timef 02/19/2025

Elon Musk’s X is in talks to raise money from investors at a $44 billion valuation, Bloomberg News reports. Musk purchased X, formerly known as Twitter, for the same price back in 2022. The news comes as Fidelity Investments marked down its Twitter stake back in December by around 70% from the 2022 sale price […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Bumble is discontinuing its two acquired apps, the dating and relationship apps Fruitz and Official. The move was shared during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. As explained by CEO Lidiane Jones during the call, the choice to discontinue Fruitz, a French dating app, and Official, an app designed to help couples strengthen their relationships, allows […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The company said an "unauthorized third party" accessed Genea data, but won’t say if sensitive health information was stolen © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Hydrogen electric trucking startup Nikola Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday after it failed to find a buyer or secure additional funds to maintain operations.  Nikola was once a Silicon Valley darling, valued at $30 billion in June 2020 after it went public through a special purpose acquisition merger. But a series of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Data centers consumed 4.4% of U.S. electricity in 2023 and are estimated to use up to 12% by 2028. The majority of the energy data centers suck up is used to help transfer data from chip to chip. A company called Hyperlume is looking to make that process more energy-efficient while also speeding it up. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

It has been more than two years since ChatGPT burst on the scene. Shortly after that, it seemed like almost every email app integrated AI-powered email writing and summaries. Some also introduced AI-powered search for you to sift through your inbox quickly. Superhuman is now using AI to try and tackle one of the primary […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

As companies like Nvidia and SoftBank make industrial robotics into a key focus for future R&D, a startup has raised funding today for another facet of how AI is being used on the factory room floor. Augury, which develops AI-based hardware that measures vibrations, sound, temperature and other factors to understand how machines are working […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration directed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to impose limits on specific types of funding it provides to research institutions. Although a federal judge has temporarily blocked the policy change, government grants to early-stage biotech startups could still face delays or be eliminated entirely, said Chris Gibson, co-founder and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Murena, the French privacy firm that’s forked Android to deliver so-called deGoogled smartphones, has repeated the trick with a tablet. So if you’re keen to get your hands on a shiny Pixel Tablet — but without the usual bundle of Google apps and services — Murena has you covered. The Murena Pixel Tablet runs the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The US cybersecurity giant says hackers are exploiting the high-severity flaw to break into unpatched customer networks. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Creating corporate training videos for software is a time-consuming ordeal, especially if you’re an organization with a lot of software licenses. Training videos can help get employees up to speed, but they’re a big lift. They often take entire teams to produce. Tel Aviv-based entrepreneur Yoav Einav thought there might be an alternative, cheaper way […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Career product manager Amanda DeLuca has launched a parenting management app, Riley, born out of her own experience with parental anxiety and feedback from other families. DeLuca, who previously at Google, Nerdwallet, and Eventbrite, in addition to Etsy, became pregnant three years ago. At the time, she and her husband, who is also a product […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Hours after Elon Musk’s AI company xAI released the latest version of its AI model, Grok 3, X has significantly hiked the price for its top Premium+ subscription plan, which gives users access to the latest model, to almost $50 per month. On the support page that lists X’s premium plans, the monthly subscription price […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 is as good as ever, but doesn’t play well with Tesla Superchargers at the moment. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

An employment tribunal case has placed Kuda Technologies, one of Africa’s fastest-growing digital banks, under scrutiny over allegations of workplace discrimination, harassment, and wrongful dismissal. Rosemary Hewat, Kuda’s former Group Chief People Officer (CPO), filed a complaint accusing the company and its CEO, Babatunde Ogundeyi, of sex discrimination, victimization, and unfair dismissal. According to the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Niantic, the company behind the popular augmented reality game Pokémon Go, is looking to sell its game development business, Bloomberg reported. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Humane announced on Tuesday that it has been acquired by HP. The hardware startup is immediately discontinuing sales of its $699 AI Pins. Humane told customers who had already purchased an AI Pin that their devices will stop functioning before the end of the month, at 12 PM PST on February 28, 2025, according to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Humane announced on Tuesday that it has been acquired by HP for $116 million. The hardware startup is immediately discontinuing sales of its $499 AI Pins. Humane alerted customers who have already purchased the Pin that their devices will stop functioning before the end of the month — at 12 PM PST on February 28, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Humane announced on Tuesday that most of its assets have been acquired by HP for $116 million. The hardware startup is immediately discontinuing sales of its $499 AI Pins. Humane alerted customers who have already purchased the Pin that their devices will stop functioning before the end of the month — at 12 PM PST […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The layoffs slashed between 13% to 20% of the four Power Marketing Administrations’ workforces. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Google has gained permission to sell its e-books and audiobooks directly to customers through its iOS app, Google Play Books. While iOS apps today can offer access to content previously purchased elsewhere, like e-books bought via a website, developers have to request a specific exception to link their iOS app’s users to the company’s own […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Duolingo’s mascot, Duo the owl, is dead. Okay, Duo isn’t really dead (we think), but the language learning app committed so hard to this bit that its CEO, Luis von Ahn, read a eulogy for this beloved green bird on TikTok. As any fiction author could probably tell you, killing everyone’s favorite character is not […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A DOGE staffer created a custom AI chatbot that's supposed to help "eliminate" government waste. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A change requiring app developers to disclose their address, phone number, and email information to consumers has gone live on the App Store within the European Union. Apple on Tuesday announced it has removed any EU apps that haven’t yet complied with the Digital Services Act (DSA), a regulation that had added a requirement in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Safe Superintelligence, an AI startup founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, could be close to raising more than $1 billion at a $30 billion valuation — a higher valuation than reported just weeks ago. Bloomberg reports that VC firm Greenoaks Capital Partners is leading the deal and pledging to invest half a billion […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A task force, organized by the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank, is hoping to improve credibility of voluntary carbon markets. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has announced her new startup. Unsurprisingly, it’s focused on AI. Called Thinking Machine Labs, the startup, which came out of stealth today, intends to build tooling to “make AI work for [people’s] unique needs and goals,” and to create AI systems that are “more widely understood, customizable, and generally capable” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has announced her new startup. Unsurprisingly, it’s focused on AI. Called Thinking Machines Lab, the startup, which came out of stealth today, intends to build tooling to “make AI work for [people’s] unique needs and goals,” and to create AI systems that are “more widely understood, customizable, and generally capable” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The VC firm has $90 billion in assets under management and invested in several unicorn cybersecurity startups © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech!  This week we’re looking at some big valuation jumps, how Stripe is eyeing another shareholder sale, a colorful conversation with an early-stage VC, and more! To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. PT, subscribe here. The big […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Gig marketplace Fiverr wants to let freelancers train AI on their bodies of work and use it to automate future jobs. At an event on Tuesday, Fiverr announced the launch of several new efforts aimed at attracting gig workers to its platform and equipping them with generative AI tools. Perhaps the most ambitious is a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Facebook announced on Tuesday that live videos will now only be stored on the social network for 30 days, after which they will be deleted. Previously, these videos were stored indefinitely. The change goes into effect on Wednesday. All live videos that are currently older than 30 days will be removed from the platform as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Amazon is shutting down “Inspire,” its TikTok-like, short-form video and photo feed that was previously available in its mobile app. The feed allowed users to discover products and shop from content created by influencers, brands, and other customers. A company spokesperson confirmed the move to TechCrunch, saying “We regularly evaluate various features to better align […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

To fend off future hostile takeover attempts, OpenAI is considering giving its non-profit board special voting rights, according to a new report in the Financial Times. The rights would allow the board to overrule major investors in the company, preserving some of its powers after OpenAI completes its transition to a for-profit. OpenAI was founded […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Researchers found that PirateFI was never designed to be a real game, but a vehicle to infect gamers with malware and steal their passwords with an infostealer called Vidar. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Meet the DOGE staffers and senior advisors in Elon Musk's inner circle, and how they got there. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Earlier this month, a Berlin court ordered Elon Musk-owned X to provide immediate access to public platform data to two civil society organizations seeking to study systemic risk around the country’s upcoming election. In a post on X, the social media company said Tuesday it is challenging the order, claiming the summary proceeding “egregiously undermines […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Meta on Tuesday announced that it’ll host its first-ever dev conference dedicated to generative AI. Called LlamaCon after Meta’s Llama family of generative AI models, the conference is scheduled to take place on April 29. Meta said that, there, it’ll share “the latest on [its] open source AI developments to help developers […] build amazing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.