Behind the scenes of drone food delivery in Finland
Finland’s weather is notorious. But still, the food you order may be delivered by drone. On a rainy day after the annual Slush conference in Helsinki, Finnish entrepreneur Ville Reppela talks to TechCrunch about the behind-the-scenes story of the three-way partnership between Irish drone delivery company Manna, DoorDash-owned food delivery platform Wolt, and his startup […]
Black Friday sets $11.8 billion online spending record, Adobe announces
U.S. consumers spent $11.8 billion online on Black Friday, according to data from Adobe Analytics, which tracks more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail websites. Adobe said this is a new record and surpasses the $10.8 billion spent on Black Friday last year. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., online shoppers could have spent […]
No, you can’t get an AI to “admit” it’s sexist, but it probably is.
In early November, a developer nicknamed Cookie began a daily conversation with Perplexity. She often reads developer work on quantum algorithms and writes readme files and other documentation for GitHub. She is a Pro subscriber and uses the service in “best” mode. This means choosing which underlying model to tap between ChatGPT and Claude. It […]
VC Carla Nortman bet on women’s sports early and is now creating a market
When the season ended earlier this month, Angel City FC finished 11th out of 13 teams, a disappointing result for the Los Angeles soccer franchise co-founded in 2020 by venture capitalist Kara Nortman. But the season’s struggles are just part of a larger story that is reshaping the way investors think about women’s sports. Despite […]
Supabase CEO talks about ‘tough’ decisions that built his $5 billion company
Vibe coding is taking the tech world by storm, and it’s not just the Lovables and Replits of the world who are winning. The startups that are building the infrastructure behind them are also benefiting. Supabase, the open source database platform that has become the backend of choice in the vibecoding world, has raised $100 […]
SoftBank remains as Meesho’s $606 million IPO becomes India’s first major e-commerce listing
Meesho, the Indian e-commerce rival to Amazon and Walmart Inc.’s Flipkart, plans to launch a roughly $606 million IPO that will feature token sales by early backers and zero sales from major companies such as SoftBank and Prosus, demonstrating investors’ confidence in India’s burgeoning online retail market as tech shareholders around the world cash in […]
How OpenAI and Google see AI changing go-to-market strategies
For years, startups have had a number of traditional playbooks available to them when it came time to start selling their products. But like many other things, AI is changing the way companies prepare to go to market. Max Altschuler, general partner at GTMfund, told the audience at TechCrunch Disrupt last month. However, the challenge […]
AI regulatory competition sparks federal vs. state showdown
For the first time, Washington is close to deciding how to regulate artificial intelligence. And the battle brewing isn’t about technology, it’s about who will regulate it. In the absence of meaningful federal AI standards focused on consumer safety, states have introduced dozens of bills to protect their populations from AI-related harm, including California’s AI […]
Anduril’s autonomous weapon stumbles in testing and combat, WSJ reports
Defense technology startup Anduril Industries faced a number of setbacks while testing autonomous weapons systems, according to a new report from the Journal. At issue is the failure of more than a dozen drone boats during a Navy exercise off the coast of California in May, with sailors warning of safety violations and potential loss […]
The real drama this Thanksgiving may be Michael Burley vs. Nvidia
While you’re sweating over Thanksgiving details, famous investor Michael Burley (played by Christian Bale in The Big Short) is waging an increasingly aggressive war against Nvidia. This is a fight worth watching because Barry might actually win. What makes this different from all the other warnings about AI bubbles is that Berry has gained an […]