On the latest episode of Equity, we discuss OpenAI's latest acquisitions and whether they address "two big existential problems" for the company.

A lot of AI startups exist partly because the foundation models haven't expanded into their category yet. As many jokingly acknowledge, that won't last forever.

The first major failure of Blue Origin's new heavy-launch system could create delays to its ambition to help NASA and the Trump administration return to the Moon.

The winning time is a massive improvement over last year’s race, when the fastest robot finished in two hours and 40 minutes.

Palantir's ideological bent has come under more scrutiny as it's worked with ICE and positioned itself as a defender of "the West."

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, how AI is playing a part. 

Fusion startups and investors risk deepening fissures if some key disagreements aren't settled amicably.

It's a major milestone for the company's new mega-rocket system, putting it in position to challenge SpaceX's dominance of the global launch market.

The company now offers robotaxi service in three cities, all of them in Texas, after launching in Austin last year and starting to offer rides without safety drivers in January 2026.

Conway wrote that he “will be stepping back from some of my usual activities,” but he will “continue to support” founders backed by his firm SV Angel.

In recent months, the company announced an agreement with Amazon Web Services to use Cerebras chips in Amazon data centers, as well as a deal with OpenAI reportedly worth more than $10 billion.

Despite recently being designated a supply-chain risk by the Pentagon, Anthropic is still talking to high-level members of the Trump administration.

New data from Appfigures shows a swell of new app launches in 2026, suggesting AI tools could be fueling a mobile software boom.

For most of its life, Airwallex and Stripe have mostly operated in different geographies, selling to different buyers. That's changing.

World, which has raised eyebrows (but also a lot of interest) with its Orb-centered anonymous verification project, is looking to expand its influence via a bevy of new partnerships.

Kevin Weil and Bill Peebles are leaving OpenAI as the company shuts down Sora and folds its science team, signaling a sharp pivot away from consumer moonshots toward enterprise AI.

Nicholas Moore hacked into three U.S. government networks using stolen credentials, and then bragged about it and posted victims' personal data on Instagram under the handle @ihackedthegovernment.

Returning backers a16z and Thrive are expected to lead the round.

There's a lot more code — but it's a lot more expensive and requires a lot more rewriting.

A security researcher published details of three security vulnerabilities in Windows Defender, and the code used to exploit them. Now, hackers are taking advantage of the vulnerabilities in real-life attacks, according to a cybersecurity firm.

Meeting platform Zoom has announced a partnership with World, Sam Altman's human ID verification company, to ensure that the people attending meetings are actually human and not AI-generated imposters. Zoom will show a badge on verified participants' tile.

New iPhone app Gigs uses AI to turn old tickets, screenshots, and emails into a personal concert archive with stats, memories, and more.

The company, which deploys AI-guided robot arms for food production, says it is looking to expand its services to provide for a broader array of customers.

The gap between AI insiders and everyone else is widening, and the spending, suspicion, and even new vocabulary are starting to show it. While OpenAI is busy buying up everything from finance apps to talk shows, a certain shoe company just rebranded as an AI infrastructure play, and Anthropic unveiled a model it says is too powerful to release publicly …but apparently not too […]

The new returns feature is the company's latest effort to become an everything app. There are limitations to the new service, and there is, of course, a courier fee.

The company says Claude Design is intended to help people like founders and product managers without a design background share their ideas more easily. 

Some lawmakers are calling for widespread reforms following years of surveillance scandals and abuses across successive U.S. administrations. But even if the spy law known as Section 702 expires in April, the government's spy powers will not automatically lapse.

Although you can already track hotel prices at the city level, the new update lets you do so for a specific hotel that you're interested in.

Netflix is going to launch a TikTok-like vertical video feed within its apps this month, and plans to use AI broadly for content creation and recommendations.

Users are fed up with misinformation and AI slop cluttering their feeds. SaySo is a new short-form video app that delivers news from vetted creators and journalists.

The San Francisco startup closed a Series C funding round led by Antonio Gracias' firm Valor, which is a major backer of xAI.

The fundraise is the first major capital raise under Sequoia's new leadership, with Alfred Lin and Pat Grady now serving as co-stewards of the 54-year-old firm.

The three-year-old startup raised $150 million led by Khosla Ventures.

The studio's first project will be about Moses and star Academy Award-winner Ben Kingsley, to be released this spring on Prime Video.

Hastings helped to transform the video rental industry — first with physical, then digital, delivery.

AI infrastructure company Upscale AI is reportedly in talks to raise its third funding round since launching just seven months ago.

The new model, called π0.7, represents what the company describes as an early but meaningful step toward the long-sought goal of a general-purpose robot brain.

This week on Build Mode, Isabelle Johannessen speaks with Capella Kerst, founder and CEO of geCKo Materials.

Five years later the founders, now 24 years old, say their startup has achieved $300 million in annualized revenue.

OpenAI's agentic coding tool has gotten a major makeover, with a variety of new powers and abilities.

Europol coordinated an operation against for-hire distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) services, including the arrest of four people and the takedown of 53 domains.

Krieger's departure and any forthcoming design tools will be another data point for investors who fear the SaaSpocalypse — that the largest AI labs will come to dominate software businesses, a thesis that has rocked public markets at times this year.

Bluesky has been experiencing ongoing service disruptions since just before 3 a.m. ET on April 15.

If culture is shaped by TikTok's algorithmic feed, then it's time for us to decide where we draw the line between necessary marketing and inauthentic growth hacking.

Now, when you're using AI Mode on Chrome desktop, clicking a link will open the web page side-by-side with AI Mode.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that two Americans were sentenced to years in prison for helping the North Korean government place fake IT workers in U.S. companies.

According to CEO Helen Gu, the biggest problem facing the industry today is not just monitoring and diagnosing where AI models go wrong — it's also diagnosing how the entire tech stack operates now that AI is part of it.

Adobe says AI traffic to U.S. retail sites also jumped 269% in March, with visitors converting better and generating more revenue than non-AI shoppers.

The new tools are designed to help creators throughout the entire development process.

That means its AI images can be created using Gemini's understanding of your likes and interests, without those having to be explicitly noted in the prompt.

Google blocked 8.3 billion ads in 2025 but suspended fewer advertisers.

Why choose fossil fuels or electricity when you can have both? NOC Energy has figured out how to hybridize heavy industry.

Runway’s CEO says AI could help studios make dozens of films for the cost of one, betting volume will boost hit-making odds.

Starting April 19, the price of the Meta Quest 3S (128GB) and Meta Quest 3S (256GB) will go up by $50 to $349.99 and $449.99, respectively. The price of the Meta Quest 3 is going up by $100 to $599.99.

The latest version of Canva's AI assistant lets users create editable designs with text prompts.

Retail giant Express was publicly spilling customer information to the open web. The bug is now fixed after TechCrunch alerted Express, but the company would not say if it plans to notify customers.

Antioch raised an $8.5 million seed round to create simulation tools for a new generation of robot builders.

DeepL says its tech could be used for real-time translation with meeting tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

Nuclear startup X-energy hit the road today to sell prospective investors on its initial public offering.

Doug Field had stints at Apple and Tesla before joining Ford in 2021.

A federal jury found that Live Nation has acted illegally as a monopoly -- but the company just came to a tentative settlement with the DOJ last month.

The startup had faced mounting pressure from dealers, farmers, and a co-founder who complained that Monarch's tech didn't work properly.

OpenAI has expanded the capabilities of its agent-building toolkit, as agentic AI continues to grow in popularity.

The startup says it grew its ARR by $70 million in just 20 months after launching an AI agent platform for marketers.

LinkedIn says hiring is down 20% since 2022, but blames higher interest rates — not AI — for the slowdown.

In a first, the U.S. Energy Information Agency said it will require data centers to disclose details of their energy use.

Gizmo, an AI-powered learning platform, has attracted more than 13 million users and just secured $22 million in Series A funding.

Objection, a Thiel-backed startup, aims to use AI to judge journalism, letting users pay to challenge stories. Critics warn it could chill whistleblowers and reshape how media accountability works.

You can share anything on their screen with Gemini to get help with what they're looking at in the moment, including local files.

Glydways is in talks to raise another $250 million as it prepares to launch three pilot programs.

Accel announced on Tuesday that it raised $5 billion in fresh capital to back late-stage companies building AI.

Emergent's Wingman lets users manage and automate tasks through chat on platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram.

VCs are frothing at the mouth to write more checks to Anthropic at a valuation that matches or beats OpenAI's.

Motorola has sought a permanent injunction restraining the defendants from publishing or sharing what it describes as false or defamatory content about its products, including reviews, videos, comments, and boycott campaigns.

Airwallex, valued at $8 billion, is launching a point-of-sale product that lets businesses accept in-person payments in multiple countries via a single platform.

Allbirds is ditching wool sneakers for AI servers, rebranding as NewBird AI after locking in a $50M convertible financing facility.

Sweden's minister for civil defense said Russian hackers are "now attempting destructive cyber attacks against organizations in Europe."