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Meet the new European unicorns of 2026
From Belgium to Ukraine, five fresh European unicorns were minted this January.
Waymo reportedly raising a $16B funding round
Waymo is reportedly finalizing a new funding round that will value the robotaxi company at $110 billion.
Nvidia CEO pushes back against report that his companys $100B OpenAI investment has stalled
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that a recent report of friction between his company and OpenAI was nonsense.
HomeBoosts app will show you where to save on your utility bills
The startup is partnering with utilities to help homeowners determine the best upgrades to cut their energy use.
a16z partner Kofi Ampadu to leave firm after TxO program pause
Kofi Ampadu, the partner at a16z who led the firm's Talent x Opportunity (TxO) fund and program, has left the firm.
If co-founder Lachy Groom has any doubts, he doesnt show it. Hes working with people who've been working on this problem for decades and who believe the timing is finally right, which is all he needs to know.
OpenClaws AI assistants are now building their own social network
The viral personal AI assistant formerly known as Clawdbot has a new shell again. After briefly rebranding as Moltbot, it has now picked OpenClaw as its new name.
Informant told FBI that Jeffrey Epstein had a personal hacker
The hacker allegedly developed zero-day exploits and offensive cyber tools and sold them to several countries, including an unnamed central African government, the U.K., and the United States.
Instagram might soon let you remove yourself from someones Close Friends list
Since the feature's launch in 2018, users haven't been able to remove themselves from someone else's Close Friends list.
Blue Origin pauses space tourism flights to focus on the moon
The company is trying to take advantage of President Donald Trump's desire to return astronauts to the lunar surface by the end of his term.
SpaceXs IPO could open the floodgates and secondaries are booming in the meantime
To unpack what SpaceXs IPO chatter means, how private liquidity works before a debut, and what investors are looking for in todays pre-IPO giants, we spoke with Greg Martin, managing director at Rainmaker Securities, a broker-dealer specializing in secondary share transactions for late-stage private companies.
Uber is literally in the drivers seat when it comes to AV bets
Self-driving truck startupWaabis billion-dollar fundraiseisntjust about trucks. The deal, for $750 million up front plus another $250 million from Uber tied to deployment milestones, marks a major expansion into robotaxis for the company founded by former Uber AI chief Raquel Urtasun. It also feels like another chip from Uber on theautonomous vehicleroulette table. With more []
Last24 hoursto grab your +1 pass at 50% off to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026
Today is the last day to lock in a +1 pass at 50% off to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, happening on October 13-15 in San Francisco. Register here.
How Sequoia-backed Ethos reached the public market while rivals fell short
The profitable life-insurance platform was one of the first major tech companies to test the 2026 public markets.
Guys, I dont think Tim Cook knows how to monetize AI
One intrepid Morgan Stanley analyst dared to ask how Apple will make money on its AI investments. The answer will not shock you.
Elon Musks SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI in talks to merge, according to reports
This merger would bring the Grok chatbot, Starlink satellites, and SpaceX rockets together under one corporation.
Amazon is reportedly in talks to invest $50B in OpenAI
If a deal materializes, it would mean Amazon is backing competing startups in the race for AI supremacy.
Medium gives employees Friday off to participate in national strike protesting ICE
Activists behind the general strike are calling for o work, no school, and no shopping amid a push to defund ICE, which has escalated raids in U.S. cities, killing several people, including two U.S. citizens earlier this month in Minneapolis.
Microsoft wont stop buying AI chips from Nvidia, AMD, even after launching its own, Nadella says
Microsoft says its own chip leapfrogs those made by other cloud providers like Amazon and Google. But it needs more.
Fintech firm Marquis blames hack at firewall provider SonicWall for its data breach
The fintech giant said it plans to seek recoupment of any expenses from its firewall provider SonicWall after a 2025 data breach exposed customer firewall configurations.
Satya Nadella insists people are using Microsofts Copilot AI a lot
With Microsoft spending many billions on data centers, and rumors that no one is using its AI, CEO Satya Nadella shared some usage numbers.
Elon Musks SpaceX and xAI in talks to merge, report says
This merger would bring the Grok chatbot, Starlink satellites, and SpaceX rockets together under one corporation.
Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides to and from San Francisco International Airport
Waymo's SFO win comes as the company faces criticism and concerns about safety in some of the cities it operates.
I built marshmallow castles in Googles new AI world generator
Starting Thursday, Google AI Ultra subscribers in the U.S. can play around with Project Genie, which is powered by a combination of Googles latest world model Genie 3, its image generation model Nano Banana Pro, and Gemini.
OpenAIs Sora app is struggling after its stellar launch
Sora's mobile app downloads fell 45% in January, and consumer spending dropped.
Music publishers sue Anthropic for $3B over flagrant piracy of 20,000 works
Originally, these music publishers had filed a lawsuit against Anthropic over its use of about 500 copyrighted works.
India is teaching Google how AI in education can scale
With the highest global usage of Gemini for learning, India is emerging as a key market shaping Google's approach to AI in education.
Flapping Airplanes and the promise of research-driven AI
A new AI lab called Flapping Airplanes launched yesterday, and a Sequoia partner has an interesting take on why they stand out.
Teslas energy storage business is growing faster than any other part of the company
Energy storage products like the Megapack, Megablock, and Powerwall drove
Spotify users can now share the podcasts, playlists, and audiobooks they're listening to with up 10 people.
Waymo robotaxi hits a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica
The child, whose age is not known, sustained minor injuries according to Waymo. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating.
Upwind raises $250M at $1.5B valuation to continue building runtime cloud security
The $250 million Series B was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Salesforce Ventures and Picture Capital.
Apple hires iPhone camera app Halides co-founder for its design team
Halide also released a public preview of its up coming app Halide Mark III.
Meta burned $19 billion on VR last year, and 2026 wont be any better
The reported financial losses follow a series of layoffs at the VR unit.
Tiny startup Arcee AI built a 400B open source LLM from scratch to best Metas Llama
30-person startup Arcee AI has released a 400B model called Trinity, which it says is one of the biggest open source foundation models from a US company.
Elon Musk reportedly wants a June SpaceX IPO to align with his birthday, the planets
SpaceX eyes June for IPO to align with Musk's birthday and the planets.
With Apples new Creator Studio Pro, AI is a tool to aid creation, not replace it
Apples Creator Studio Pro leverages AI to help creators with tedious taskslike finding clips or building slideswithout trying to do the work for them
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: Plus-one passes are almost gone and only 3 days remain
The TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 plus-one passes at50% off are almost sold out, and this deal ends in 3 days. Register here before this deal ends on Friday, January 30 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
The AI infrastructure boom shows no sign of slowing down
ASMLs record orders show chipmakers are still betting big on AI data centers.
Standard Nuclear raises $140M as nuclear power enters its gold rush era
Investors including a16z are betting that nuclear industry suppliers will be the big winners of the AI demand-driven nuclear renaissance.
LinkedIn will let you show off your vibe coding chops with a certificate
LinkedIn is partnering with Descript, Lovable, Replit, and Relay.app at launch
TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026unites 1,100 founders and investors in Boston on June 23 for a day focused on real-world scaling insights and networking that pushes the needle. Save up to $300 on your ticket.
Samsung teases new privacy feature to hide your Galaxy phone screen from onlookers
Samsung said that the upcoming feature will let you protect selected parts of the screen like notification popup area.
Anthropic, Apple, OpenAI CEOs condemn ICE violence, praise Trump
Anthropic's Dario Amodei and OpenAI's Sam Altman spoke out against ICE enforcement tactics following Minneapolis violence, with one addressing concerns publicly and the other in an internal message.
Amazon says it is laying off 16,000 employees
This is Amazon's second layoff after the company cut 14,000 corporate jobs in October.
Redwood attracts Google for its $425M Series E as AI power needs rise
Google is the latest investor to back Redwood Materials as the battery recycling startup scales a new energy storage venture to power AI data centers and other industrial sites.
Waabi raises $1B and expands into robotaxis with Uber
Waabi has secured a $750 million Series C round to accelerate autonomous trucking, and another roughly $250 million commitment from Uber to deploy 25,000 robotaxis exclusively on its platform.
Google pitches Gemini to students studying for Indias most competitive college entrance exam
Google's launch of practice tests for JEE follows its recent move to offer full-length SAT practice tests in Gemini.
Google Photos brings its prompt-based editing feature to India, Australia and Japan
Users can describe their edits in natural language to modify an image.
Indias Shadowfax slips on listing, as client concentration spooks investors
Shadowfax shares fell about 9% on theirdebut, valuing the logistics firm near its last private valuation.
