Marked-up Mac minis flood on eBay amid AI-induced shortage
Amidst a shortage of sold-out machines, overpriced Mac minis are flooding eBay, making them a popular tool for running on-device AI models like OpenClaw. According to reports this week, the $599 M4 Mac mini base model with 16GB RAM and 256GB of storage is sold out on Apple’s retail website, with no delivery or in-store […]
Nuclear startup X-energy raises $1 billion in data center-led IPO
Nuclear startup X Energy raised $1 billion in an initial public offering yesterday, selling 44.3 million shares for $23 per share, a hefty premium over the $16 to $19 per share the company was seeking. The company originally hoped to raise about $800 million. The stock is scheduled to begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange […]
Another spyware maker caught distributing fake Android snooping apps
Yet another government-backed spyware maker has been arrested after its customers used fake Android apps to install surveillance software on its targets, according to a new report. On Thursday, Osservatorio Nessuno, an Italian digital rights organization that studies spyware, published a report on a new piece of malware called Morpheus. This spyware disguises itself as […]
Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga joins StrictlyVC SF
surprise! StrictlyVC San Francisco, which kicks off this year’s TechCrunch event lineup on April 30th at the Centro Philippine Cultural Center, is adding new participants to its ever-growing roster of speakers. Praveen Neppalli Naga, CTO of Uber, joins us to discuss operating at scale in the age of, you guessed it, AI. However, you’ll need […]
DeepSeek previews new AI model that ‘bridges the gap’ with frontier models
Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has released two preview versions of its latest large-scale language model, DeepSeek V4. This is a long-awaited update to last year’s V3.2 model and the accompanying R1 inference model that took the AI world by storm. According to the company, both DeepSeek V4 Flash and V4 Pro are expert mixed models […]
In yet another big development for AI chips, Meta signs deal for millions of Amazon AI CPUs
Amazon has pulled off a major coup with Meta thanks to Amazon’s own chip. Meta has signed a deal to use millions of AWS Graviton chips to power its growing AI needs, Amazon announced Friday. Note that AWS Graviton is not a GPU (graphics processing unit), but an ARM-based CPU (central processing unit, a chip […]
Porsche adds all-electric Cayenne Coupe to lineup
Porsche plans to start selling its all-electric Cayenne Coupe in late summer, the latest signal that the German automaker believes there is still market demand for EVs. Unlike a traditional coupe, the four-door Cayenne Coupe EV will join several other all-electric models of the SUV hitting the market later this year, including the base Cayenne […]
Redwood Materials loses COO in layoffs and restructuring
Chris Lister, Redwood Materials’ chief operating officer, is leaving the battery recycling company to retire, TechCrunch has learned — and he’s not the only executive to leave recently. Lister, a former vice president who led Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory operations, has been with Redwood since late 2023. He started as the company’s chief supply chain officer […]
Noscroll is an AI bot that doomscrolls for you.
What if you could outsource your doomscrolling? This is the premise behind new startup Noscroll. Noscroll offers an AI-powered bot that can browse your social feeds, news sites, and other online conversations and send you a text message when something important happens. Noscroll’s pitch to users is: “No feeds, no brain rot, no rage.” Just […]
Trump nominates US cyber agency CISA head, asks for resignation
President Trump’s twice-chosen nominee to head the federal cybersecurity agency CISA has asked to resign, leaving the agency without a clear-cut person to lead it permanently. In a letter to the White House on Wednesday, Sean Plunky urged the Trump administration to withdraw his nomination, saying his nomination requires a vote in the Senate. Plunky […]