Author: TechCrunch News

xAI, Elon Musk’s 10-month-old competitor to the AI phenom OpenAI, is raising $6 billion on a pre-money valuation of $18 billion, according to one trusted source close to the deal. The deal – which would give investors one quarter of the company –  is expected to close in the next few weeks unless the terms…

The Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 to ban the use of most noncompete agreements on Tuesday. This ruling means companies can’t require employees who aren’t senior executives to wait a set amount of time before joining a competitor or launching their own company in the same category. While the FTC’s ruling will impact industries like…

Advances in generative AI have taken the tech world by storm. Biotech investors are making a big bet that similar computational methods could revolutionize drug discovery. On Tuesday, ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Labs, an affiliate of Foresite Capital, announced that they incubated Xaira Therapeutics and funded the AI biotech with $1 billion. Other investors…

As the world’s population continues to grow, the need to be able to feed everyone is something a number of entities are working on. Paris-based Edonia, is one of the startups working on creating protein ingredients using microalgae. Edonia joins companies like Bevel, AlgaeCore Technologies, Algenuity and NewFish that are all tapping into the global…

Swiggy, an Indian food delivery and instant commerce startup, plans to raise $1.25 billion in an initial public offering and has secured approval from its shareholders. The company disclosed its IPO plans in a filing to the local regulator. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup plans to raise $450 million through the issuance of new shares and offer…

The Senate passed a bill, included with the foreign aid package, that will ban TikTok if its owner, ByteDance, doesn’t sell it within a year. Senators passed the bill 79-18 Tuesday after the House passed it with overwhelming majority over the weekend. President Joe Biden will have to sign the bill to make it law.…

Tesla’s been undergoing some major changes, and now we have a sense of why: The company says it is upending its product roadmap because of “pressure” on EV sales. The new and accelerated plan now includes “more affordable models” that the company claims will be launched next year. Or if Tesla CEO Elon Musk is…

The Mercedes-Benz G-Class — the rugged off-road powerhouse that launched in 1979 and has since become a brutalist status symbol — has gone electric. This is, in many ways, Mercedes’ most prestigious car, a model more prized for its presence and exclusivity than its power and capability. Going electric, then, is more than an historic…

A French startup has raised a hefty seed investment to “rearchitect compute infrastructure” for developers wanting to build and train AI applications more efficiently. FlexAI, as the company is called, has been operating in stealth since October 2023, but the Paris-based company is formally launching Wednesday with €28.5 million ($30 million) in funding, while teasing…

Glance, which operates a popular lockscreen platform targeting Android smartphones, is setting its sights on the U.S. market. The Indian startup recently commenced a pilot program in partnership with Motorola and Verizon in the U.S., with plans for a full launch in the country later this year, sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The…