Didero wins $30 million to put manufacturing sourcing on “agency” autopilot
Tim Spencer realized how complex manufacturing sourcing can be while running his e-commerce startup Markai in Asia during the pandemic. “We had thousands of suppliers and distributed products to dozens of countries around the world,” Spencer (pictured left) told TechCrunch. His staff was overwhelmed by the manual complexity of sourcing suppliers, negotiating prices, tracking orders, […]
Hackers associated with Epstein removed from Black Hat Cyber Conference website
Vincenzo Iozzo, a prominent hacker with ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is not listed on the website of Blackhat, one of the world’s largest cybersecurity conferences, or at Japan’s Code Blue security conference. As of Thursday, Iozzo had not appeared on the official review board pages for “Blackhat” or “Code Blue.” As of […]
Automattic plans to have 10 competitors subject to royalty fees, WP Engine claims in new filing
Web hosting company WP Engine has filed an amended complaint with new eyebrow-raising allegations in its ongoing legal battle with WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and his company Automattic (the parent company of WordPress.com). The company is now alleging that Mullenweg intended to target 10 different hosting companies with royalty payments for use of the WordPress […]
Aurora’s driverless trucks can now travel faster and longer distances than human drivers
Aurora’s self-driving truck can now travel the 1,000-mile route between Fort Worth and Phoenix nonstop, exceeding speeds that a human driver can legally achieve. This distance and travel time has positive economic implications for Aurora and other companies hoping to commercialize self-driving semi-trucks. The company says it takes Aurora about 15 hours to transport a […]
FTC expresses concern over allegations that Apple News suppresses right-wing content
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has expressed concern over allegations that Apple is censoring conservative content in the Apple News app. In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson accused Apple of excluding right-wing news organizations from the top 20 stories in the Apple News Feed, citing a report by the […]
Eclipse backs all-EV market with $31 million funding round
If you want to buy or sell a used EV right now, what do you do first? A startup called Ever wants to be the answer to that question. The company bills itself as the first “AI-native, full-stack auto retail business” for electric vehicles, and already has thousands of customers buying and selling EVs on […]
xAI publicly announces its interplanetary ambitions
On Wednesday, xAI took the unusual step of publishing the entire 45-minute all-hands meeting video on X, making it publicly accessible. Details of Tuesday night’s meeting were previously reported by the New York Times, and may have influenced xAI’s decision to post the video online. The entire video reveals important new details about Musk’s AI […]
AI inference startup Modal Labs is in procurement talks at a valuation of $2.5 billion, sources say
Modal Labs, a startup specializing in AI inference infrastructure, is in talks with VCs about a new round valued at about $2.5 billion, according to four people familiar with the deal. If the deal closes on these terms, the latest funding round would be more than double the $1.1 billion valuation of the $87 million […]
Elon Musk suggests successive xAI withdrawals were a push, not a pull
Elon Musk is dealing with a wave of departures from xAI, including two more co-founders leaving the company this week, bringing the total to six out of the original 12. At Tuesday night’s all-hands meeting, Musk suggested the exit was about fit, not performance. “Now that we’ve reached a certain size, we’re going to organize […]
Microsoft announced that hackers are exploiting a critical zero-day bug to target Windows and Office users.
Microsoft has released fixes for security vulnerabilities in Windows and Office that the company says are actively being exploited by hackers to break into people’s computers. This exploit is a one-click attack, meaning a hacker can plant malware or gain access to a victim’s computer with minimal user interaction. At least two flaws could be […]