IBM CEO Arvind Krishna says that, despite the Trump Administration’s attacks on globalism, global trade isn’t dead. In fact, he thinks that the U.S.’s key to growth will be embracing an international exchange of goods. “So, I actually am a firm believer — I think...
Watch out, fiction writers. OpenAI may have you in its crosshairs. In a post on X on Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that the company has trained a “new model” that’s “really good” at creative writing. He posted a lengthy sample from the model...
Flower Labs, a Y Combinator-backed startup, on Tuesday launched a preview of its distributed cloud platform for serving AI models, called Flower Intelligence. Mozilla is already using it to power the upcoming Assist summarization add-on for its Thunderbird email client. What makes Flower Intelligence unique,...
The intersection of robotics and AI continues to attract attention from investors and Big Tech alike. The latest indicator? Dexterity, a startup specializing in industrial robots with “human-like” finesse, has raised $95 million at a post-money valuation of $1.65 billion, per Bloomberg. The investment, which...
On Tuesday, OpenAI released new tools designed to help developers and enterprises build AI agents – automated systems that can independently accomplish tasks – using the company’s own AI models and frameworks. The tools are part of OpenAI’s new Responses API, which lets businesses develop...
Speaking at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas, tech investor and entrepreneur Mark Cuban shared his thoughts on how AI technology can help small businesses outperform their competition. In short, he told the crowd that AI was not the answer, in and of itself, but...
Last year, Hugging Face, the AI dev platform, launched LeRobot, a collection of open AI models, data sets, and tools to help build real-world robotics systems. On Tuesday, Hugging Face teamed up with AI startup Yaak to expand LeRobot with a training set for robots...
Worth, a company focused on helping fintechs, banks, and enterprises underwrite small and medium-sized businesses more easily, has raised $20 million in a seed funding round, the startup tells TechCrunch exclusively. It’s a large seed round, especially these days when capital is harder to come...
Ahead of a May deadline to lock in guidance for providers of general purpose AI (GPAI) models on complying with provisions of the EU AI Act that apply to Big AI, a third draft of the Code of Practice was published on Tuesday. The Code...
It’s no secret that AI has eaten the lion’s share of funding over the past couple of years, with investments into the sector surging 62% to $110 billion in 2024 alone, while startup funding overall declined 12%. Startups may think that just adding “AI” to...
The reactor, called Lawson Machine 26 (LM26), is General Fusion’s latest iteration in a string of devices that have tested various parts of its unique approach. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only....
Zolve, a neobanking startup targeting global citizens seeking credit, has raised $251 million in a new round to expand into Canada and launch loans. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only....
Enterprises these days can choose from hundreds of apps and services available to secure their networks, data and assets — nearly as many more to help them manage all the alerts and extra work that those security apps generate. But what if you could build...
Hawcx, backed by Engineering Capital, aims to solve passkeys' adoption challenge with its new tech. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only....
Fatal crashes. A door blowout. Grounded planes. Inside the citizen-led, obsessive campaign to hold Boeing accountable and prevent the next disaster....
Reshape Energy is betting on a more integrated approach to accelerate the decarbonization of the built environment. Founded in Munich, Germany back in May 2024, the startup is led by a team with expertise scaling energy businesses, including the German division of Octopus energy and...
A new venture firm called Leitmotif has been on a quiet blitz for the last 16 months, funding around 20 startups broadly focused on decarbonization. Its portfolio includes EV companies, space and battery plays, and four nuclear fusion startups. But the firm has only said...
Hexa is trying something new. Instead of fostering startups from the ground up and incubating them for the first year or so, the Paris-based startup studio is acquiring a majority stake in Veevart, a vertical software-as-a-service company for museums that provides solutions for ticketing, fundraising,...
Medical imaging is a broad term that encompasses several distinct technologies. After working on AI-powered tools to enhance X-rays and mammographies, French startup Gleamer now aims to tackle magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Instead of starting from scratch, Gleamer has acquired two startups that have already...
Infinite Uptime, which offers predictive maintenance solutions for factories, has raised $35 million in a Series C round to expand its footprint in the U.S. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only....
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is taking over as the CEO of Relativity Space, a 9-year-old rocket startup, a company spokesperson confirmed in a statement to TechCrunch. This is Schmidt’s first CEO job since he left Google nearly 15 years ago. On Monday, Schmidt told...
In a grandmaster-level chest move, OpenAI has signed a five-year, $11.9 billion agreement with GPU-heavy cloud service, CoreWeave, Reuters reports citing people close to the deal. The deal involves OpenAI buying $350 million worth of equity in CoreWeave, the sources told Reuters. This stock sale...
Two initiatives to create a more open web, where users are in control of their own digital identities and data, may be coming together. At SXSW 2025, entrepreneur Frank McCourt, whose Project Liberty is developing open internet infrastructure (and is throwing its hat in the...
Poolside co-founder and CEO Jason Warner didn’t mince words: He thinks that most companies looking to build foundation AI models should instead focus on building applications. Poolside is an AI-powered software development platform. Warner told the audience at the HumanX AI conference in Las Vegas...
Unlike AI competitors, DeepSeek’s founder Liang Wenfeng is in no hurry to get investment from outsiders. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only....
A nifty new Gmail capability powered by Google’s Gemini AI has arrived for Google Workspace customers. Starting Monday, users can add events to a Google Calendar directly from an email. Gemini will automatically detect calendar-related content in an email and present an “Add to calendar”...
A few years ago, several startups with a specific focus on digital avatars appeared because of all the metaverse buzz. While that buzz died down, generative AI has given a new life to avatars as it is easier to spin up different virtual identities. Companies...
If you want to amplify your brand to over 1,000 AI experts and innovators, there’s no better way than by hosting a Side Event during TechCrunch Sessions: AI Week. From June 1 to June 7, TechCrunch is looking for fun and thought-provoking events to coincide...
Are you a pre-Series A startup founder looking to make your mark on a global stage? This is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. Applications for TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 — the premier startup pitch competition — are officially open. We want to see you...
Several popular voice cloning tools on the market don’t have “meaningful” safeguards to prevent fraud or abuse, according to a new study from Consumer Reports. Consumer Reports probed voice cloning products from six companies — Descript, ElevenLabs, Lovo, PlayHT, Resemble AI, and Speechify — for...