Latest from Alex Wilhelm
Finally, some good news! This week, we were pleasantly surprised to see that FTX’s fraud victims would be getting some money back — even if…
AI
TechCrunch Minute: OpenAI will soon ask to use your content as training data
9:00 AM PDT • May 9, 2024
The intersection of AI and copyright-protected material is a fraught place. There you can find lawsuits, deals, acrimony, and even various flavors of the personal-political…
With venture totals slipping year-over-year in key markets like the United States, and concern that venture firms themselves are struggling to raise more capital, founders might be worried. After all,…
Apple’s iPad event had a lot to like. New iPads with new chips and new sizes, a new Apple Pencil, and even some software updates. If you are a big…
Startups
$450M for Noname, two billion-dollar rounds, and good news for crypto startups
8:00 AM PDT • May 8, 2024
Good news, crypto founders! Venture capital activity is picking up in the sector, recovering from the multiyear lows investments fell to in late 2023. Put…
AI
TechCrunch Minute: Audible deploys AI-narrated audiobooks. Can it replace the human touch?
9:00 am PDT • May 7, 2024
AI is coming for audiobooks, and that is not an entirely bad thing. But it is a cause of concern in the realm of audio titles and the folks who…
Venture
TechCrunch Minute: Newchip, Techstars and what happens when startup accelerators fail
9:00 am PDT • May 6, 2024
Building a startup is hard. Building a company that helps startups is similarly difficult. That’s the takeaway from TechCrunch reporting on Techstars and Newchip. In the case of Newchip, the…
Startups
Dorsey leaves Bluesky, tech giants do more with less, and the next IPO
8:16 AM PDT • May 6, 2024
News that Jack Dorsey is out at Bluesky caused a stir this weekend. After all, Dorsey is a former Twitter co-founder and CEO, so his investment of…
Media & Entertainment
TechCrunch Minute: Spotify’s move to paywall lyrics is putting pressure on free users
9:00 am PDT • May 3, 2024
Spotify’s slow movement to put lyrics behind its paid service wall in its music service are about as popular as you would expect. Precise details of the update are evolving…
Venture
Inside TC’s Techstars investigation and how AI is accelerating disability tech
7:15 AM PDT • May 3, 2024
The downturn in venture capital funding has impacted startups, VC firms, and accelerators alike. One company in the final category, Techstars, has been shaking up…
Crypto
TechCrunch Minute: Where CZ’s sentencing leaves the state of crypto
9:05 am PDT • May 2, 2024
Four months behind bars and a massive fine, that’s what CZ is getting from the government for his crypto exchange’s misdeeds. Regardless of how you view the verdict — too…
Hardware
TechCrunch Minute: Razer’s Zephyr mask lands it in regulatory hot water
9:00 am PDT • May 1, 2024
Razer is in trouble with the FTC over masks it made and sold during the COVID pandemic. The matter is going to cost it around $1.1 million, and some bad…
Featured Podcast
A new venture capital supergroup is forming
Startups are not shying away from big projects. That’s my takeaway from news that The Browser Company’s Arc browser is now generally available for Windows users, just as Island raised a massive grip of capital for its enterprise-focused browser tool. It’s very encouraging to see startups going after core pieces of technology and not just…
8:22 AM PDT • May 1, 2024
OpenAI has landed a new content deal with the FT. But instead of being a merely simple deal in which OpenAI gets words, and FT gets money, the two are…
AI
Musk’s xAI shows there’s more money on the sidelines for AI startups
7:22 AM PDT • April 29, 2024
We’re off to an AI-heavy start to the week. OpenAI has a new deal with the Financial Times that caught our eye. Sure, it’s another…
Featured Article
The IBM-HashiCorp coupling could be more complicated than it seems
At a quick glance, the IBM-HashiCorp deal seems like a good one for both sides, but upon closer inspection, perhaps not.
10:39 am PDT • April 26, 2024
Featured Podcast
Good news for Rubrik, bad news for TikTok and medium news for early-stage startups
Rubrik’s strong IPO pricing and warm reception by the public markets after its listing add more weight to the perspective that the public markets are not as closed to tech startups as some thought. If Rubrik’s result isn’t enough to break the logjam, well, maybe there’s something else going on. But there was a lot more that…
7:15 AM PDT • April 26, 2024
Startups
Rubrik’s shares end trading up almost 16% on the company’s public debut
1:50 pm PDT • April 25, 2024
This share price gives Rubrik a fully diluted valuation of $6.6 billion, up 88% from its last primary valuation of $3.5 billion in 2019.
AI
TechCrunch Minute: Perplexity AI could be worth up to $3B. Here’s why
9:00 am PDT • April 24, 2024
Perplexity AI‘s latest, large fundraising event could be quickly superseded by another, even larger chunk of capital, TechCrunch reports. Yes, the $62.7 million that the startup raised at just over…
AI
The TikTok ban clears key hurdle while Perplexity AI continues to shake up search
7:31 AM PDT • April 24, 2024
Well, if you are a big TikTok fan and live in the United States, I have some bad news for you: A bill that would…
Startups
TechCrunch Minute: How HeadSpin’s founder fraudster almost got away with lying to investors
9:00 am PDT • April 23, 2024
News that the former founder of HeadSpin is headed to prison for fraud was further evidence that the last boom in the paired worlds of startup and venture capital led…
Transportation
TechCrunch Minute: Tesla’s Cybertruck recall, layoffs set the stage for its Q1 earnings
9:00 am PDT • April 22, 2024
Tesla is not having a good start to the week. In its defense, it didn’t have a very good end to last week, either. Today the news is that recent…
Startups
Salesforce’s silly deal dies, Rubrik’s IPO, and venture capital in space
7:20 AM PDT • April 22, 2024
Equity discusses the latest market news, upcoming earnings, IPOs, and what impact — if any — the recent bitcoin halving had on its value.
Featured Article
Wall Street doesn’t seem too keen on a potential Salesforce-Informatica pairing
Amid rumors that Salesforce is interested in buying Informatica, investors aren’t taking kindly to the potential pairing.
10:09 am PDT • April 19, 2024
AI
TechCrunch Minute: Meta’s new Llama 3 models give open source AI a boost
9:00 am PDT • April 19, 2024
New AI models from Meta are making waves in technology circles. The two new models, part of the Facebook parent company’s Llama line of artificial intelligence tools, are both open…
It’s been more than a minute since Tesla went public, but the EV company was inescapable on TechCrunch this week. From layoffs to pricing changes…
Startups
Ibotta’s IPO opens sharply higher, hinting at warming public-market interest in tech shares
11:16 am PDT • April 18, 2024
Ibotta began its path as a public company on Thursday by opening at $117 per share, a big increase from its IPO price of $88, itself an increase from its proposed…
Space
TechCrunch Minute: NASA needs your help to bring rocks back from Mars
9:00 am PDT • April 18, 2024
NASA’s decision to scrap its $11 billion, 15-year mission to Mars to bring back samples could create a startup feeding frenzy, TechCrunch reports. Describing its plans as too slow, and…
Robotics
TechCrunch Minute: New Atlas robot stuns experts in first reveal from Boston Dynamics
9:09 am PDT • April 17, 2024
This week Boston Dynamics retired its well-known Atlas robot that was powered by hydraulics. Then today it unveiled its new Atlas robot, which is powered by electricity. The change might…
What is worth $11 billion and wants to go to Mars to collect rocks? NASA’s mission to Mars to collect rocks that was expected to…
