DeepSeek’s new AI model appears to be one of the best ‘open’ challengers yet
A Chinese lab has created what appears to be one of the most powerful “open” AI models to date. The model, DeepSeek V3, was developed by the AI firm DeepSeek, and was released on Wednesday under a permissive license that allows developers to download and modify it for most applications, including commercial ones. DeepSeek V3 can handle a range of text-based workloads and tasks, like coding, translating, and writing essays and emails from a descriptive prompt. According to DeepSeek’s internal...
about 2 hours ago
The fall of EV startup Fisker: A comprehensive timeline
Featured Article Here is a timeline of the events that led fledgling automaker Fisker to file for bankruptcy. 10 seconds ago Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 10 seconds ago The future of the space industry may look a lot like its past, or so believes Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San… Fintech 50 mins ago Four years after acquiring Shine, a French fintech startup that offers bank accounts...
about 4 hours ago
Microsoft and OpenAI have a financial definition of AGI: Report
In Brief Posted: 9:16 AM PST · December 26, 2024 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 it develops AI systems that can generate at least $100 billion in profits. That’s far...
about 4 hours ago
Executive assistants, high salaries, and other ways early-stage founders will trigger a seed VC
VC Jenny Fielding, co-founder of Everywhere Ventures and former Techstars managing director, was basically trolling on X when she posted, “Y’all have strong opinions about pre-seed founders who have EAs to help them schedule? Just checking.” Fielding knew the post was “a little bit snarky,” she told TechCrunch, but it sparked a big conversation. Some people suggested that early-stage founders could simply use AI executive assistants. Others grew affronted that a VC implied that they shouldn’t hire a human to...
about 4 hours ago
Elon Musk’s jets made 355 trips in 2024, including 31 to or from the Mar-a-Lago area
In Brief Posted: 9:09 AM PST · December 26, 2024 Elon Musk’s jets took more than 355 flights this year, with 31 of those flights heading to or from near Mar-a-Lago, where President-elect Donald Trump spends much of his time, according to a Business Insider analysis. Musk’s flights this year paint a picture of his political ambitions. One of his jets took its first trip to Palm Beach, where Mar-a-Lago is located, on February 17. A few months later, The...
about 4 hours ago
These were the badly handled data breaches of 2024
For the past few years, TechCrunch has looked back at some of the worst, badly handled data breaches and security incidents in the hope — maybe! — other corporate giants would take heed and avoid making some of the same calamities of yesteryear. To absolutely nobody’s surprise, here we are again this year listing much of the same bad behavior from an entirely new class of companies. Last year, genetic testing giant 23andMe lost the genetic and ancestry data on...
about 8 hours ago
PharmEasy investor cuts value of its stake drastically, implying new valuation of $456M
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 the period ending September. The fund had originally spent $9.4 million to acquire these shares. The persistent low valuation comes despite PharmEasy securing more than...
about 15 hours ago
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. 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 brings xAI’s total raised to $12 billion, adding to the $6 billion tranche xAI raised this spring. CNBC reported in November that xAI was aiming...
1 day ago
$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 on actual payroll records, not survey responses, Kruze says. Perhaps unsurprisingly, technical engineering/product positions tend to be paid more than the CEO. One surprise is...
1 day ago
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 San Francisco earlier this month, Krane said GV has invested in a stunning 800 companies across the last five years and invested more than $10...
1 day ago
Home for the holidays? Share this top cybersecurity advice with friends and family
For the millions of people at home with friends and family for the festive season, it’s also the time of year where many get roped into fixing the house’s spotty Wi-Fi or face a barrage of questions about tech. Instead this holiday season, give the gift of good security advice. This is the ideal time of year where you can get hands-on to help make meaningful changes that bolster the cybersecurity of your loved ones. This isn’t to say fixing...
1 day ago
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
Last year’s techwide reckoning continues. In 2023, layoffs have yet again cost tens of thousands of tech workers their jobs; this time, the workforce reductions have been driven by the biggest names in tech like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo, Meta and Zoom. Startups, too, have announced cuts across all sectors, from crypto to enterprise SaaS. The reasoning behind these workforce reductions follows a common script, citing the macroeconomic environment and a need to find discipline on a tumultuous path to...
2 days ago
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 literally back to the future now!” The company is selling only about 100 RCRs electric dirtbikes to start. It’s not clear if those are newly...
2 days ago
OpenAI ‘considered’ building a humanoid robot: Report
In Brief Posted: 9:19 AM PST · December 24, 2024 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 purpose AI” firm, Physical Intelligence. In 2021, OpenAI abandoned such ambitions after quietly closing its...
2 days ago
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 train one of its flagship models, Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Meta fine-tuned its Llama 3.1 models using AI-generated data. And OpenAI is said to be sourcing...
2 days ago
Google is using Anthropic’s Claude to improve its Gemini AI
Contractors working to improve Google’s Gemini AI are comparing its answers against outputs produced by Anthropic’s competitor model Claude, according to internal correspondence seen by TechCrunch. Google would not say, when reached by TechCrunch for comment, if it had obtained permission for its use of Claude in testing against Gemini. As tech companies race to build better AI models, the performance of these models are often evaluated against competitors, typically by running their own models through industry benchmarks rather than...
2 days ago
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 latest is CredibleX which has raised a $55 million Seed financing round led by Abu Dhabi-based Further Ventures in order to take advantage of the...
2 days ago
Watch Boston Dynamics’ electric Atlas do a backflip
In Brief Posted: 7:37 AM PST · December 24, 2024 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 than walking. That said, roboticists tend to focus on useful tasks like locomotion first. Even...
2 days ago
Clop ransomware gang takes credit for latest mass hack that breached dozens of companies
In Brief Posted: 7:25 AM PST · December 24, 2024 Clop, a prolific ransomware gang, has taken credit for stealing data from at least 66 companies by exploiting a bug in widely used corporate file transfer tools made by Cleo Software. The cybercriminal gang on Tuesday listed on its dark web leak site the partial names of companies it hacked, which TechCrunch has seen, but who had not responded to the gang’s outreach. The gang said it planned to soon...
2 days ago
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. Mobile Uplift Corporation, a company set up by investors from Europe and North America, has agreed to acquire the operating assets of the startup’s two subsidiaries, Lilium GmbH and Lilium eAircraft GmbH, per an announcement Tuesday. The parent company, Lilium N.V, will not receive any funds in accordance with German insolvency law. Terms of the deal, which...
2 days ago
These are the cybersecurity stories we were jealous of in 2024
Since 2018, along with colleagues first at VICE Motherboard, and now at TechCrunch, I have been publishing a list at the end of the year highlighting the best cybersecurity stories reported by other outlets. Cybersecurity, surveillance, and privacy are huge topics that no one single publication can cover effectively on its own. Journalism is by definition competitive, but also a highly collaborative field. That’s why it sometimes makes sense to point our readers to other publications and their work to...
2 days ago
Tesla Superchargers: GM, Ford, Rivian, and other EV brands with access
Featured Article EV owners of GM vehicles like the Chevrolet Silverado EV and Cadillac Lyriq will now officially have access to Tesla’s Superchargers. 14 seconds ago Image Credits: Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe / Getty Images Apps 1 hour ago Shelf lets you show what you listen to, play, read and watch online through your dedicated digital storefront. Government & Policy 2 hours ago While it’s fair to say the EU’s antitrust tech enforcement outcomes have varied, one lasting legacy is...
2 days ago
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 emerging to address the problem. Proton Intelligence is a Canada-based startup developing a continuous potassium monitoring product. It’s now closed a $6.95 million Seed financing...
3 days ago
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 – but it comes with drawbacks of its own. Much of the AI world took the announcement of OpenAI’s o3 model as proof that AI scaling...
3 days ago
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 around very much — especially those that reach the partner or general partner level as Rabois had. VC funds have 10-year life cycles and partners...
3 days ago
An investigation finds that Google Maps fails users in the West Bank
In Brief Posted: 11:39 AM PST · December 23, 2024 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 be dangerous for Palestinian users to drive on. Part of the issue is inevitable in...
3 days ago
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 in several new unicorns, such as Poolside and Wayve. For Balderton Capital general partner James Wise, the most important takeaway is that “you can raise...
3 days ago
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 AI, which will be led by Aporia co-founders CEO Liran Hason and CTO Alon Gubkin. Aporia’s technology will be integrated into Coralogix’ service. “This acquisition...
3 days ago
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 the whole Eero ecosystem, but I wanted to let others who might have a similar situation know what did and didn’t work. I have the...
3 days ago
Juniper Ventures spins out of Climate Capital to invest in synthetic biology for the climate
There’s a mismatch in climate tech investing: Well over half of all dollars invested since 2020 have flowed into startups working on energy and transportation, according to Sightline Climate. “It’s awesome to see those solutions doing well,” Michael Luciani, founding partner at Juniper, told TechCrunch. But as he points out, those sectors represent less than half of all carbon pollution. “The big contributors are how we make things, the industrials and chemicals and plastics, as well as food and agriculture...
3 days ago
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 someone asks the time, you’d probably say “noon” — not “oh twelve hundred, one second, and four milliseconds.” That’s quantizing; both answers are correct, but...
3 days ago
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.com — a site that provides access to WordPress plug-ins, themes, and other artifacts to the community — will take a break from providing free services, including new account registrations, new plug-ins, themes, photo directory submissions, and plug-in reviews, Mullenweg said in a blog post. In response, Joost de Walk —...
3 days ago
Electric aircraft startup Lilium ceases operations, 1,000 workers laid off
Lilium, once a darling in the nascent industry of electric aircraft that raised more than $1 billion before going public, has ceased operations and laid off about 1,000 workers after efforts to gain financing and exit insolvency failed. The publication Gründerszene was the first to report the layoffs. Lilium co-founder and CEO Patrick Nathen confirmed on LinkedIn that the 10-year-old company had stopped operating. “After 10 years and 10 months, it is a sad fact that Lilium has ceased operations....
3 days ago
Honda and Nissan plan major merger focused on ‘intelligence and electrification’
In Brief Posted: 8:07 AM PST · December 23, 2024 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 the pressure to compete. If they go through with the merger, it could be completed...
3 days ago
The TechCrunch Cyber Glossary
Cybersecurity is a world full of technical lingo and jargon. At TechCrunch, we have been writing about cybersecurity for years, and even we sometimes need a refresher on what exactly a specific word or expression means. That’s why we have created this glossary, which includes some of the most common — and not so common — words and expressions that we use in our articles, and explanations of how — and why — we use them. This is a developing...
3 days ago
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 has approved the deal, which will now go to a shareholder vote, Prosus said in a statement today. It expects the deal to close in...
3 days ago
WhatsApp scores historic victory against NSO Group in long-running spyware hacking case
A U.S. judge had ruled that Israeli spyware maker NSO Group breached hacking laws by using WhatsApp to stealthily infect devices with its Pegasus spyware. In a historic ruling on Friday, a Northern California federal judge held NSO Group liable for targeting the devices of 1,400 WhatsApp users, violating state and federal hacking laws as well as WhatsApp’s terms of service, which prohibit the use of the messaging platform for malicious purposes. The ruling comes five years after Meta-owned WhatsApp...
3 days ago
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. The app, currently live in Australia and a few countries in beta, can access real-time data from the web and X, and offers generative AI features like rewriting text, summarizing long paragraphs, a little bit of Q&A, and can generate images from text prompts, too. “Grok is an AI-powered assistant designed to be maximally truthful,...
4 days ago
X jacks up Premium+ prices by 37.5%, hits some markets harder
In Brief Posted: 6:53 PM PST · December 22, 2024 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 said it was “adjusting” the prices to support the experience it offers. Existing subscribers will...
4 days ago
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 the president’s council of advisors on science and technology.” And in a post on X, Krishnan said that he’ll be working closely with ex-PayPal COO...
4 days ago
Palantir and Anduril reportedly building a tech consortium to bid on defense contracts
In Brief Posted: 2:12 PM PST · December 22, 2024 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, and Boeing. One unnamed participant described this as an effort to “provide a new generation...
4 days ago
Trump says he wants to keep TikTok around ‘for a little while’
In Brief Posted: 12:42 PM PST · December 22, 2024 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, billions and billions of views,” Trump told supporters at an event in Phoenix, Arizona. “They...
4 days ago
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 its o-series of models. On Friday, OpenAI released new research on “deliberative alignment,” outlining the company’s latest way to ensure AI reasoning models stay aligned...
4 days ago
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 exceptions like Waymo and Wayve. But as 2024 kicked off, there was still a lingering EV buzz in the air, albeit quieter than before. Now,...
4 days ago
Apple might be working on a smart doorbell
In Brief Posted: 8:44 AM PST · December 22, 2024 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 they approach the door, then connect wirelessly to a deadbolt lock and automatically unlock for...
4 days ago
Tetsuwan Scientific is making robotic AI scientists that can run experiments on their own
Cristian Ponce was wearing an Indiana Jones costume when he met his co-founder Théo Schäfer. It was at a Halloween party in 2023 thrown by Entrepreneur First, a startup program that introduces founders to one another before they launch an idea. The two hit it off, Ponce remembers. Schäfer had studied at MIT with a masters in underwater autonomous robots and worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab exploring Jupiter’s moons for alien life. “Crazy stuff,” Ponce grins. “I was coming...
4 days ago
OpenAI’s GPT-5 reportedly falling short of expectations
In Brief Posted: 10:30 AM PST · December 21, 2024 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 a leap forward as previous models. But the WSJ story includes additional details around the...
5 days ago
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 will be back in your inbox in the new year. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced the successors to its o1 reasoning model family: o3 and...
5 days ago
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 of remedies, including the sale of Chrome, the spinoff of its Android operating system, and a prohibition on entering into exclusionary search agreements with browser...
5 days ago
If climate tech is dead, what comes next?
Humans have an innate desire to name things, but to be honest, we’re not always that good at it. Take climate tech: it’s a category of companies and technologies that, broadly speaking, seek to minimize or reverse our impact on the climate while also helping us adapt to its increasing changes. As terms go, climate tech is actually not bad since it defines the sector’s focus in two words. It’s certainly better than its predecessor, clean tech. It’s what startups...
5 days ago
Hollywood angels: Here are the celebrities who are also star VCs
Becoming a venture capitalist has become the latest status symbol in Hollywood. Everyone these days, from Olivia Wilde to Emma Watson, is either launching a venture firm or is in the process of backing the next hottest company. Robinhood, Uber, and Klarna all have some glitzy names on their cap tables, paving the way for the rise of “Hollywood angels.” For founders, having celebs on the cap table can bring a lot of buzz to the startup — and bonus...
5 days ago
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 yet (it does have a Bluesky profile, though), is testament to several things: the hype around Bluesky, which is emerging as a lifeboat for millions...
5 days ago
Sam Altman disputes Marc Andreessen’s description of AI meetings with Biden administration
In Brief Posted: 4:04 PM PST · December 20, 2024 Famed investor Marc Andreessen recently talked about meetings with Biden administration staff who gave him the impression they wanted to control AI by working closely with two or three big AI companies shutting everyone else out through burdensome regulations. Andreessen didn’t name OpenAI, but it was implied it would have been a beneficiary of this alleged effort. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman dismissed Andreessen’s comments as “conspiracy theory” in a...
6 days ago
After causing outrage on the first day of Y Combinator, AI code editor PearAI lands $1M seed
On the first day of Y Combinator’s winter 2024 session – right after orientation and a photo in front of the YC sign – the founders of PearAI got “cancelled,” as founder Nang Ang described it to TechCrunch, receiving an outpouring of online hate. But they survived and graduated the YC’s winter 2024 cohort earlier this month with a modified idea and a new initial product. Now they’ve also made their goal of $1 million in seed funding, Ang tellsTechCrunch, raising...
6 days ago
Third member of LockBit ransomware gang has been arrested
In Brief Posted: 12:20 PM PST · December 20, 2024 U.S. prosecutors in New Jersey on Friday publicly announced charges against Rostislav Panev, 51, a dual Russian-Israeli national accused of being a key developer in the LockBit ransomware gang. Panev is currently in Israeli custody and faces extradition to the United States. LockBit is one of the most prolific ransomware gangs, accused of launching crippling data-stealing cyberattacks at thousands of companies around the world, including the U.S., and thought to...
6 days ago
Feds clear the way for robotaxis without steering wheels 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 agency. The AV industry has been anticipating NHTSA’s proposal since last year, when the agency first proposed the ADS-Equipped Vehicle Safety, Transparency and Evaluation Program,...
6 days ago
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm. It’s able to write essays, code and more given short text prompts, hyper-charging productivity. But it also has a more…nefarious side. In any case, AI tools are not going away — and indeed has expanded dramatically since its launch just a few months ago. Major brands are experimenting with it, using the AI to generate ad and marketing copy, for example. And OpenAI is heavily investing in it. ChatGPT...
6 days ago
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 now, and see you in 2025! Image Credits:We Are / Getty Images This week brought us some M&As, but also some reminders that it’s always...
6 days ago
Nvidia clears regulatory hurdle to acquire Run:ai
In Brief Posted: 10:54 AM PST · December 20, 2024 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 hardware options compatible with Nvidia would still be available on the market and thus this...
6 days ago
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 to finding relevant information. Then, based on that information, the tool performs a search again to extract knowledge. After repeating that process a few times,...
6 days ago
Here’s the full list of 49 US AI startups that have raised $100M or more in 2024
AI 27 seconds ago In the first half of 2024 alone, more than $35.5 billion was invested into AI startups globally. Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch Whistleblowers have accused OpenAI of placing illegal restrictions on how employees can communicate with government regulators, according to a letter obtained by The Washington Post. Lawyers representing anonymous whistleblowers sent… Security 2 hours ago Business email compromise attacks are on the rise. Here’s how you can stay ahead of the hackers. Featured Article...
6 days ago
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, distilled model fine-tuned for particular tasks. Why call the new model o3, not o2? Well, trademarks may be to blame. According to The Information, OpenAI...
6 days ago
Swizzle Ventures 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 firm looking to invest in companies that address some of the most pressing concerns facing women, including caretaking, health & wellness, and finances. It has...
6 days ago
Lerer Hippeau files to raise Fund IX
In Brief Posted: 8:01 AM PST · December 20, 2024 Lerer Hippeau, one of New York’s most prolific A-list VC firms, has filed to raise its ninth fund, according to an SEC filing made Wednesday. There is no target raise amount. Lerer Hippeau did not immediately respond to our request for comment. The firm, founded in 2010, has more than $1.2 billion in assets under management, according to Pitchbook, and has invested in more than 400 companies including footwear maker...
6 days ago
Arizona’s getting an online charter school taught entirely by AI
In Brief Posted: 7:36 AM PST · December 20, 2024 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, which proposes an “AI-driven adaptive learning technology” that “condenses academic instruction into a two-hour window,”...
6 days ago
Ransomware attack on health giant Ascension hits 5.6 million patients
In Brief Posted: 7:23 AM PST · December 20, 2024 A May ransomware attack on Ascension, a U.S. healthcare giant with more than 140 hospitals and dozens of senior living facilities, allowed hackers to steal personal and sensitive health information on 5.6 million patients, according to a new filing with Maine’s attorney general. The cyberattack caused widespread disruption across its hospital system, with some staff describing harrowing lapses in healthcare as a result, including delayed or lost lab results, and...
6 days ago
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. Lawsuits aren’t uncommon in the automotive industry, particularly with large companies that operate factories and multiple facilities. But the allegations contained in these previously unreported...
6 days ago
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 response is no surprise to the digital defenders working with at-risk populations often targeted by spyware. In the last few years, Apple has been sending...
6 days ago
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 told TechCrunch: “I studied at Cambridge, and thought I was going into oil and gas. I ended up getting hired as employee number one for...
6 days ago
‘Genius Girl’ goes from inspiring a Korean TV show character to raising a $100 million AI fund
On the weekend, as most students were stumbling back from the bars, Songyee Yoon was rushing across her South Korean campus. Around dinner time, she would run some programs on her college’s supercomputer and then, as the computer chugged through her program, she’d wait sleepless in her dorm. “I woke up at like 2 am, 3 am to walk down the campus because I was so curious to see the result,” she said. She was such an oddity on campus...
6 days ago
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 were under one tab. Bluesky is also adding protection against username squatting by reserving your original Bluesky username with (.bsky.social suffix) when you change your...
6 days ago
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 in a new funding round to bolster its dominating digital presence in the Central Asian nation by developing new AI and tech products and attracting more tech-savvy customers. The fresh investment, made by the bank’s London-based parent TBC Group, comes just five months after it raised $38.5 million in July. The parent company also led the last round, which included participation from its shareholders, the European Bank for Reconstruction and...
6 days ago
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 threats, such as jailbreak and prompt injection, can’t be ignored. Like Israeli startup Noma and U.S.-based competitors Hidden Layer and Protect AI, British university spinoff...
7 days ago
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, who typically raise a lot less than their US equivalents, this is a decent figure. Launched in 2023, Robin Capital is aimed at European B2B...
7 days ago
Sequoia’s Matt Miller is exiting the firm after making headlines earlier this year
In Brief Posted: 9:00 PM PST · December 19, 2024 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 of what is to come next.” London-based VCs like Saul Klein, Tom Hulme, Mattias Ljungman,...
7 days ago
India’s Rapido exposed user and driver data through leaky website feedback form
Rapido, a popular ride-hailing platform in India, has fixed a security issue that exposed personal information associated with its users and drivers, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. The flaw, discovered by security researcher Renganathan P, was related to a website form meant to collect feedback from Rapido auto-rickshaw users and drivers. The form exposed the full names, email addresses, and phone numbers of individuals, which TechCrunch has seen based on the details provided by the researcher. The researcher told TechCrunch that...
7 days ago
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 in OpenAI through a Sequoia fund at one point, a stake he has since sold. In an interview with Bari Weiss released Thursday, Altman was...
7 days ago
Perplexity has reportedly closed a $500M funding round
In Brief Posted: 2:18 PM PST · December 19, 2024 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 the competition in AI-powered search heats up. OpenAI recently launched ChatGPT Search, its answer to...
7 days ago
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 AI to help run their services better? A startup called Boon thinks the answer is yes. It has now raised $20.5 million to prove that...
7 days ago
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 meet the demand. Founded in 2020, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Aiwyn sells software designed to address the revenue cycle side of the CPA business. Aiwyn’s platform...
7 days ago
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 in August. TuSimple shut down its U.S. self-driving truck operations and delisted from the stock market in January 2024, three years after raising $1.35 billion...
7 days ago
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 California Secretary of State earlier this year. According to the trademark application, Stem AI is developing software to create AI that “understands, cooperates with, and...
7 days ago
Real estate VC Fifth Wall is raising $500M for a new fund
In Brief Posted: 12:13 PM PST · December 19, 2024 Real estate venture firm Fifth Wall is raising a new $500 million fund called Fifth Wall React, according to a regulatory filing. The eight-year-old firm, helmed by its co-founder and CEO Brendan Wallace (pictured), is already managing $3.2 billion in capital, including raising an $866 million fund in late 2022 that was the largest venture fund focused on real estate tech startups. Fifth Wall also closed a $500 million fund...
7 days ago
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 A at a $400 million valuation from Thrive and Andreessen Horrowitz. A16Z also participated in the latest round, but didn’t co-lead it this time. Thrive...
7 days ago
Backed by a16z and NEA, Backflip raises $30M Series A to turn text into AI-generated designs
What if it were as easy to generate a usable 3D design as prompting ChatGPT? That’s the mission of Backflip, a startup founded by 3D printing veterans that’s just scored $30 million from Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, and a host of other big names in tech. Designing physical objects often requires hours or days of specialized work using computer-aided design software. Backflip CEO Greg Mark and CTO David Benhaim, both founders of 3D printing company Markforged, want to turn...
7 days ago
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 media, allowing users to track their favorite blogs, news sites, and social networks from a single app. This week, the company announced an update on...
7 days ago