TechCrunch

Valor Equity Partners is handing out stock to its LPs instead of cash returns. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/16/musks-long-time-backer-is-giving-spacex-stock-to-its-investors/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

3 days to save up to $200 on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 pass, plus 50% off a second. Make impactful connections with 10,000+ tech leaders. Last day to save is September 25, 11:59 p.m. PT. Register here. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/23/3-days-left-to-save-up-to-200-and-make-impactful-connections-at-techcrunch-disrupt-2026/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

In one particularly odd interview, Norwood seems to malfunction and begin speaking Chinese. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/18/tilly-norwoods-press-tour-is-going-about-as-well-as-youd-expect-for-an-ai/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

A close call in Northern Virginia revealed just how poorly data centers respond to grid disruptions. Here's how to fix the problem. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/25/one-fallen-power-line-exposed-a-growing-ai-data-center-problem-heres-how-to-fix-it/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

The investigation shows that North Koreans are able to infiltrate government agencies, as well as private organizations and crypto exchanges. https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/11/north-korean-remote-it-staffer-worked-for-us-government-agency-says-fbi/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

After OpenAI's models broke into Hugging Face, Anthropic checked its own history and found three similar incidents. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/30/anthropic-says-its-own-ai-models-breached-three-companies-during-security-tests/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Xteink makes its pocket-sized e-reader even better with a touchscreen and front light. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/the-xteink-x4-pro-could-be-the-tiny-e-reader-of-your-dreams/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

The Trump administration has now convinced developers to abandon 12 offshore wind leases. The latest will cost taxpayers $1.2 billion. https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/07/trump-administration-has-spent-nearly-4b-to-cancel-offshore-wind-farms/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

At libraries around the country, "Avoiding AI" workshops have elicited unprecedented demand. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/25/librarians-are-hosting-viral-avoiding-ai-workshops-for-people-who-are-fed-up-with-big-tech/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Anthropic founder and CEO Dario Amodei made his views clear about open-weight models and China's growing AI capabilities. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/27/anthropics-dario-amodei-responds-doesnt-oppose-open-weight-models-but-fears-chinese-ai/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

We spoke with several cybersecurity researchers, who look for unknown vulnerabilities and develop tools to exploit them, about how OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s guardrails affect their work. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/23/how-ai-guardrails-are-impeding-the-work-of-offensive-cybersecurity-researchers/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Anthropic and OpenAI's aggressive 2026 acquisition sprees set the stage for a weekend rumor. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/the-anthropic-physical-intelligence-rumor-roiling-ai-twitter/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

OpenAI has come forward to claim responsibility for the Hugging Face breach, saying it was the result of internal testing gone awry. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/openai-says-hugging-face-was-breached-by-its-own-pre-release-models/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Deezer said more than 90,000 AI-generated tracks were uploaded daily on the platform in June https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/music-streamer-deezer-says-more-than-50-of-daily-uploads-are-ai-generated/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

A bug in how Apple implements its Private Relay feature, which in theory masks users’ IP addresses from the sites they visit, can reveal users’ real IP addresses. https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/05/psa-apples-private-relay-can-leak-your-real-ip-address/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

The recall comes as the top automotive safety regulator in the U.S. has warned AV companies about their vehicles interfering with first responders. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/17/zoox-issues-software-recall-after-a-robotaxi-got-confused-by-heavy-smoke/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Federal safety regulators have given Zoox a temporary exemption that will allow the Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle technology company to charge customers for rides in its custom-built robotaxi. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/30/zoox-clears-final-federal-hurdle-to-launch-paid-robotaxi-service/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Microsoft pitched its own homegrown AI models, harnesses, and even a Mythos competitor on Wednesday, telling Wall Street it plans for continued growth. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/29/microsoft-is-openly-competing-with-openai-anthropic-more-than-ever/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

X sued the WFA in 2024 for conducting what it called a "systematic illegal boycott" of the platform after it saw a decline in advertising revenue following Musk's $44 billion takeover of the social network https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/29/elon-musks-x-settles-multiyear-legal-battle-with-the-world-federation-of-advertisers/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

DoorDash has received FAA approval to operate a commercial drone delivery service in the United States. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/29/doordash-is-building-its-own-drone-delivery-business/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Leasing prices start at $17.99 per month for iPhone, $11.99 for Apple Watch, $24.99 for Mac, and $11.99 for iPad. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/28/apple-launches-upgrade-device-leasing-program-in-partnership-with-klarna/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Recursive’s $400 million outlay represents the bulk of the company’s fundraising to date. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/28/recursive-superintelligence-signs-400-compute-deal-with-amazon/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

As Apple prepares to launch its first smart glasses, the company may also be wrestling with how to address consumer privacy concerns. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/26/can-apple-make-smart-glasses-that-arent-a-constant-privacy-threat/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

The company ticked off a few more boxes on the second Starship V3 flight, but appears to have had another issue re-lighting the booster's rocket engines. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/24/spacex-launches-new-v3-starlink-satellites-but-suffers-another-booster-failure/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Users can also integrate their personal data from services like Apple Health, Function, and MyFitnessPal. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/23/openai-makes-chatgpt-health-available-to-all-u-s-users/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Hugging Face is urging users to rotate any access tokens stored on the platform and review account activity. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/20/hugging-face-confirms-breach-affected-internal-datasets-and-credentials-urges-users-to-take-action/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

It’s not just you: AI startups are taking in a huge amount of seed funding, and in the process making things harder for anyone looking for funding even at a pre-seed stage. We’ve covered the trend in detail, and at this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt event, we want to help pre-seed founders now being held to seed-stage […] https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/17/no-product-no-problem-this-disrupt-2026-session-shows-how-to-get-pre-seed-funding-with-conviction-storytelling/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Google said users can soon access their notebooks through AI Mode in Search. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/16/google-continues-its-renaming-streak-by-turning-notebooklm-to-gemini-notebook/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

As part of a planned Texas data center, Amazon is investing in an on-site power plant that could reportedly become the largest source of climate pollution in the United States. https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/08/planned-amazon-data-center-could-become-the-biggest-climate-polluter-in-the-u-s/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Groups of hackers are breaking into large U.S. financial firms to steal sensitive data and extort victims, Google’s security researchers report. https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/06/google-says-hackers-are-calling-financial-firm-employees-to-hack-and-extort-victims/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Mirendil has signed a $100 million-plus Google Cloud partnership to expand its compute infrastructure, powering research into self-improving AI systems designed to accelerate scientific discovery and AI development. https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/06/exclusive-mirendil-inks-100m-google-cloud-deal-to-scale-self-improving-ai/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Meta says it’s restoring access to WhatsApp accounts that were mistakenly flagged and placed “under review” after users reported being unexpectedly locked out of the messaging app. https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/03/whatsapp-says-it-is-is-fixing-an-issue-that-disabled-several-accounts/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Friend, the AI wearable, can now talk to its users — for an enhanced price. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/30/friend-the-lonely-ai-wearable-returns-with-a-new-voice-and-a-much-bigger-price-tag/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

The deal gives Okta identity threat detection capabilities as enterprises seek to secure AI agents and other non-human identities across cloud environments. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/30/okta-buys-ai-security-startup-permiso-source-says-for-about-200m/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

The deal is Cyera's third acquisition this year. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/28/cyera-agrees-to-acquire-oasis-security-for-1b-to-safeguard-proliferating-ai-agents/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

OpenAI's fancy new AI keypad will be a lot of fun for some, while many others are probably not going to touch it. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/24/i-tried-out-openais-new-ai-keypad-which-will-be-fun-for-coders-and-slightly-mystifying-to-everyone-else/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Gemini had over 750 million monthly users in February https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/23/google-closes-in-on-another-billion-user-product-with-gemini/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

The new feature lets users wirelessly transfer more data types from an iPhone without needing to download a separate app. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/22/google-is-making-it-easier-to-switch-from-iphone-to-android/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

As Chinese AI models grow in capability and popularity among US companies, the arguing over what should be done about them has reached a fever pitch. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/22/arcee-a-us-open-source-ai-lab-says-chinese-models-are-not-inherently-dangerous/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

A16z Speedrun, Ada Ventures, and Snowball VC have invested in Cascade's $3.5 million seed round. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/22/cascade-raises-3-5m-to-help-construction-firms-find-and-win-projects/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Einride agreed to buy Flipturn for $38 million in stock. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/einride-bets-38m-on-ev-charging-as-it-scales-electric-trucking/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

The final approval settles one case, but it doesn't resolve the broader issue of using copyrighted works to train AI models. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/20/anthropics-landmark-1-5b-copyright-settlement-is-approved/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Apple is worried enough about supply shortages that it reported about $11.1 billion in inventory, which is almost double the $5.7 billion it reported last September. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/30/apple-stockpiles-inventory-as-it-braces-for-significant-supply-constraints/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Meta expanded its AI coding offerings with a new agent that, it promises, can handle complex tasks with complex software. https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/05/meta-launches-muse-code-an-ai-agent-for-large-code-bases/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

SpaceX is building a new power plant for xAI's Colossus data centers, but it won't remove existing, unpermitted turbines for many more months. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/31/spacex-wont-remove-all-of-xais-unpermitted-turbines-for-another-year/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

DoorDash is opening a limited beta of dd-cli, a command-line tool that lets developers and AI agents search stores, build carts, and place orders from the terminal, marking another step toward software designed for AI agents instead of just humans. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/16/yes-you-can-now-order-doordash-from-the-command-line/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Apple has appealed a new legal demand by the U.K. government, which critics say could threaten the privacy rights of users all over the world. https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/03/apple-challenges-uk-governments-latest-demand-for-icloud-backdoor-report/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

In the Kimi test, the sandbox designed to contain the experiment was not properly configured. https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/07/chinese-ai-model-kimi-escaped-its-cybersecurity-testing-environment-researchers-say/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

The new legislation adds teeth to disclosure requirements for online influencers who are paid to post about politics. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/20/new-california-law-will-penalize-influencers-dont-disclose-political-ads/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Vijay Pande — who left a16z's roughly $4 billion biotech practice last year to start the much smaller, AI-native VZVC — talks about why biology is finally shifting from a "discovery" science to an "engineering" one, why clinical trials are still brutally expensive, and why he thinks open, shared datasets (not walled-off ones) are what will actually let AI transform medicine. https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/29/were-not-doing-30-bets-a-year-vijay-pande-on-betting-small-after-running-4-billion-at-a16z/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon