This Week in AI: OpenAI is stretched thin
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. After a brief hiatus, we’re back with a few show notes on OpenAI’s DevDay. The keynote yesterday morning in San Francisco was remarkable for its subdued tone — a contrast to
Read moreOpenAI raises $6.6B and is now valued at $157B
ChatGPT maker OpenAI has closed the largest VC round of all time. The startup today announced that it raised $6.6 billion in a funding round that values OpenAI at $157 billion post-money. Led by previous investor Thrive Capital, the new cash brings OpenAI’s total raised to $17.9 billion, per Crunchbase.
Read moreJ.B. Hunt and UP.Labs launch venture lab to build logistics startups
Transportation and freight network giant J.B. Hunt is searching for software and digital products that will fuel its business and help it adapt to the modern world — and even dominate the industry. And it’s tapping startup incubator UP.Labs to help build them. On Wednesday at the UP.Summit event in
Read moreInstant harkens back to a pre-Google Firebase
Instant wants to recapture some of the magic of the pre-Google-acquisition Firebase by building a modern, Postgres-based open source version of it. Like the original Firebase, San Francisco-based Instant focuses on giving front-end developers easy access to a real-time database with offline capabilities without the need to manage any of
Read moreGmail’s new ‘summary cards’ help you take action on your emails, like tracking packages and checking into flights
Competition in the email market is heating up. After Apple’s iOS 18 introduced a slew of Gmail-like features to Apple’s Mail app, including categorization of transactions, updates, and promotions, as well as the addition of Smart Replies (in the coming iOS 18.1 update), Google on Wednesday announced a set of
Read moreNews agency AFP notifies French authorities of potential data breach
The Paris-based news giant said it notified French regulators of a potential data breach following a recent cyberattack. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Read morePallet uses AI to bring logistics into the 21st century
Transportation and warehousing are multi-trillion-dollar industries, but the technologies that power them are often outdated, inefficient and siloed. Pallet, which is announcing an $18 million Series A funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures today, has built an all-in-one transportation and warehouse management system that uses AI to help these
Read moreStarling Bank fined $39 million for ‘facilitating financial crime’
Starling Bank, a popular challenger bank based in the U.K., has received a £29 million fine from the country’s financial regulator (around $39 million at current exchange rates). The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found the startup didn’t have proper financial crime controls from 2021 to 2023. Starling has been around
Read moreToyota pours another $500M into electric air taxi startup Joby Aviation
Toyota is doubling down on Joby Aviation with a $500 million investment into the California-based company that’s developing electric air taxis. Toyota’s total investment in Joby, which includes a $394 million capital injection back in 2020, is now $894 million. The funds will be used to help Joby complete the
Read moreMeat replacement startup Heura has a new mission to slay junk food with healthier plant-based swaps
The offices of plant-based protein startup Heura are tucked away down a narrow street a short distance from one of Barcelona’s main tourist draws. But the team of entrepreneurs and food scientists won’t be remixing their protein cocktails in close proximity to La Sagrada Família for much longer — they’re
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