3 Views on a16z’s latest reported early-stage effort
a16z, a venture capital firm known for its large fund sizes and for shaking up the VC game when it piled into the industry back in 2009, is cooking up a new strategy to potentially bolster its deal flow, according to a recent report. It’s creating a fund-of-funds to invest in
Read moreStartups should absolutely work with governments to support defense projects
Maëlle Gavet Contributor Share on Twitter Maëlle Gavet is the CEO of Techstars and was previously a senior executive at numerous large tech companies around the world. In these times of heightened tensions and global volatility, I believe startups can play a critical role in our defense, space and national
Read moreWindows adds support for RAR, Netflix cracks down on passwords, and Meta lays off workers
Welcome, folks, to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular column that rounds up the week in tech news. Dunno about y’all, but it’s felt like a long one — and I’m thankful for the extended weekend. For those observing Memorial Day, do enjoy. Those not, take the time off where
Read moreSolving problems is better than fearmongering
W elcome to the TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s inspired by the daily TechCrunch+ column where it gets its name. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. From cybersecurity to SaaS for restaurants, the key to running a successful business is selling a product that
Read moreAI scares the bejesus out of me
Welcome to Startups Weekly. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning. Something really scary is happening. It’s an internet-powered horror story unfolding in front of us in three interwoven acts: (1) AI technology is improving fast enough that I recently had a bit of an
Read moreDeal Dive: Why this startup chose to sell itself over raising a Series A
Not all startups are built for a billion-dollar exit — or to grow as a stand-alone company at all. The appearance of easy-flowing subsequent funding likely led to the intense funding swell of the few years leading up to 2022. This is not to say all these companies are bad
Read moreThis week in AI: AI heavyweights try to tip the regulatory scales
Keeping up with an industry as fast-moving as AI is a tall order. So until an AI can do it for you, here’s a handy roundup of the last week’s stories in the world of machine learning, along with notable research and experiments we didn’t cover on their own. This week, movers
Read moreThe FDA will apparently let Elon Musk put a computer in a human’s brain
Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface company Neuralink says it has received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to launch its first in-human clinical study. If this is true, it means that actual humans could be getting a device from Neuralink implanted in their heads.
Read moreFord EVs will use Tesla’s charging plug starting next year
A Ford Mustang Mach-E sitting at a Tesla Supercharger | Image: Ford Ford CEO Jim Farley and Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that in early 2024 more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers will be operational with Ford vehicles. Farley also announced that next-generation Ford vehicles would come equipped with the North
Read moreElon Musk and Ron DeSantis’ fiasco shows they didn’t realize Twitter needs TV
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images A bad cover version. Look, Elon Musk just hosted the launch of Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign on Twitter Spaces, and I could say some things about hypocrisy — Musk insisting that “for Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically
Read more