Travis Kalanick, the former CEO of Uber, made it clear on Wednesday: he believes the company’s decision to abandon its autonomous driving program was a mistake. Said Kalanick at the Abundance Summit in L.A., “Look, [new management] killed the autonomous car project we had going on. At the time, we were really only behind Waymo […]

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Anthropic, a San Francisco startup often cast as an independent player in the AI race, has deeper ties to Google than previously known. Court documents recently obtained by The New York Times reveal that Google owns a 14% stake in the company and is set to pour another $750 million into it this year through […]

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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 includes backing from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sumitomo Corp., highlights […]

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A new WSJ report suggests that Saudi Arabia’s now eight-year-old Neom project — a futuristic, carbon-neutral, 105-mile-long linear city envisioned by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — has become a financial sinkhole. Plagued by delays and cost overruns, the country, which has already shelled out $50 billion, could reportedly face another 55 years of construction, […]

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Here’s a blast from the past: Digg, one of the web’s early news aggregators, is now back under the ownership of its original founder Kevin Rose. Notably, he’s being joined as co-owner by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian (both pictured above). Digg and Reddit were once fierce rivals in the online social news aggregation space, launching […]

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Billionaire investor Mark Cuban waded into the latest government tech shake-up on Saturday, offering support on the social network Bluesky for newly laid-off federal workers whose job it was to make government tech work better. His message, which quickly gained traction, urged the displaced engineers and designers to turn the upheaval to their advantage. “If […]

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General Catalyst, the powerhouse venture firm, is considering an IPO, Axios reported Friday morning, citing “multiple sources.” TechCrunch has reached out to the firm’s managing partner, Hemant Taneja, for comment. In the meantime, those following General Catalyst’s trajectory won’t be surprised by the prospect. Founded 25 years ago as a small Cambridge, Mass.-based venture firm, […]

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Almost two weeks after The New York Times reported that Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia had joined Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” Gebbia clarified his role on Thursday, announcing on X that as a starting point, he’ll be leveraging his design expertise as part of an effort to overhaul the government’s notoriously slow, paper-heavy retirement […]

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Party promoter Billy McFarland is back with Fyre Festival 2. Scheduled to take place in Isla Mujeres, Mexico from May 30 to June 2, tickets just went on sale, ranging from $1,400 to a truly brazen $1.1 million — even though no artists have been confirmed, and McFarland himself isn’t sure if he can legally […]

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Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani’s appeal to overturn their fraud convictions and reduce their prison sentences was denied Monday by the Northern District Court of California, which also refused to soften their $452 million joint restitution order. Holmes, the founder of Theranos, and Balwani, its former COO, were convicted in separate trials in 2022 […]

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Larry Ellison’s leap into farming with his company, Sensei Farms, serves up a classic reminder: being a genius in one arena doesn’t mean success in another. As the WSJ reports, the Oracle co-founder set out to reinvent agriculture on Hawaii’s Lāna’i Island, which he scooped up for $300 million back in 2012. Eight years and […]

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We’ve all been there. A favorite item is suddenly unavailable for purchase. Couldn’t the manufacturer have given you advance warning? Whether owing to low sales, changing habits, production costs, or even because something is a little wrong with your favorite product (shh), discontinued items are part of life. In a weekend piece, the New York […]

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Social media is often about scale, but Nextdoor bet long ago on something different: that it could grow a big business off smaller, local communities. For years, the plan worked. The 15-year-old company has long been a dominant platform for neighborhood-based conversations, connecting users for everything from lost pet alerts to local business recommendations. Then […]

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Motorsports have long been a pay-to-play arena, with young drivers spending thousands of dollars just to get started in karting. Four-time Formula One champion Max Verstappen knows this all too well, but he also sees a way to change it through sim racing, a virtual form of car racing that closely replicates real-world racing. It’s […]

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Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI employee, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26; on Friday, the city’s medical examiner ruled his death a suicide, countering suspicions by his family that had fueled widespread speculation online. Balaji made headlines in October when he accused OpenAI of illegally using copyrighted material to train […]

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Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI plans to continue using 15 gas turbines to power its “Colossus” supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee, according to an operating permit with the Shelby County Health Department for non-stop turbine use from June 2025 to June 2030. Why does it matter? The Commercial Appeal, a news outlet that obtained the documents, […]

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DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng is being hailed as a hero in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, where he grew up and reportedly returned for the Lunar New Year, joined by bodyguards. Wenfeng — who, at 40, is already a billionaire due to his hedge fund, High-Flyer — is apparently even more beloved by locals […]

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Social media changed everything, from news consumption to shopping. Now, Dub thinks it can do the same for investing through an influencer-driven marketplace where users can follow the trades of top investors with a few taps. Think of it as TikTok meets Wall Street. Founded by 23-year-old Steven Wang — a Harvard dropout who began […]

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Brendan Wallace has a lot on his mind lately. Wallace is the co-founder of Fifth Wall Ventures, a 9-year-old proptech venture firm with $3.2 billion in assets under management. He’s also a homeowner in L.A., which continues to battle raging wildfires. While his place remains intact, many of his friends haven’t been so lucky.  Wallace […]

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Bankers are reportedly gearing up to offload debt used to fund Elon Musk’s social network, for which he paid $44 billion in 2022, including $13 billion in financing. Morgan Stanley is leading the charge, hoping to sell senior debt at between 90 and 95 cents on the dollar, reports the WSJ.  As notes the outlet, […]

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