Sesame, the conversational AI startup from Oculus founder, raises $250 million and launches beta
Sesame, a conversational AI startup and smart glasses maker, announced Tuesday that it has raised $250 million in a Series B round and will open a beta version to a select group of testers. The startup, led by former Oculus co-founder and CEO Brendan Iribe and Ankit Kumar, former CTO of AR startup Ubiquity6, is […]
OpenAI’s new browser is an all-out attack on Google
Today, OpenAI announced its new Atlas web browser in a surprise livestream. The show began with CEO Sam Altman himself speaking directly to the audience. “We believe AI is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to reimagine what a browser is,” said Altman. “Just as the URL bar and search box were great analogs for the way we […]
Source: Multimodal AI startup Fal.ai has already raised a valuation of over $4 billion
Fal.ai, a startup that hosts image, video and audio AI models for developers, has closed on a new round of funding that values the company at more than $4 billion, four people familiar with the deal said. The company has raised about $250 million, according to two people familiar with the matter. Kleiner Perkins and […]
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince is calling on UK regulators to unbundle Google’s search and AI crawlers.
Web infrastructure provider Cloudflare has been pushing for increased regulation in the AI space since earlier this year when it launched a marketplace that allows websites to charge AI bots for scraping their content. The company’s chief executive, Matthew Prince, said he was in London to speak to Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which […]
Lived with Cassio Mofflin, a $430 AI pet, for a month
I’ve often joked that I’d love to have a pet if I didn’t have to deal with animals pooping and eating stinky, wet mush from canned goods. I want a fluffy friend to keep me company all day long, but that illusion is shattered when I hear about a friend of mine who spent $500 […]
OpenAI announces AI-powered browser “ChatGPT Atlas”
OpenAI on Tuesday announced the launch of its AI-powered browser ChatGPT Atlas. This is a major step in the company’s efforts to dethrone Google as the primary way people find information online. Atlas will initially be rolled out on macOS, with support for Windows, iOS, and Android coming soon, according to the company. OpenAI says […]
Anthropic CEO hits back with applause after Trump official accuses company of stoking fear from AI
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei issued a statement Tuesday to “set the record straight” about the company’s alignment with the Trump administration’s AI policies, following “a recent increase in inaccurate claims regarding Anthropic’s policy stance.” “Anthropology is built on a simple principle: AI should be a force for human progress, not a threat,” Amodei wrote. “That […]
Apple warns exploit developers that iPhones have been targeted by government spyware
Earlier this year, a developer was shocked to see a message on his personal phone that read, “Apple has detected a targeted spyware attack on your iPhone.” “I was panicking,” Jay Gibson, who asked that his real name not be used for fear of retaliation, told TechCrunch. Mr. Gibson, who until recently was building surveillance […]
Disrupt Stage Revealed: Where the Future of Technology First Breaks | TechCrunch
Exclusively at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, the Disrupt Stage features the tech industry’s biggest bets, broadcast live and unfiltered. This is where startup dreams turn into $100,000 in prize money at the Startup Battlefield 200, and where the industry’s leading players reveal what’s next. The industry’s biggest voices take center stage This year, we’ll be joined […]
Aura launches $499 cordless e-ink digital photo frame
Aura introduces its newest model, the $499 Ink Frame. It brings a 13-inch color e-paper display to the company’s LCD-based lineup. The technology is similar to that found in the Kindle Colorsoft e-reader, which uses a six-color ink system to create the illusion of millions of shades. More importantly, by using e-ink technology, you can […]