn Wu launched a side hustle while she was working as a product engineer at Pinterest. Wu started a milk tea company, Ohtea, with the hopes of connecting with local grocery stores and gift shops to get them to carry the tea. She quickly realized how difficult it was to not only be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Grafana Labs is now valued at over $6B
Grafana Labs, the open-source company that probably powers at least a few operational dashboards in your company, today announced the completion of a primary and secondary transaction worth about $270 million, with the proceeds going to the company and some of its stockholders. The company describes this as an extension to its $240 Series D […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The new generation of heavy lift rockets rising to challenge SpaceX
It can be hard to keep up with this fast-paced yet incredibly complex and highly regulated industry — but everything you need to stay up to date is right here, with links to deeper coverage. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ford says a pickup truck will be the first EV built on its low-cost platform
The first vehicle that will be built on the low-cost EV platform Ford’s been developing in secret will be a mid-size pickup due out in 2027, the automaker announced Wednesday morning. The news comes as part of a much larger rewriting of Ford’s electrification plans. The company is abandoning a plan to make an all-electric […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK’s competition authority ends probes of Apple and Google but will use incoming powers to ‘resolve app store concerns’
Apple and Google can take a breath after the U.K. competition watchdog announced Wednesday it’s closing a pair of investigations into their respective mobile app ecosystems, citing administrative priorities. Since March 2021, the U.K. regulator had been investigating Apple’s conduct in relation to the distribution of apps on its iOS and iPadOS mobile devices, with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Story raises $83M at a $2.25B valuation to build a blockchain for the business of content IP in the age of AI
Companies like OpenAI, Anthropic and Stability AI have faced a lot of heat over how they have scraped and mis-used intellectual property owned by others when training and operating their foundational AI models. Now, a startup called Story that is building a blockchain-based platform to help IP owners track usage more effectively is announcing $83 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Skyfire lets AI agents spend your money
There’s a lot of hype about the promise of AI agents today, but payments are a huge limiting factor. Today, an AI agent might be able to plan a vacation for you independently, but a human has to step in when it’s time to input your credit card information. Skyfire Systems wants to change that. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WeTransfer’s expiry dates haven’t gone away, but you can at least extend them
WeTransfer’s expiry dates have been a major paint-point for users — especially creatives. Thing is, if you don’t download the files the moment you get the link or email you can easily forget to do so before the link expires. At which point you’ll have to ask for it to be resent. Which can get […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
India’s trade minister decries e-commerce growth, Amazon’s ‘predatory’ pricing
India’s commerce minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday expressed concern over the rapid growth of e-commerce in the country, warning of potential disruption to small retailers. Speaking at the launch of a report on the impact of e-commerce on employment and consumer welfare in India, Goyal said the projected dominance of online marketplaces in the coming […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
SleekFlow snaps up $7M to tap the conversational AI opportunity across Asia
SleekFlow, a Singapore- and Hong Kong-headquartered social commerce platform that has built a conversational AI suite for customer engagement targeted to Asian markets, said Wednesday it had secured a further $7 million in funding. The money will be used to continue developing its AI, as well as penetrate deeper into Southeast Asia and the Middle […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The banks that loaned Musk $13B to buy Twitter might be having regrets
X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, looks like a pretty bad investment right about now. As readers might recall, billionaire Elon Musk borrowed $13 billion from Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and five other major banks to help finance the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, as it was then called. According to the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Is your company AI-washing? Rippling founder Parker Conrad thinks it might be.
Right now, there’s a mad scramble to capitalize on AI. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Move over, Apple: Meet the alternative app stores coming to the EU
A list of some of the alternative app stores iPhone users in the EU can try today. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google’s Nest Learning Thermostat is still the one to beat
The Nest Learning Thermostat remains a beautiful piece of industrial design, with some fresh twists that help it more seamlessly blend in. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Watch this robot quickly install roof shingles
Renovate says this model is faster and more accurate than its predecessor, despite being roughly half its weight. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cisco employees face a month of silence ahead of second layoff in 2024
After tech giant Cisco announced plans for its second round of layoffs this year, employees tell TechCrunch that they will not know if they are affected for close to a month. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Cisco was planning a second round of layoffs this year, after letting go of around 4,000 workers in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI signs deal to train on Condé Nast content, surface stories in ChatGPT
OpenAI has inked a deal with Condé Nast, the publisher of storied outlets such as The New Yorker, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Bon Appétit and Wired, to surface stories from Condé Nast properties in OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot platform ChatGPT and its search prototype SearchGPT. The specific terms of the partnership weren’t disclosed. But in a memo […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
PayPal could challenge Apple Wallet in the EU
Though PayPal has not yet confirmed it will now develop a competing wallet thanks to new APIs, the company has hinted in that such a plan is in the works. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Fintech shutdowns, Klarna’s move into banking and which companies are hiring
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at the respective demise of Tally and Score, plus examining Klarna’s latest business move. We also have a list of fintech companies that are looking to add headcount. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Tuesday at […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How Fabric plans to make advanced cryptography ubiquitous
Fabric has developed a custom RISC-V-based chip that is optimized to run the algorithms necessary to establish zero-knowledge proofs and enable fully homomorphic encryption. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Life-sciences investor BEVC raising $25M climate fund
BEVC is the latest life sciences VC to add planetary health to its portfolio, suggesting that the trend is catching hold. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: Ikea is expanding its fleet of inventory drones
If you went 20 years into the past and asked someone what we’d be using drones for now, they’d probably guess that we’d be getting our packages airlifted from across the country directly to our doorstep… but as it turns out, that isn’t very realistic (and honestly, ground shipping is fine). That doesn’t mean drones […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
YouTube takes on TikTok Shop with expanded Shopify partnership
As TikTok Shop gains traction, YouTube is expanding its partnership with Shopify to onboard more brands for its YouTube Shopping affiliate program, the company announced on Tuesday. The expanded partnership means creators will get access to thousands of new brands to tag in their shopping videos, marking a significant increase from the few hundred brands […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Waymo is now giving 100,000 robotaxi rides a week
Waymo disclosed Tuesday it’s now giving more than 100,000 paid robotaxi rides every week across its three main commercial markets in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix. Those figures were shared by Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana in a social media post on X. The new 100,000 figure is double what the company has previously disclosed. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Discover how founders and investors are saving the planet at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Until recently, saving the world usually didn’t involve turning a profit. But as the world has warmed, a range of startups and investors have emerged that have squared the circle, making a clear business case for reducing humanity’s impact on the planet. We’re excited that Rebecca Hu, co-founder and CEO of Glacier; Allison Wolff, co-founder […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
4 days left to save big on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 tickets
The countdown continues! You have 4 days left to lock in your TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 tickets at the discounted rate. Don’t miss the chance to save up to $600 — offer ends August 23 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Join 10,000+ enthusiastic startup leaders, founders, and investors from October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US government accuses Iran of Trump campaign hack; Iran scoffs
On Monday, the U.S. government formally accused Iran of hacking the Donald Trump campaign. In a joint statement issued by the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency or CISA, the three agencies said that the intelligence community attributes the recently disclosed hack and leak […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Thirty-nine state AGs now support Live Nation-Ticketmaster lawsuit
The United States Department of Justice filed a major lawsuit against Live Nation-Ticketmaster in May, arguing that the entertainment giant is acting as a monopoly. An additional 10 state attorneys general joined the suit this week, bringing the total to 39 states and the District of Columbia. The plaintiffs also filed an amended complaint, making […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Sarah Buchner started as a carpenter when she was 12 — now her AI construction startup has raised $20 million
Construction companies deal with a lot of documents — so many that it can be difficult to process and manage them all. According to one recent survey, a third of construction professionals found accessing documents to be a challenge in completing a project, while a fourth said that inaccurate project paperwork has contributed to a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Rounds scoops up $24M to bring its ‘household restocking’ delivery service to more markets
The Rounds, the startup that delivers recurring grocery and household essentials in reusable packaging, announced on Monday its $24 million Series B funding round. The new capital will go toward product development, hiring, and expanding the service to additional markets. Alongside the funding announcement, The Rounds introduced new features for customers, including the ability to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Defcon AI closes $44M seed round to solve a problem of ‘maximum complexity’: Military logistics
The U.S. Department of Defense is a mammoth organization. It not only employs millions of service members and hundreds of thousands of civilian employees, but also has the world’s largest military budget that’s used to buy and maintain more equipment than can likely fit into a single paragraph. It’s a lot to coordinate. Operators within […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Eppo lands new cash to grow its app, website and AI experimentation business
Eppo has closed a new funding round that values the company at over $100 million. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Beyond Math’s ‘digital wind tunnel’ puts a physics-based AI simulation to work on F1 cars
Simulating the real world is a tremendously complex problem if you want to do it at any useful level of fidelity. Traditional techniques are holding back design teams at vehicle and aerospace companies, but Beyond Math is putting AI on the task with a new way of simulating the world that could save them days […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Markforged adds metal printing to its industrial 3D printer amid economic struggles
The world of metal 3D printing has been in-flux this past year, the most notable example being Nano Dimension’s acquisition of Desktop Metal. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Starpath accelerates moon water mining plans with $12M seed funding
NASA and the space industry are in agreement: if we want to establish a permanent human presence on the moon, we’ll need to make use of every native resource we can — and none are as important as water ice. Starpath Robotics is one of a handful of startups planning for this future. The startup […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Reliant’s paper-scouring AI takes on science’s data drudgery
AI models have proven capable of many things, but what tasks do we actually want them doing? Preferably drudgery — and there’s plenty of that in research and academia. Reliant hopes to specialize in the kind of time-consuming data extraction work that’s currently a specialty of tired grad students and interns. “The best thing you […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mike Lynch, recently acquitted in HP-Autonomy fraud case, is missing after yacht capsized off Sicily
Update: Authorities have yet to access the inside of the sunken yacht, and Mike Lynch is still classified as missing. Other details have emerged in the interim. The accident appears to have been caused by a major storm and a resulting tornado-like water column that ensnared and damaged the yacht. Among the other six people […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
US tech giants fight Indian telcos’ bid to regulate internet services
Global technology giants are pushing back against attempts by India’s telecom networks to bring internet services under stricter regulation, rejecting arguments that such measures are necessary to create a “level playing field” and address national security concerns.The Asia Internet Coalition (AIC), a powerful industry body that represents Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix and […]For personal use only.
Pakistan’s PostEx to enter new markets, starting with Saudi Arabia
Pakistani startup PostEx is entering Saudi Arabia as first global market after hitting $21 million ARR in the South Asian nation. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Demand for AI is driving data center water consumption sky high
The AI boom is fueling the demand for data centers and, in turn, driving up water consumption. (Water is used to cool the computing equipment inside data centers.) According to the FT, in Virginia — home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers — water usage jumped by almost two-thirds between 2019 and 2023, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The Waymo robotaxi honking problem has been resolved for real this time
The group honking was an unintended consequence of Waymo's tech. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What margins? AI’s business model is changing fast, says Cohere founder
OpenAI and Anthropic spend billions of dollars a year training models like GPT-4 and Claude, but competitive price dumping is making the business around these platforms rather precarious. Aidan Gomez, CEO of competing AI provider Cohere, says that selling access to models is quickly becoming a “zero margin business” in a podcast appearance on Monday. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Space: Spending less
Hello, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. Did you hear? Bridgit Mendler will be joining me onstage at this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt to talk all things ground stations. She’s just one of the incredible space industry entrepreneurs who will be coming this year. Find out more information here. October 28-30 — see you there! Want […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gemini Live could use some more rehearsals
What’s the point of chatting with a human-like bot if it’s an unreliable narrator — and has a colorless personality? That’s the question I’ve been turning over in my head since I began testing Gemini Live, Google’s take on OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode, last week. Gemini Live is an attempt at a more engaging chatbot […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Now a million people can watch you fumble Zoom’s screen share settings at once
Zoom on Monday announced a new single-user webinar feature that caps out at 1 million attendees. The addition comes less than a month after the #WinWithBlackWomen fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris peaked at 44,000 users before crashing. More recently, an X interview between owner Elon Musk and Harris’ challenger, Donald Trump, crashed prior to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Could Trump’s AI-generated Taylor Swift endorsement be illegal?
On Sunday, former President Donald Trump posted a collection of memes on Truth Social — the platform owned by his media company — that make it seem like Taylor Swift and her fans are coming out in support of his candidacy. But as new legislation takes effect, these images could have deeper implications about the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Swarmbiotics founders grew ‘obsessed with robot swarms’ and now plan to bring them to the battlefield
Few truly autonomous systems are deployed on the battlefield, but one startup is looking to change that with robotic systems that use cooperative behavior to boost troops’ intelligence and tactical advantage. Those systems are called “swarms,” and they’re basically collections of autonomous robots that can coordinate their actions. Swarm robotics have been the stuff of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Former a16z VC Balaji Srinivasan obtained a private island for his new longevity ‘technocapitalist’ school
Former a16z-investor Balaji Srinivasan has booked out an island in Singapore to create his own “Network School.” © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
FlightAware warns that some customers’ info has been ‘exposed,’ including Social Security numbers
The flight tracking company says the misconfiguration exposed customer names, addresses, and pilot's data, as well as Social Security numbers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A surprising number of ‘iPad Kids’ are on X, study finds
Over 30% of 7- to 9-year-olds have an X account, according to a new report. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple Podcasts launches on the web
Apple announced on Monday that Apple Podcasts is now available on all major web browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari) in over 170 countries. The new dedicated web experience aims to make it easier for anyone with a web browser on any device to access podcasts. Web listening has been available for some time, however, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
From a $2.5 million hyper car to a Spanish track-ready EV, here were the most interesting EVs at Monterey Car Week
Historic vehicles, flowing champagne and fashion have dominated the events at Monterey Car Week for decades now. But a change is afoot: EVs, tech-centric vehicles, startups and a heavy dose of Silicon Valley’s software developers and founders added to the scenery this year. Even the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance seemed more youthful and modern — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: Epic Games brings its app store to mobile
The Epic Games Store was already available on PC and Mac, but now it’s launching for Android owners worldwide, and for iOS users in Europe. This might (might) be the beginning of a broader shift in how apps get distributed, particularly on iPhones, leading to a future where you have a variety of app stores […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
5 days left to secure ticket savings for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
The clock is ticking! You’ve got just 5 days left to lock in discounted tickets for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Save up to $600 on individual ticket types. This limited-time offer ends on August 23 at 11:59 p.m. PT— after that, prices go up. Disrupt 2024 is your gateway to connecting with over 10,000 driven startup leaders, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
GM cuts 1,000 software jobs as it prioritizes quality and AI
General Motors is cutting around 1,000 software workers around the world in a bid to focus on more “high-priority” initiatives like improving its Super Cruise driver assistance system, the quality of its infotainment platform and exploring the use of AI. The job cuts are not about cost cutting or individual performance, GM spokesperson Stuart Fowle […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Procreate takes a stand against generative AI, vows to never incorporate the tech into its products
Popular iPad design app Procreate is coming out against generative AI, and has vowed never to introduce generative AI features into its products. The company said on its website that although machine learning is a “compelling technology with a lot of merit,” the current path that generative AI is on is wrong for its platform. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Mike Lynch, recently acquitted in HP-Autonomy case, is missing after yacht capsized off Sicily
Mike Lynch, the investor and high-profile founder of U.K. tech firm Autonomy, has been declared missing at sea after the yacht he was on, the Bayesian, capsized in a storm off the coast of Sicily early Monday morning. TechCrunch confirmed with a source close to the rescue operation that Lynch is one of six people […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ElevenLabs’ text-to-speech Reader app is now available globally
ElevenLabs, which develops AI-powered tools to create and edit synthetic voices, is making its Reader app available globally with support for 32 languages. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AMD to acquire infrastructure player ZT Systems for $4.9B to amp up its AI ecosystem play
AMD, the chipmaker hot on the heels of Nvidia in the AI computing race, today announced a big acquisition to boost its position as an “ecosystem” partner for companies building big artificial intelligence computing businesses: it announced that it will acquire ZT Systems, which provides compute design and infrastructure for so-called “hyperscalers” (the biggest technology […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Amazon considers moving Amazon Pay into a standalone app in India
Amazon is considering shifting its payments offerings in India into a standalone app, three sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch, as the e-commerce giant aims to boost usage of Amazon Pay in the country. Amazon Pay is currently housed within the company’s primary e-commerce app in India, and lets users transfer money to individuals […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
As CO2 emissions from supply chains come into focus, this startup is aiming at farms
Root helps food and beverage companies collect primary data on their agricultural supply chains. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Waza comes out of stealth with $8M to power global trade for African businesses
In May, the African fintech processed up to $70 million in monthly payment volume. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Digitally resurrecting actors is still a terrible idea
This post contains spoilers for the movie “Alien: Romulus” In the long-running Alien movie franchise, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation can’t seem to let go of a terrible idea: It keeps trying to make a profit from the murderous xenomorph. No matter how many times they fail, and how many people die in the process, whenever the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
With the Polestar 3 now “weeks” away, its CEO looks to make company “self-sustaining”
Thomas Ingenlath is having perhaps a little too much fun in his Polestar 3, silently rocketing away from stop signs and swinging through tightening bends, grinning like a man far younger than his 59 years of age. “You really can push this car,” the Polestar CEO says as he cruises the roads alongside other enthusiasts […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
South Korea’s AI textbook program faces skepticism from parents
Some parents have reservations about the South Korean government’s plans to bring tablets with AI-powered textbooks into classrooms, according to a report in The Financial Times. The tablets are scheduled to be introduced next year, and by 2028, teachers are supposed to be using these AI textbooks for all subjects except music, art, physical education, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How VC Pippa Lamb ended up on ‘Industry’ — one of the hottest shows on TV
Season 3 of "Industry" focuses on the fictional bank Pierpoint blends the worlds — and drama — of tech, media, government, and finance. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Selling a startup in an ‘acqui-hire’ is more lucrative than it seems, founders and VCs say
Selling under such circumstances is often not as poor of an outcome for founders and key staff as it initially seems. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
These fintech companies are hiring, despite a rough market in 2024
While the rapid pace of funding has slowed, many fintechs are continuing to see growth and expand their teams. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rippling’s Parker Conrad says founders should ‘go all the way to the ground’ to run their companies
This is just one area of leadership where Parker Conrad takes a contrarian approach. He also said he doesn't believe in top-down management. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp is ‘not going to apologize’ for military work
Data analytics company Palantir has faced criticism and even protests over its work with the military, police, and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, but co-founder and CEO Alex Karp isn’t interested in “the apology show.” In a lengthy New York Times profile, Karp told Maureen Dowd that the company has a “a consistently pro-Western view” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Why Porsche NA CEO Timo Resch is betting on ‘choice’ to survive the turbulent EV market
Timo Resch is basking in the sun. That’s literally true, as we spoke on a gloriously clear California day at the Quail, one of Monterey Car Week’s most prestigious events. But it’s figuratively true as well, as Resch, who took the CEO role at Porsche Cars North America (PCNA) last November, is in a very […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nancy Pelosi criticizes California AI bill as ‘ill informed’
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi issued a statement late yesterday laying out her opposition to SB 1047, a California bill that seeks to regulate AI. “The view of many of us in Congress is that SB 1047 is well-intentioned but ill-informed,” Pelosi said. She noted that other congresspeople from the Bay Area — Zoe Lofgren, Anna Eshoo, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google takes on OpenAI with Gemini Live
Made by Google was this week, featuring a full range of reveals from Google’s biggest hardware event. Google unveiled its new lineup of Pixel 9 phones, including the $1,799 Pixel 9 Fold Pro; advanced AI-powered photo-editing tools; and the new Pixel Buds Pro 2, which are infused with Gemini AI. The company also announced Gemini […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI’s new voice mode let me talk with my phone, not to it
I’ve been playing around with OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode for the last week, and it’s the most convincing taste I’ve had of an AI-powered future yet. This week, my phone laughed at jokes, made them back to me, asked me how my day was, and told me it’s having “a great time.” I was talking […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X says it’s closing operations in Brazil
X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, said today that it’s ending operations in Brazil, although the service will remain available to users in the country. The announcement comes during a legal battle with Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who sought to block certain accounts on X as part of an […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ikea expands its inventory drone fleet
One of the biggest questions looming over the drone space is how to best use the tech. Inspection has become a key driver, as the autonomous copters are deployed to dangerous or remote spaces like power plants and oil rigs. Inventory drones are a promising subset of the category that has emerged in recent years. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Keychain aims to unlock a new approach to manufacturing consumer goods
Brands can use Keychain to look up different products and see who actually manufactures them. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Microsoft Copilot: Everything you need to know about Microsoft’s AI
In this post, we explain the many Microsoft Copilots available and what they do, and highlight the key differences between each. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
How the ransomware attack at Change Healthcare went down: A timeline
A hack on UnitedHealth-owned tech giant Change Healthcare likely stands as one of the biggest data breaches of U.S. medical data in history. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Gogoro delays India plans due to policy uncertainty, launches bike-taxi pilot with Rapido
Gogoro has deferred its India plans over delay in government incentives, but the Taiwanese company has partnered with Rapido for a bike-taxi pilot. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A16z offers social media tips after its founder’s ‘attack’ tweet goes viral
On Friday, the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz tweeted out a link to its guide on how to “build your social media presence” which features advice for founders. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI shuts down election influence operation using ChatGPT
OpenAI has banned a cluster of ChatGPT accounts linked to an Iranian influence operation that was generating content about the U.S. presidential election, according to a blog post on Friday. The company says the operation created AI-generated articles and social media posts, though it doesn’t seem that it reached much of an audience. This is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple reportedly has ‘several hundred’ working on a robot arm with attached iPad
Apple is reportedly shifting into the world of home robots after the wheels came off its electric car. According to a new report from Bloomberg, a team of several hundred is working on its potential first product: a robotic arm with an “iPad-like” display attached. The home product would take a page out of Amazon’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Another week in the circle of startup life
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. I’m Anna Heim from TechCrunch’s international team, and I’ll be writing this newsletter moving forward. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week, we’re looking at some companies being created, funded, shut down and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Researchers develop hair-thin battery to power tiny robots
MIT this week showcased tiny batteries designed specifically for the purpose of power these systems to execute varied tasks. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rimac squeezes more power into its new all-electric hypercar Nevera R. And it only starts at $2.5 million
Rimac revealed Friday during The Quail, a Motorsports Gathering at Monterey Car Week the Nevera R, an all-electric hypercar that’s meant to push the performance bounds of its predecessor. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A hellish new AI threat: ‘Undressing’ sites targeted by SF authorities
While the ethics of AI-generated porn are still under debate, using the technology to create nonconsensual sexual imagery of people is, I think we can all agree, reprehensible. One such method is “undressing” sites, which take a normal, clothed photo of a person and generate a fake nude version from it. As you might imagine, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: Lockheed Martin rescues satellite manufacturer Terran Orbital
Lockheed Martin is acquiring satellite manufacturer Terran Orbital, taking the smaller company private and potentially rescuing it from running out of cash while facing of serious debt. Although Terran Orbital itself wasn’t founded until 2013, its history goes back to the late ’90s, to the development of the CubeSat, which became the flagship in a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
African e-commerce company Jumia completes sale of secondary shares at $99.6M
Almost two weeks ago, TechCrunch reported that African e-commerce giant Jumia was planning to sell 20 million American depositary shares (ADSs) and raise over $100 million, given its share price of around $5.70 at the time. The e-tailer has now completed the at-the-market transaction offering of 20,227,736 ADSs. Jumia sold the shares at an average […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Only 7 days left to save on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 tickets
We’re entering the final week of discounted rates for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Save up to $600 on select individual ticket types until August 23. Join a dynamic crowd of over 10,000 attendees, startup founders and VC investors at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30. Here are just a few big reasons to attend […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
‘Fortnite’ maker Epic Games launches its app store on iOS in the EU, worldwide on Android
Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, announced on Friday that it has officially launched its rival iOS app store in the European Union. The Epic Games Store is also launching on Android worldwide. The app store is launching with games including Fortnite, Rocket League Sideswipe, and Fall Guys. The company says it’s working with developers […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Google is bringing AI overviews to India, Brazil, Japan, UK, Indonesia and Mexico
After bringing AI overviews to the U.S., Google is expanding the AI-powered search summaries to six more countries: India, Brazil, Japan, the U.K., Indonesia and Mexico. These markets will also get local language support for AI overviews. The search giant is rethinking how it displays source material links, as well. It’s adding a view on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta draws fresh questions from EU over its CrowdTangle shut-down
The Commission is seeking more information from Meta following its decision to deprecate its CrowdTangle transparency tool. The latest EU request for information (RFI) on Meta has been made under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) — an online governance framework which empowers enforcers to punish non-compliance with fines of up to 6% of global […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
What is Instagram’s Threads app? All your questions answered
In the last few months, Twitter alternatives — new and old — have found an audience willing to try out a new text-based social network. Mastodon, Bluesky, Spill and T2 are some of the social media platforms people are trying out. Now, Meta has stepped into the game with a big launch tied to Instagram. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
UK neobank Revolut valued at $45B after secondary market sale
Revolut has confirmed a new valuation of $45 billion via a secondary market share sale, shortly after the U.K.-based neobank secured its own banking license in the U.K. and in Mexico. The news positions Revolut as one of Europe’s most valuable private tech companies. Founded out of London in 2015, Revolut is one of numerous […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ben Horowitz Declares War on Michael Moritz
A social media spat between billionaire investors is raising questions about the journalistic independence of three-year-old news outfit SF Standard, after a reporter representing the outlet reached out to sources for a story about VC Ben Horowitz and his wife Felicia. The Standard’s sole backer is another longtime VC, Michael Moritz, and on Thursday night, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
California AI bill SB 1047 aims to prevent AI disasters, but Silicon Valley warns it will cause one
SB 1047 has drawn the ire of Silicon Valley players large and small, including venture capitalists, big tech trade groups, researchers and startup founders. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
California weakens bill to prevent AI disasters before final vote, taking advice from Anthropic
California’s bill to prevent AI disasters, SB 1047, has faced significant opposition from many parties in Silicon Valley. Today, California lawmakers bent slightly to that pressure, adding in several amendments suggested by AI firm Anthropic and other opponents. On Thursday the bill passed through California’s Appropriations Committee, a major step towards becoming law, with several […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rivian launches smaller $1,400 camp kitchen, five years after initial demo
The Rivian camp kitchen attracted buzz from almost the moment it appeared as a prototype in 2019 at Overland Expo West. Despite interest in the accessory, Rivian never actually sold the camp kitchen, which was kind of massive and designed to slide into the R1T pickup truck’s trademark gear tunnel. Until now. Sort of. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
3D printing stalwart Formlabs confirms ‘small number’ of layoffs
The layoffs occurred in waves over the past two years, and as recently as the last few weeks. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
3D printing stalwart Formlabs confirms ‘small number’ of layoffs affecting around 40
The layoffs occurred in waves over the past two years, and as recently as the last few weeks. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
NASA and Rocket Lab aim to prove we can go to Mars for 1/10 the price
A pair of Rocket Lab-made spacecraft are about to embark on a two-step journey. The first step is the 55-hour, 2,500 mile stretch from California to the launch site at Cape Canaveral. The second step? Just 11 months and 230 million miles to Mars. The objective of the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CannonKeys launches a modern take on a classic mechanical keyboard with the Sat75 X
At a price of $111 for the Sat75 X board, this is a fun and easy way to get into building a custom mechanical keyboard without breaking the bank. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Jeff Bezos’ brother’s firm has launched a debut $100M VC fund called HIPstr
HighPost Capital, a private equity firm run by Mark Bezos, Jeff Bezos' younger brother, and PE veteran David Moross, has launched a new venture capital arm. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple, Google wallets will soon support California driver’s licenses
California residents will soon be able to store their driver’s license or state ID in their Apple Wallet or Google Wallet apps, as the state’s government announced Thursday that support for digital IDs is launching in the coming weeks. Californians with an ID in the Apple Wallet or Google Wallet app will be able to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky’s UK surge has had little impact on X
Despite the influx of U.K. users to Bluesky, other new data indicates that it's still Meta's Threads, not Bluesky, that's better poised to challenge X. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
WeRide preps for an IPO, meet the man who built a startup pipeline at CNH and Waymo’s nightly honk-a-thon
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! We brought you a Tesla Dojo explainer last week. Now we’re giving you a handy Dojo timeline that tracks the progress of Tesla’s AI supercomputer. The timeline […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Geekbench releases AI benchmarking app
It’s a successor to Geekbench ML. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta’s X rival Threads gains multiple drafts, audience insights and more
Meta’s X rival Threads announced a number of new features today, including the ability to store multiple drafts, a way to rearrange columns on the desktop, and insights into the user’s audience. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also mentioned that the company plans to add a post-scheduling feature soon. The company noted that these new features […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Franki’s app rewards you for posting video reviews of local restaurants
Franki is a social discovery and video-based review app where users can interact with a community of foodies, discover local dining spots, and create their own videos showing off their favorite restaurants. Franki recently underwent a brand refresh, which included the introduction of a new “Social Club” rewards program. This program rewards creators for posting […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Announcing judges for the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
The Startup Battlefield is one of the highlights of Disrupt, and we can’t wait to see which of the thousands of applicants will be selected to pitch to panels of top-tier VCs at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, taking place on October 28–30 in San Francisco. It’s always epic, and every contender is on the road to making a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
From Lauri Moore to Vic Singh, venture capitalists continue to play musical chairs
When Keith Rabois announced he was leaving Founders Fund to return to Khosla Ventures in January, it came as a shock to many in the venture capital ecosystem — and not just because Rabois is a big name in the industry. It was surprising because unlike in many other fields, venture capitalists don’t traditionally move […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bridgit Mendler will talk about building the data highway between Earth and space at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Earlier this year, Bridgit Mendler surprised her fans when she announced that she was heading a new space data startup called Northwood Space. With Northwood, the former Disney star and singer is taking aim at an overlooked but critical part of space infrastructure: ground stations. She’s coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on October 28-30 in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Linktree acquires social media scheduler tool Plann
Link-in-bio platform Linktree announced Thursday that it has acquired social media scheduling tool Plann for an undisclosed amount. While Sydney, Australia-headquartered Plann will continue to operate as usual for now, Linktree is set to integrate its social scheduling tool into its platform in the coming months. This means that users will soon have access to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Epic Games’ ‘MegaGrant’ makes EU alternative app store, AltStore PAL, available for free
AltStore PAL, an app that takes advantage of the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) to bring a third-party app store to EU users, is now available for free, thanks to Epic Games. The app maker announced via social media posts on Wednesday it’s the latest recipient of a “MegaGrant” monetary award from Fortnite maker Epic Games, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
CodeRabbit raises $16M to bring AI to code reviews
Code reviews — peer reviews of code that help devs improve code quality — are time-consuming. According to one source, 50% of companies spend two to five hours a week on them. Without enough people, code reviews can be overwhelming and take devs away from other important work. Harjot Gill thinks that code reviews can be […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
X begins rolling out support for passkeys on Android
X, formerly known as Twitter, has announced that it’s rolling out support for passkeys on Android. The launch comes as the social network rolled out support for passkeys to all iOS users back in April. Passkey logins make it harder for bad actors to remotely access your accounts since they would also need physical access […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Lockheed Martin to buy satellite maker Terran Orbital in $450M deal
Lockheed, which holds a 28.3% stake in Terran Orbital, will take the satellite maker private in a deal that's expected to close before the end of 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Waymo to double down on winter testing its robotaxis
Waymo regularly takes its autonomous vehicles on winter road trips to test the cars in snowy environments. In 2017, it was Michigan. Last year, it was Buffalo. This year, Waymo will hit multiple wintry locales, including Truckee, California; Upstate New York; and Michigan, from the Upper Peninsula to the metro Detroit area. Waymo didn’t say […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI social media vetting startup Ferretly secures $2.5M, launches election personnel screening tool
An AI social media vetting startup Ferretly has raised $2.5 million in seed funding and is launching a new platform designed to screen election personnel. Founded in 2019, Ferretly leverages AI to scan social media and publicly available online data to uncover potential risks and behaviors that traditional background checks may overlook. The startup is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TipRanks, an AI-based stock tip evaluator created after its founder got burned by bad advice, sells for $200M to Prytek
Prytek had already been a big investor in TipRanks since 2017, most recently leading a $77 million round in the company in 2021. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta axed CrowdTangle, a tool for tracking disinformation. Critics claim its replacement has just ‘1% of the features’
Journalists, researchers, and politicians are mourning Meta’s shutdown of CrowdTangle, which they used to track the spread of disinformation on Facebook and Instagram. In CrowdTangle’s place, Meta is offering its Content Library – but is limiting usage to people from “qualified academic or nonprofit institutions who are pursuing scientific or public interest research.” Many researchers […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Cockroach Labs shakes up its licensing to force bigger companies to pay
Cockroach Labs, the business and core developer behind the eponymous distributed SQL database known as CockroachDB, is changing its licensing once again — five years after it moved on from an open source model. The company revealed today that its consolidating its self-hosted product under a single enterprise license, a move designed to encourage larger […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Klarna takes on banking with new savings, cash-back offerings
Swedish fintech giant Klarna is rolling out two new products on Thursday that could make its buy now, pay later offerings more enticing to use. The company is offering consumers in the U.S. and 11 European countries the ability to store money in a Klarna “balance” account, where they can deposit money directly from their […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Binance restarts services in India after seven-month regulatory halt
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has resumed operations for users in India after a seven-month hiatus imposed by a local authority for operating “illegally” in the country.The exchange said Thursday it has registered as a reporting entity with India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a government agency tasked with scrutinizing financial transactions.India blocked […]
Video of Eric Schmidt blaming remote work for Google’s woes mysteriously vanishes
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who has since moved on to greener and perhaps more dangerous pastures, told an audience of Stanford students recently that “Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning.” Evidently this hot take was not for wider consumption, as Stanford — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meet Black Forest Labs, the startup powering Elon Musk’s unhinged AI image generator
Elon Musk’s Grok released a new AI image-generation feature on Tuesday night that, just like the AI chatbot, has very few safeguards. That means you can generate fake images of Donald Trump smoking marijuana on the Joe Rogan show, for example, and upload it straight to the X platform. But it’s not really Elon Musk’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Filmmakers say AI will change the art — perhaps beyond recognition
One of the first topics tackled was the impractical nature of today's video generators. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Biden tells creators they have something traditional media does not: ‘You’re trusted’
At the first ever White House Creator Economy Conference, the most popular man to drop by was not a TikTok superstar or a YouTube sensation. It was President Joe Biden, who emphasized social media creators’ role in shaping public opinion. “Until about three, four months ago, I didn’t pay very much attention, following you guys,” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
NEA led a $100M round into Fei-Fei Li’s new AI startup, now valued at over $1B
World Labs, a stealthy startup founded by renowned Stanford University AI professor Fei-Fei Li, has raised two rounds of financing two months apart, according to multiple reports. The latest financing was led by NEA and valued the company at over $1 billion, TechCrunch has learned from several people with knowledge of the investments. This was a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.