TechCrunch AI
The TechCrunch AI News Feed
Are AI Agents Ready for the Workplace? A New Benchmark Raises Doubts
A new white‑collar benchmark called APEX‑Agents, released by Mercur, tests AI agents on real consulting, banking and legal tasks. Leading models, including Gemini 3 Flash and GPT‑5.2, achieved only about a quarter of queries correctly, with most responses wrong or missing. The test highlights agents’ difficulty in multi‑domain information retrieval across tools like Slack and Google Drive. Researchers say the benchmark is public, setting an open challenge for future improvements.
From Invisibility Cloaks to AI Chips: Neurophos Raises $110M to Build Tiny Optical Processors for Inferencing
Neurophos, an Austin‑based photonics startup spun out of Duke University, announced a $110 million Series A round led by Gates Frontier and backed by Microsoft’s M12 and other investors. The company has built a metasurface‑based optical processing unit that is claimed to...
Anthropic Has to Keep Revising Its Technical Interview Test as Claude Improves
Anthropic’s performance‑optimization team has repeatedly overhauled its take‑home technical interview as Claude’s capabilities have surged. Since 2024, each new Claude model—most recently Opus 4.5—has matched or exceeded the output of top human applicants, eroding the test’s discriminative power. The company now...
Quadric Rides the Shift From Cloud AI to On-Device Inference — and It’s Paying Off
Quadric, a San Francisco‑based chip‑IP startup, is capitalizing on the shift from cloud‑based AI to on‑device inference, expanding its customer base beyond automotive to laptops and industrial devices. Licensing revenue is projected to reach $15‑$20 million in 2025, up from $4 million...
Irony Alert: Hallucinated Citations Found in Papers From NeurIPS, the Prestigious AI Conference
GPTZero scanned all 4,841 papers accepted at NeurIPS 2025 and identified 100 fabricated citations across 51 submissions. The incidence translates to roughly 1.1% of papers containing at least one erroneous reference, a figure the conference deems statistically negligible but still...
Zanskar Thinks 1 TW of Geothermal Power Is Being Overlooked
The U.S. Department of Energy projects geothermal could supply 60 GW by 2050, but Zanskar CEO Carl Holland argues that conventional geothermal alone could unlock up to a terawatt of capacity. The startup uses AI‑driven discovery and Bayesian Evidential Learning to...
Bolna Nabs $6.3M From General Catalyst for Its India-Focused Voice Orchestration Platform
Bolna, an Indian voice‑orchestration startup, closed a $6.3 million seed round led by General Catalyst, adding Y Combinator and several angel investors. The company now processes over 200,000 calls daily and is on track to surpass $700,000 in annual recurring revenue,...
Elon Musk Says Tesla’s Restarted Dojo3 Will Be for ‘Space-Based AI Compute’
Elon Musk announced Tesla will restart development of its third‑generation AI chip, Dojo 3, repurposing it for “space‑based AI compute.” The revival follows a shutdown earlier this year that saw the Dojo team disband and many engineers join rival startup DensityAI....
Indian Vibe-Coding Startup Emergent Triples Valuation to $300M with $70M Fundraise
Emergent, an Indian AI "vibe‑coding" startup, closed a $70 million Series B round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Khosla Ventures, lifting its post‑money valuation to $300 million. The company now reports $50 million in annual recurring revenue and over 5 million users in more...
AI Cloud Startup Runpod Hits $120M in ARR — and It Started with a Reddit Post
Runpod, an AI‑app‑hosting platform founded by former Comcast developers, has reached a $120 million annual revenue run rate. The company bootstrapped to $1 million in revenue within nine months, leveraging Reddit outreach to acquire early users and attract a $20 million seed round...
The AI Healthcare Gold Rush Is Here
AI startups are rapidly converging on healthcare, with OpenAI acquiring Torch, Anthropic launching Claude for healthcare, and MergeLabs securing a $250 million seed round at an $850 million valuation. These moves signal a flood of capital and product development focused on health...
Anthropic Taps Former Microsoft India MD to Lead Bengaluru Expansion
Anthropic has hired Irina Ghose, former Microsoft India managing director, to lead its Indian operations as it prepares to open a Bengaluru office. The move reflects the company’s ambition to turn India’s massive internet user base into a revenue engine,...
Silicon Valley’s Messiest Breakup Is Definitely Headed to Court
A federal judge denied Elon Musk’s attempts to dismiss his lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, scheduling a jury trial in Oakland for late April. Musk alleges OpenAI breached its original nonprofit charter after receiving billions from Microsoft and converting to...
AI Journalism Startup Symbolic.ai Signs Deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp
Symbolic.ai, an AI journalism startup founded by former eBay CEO Devin Wenig and Ars Technica co‑founder Jon Stokes, has secured a partnership with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The deal will see News Corp deploy Symbolic’s AI publishing platform across its...
OpenAI Invests in Sam Altman’s Brain Computer Interface Startup Merge Labs
OpenAI wrote the lead check in Merge Labs’ $250 million seed round, valuing the Sam Altman‑backed brain‑computer interface startup at $850 million. Merge Labs aims to create non‑invasive BCIs that use molecular carriers and ultrasound to communicate with neurons, positioning itself as...
Wikimedia Foundation Announces New AI Partnerships with Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Perplexity and Others
The Wikimedia Foundation announced new AI partnerships with Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Perplexity, Mistral AI and several others through its commercial offering, Wikimedia Enterprise. The deals give these tech firms high‑volume, low‑latency access to Wikipedia’s 65 million articles in 300 languages, supporting...
Mira Murati’s Startup, Thinking Machines Lab, Is Losing Two of Its Co-Founders to OpenAI
Former OpenAI executive Mira Murati’s AI startup Thinking Machines Lab announced the departure of co‑founder and CTO Barret Zoph, who, along with co‑founder Luke Metz and researcher Sam Schoenholz, are returning to OpenAI. Soumith Chintala will replace Zoph as CTO....
India’s Emversity Doubles Valuation as It Scales Workers AI Can’t Replace
Emversity, a Bengaluru‑based workforce‑training startup, raised $30 million in a Series A round led by Premji Invest, valuing the company at $120 million. The funding will fuel expansion of its AI‑resistant, grey‑collar talent pipelines across healthcare, hospitality and soon EPC and manufacturing. To...
OpenAI Signs Deal, Worth $10B, for Compute From Cerebras
OpenAI has signed a multi‑year, $10 billion agreement with AI‑chipmaker Cerebras to provision 750 megawatts of compute power from 2024 through 2028. The partnership focuses on delivering low‑latency, real‑time inference that speeds up OpenAI’s customer‑facing services. Cerebras claims its wafer‑scale chips outperform...
VoiceRun Nabs $5.5M to Build a Voice Agent Factory
VoiceRun announced a $5.5 million seed round led by Flybridge Capital to launch its code‑first platform for AI voice agents. The startup positions itself between low‑code visual builders and fully custom development tools, letting developers write, test, and deploy agents with...
ElevenLabs CEO Says the Voice AI Startup Crossed $330 Million ARR Last Year
ElevenLabs reported $330 million in annual recurring revenue, reaching that milestone in just three years after launching its first product in 2023. The company accelerated from $100 million ARR in 20 months to $200 million in 10 months, and hit $330 million in the...
Deepgram Raises $130M at $1.3B Valuation and Buys a YC AI Startup
Deepgram announced a $130 million Series C funding round, valuing the voice‑AI company at $1.3 billion. The round was led by AVP and included existing backers plus new strategic investors such as Twilio, SAP and Y Combinator. Deepgram, now cash‑flow positive, plans to expand...
Brazil Orders Meta to Suspend Policy Banning Third-Party AI Chatbots From WhatsApp
Brazil’s competition authority (CADE) has ordered Meta to halt its WhatsApp Business API rule that blocks third‑party AI chatbots, launching an antitrust probe into the policy’s exclusivity. The restriction, introduced in October, would have prevented services like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and...
Converge Bio Raises $25M, Backed by Bessemer and Execs From Meta, OpenAI, Wiz
Converge Bio, a Boston‑Tel Aviv AI startup, closed a $25 million Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from TLV Partners, Vintage Investment Partners, and unnamed executives from Meta, OpenAI, and Wiz. The company offers generative‑AI platforms that integrate antibody...
Meta-Backed Hupo Finds Growth After Pivot to AI Sales Coaching From Mental Wellness
Meta‑backed Hupo, originally a mental‑wellness app, has pivoted to AI‑driven sales coaching for banks, insurers and financial services. The startup raised a $10 million Series A led by DST Global, bringing total funding to $15 million. Its platform, trained on real financial products...
Why Amazon Bought Bee, an AI Wearable
Amazon unveiled Bee, an AI‑powered wearable clip‑on pin and bracelet, at CES 2026 following its 2025 acquisition. Bee records conversations, transcribes them, and acts as a personal AI companion that taps into Gmail, Calendar, contacts and Apple Health. The device extends...
Motional Puts AI at Center of Robotaxi Reboot as It Targets 2026 for Driverless Service
Motional, the Hyundai‑Aptiv joint venture, has rebooted its robotaxi program with an AI‑first architecture and aims to launch a fully driverless service in Las Vegas by the end of 2026. After missing earlier milestones, losing Aptiv’s backing and slashing its workforce...
Google Announces a New Protocol to Facilitate Commerce Using AI Agents
Google unveiled the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard that lets AI agents handle end‑to‑end shopping experiences. Developed with retailers such as Shopify, Walmart and Target, UCP streamlines discovery, checkout and post‑purchase support across platforms. The protocol will power...
Indonesia Blocks Grok over Non-Consensual, Sexualized Deepfakes
Indonesian officials said Saturday that they are temporarily blocking access to xAI’s chatbot Grok.
Anthropic Adds Allianz to Growing List of Enterprise Wins
Anthropic announced a partnership with German insurer Allianz to embed its Claude Code AI‑coding tool and custom agents across the company, while adding a transparent logging system for regulatory compliance. The deal, whose financial terms were undisclosed, underscores Anthropic’s focus on...
OpenAI to Acquire the Team Behind Executive Coaching AI Tool Convogo
OpenAI announced an acqui‑hire of Convogo’s three co‑founders, bringing the executive‑coaching AI team into its AI cloud division. The deal does not include Convogo’s intellectual property, and the startup’s product will be shut down. This marks OpenAI’s ninth acquisition in...
Snowflake Announces Its Intent to Buy Observability Platform Observe
Snowflake announced a definitive agreement to acquire observability platform Observe for an estimated $1 billion, marking its largest deal to date. Observe, founded in 2017 and built on Snowflake’s database from the start, has raised nearly $500 million and was valued at...
Elon Musk’s Lawsuit Against OpenAI Will Face a Jury in March
Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI has been cleared for a jury trial in March after a federal judge found evidence that the company’s leaders may have promised to keep its original nonprofit structure. Musk, an early backer who invested roughly...
Why This VC Thinks 2026 Will Be ‘the Year of the Consumer’
Venture partner Vanessa Larco predicts 2026 will be a breakout year for consumer‑tech startups, driven by AI‑powered products that deliver immediate, measurable value to users. She argues that consumer adoption cycles are faster than enterprise, allowing startups to validate product‑market fit...
Former Bolt CEO Maju Kuruvilla’s Startup Triples to $100M Valuation
Spangle, the AI‑e‑commerce platform founded by former Bolt CEO Maju Kuruvilla, closed a $15 million Series A round that lifts its valuation to $100 million. The Seattle‑based startup, now backed by NewRoad Capital and several venture firms, has grown its enterprise roster to...
Ford Has an AI Assistant and New Hands-Free BlueCruise Tech on the Way
Ford announced an AI‑powered digital assistant that will first appear in its revamped smartphone app in early 2026, with native in‑vehicle integration slated for 2027. The assistant runs on Google Cloud using off‑the‑shelf large language models and will have deep...
VC Predicts the Consumer AI Products OpenAI ‘Won’t Want to Kill’
Vanessa Larco, partner at Premise, says 2026 will be the year consumer AI finally takes off, with AI‑driven concierge services reshaping how users browse the web. She warns legacy platforms such as WebMD and TripAdvisor may be folded into larger...
Google Classroom’s New Tool Uses Gemini to Transform Lessons Into Podcast Episodes
Google Classroom now offers a Gemini‑powered tool that automatically converts lesson content into podcast‑style audio episodes. Educators can select grade level, topics, learning objectives, speaker count, and conversational style such as interviews or roundtables. The feature rolls out to Google...
Caterpillar Taps Nvidia to Bring AI to Its Construction Equipment
Caterpillar is piloting an AI assistive system called “Cat AI” on its Cat 306 CR Mini Excavator, built on Nvidia’s Jetson Thor platform and showcased at CES. The system answers operator queries, offers safety tips, and schedules services while streaming roughly 2,000 data messages...
Intel Spinout Articul8 Raises More than Half of $70M Round at $500M Valuation
Articul8, an Intel spin‑out, has secured more than half of its planned $70 million Series B at a $500 million pre‑money valuation, marking a five‑fold increase from its $100 million Series A. The company now reports over $90 million in total contract value from 29 enterprise...
Meta’s Manus News Is Getting Different Receptions in Washington and Beijing
Meta agreed to acquire AI assistant platform Manus for $2 billion, sparking a regulatory tug‑of‑war that is more pronounced in Beijing than Washington. U.S. officials have signaled acceptance despite earlier concerns about Benchmark’s prior investment, while Chinese regulators are probing whether...
California Lawmaker Proposes a Four-Year Ban on AI Chatbots in Kids’ Toys
Senator Steve Padilla introduced SB 867, a bill that would impose a four‑year ban on the sale and manufacture of AI‑chatbot toys for anyone under 18. The legislation seeks to give regulators time to develop safety guidelines after a series of...
Commonwealth Fusion Systems Installs Reactor Magnet, Lands Deal with Nvidia
Commonwealth Fusion Systems installed the first of 18 20‑tesla, 24‑ton magnets in its Sparc fusion reactor, marking a critical hardware milestone. The D‑shaped magnets will form a toroidal field capable of confining plasma hotter than 100 million °C. CFS announced a partnership...
AMD Unveils New AI PC Processors for General Use and Gaming at CES
AMD unveiled its Ryzen AI 400 Series at CES 2026, featuring 12 CPU cores, 24 threads and AI‑accelerated performance that is 1.3× faster at multitasking and 1.7× faster for content creation versus rivals. The launch also introduced the gaming‑focused Ryzen 7 9850X3D and an...
Nvidia Launches Powerful New Rubin Chip Architecture
At CES 2026, Nvidia unveiled its Vera Rubin architecture, the latest generation of AI hardware succeeding Blackwell. The six‑chip system combines a new GPU, Vera CPU, enhanced Bluefield storage and NVLink interconnect, delivering up to 3.5× faster training and fivefold...
Nvidia Launches Alpamayo, Open AI Models that Allow Autonomous Vehicles to ‘Think Like a Human’
Nvidia unveiled Alpamayo at CES 2026, an open‑source AI family for autonomous vehicles featuring Alpamayo 1, a 10‑billion‑parameter vision‑language‑action model that reasons through complex driving scenarios. The suite includes the Cosmos generative world‑model for synthetic data, a 1,700‑hour real‑world driving dataset, and...
CES 2026: Follow Live as NVIDIA, Lego, AMD, Amazon, and More Make Their Big Reveals
At CES 2026, major players unveiled a wave of AI‑driven consumer products, from Google’s Gemini‑powered TV features to Amazon’s art‑styled Ember TVs and revamped Fire TV interface. Health tech also took center stage with Withings’ Body Scan 2 smart scale that...
Google Previews New Gemini Features for TV at CES 2026
Google unveiled new Gemini AI capabilities for Google TV at CES 2026, initially rolling out on select TCL models before expanding to other devices. The features let users converse with their TV to discover content, receive plot recaps, and receive...
Subtle Releases Ear Buds with Its Noise Cancelation Models
Voice AI startup Subtle unveiled $199 wireless earbuds that combine noise‑cancellation with real‑time transcription and AI chat capabilities. The devices ship with a year‑long iOS and Mac app subscription, allowing users to dictate in any application without touching a keyboard....
India Orders Musk’s X to Fix Grok over ‘Obscene’ AI Content
India's IT ministry has ordered Elon Musk's platform X to implement immediate technical and procedural changes to its AI chatbot Grok after users and lawmakers flagged the generation of obscene content, including AI‑altered images of women. The directive mandates a...