Author: TechCrunch News

This week, I talked with Tim De Chant about his coverage of fusion energy and what feels like a rare hopeful story in renewable energy tech. And Jacquelyn Melinek walks us through Sam Bankman-Fried’s alleged crimes and confirmed arrest. Plus, as always, we go over the top stories in tech from the week. Articles from…

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Fridaaaaaaaay! Today we particularly enjoyed the Equity podcast team’s 2023 predictions on the future of building, crypto, and AI. Meanwhile, good luck to Alex (who mostly looks after TechCrunch+ these days, but…

U.S. safety regulators have opened a preliminary investigation into the robotaxis developed and operated by GM self-driving subsidiary Cruise. The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration said it opened the investigation after learning of incidents when these robotaxis “may have engaged in inappropriately hard braking or became immobilized while operating on public roads.” The preliminary investigation…

While hiring freezes at Big Tech firms might be hurting certain AI investments, it’s clear that there remains a strong appetite throughout the enterprise for AI technologies — whether developed in-house or outsourced to third parties. According to a McKinsey survey from early December, AI adoption at companies has more than doubled since 2017, with…

Aztec Network, a privacy layer for web3, has raised $100 million in a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), the startup’s co-founders Zac Williamson and Joe Andrews exclusively told TechCrunch. “At a high level, Aztec is an encrypted version of Ethereum,” Andrews said. “Normally on Ethereum everything is public, but we are making…

Agriculture produces what might be some of the hardest planet-warming carbon emissions to eliminate. People need to eat, and right now, the way we make food generates a lot of greenhouse gases — about a third of the total created by human activity. There are some simple ways to reduce it, like eating less meat,…

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Why, hello there, Crunchianistas! Today, Haje is waltzing around the house, candle in hand, celebrating Saint Lucia. Honestly, not because he’s that excited about the traditional Scandinavian celebration or the excitement about…

Slowly but surely, state by state, the U.S. is becoming more cannabis-friendly. As the number of states where weed is legalized (or at least decriminalized) grows, so too does the number of companies building amazing products for cannabis users. Got a friend who partokes and lives somewhere cool about it? Why not upgrade their experience…

Defense technology continues to get a lot of attention from investors, and today, one of the bigger startups in the space is announcing more funding. Shield AI — which develops platforms and planes for autonomous flying systems, targeting the U.S. military and its allies as customers — has raised $60 million in funding, money that…

About 29% of Indonesia’s workforce is in the agriculture sector, but many small farmers face challenges like low access to working capital. Eratani is an end-to-end management system that helps them get financing and supplies, and then helps them sell crops once they are ready. The startup announced today it has raised an oversubscribed $3.8…