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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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.
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.
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 … Read more
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 … Read 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 aria.techcrunch@gmail.com or send a message on … Read more
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 … Read more
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.
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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.
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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.
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 … Read more
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.
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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, … Read more
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 … Read more