16 C 
Have money, will travel: a16zs hunt for the next European unicorn
According to a16z, it has eyes around the world in order to spot companies as early as local funds might.
How Ricursive Intelligence raised $335M at a $4B valuation in 4 months
The reason why this nascent startup had VCs lining up is the founders.They are so famed in the AI world, everyone tried to hire them.
After all the hype, some AI experts dont think OpenClaw is all that exciting
From an AI research perspective, this is nothing novel, one expert told TechCrunch.
Fractal Analytics muted IPO debut signals persistent AI fears in India
As India's first AI company to IPO, Fractal Analytics didn't have a stellar first day on the public markets, as enthusiasm for the technology collided with jittery investors in the wake of a sell-off in Indian software stocks.
All the important news from the ongoing India AI Impact Summit
India is hosting a four-day AI Summit this week that will be attended by executives from major AI labs and Big Tech, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, and Cloudflare, as well as heads of state.
African defensetech Terra Industries, founded by two Gen Zers, raises additional $22M in a month
Terra Industries, the African defense company, announced Monday that it had secured an additional $22 million in funding to further expand the business.
Blackstone backs Neysa in up to $1.2B financing as India pushes to build domestic AI infrastructure
Neysa is targeting deployments of more than 20,000 GPUs over time as demand for local AI compute accelerates.
OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger joins OpenAI
OpenAI said OpenClaw will live on as an open source project.
Longtime NPR host David Greene sues Google over NotebookLM voice
The longtime host of NPRs Morning Edition, is suing Google, alleging that the male podcast voice in the companys NotebookLM tool is based on him.
Anthropic and the Pentagon are reportedly arguing over Claude usage
The apparent issue: whether Claude can be used for mass domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons.
India has 100M weekly active ChatGPT users, Sam Altman says
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says India has the largest number of student users of ChatGPT worldwide.
The enterprise AI land grab is on. Glean is building the layer beneath the interface.
In this week's episode of the Equity podcast, Glean CEO Arvind Jain explains the company's shift from enterprise search tool to middleware layer for enterprise AI.
TechCrunch Mobility: Rivians savior
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation.
What the Epstein files reveal about EV startups and Silicon Valley
Will the Epstein revelations lead to broader fallout in Silicon Valley?
The great computer science exodus (and where students are going instead)
Students are losing some interest in computer science broadly but gaining interest in AI-specific majors and courses.
Homeland Security reportedly sent hundreds of subpoenas seeking to unmask anti-ICE accounts
The Department of Homeland Security has been increasing pressure on tech companies to identify the owners of accounts that criticize ICE.
Elon Musk is actively working to make xAIs Grok chatbot more unhinged, according to a former employee.
In a changed VC landscape, this exec is doubling down on overlooked founders
As much of Silicon Valley chases mega-rounds and buzzy AI deals, Stacy Brown-Philpot is running Cherryrock Capital like a throwback to venture capital's earlier days
This week, Alta unveiled its first integration collaboration, teaming up with Public School, a storied New York City brand.
Hollywood isnt happy about the new Seedance 2.0 video generator
Hollywood organizations are pushing back against a new AI video model called Seedance 2.0, which they say has quickly become a tool for blatant copyright infringement.
Designer Kate Barton teams up with IBM and Fiducia AI for a NYFW presentation
Designer Kate Barton teams up with Fiducia AI and IBM for a NYFW presentation.
India doubles down on state-backed venture capital, approving $1.1B fund
Indias $1.1B fund-of-funds will invest through private VCs to support deep-tech and manufacturing startups.
Indian pharmacy chain giant exposed customer data and internal systems
A backend flaw in web admin dashboards used by one of India's largest pharmacy chains, exposed thousands of online pharmacy orders.
Airbnb plans to bake in AI features for search, discovery and support
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the company wants to increase its use of large language models for customer discovery, support and engineering.
Fintech lending giant Figure confirms data breach
The company said hackers downloaded a limited number of files after breaking into an employees account. The hacking group ShinyHunters took responsibility for the breach.
Why top talent is walking away from OpenAI and xAI
AI companies have been hemorrhagingtalentthe past few weeks. Half ofxAIsfounding teamhas left the company some on their own, others through restructuring while OpenAI is facing its own shakeups, from thedisbanding of itsmission alignment teamto the firing of a policy exec who opposed its adult mode feature. Watch as TechCrunchsEquitypodcast hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony []
Sex toys maker Tenga says hacker stole customer information
The Japanese sex toy maker said a hacker broke into an employee's inbox and stole customer names, email addresses, and correspondence, including order details and customer service inquiries.
OpenAI removes access to sycophancy-prone GPT-4o model
The model is known for its overly sycophantic nature and its role in several lawsuits involving users' unhealthy relationships to the chatbot.
The SEC closed its investigation into Fisker
The financial regulator revealed in a response to a TechCrunch records request that the probe was closed in September 2025.
India partners with Alibaba.com for export push despite past China tech bans
India turns to Alibaba.com's B2B network of 50 million buyers in 200 countries to help businesses scale global exports.
Roku to launch streaming bundles as part of its efforts to continue growing its profitability
Roku delivered an impressive Q4, posting net income of $80.5 million. The company also outlined plans for streaming bundles.
Our matches convert to actual dates at about 10x the rate of Tinder, Weng told TechCrunch.
Elon Musk suggests spate of xAI exits have been push, not pull
At least nine engineers, including two co-founders, have announced their exits from xAI in the past week, fueling online speculation and raising questions about stability at Musks AI company amid mounting controversy.
Dutch phone giant Odido says millions of customers affected by data breach
The Dutch phone giant Odido is the latest phone and internet company to be hacked in recent months, as governments and financially motivated hackers continue to steal highly confidential information about phone customers.
Amazons Ring cancels partnership with Flock, a network of AI cameras used by ICE, feds, and police
This news comes less than a week after Ring's Super Bowl commercial stoked controversy over the company's capacity for mass surveillance.
Coheres $240M year sets stage for IPO
Cohere surpassed $240 million in annual recurring revenue in 2025, highlighting strong enterprise AI demand as the Canadian startup positions itself for a potential IPO amid intensifying competition from OpenAI and Anthropic.
Meta plans to add facial recognition to its smart glasses, report claims
The feature, internally known as Name Tag, would allow smart glasses wearers to identify people and get information about them via Meta's AI assistant.
Score, the dating app for people with good credit, is back
Two years ago, a controversial dating app was launched and quickly shuttered: for people with good-to-excellent credit. Now, the founder is relaunching it, open to anyone.
Waymo is asking DoorDash drivers to shut the doors of its self-driving cars
If a passenger accidentally leaves a Waymo door open, the vehicle can get stuck in place.
The New India Assurance Company is revamping its strategy to tap into the underinsured MSME sector by addressing accessibility rather than cost. CMD Girija Subramanian reveals plans for simplified products, parametric insurance in allied sectors, and a focus on speedy claims to drive growth.
