Author: TechCrunch News

What happens when an AI agent decides the best way to complete a task is to blackmail you?  That’s not a hypothetical. According to Barmak Meftah, a partner at cybersecurity VC firm Ballistic Ventures, it recently happened to an enterprise employee working with an AI agent. The employee tried to suppress what the agent wanted…

Image Credits:TechCrunch / Getty Images 2:15 PM PST · January 18, 2026 Sequoia Capital is reportedly joining a blockbuster funding round for Anthropic, the AI startup behind Claude, according to the Financial Times. It’s a move sure to turn heads in Silicon Valley. Why? Because venture capital firms have historically avoided backing competing companies in…

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for all things “future of transportation.” To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! It’s been a minute, folks! As you might recall, the newsletter took a little holiday break. We’re back and well into 2026. And a lot has happened…

Image Credits:Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic / Getty Images 12:26 AM PST · January 17, 2026 Elon Musk wants a jaw-dropping $79 billion to $134 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming the AI company defrauded him by jettisoning its nonprofit mission, Bloomberg first reported. The figure comes from expert witness C. Paul Wazzan, a financial economist whose…

Runpod, an AI app hosting platform that launched four years ago, has hit a $120 million annual revenue run rate, founders Zhen Lu and Pardeep Singh tell TechCrunch.   Their startup journey is a wild example of how if you build it well and the timing is lucky, they will definitely come. The story includes bootstrapping…

In Brief Posted: 4:49 PM PST · January 15, 2026 Image Credits:Drew Angerer/Bloomberg / Getty Images Newsrooms have been experimenting with AI for several years now but, for the most part, those efforts have been just that: experiments. A relatively unknown startup, Symbolic.ai, wants to change that, and it just signed a major deal with…

Image Credits:Higgsfield 11:28 AM PST · January 15, 2026 Through an extension to its previous $50 million Series A round that closed in September, AI video generation startup Higgsfield has sold another $80 million worth of stock, bringing its total Series A to $130 million. The company says it has now hit a $1.3 billion…

Former OpenAI exec Mira Murati’s startup, Thinking Machines Lab, is saying goodbye to two of its co-founders, both of whom are headed back to OpenAI. Another former OpenAI staffer who went to work for Murati’s startup is also headed back to the company. On social media on Wednesday, Murati announced the departure of Barret Zoph,…

AI is ushering in Ring’s next chapter, as the Amazon-owned video doorbell maker shifts toward becoming an “intelligent assistant.”…

The startup has a new take on the Haber-Bosch process used to make ammonia. If Ammobia can deliver, it could change industries, from power generation to maritime shipping…