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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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Andav Capital's founder claims PayPal's program was discriminatory as it sought to exclusively focus on Black and Hispanic-led enterprises.

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U.S. officials say the sanctioned Chinese firm provided botnet infrastructure for the China-backed hacking group Flax Typhoon

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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 […]

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Electra has raised $180.4 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 […]

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The gift card store secured the public cloud storage server containing customer ID documents, which was not protected with a password.

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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, […]

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Consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever is in advanced talks to acquire 4-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 well-being category by acquiring Oziva and Wellbeing Nutrition […]

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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 […]

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Tacora Capital has raised its second fund, after Peter Thiel backed its first fund with $250 million.

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The Bill Gates-backed startup uses AI to comb through massive data sets in an attempt to find more critical minerals.

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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, […]

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From the looks of things, companies in the category — including Agility Robotics and Formlogic — can’t hire quickly enough.

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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 […]

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CES 2025 officially kicks off in Las Vegas on the morning of Tuesday, January 7 and runs 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 […]

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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., […]

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