How did Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg get added to a Signal group chat with Trump administration officials discussing their plans for an airstrike in Yemen? The simplest explanation: National Security Adviser Mike Waltz had Goldberg saved as a contact in his phone and accidentally added him. Indeed, when Waltz first claimed that Goldberg’s phone number … Read more
Microsoft has released a browser-based, playable level of the classic video game Quake II. This functions as a tech demo for the gaming capabilities of Microsoft’s Copilot AI platform — though by the company’s own admission, the experience isn’t quite the same as playing a well-made game. You can try it out for yourself, using … Read more
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) plans to host a hackathon next week focused on the creation of a “mega API” that will provide access to taxpayer data, according to Wired. Wired says the hackathon is being organized by two DOGE staffers at the Internal Revenue Service — Gavin Kliger and Sam Corcos, who’s … Read more
Meta has released a new collection of AI models, Llama 4, in its Llama family — on a Saturday, no less. There are four new models in total: Llama 4 Scout, Llama 4 Maverick, and Llama 4 Behemoth. All were trained on “large amounts of unlabeled text, image, and video data” to give them “broad … Read more
Elisabeth Diana, head of communications at human resources Deel, is no longer with the company, according to her LinkedIn profile. Bloomberg first reported the news that Diana had resigned from Deel, which was recently accused of planting a spy at rival company Rippling. TechCrunch reached out to Diana but had not heard back at the … Read more
The big screen adaptation of video game mega-franchise Minecraft brought in $58 million on Friday, putting it on-track for a $135 million opening weekend domestically — or potentially even more. That would give “A Minecraft Movie” the biggest opening of the year, beating out “Captain America: Brave New World” (which earned $88.8 million during its … Read more
Welcome back to Week in Review! Tons of stuff for you today, including Nintendo’s Switch 2; capacity issues at OpenAI; a story that deserves the Hollywood treatment; and much, much more. Let’s go! It’s finally (almost) here: After almost 10 years, Nintendo finally released its Switch successor, the Switch 2. According to TechCrunch’s Amanda Silberling, … Read more
ChatGPT has seen India as its largest market by monthly active users and the second largest by downloads, per the external data seen by TechCrunch.
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! Over the 13 years reporting on Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, I have watched the rise, fall, near misses, and rise again of the company and … Read more
Kalshi is the largest prediction market in America, creating an entire trading economy around political, sports, and cultural events. To some, including several states, it’s an illegal effort that requires gambling licenses. To others, including some courts and members of the Trump administration, it’s just a new financial opportunity. In a conversation with TechCrunch’s Maxwell … Read more
A new study appears to lend credence to allegations that OpenAI trained at least some of its AI models on copyrighted content. OpenAI is embroiled in suits brought by authors, programmers, and other rights-holders who accuse the company of using their works — books, codebases, and so on — to develop its models without permission. … Read more
Forerunner has seen a number of high-profile successes, showing an ability to get ahead of consumer trends with investments in Oura, Chime, the Farmer’s Dog, and beyond in non-B2C companies. To get a sense of how that happened, and what’s next for Forerunner in the AI era, TechCrunch Editor in Chief Connie Loizos spoke with … Read more
Meta will no longer have any fact-checkers in the U.S. come Monday, according to Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan. Meta announced this significant policy change in January when it also loosened its content moderation rules. The timing of this change coincided with President Trump’s inauguration, which Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg attended after … Read more
Mach CEO Ethan Thornton has been building weapons systems of varying shapes and sizes since high school, but his ambitions have turned into a company that recently landed a contract with the U.S. military and a plan to develop cross-functional factories. TechCrunch’s Charles Rollet interviewed Thornton during the StrictlyVC 2025 event in San Francisco, exploring … Read more
GitHub Copilot, Microsoft-owned GitHub’s AI coding assistant, could soon become costlier for some users. On Friday, GitHub announced “premium requests” for GitHub Copilot, a new system that imposes rate limits when users switch to AI models other than the base model for tasks such as “agentic” coding and multi-file edits. While GitHub Copilot subscribers can … Read more
President Donald Trump has extended the deadline for the TikTok ban by 75 days. Trump shared a post on Truth Social on Friday stating that he is signing an executive order to allow for more time to finalize a deal. “My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we … Read more
A protester interrupted Microsoft’s Copilot-focused keynote Friday afternoon, calling attention to the company’s reported dealings with the Israeli military. “Shame on you,” the protester said. “You claim that you care about using AI for good, but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military […] All of Microsoft has blood on its hands.” Microsoft Head … Read more
The perception of San Francisco has been on the decline for years due to a number of factors. The city’s mayor, Daniel Lurie, joined TechCrunch’s Maxwell Zeff to talk about Lurie’s efforts to turn that around. Lurie highlighted his administrative and on-the-ground efforts in a push for San Francisco to remain the center of the … Read 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 reminded us that different startups share a different approach to news: Some choose to remain quiet for a very long time, even about their acquisition … Read more
Flexport’s business is built on supply chains, and the new tariffs the U.S. is placing upon its trading partners have plunged international trade into chaos. Flexport founder and CEO Ryan Petersen joined TechCrunch Editor in Chief Connie Loizos for a StrictlyVC conversation on the ins and outs of the tariffs’ impact, the industry’s reaction, and … Read more
On Friday, Google released API pricing for Gemini 2.5 Pro, an AI reasoning model with industry-leading performance on several benchmarks measuring coding, reasoning, and math. For prompts up to 200,000 tokens, Gemini 2.5 Pro costs $1.25 per million input tokens (roughly 750,000 words, longer than the entire “Lord of The Rings” series) and $10 per … Read more
Both firms hoped to raise at least $1 billion in their public market debuts.
For its 50th birthday, Microsoft is teaching its AI-powered Copilot chatbot a few new tricks. Copilot can now take action on “most websites,” Microsoft says, enabling it to book tickets, reserve restaurants, and more. The bot has gained the ability to remember specific things about you, similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, like your favorite food and … Read more
Since IPOs slowed to trickle a few years ago, limited partners who invest in venture capital funds have had one giant problem: a dearth of liquidity. Lack of cash returns has been especially troublesome for wealthy individuals or their small family offices — who manage the assets of the wealthy — that made substantial investments … Read more
Nintendo is delaying preorders for the newly announced Switch 2 in the U.S. due to concerns around President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Preorders will no longer begin on April 9. “Preorders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025, in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market … Read more
After effectively cancelling the consumer launch of its o3 reasoning model in February, OpenAI now says it plans to release both o3 and a next-gen successor, o4-mini, in “a couple of weeks.” In a post on X on Friday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the reversal in course is related to OpenAI’s upcoming GPT-5, which … Read more
TechCrunch All Stage, our big event for founders of startups at all stages of funding (see what we did there?), is coming up July 15 at Boston’s SoWa Power Station. And it’s our pleasure to announce that Underscore VC’s investing partner Chris Gardner will join a loaded lineup of speakers by leading a breakout session … Read more
Tesla trade-ins in the U.S. are at an all time high as some owners become disillusioned with Elon Musk’s politics, and some just want to avoid their car getting keyed by Musk haters. Automakers are pouncing on the opportunity. Polestar, Lucid Motors, Volvo, and Ford — which have long trailed Tesla in EV sales — … Read more
Haugh’s firing has seemingly caught senior lawmakers by surprise
StrictlyVC is crossing the Atlantic! On 13 May, London will play host to an exclusive StrictlyVC evening, delivering the same high-caliber VC insider content that has made these events a must-attend for investors and startup leaders alike. If you’re a venture capitalist or founder looking to exchange insights with peers and dive into powerful, no-filter … Read more