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Micro1, a Scale AI Competitor, Touts Crossing $100M ARR
NewsDec 4, 2025

Micro1, a Scale AI Competitor, Touts Crossing $100M ARR

Micro1 announced it has surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue, up from $7 million two years ago. The AI‑data platform serves leading labs such as Microsoft and Fortune 100 firms, leveraging fast expert recruitment and evaluation. Founder Ali Ansari projects the human‑data...

By TechCrunch AI
Anthropic Signs $200M Deal to Bring Its LLMs to Snowflake’s Customers
NewsDec 4, 2025

Anthropic Signs $200M Deal to Bring Its LLMs to Snowflake’s Customers

Anthropic has sealed a $200 million agreement with Snowflake to embed its Claude large‑language models directly into Snowflake’s data‑cloud platform. The partnership will make Anthropic’s generative AI capabilities available to Snowflake’s 12,600 enterprise customers, enabling them to run AI workloads alongside...

By TechCrunch AI
Andy Jassy Says Amazon’s Nvidia Competitor Chip Is Already a Multibillion-Dollar Business
NewsDec 3, 2025

Andy Jassy Says Amazon’s Nvidia Competitor Chip Is Already a Multibillion-Dollar Business

Amazon announced at AWS re:Invent that its next‑gen AI accelerator, Trainium 3, is four times faster and more power‑efficient than Trainium 2, which already powers a multi‑billion‑dollar revenue run‑rate with over 1 million chips in production and more than 100,000 customers. CEO Andy...

By TechCrunch AI
WordPress’s Vibe-Coding Experiment, Telex, Has Already Been Put to Real-World Use
NewsDec 3, 2025

WordPress’s Vibe-Coding Experiment, Telex, Has Already Been Put to Real-World Use

WordPress has introduced Telex, an experimental vibe‑coding tool that uses AI to generate code snippets directly inside the platform. Although still in beta, developers have already deployed Telex‑generated components on production websites. The system taps large language models to translate...

By TechCrunch AI
VCs Deploy ‘Kingmaking’ Strategy to Crown AI Winners in Their Infancy
NewsDec 3, 2025

VCs Deploy ‘Kingmaking’ Strategy to Crown AI Winners in Their Infancy

Venture capital firms are increasingly using oversized early‑stage investments to shape the nascent artificial‑intelligence market. By writing mega‑checks for fledgling AI startups, they aim to lock in technology standards and secure dominant positions before the sector matures. This "kingmaking" approach...

By TechCrunch AI
Anthropic Hires Lawyers as It Preps for IPO
NewsDec 3, 2025

Anthropic Hires Lawyers as It Preps for IPO

Anthropic has engaged law firm Wilson Sonsini to begin the regulatory groundwork for a potential initial public offering, which could occur as early as 2026. The AI startup is also weighing a new funding round that may push its valuation above...

By TechCrunch AI
AWS Doubles Down on Custom LLMs with Features Meant to Simplify Model Creation
NewsDec 3, 2025

AWS Doubles Down on Custom LLMs with Features Meant to Simplify Model Creation

Amazon Web Services announced expanded capabilities in its AI platforms, Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker, to streamline the creation of custom large language models (LLMs). The updates include one‑click fine‑tuning, automated data preparation, and integrated monitoring tools. Pricing adjustments aim...

By TechCrunch AI
ChatGPT Referrals to Retailers’ Apps Increased 28% Year-over-Year, Says Report
NewsDec 2, 2025

ChatGPT Referrals to Retailers’ Apps Increased 28% Year-over-Year, Says Report

ChatGPT referrals to retailer mobile apps jumped 28% year‑over‑year during the Black Friday weekend, according to Apptopia. Amazon captured a majority share, rising to 54% of AI‑driven referrals, while Walmart’s share climbed to 14.9%. Despite the growth, AI‑originated sessions remain...

By TechCrunch AI
Simular’s AI Agent Wants to Run Your Mac, Windows PC for You
NewsDec 2, 2025

Simular’s AI Agent Wants to Run Your Mac, Windows PC for You

Simular, a startup focused on AI agents that can directly control macOS and Windows desktops, closed a $21.5 million Series A round led by Felicis. The company released version 1.0 for macOS and is collaborating with Microsoft on a Windows counterpart under the...

By TechCrunch AI
Mistral Closes in on Big AI Rivals with New Open-Weight Frontier and Small Models
NewsDec 2, 2025

Mistral Closes in on Big AI Rivals with New Open-Weight Frontier and Small Models

French AI startup Mistral unveiled the Mistral 3 family, comprising a large frontier model (Large 3) with 41 billion active parameters and multimodal, multilingual abilities, plus nine smaller, fully customizable models (Ministral 3). The company positions the open‑weight lineup as a cost‑effective alternative to...

By TechCrunch AI
Paris-Based AI Voice Startup Gradium Nabs $70M Seed
NewsDec 2, 2025

Paris-Based AI Voice Startup Gradium Nabs $70M Seed

Paris‑based Gradium, a spin‑out of the Kyutai AI lab, announced its public debut with a $70 million seed round led by FirstMark Capital and Eurazeo. The funding pool includes telecom magnate Xavier Niel, DST Global Partners, and former Google executive Eric Schmidt. Gradium’s...

By TechCrunch AI
One of Google’s Biggest AI Advantages Is What It Already Knows About You
NewsDec 2, 2025

One of Google’s Biggest AI Advantages Is What It Already Knows About You

Google Search VP Robby Stein highlighted that the company’s biggest AI advantage lies in its deep knowledge of individual users, drawing on data from Gmail, Calendar, Drive, and other services. By feeding this personal information into Gemini‑powered products like Gemini...

By TechCrunch AI
Nvidia Announces New Open AI Models and Tools for Autonomous Driving Research
NewsDec 1, 2025

Nvidia Announces New Open AI Models and Tools for Autonomous Driving Research

Nvidia unveiled Alpamayo‑R1, an open‑source vision‑language‑action model designed for autonomous‑driving research, at the NeurIPS conference. The model extends Nvidia’s Cosmos‑Reason architecture, adding reasoning capabilities that simulate common‑sense decision making for vehicles. Nvidia also released the Cosmos Cookbook, a suite of...

By TechCrunch AI
AWS Re:Invent 2025: How to Watch and Follow Along Live
NewsDec 1, 2025

AWS Re:Invent 2025: How to Watch and Follow Along Live

AWS re:Invent 2025 kicks off in Las Vegas on December 2, offering a series of free live streams that cover five AI‑focused keynotes and multiple partner showcases. The agenda highlights Amazon’s push into agentic AI, new foundation models, and enhanced security measures...

By TechCrunch AI
Construction Workers Are Cashing in on the AI Boom
NewsDec 1, 2025

Construction Workers Are Cashing in on the AI Boom

The rapid AI boom is driving a massive data‑center construction surge, prompting tech giants to pour billions into new facilities. Workers moving into these projects are seeing 25‑30% wage increases, with some supervisors earning over $100,000 and specialists topping $200,000....

By TechCrunch AI
OpenAI’s Investment Into Thrive Holdings Is Its Latest Circular Deal
NewsDec 1, 2025

OpenAI’s Investment Into Thrive Holdings Is Its Latest Circular Deal

OpenAI has acquired an ownership stake in Thrive Holdings, a private‑equity‑style firm that aggregates AI‑ready companies across accounting, IT services, and other sectors. The deal, part of OpenAI’s growing pattern of circular transactions, will see OpenAI embed its engineering, research,...

By TechCrunch AI
Nvidia’s $2B Synopsys Bet Tightens Its Grip on the Chip-Design Stack
NewsDec 1, 2025

Nvidia’s $2B Synopsys Bet Tightens Its Grip on the Chip-Design Stack

Nvidia is committing $2 billion to acquire a stake in Synopsys, the leading electronic design automation (EDA) vendor. The investment will embed Nvidia’s AI hardware into Synopsys’s software, shifting its workflow from CPU to GPU acceleration. Synopsys shares jumped, reflecting confidence...

By TechCrunch AI
‘Avatar’ Director James Cameron Says Generative AI Is ‘Horrifying’
NewsNov 30, 2025

‘Avatar’ Director James Cameron Says Generative AI Is ‘Horrifying’

James Cameron, the director of the Avatar franchise, told CBS Sunday Morning that generative AI is "horrifying," warning that it can create characters and performances from text prompts. He contrasted this with performance‑capture technology, which he describes as a celebration...

By TechCrunch AI
No, You Can’t Get Your AI to ‘Admit’ to Being Sexist, but It Probably Is
NewsNov 29, 2025

No, You Can’t Get Your AI to ‘Admit’ to Being Sexist, but It Probably Is

Recent incidents with Perplexity and ChatGPT‑5 reveal large language models echoing sexist assumptions, even fabricating bias when prompted. Developers like "Cookie" and Sarah Potts documented AI responses that dismissed women’s expertise and defaulted to male‑coded language. Researchers attribute these patterns to...

By TechCrunch AI
How OpenAI and Google See AI Changing Go-to-Market Strategies
NewsNov 28, 2025

How OpenAI and Google See AI Changing Go-to-Market Strategies

AI is reshaping go‑to‑market (GTM) playbooks, allowing startups to generate more messaging and leads with fewer resources. Executives at Google Cloud and OpenAI stress that AI augments, not replaces, core marketing fundamentals such as customer insight and creative strategy. The...

By TechCrunch AI
The Race to Regulate AI Has Sparked a Federal vs State Showdown
NewsNov 28, 2025

The Race to Regulate AI Has Sparked a Federal vs State Showdown

Washington is edging toward its first comprehensive AI regulatory framework, sparking a clash between federal ambitions and a wave of state legislation. Dozens of states have already passed more than 100 AI‑related laws targeting deepfakes, transparency, and safety, while industry...

By TechCrunch AI
Here Are the 49 US AI Startups that Have Raised $100M or More in 2025
NewsNov 26, 2025

Here Are the 49 US AI Startups that Have Raised $100M or More in 2025

U.S. AI startups have raised $100 million or more in 49 companies during 2025, matching the previous year’s total. Seven firms secured rounds exceeding $1 billion, including Anysphere’s $2.3 billion Series B and Anthropic’s $13 billion Series F, pushing valuations into the tens of billions. The...

By TechCrunch AI
Musk’s xAI to Build Small Solar Farm Adjacent Colossus Data Center
NewsNov 26, 2025

Musk’s xAI to Build Small Solar Farm Adjacent Colossus Data Center

Elon Musk's AI startup xAI announced a 30‑megawatt solar farm on 88 acres adjacent to its Colossus data center in Memphis. The solar project will be coupled with 100 MW of grid‑scale battery storage, creating a 24/7 renewable power source. Funding...

By TechCrunch AI
Are You Balding? There’s an AI for That
NewsNov 26, 2025

Are You Balding? There’s an AI for That

MyHair AI, founded by Cyriac Lefort and Tilen Babnik, launched a consumer app that uses a dedicated artificial‑intelligence model to diagnose hair‑loss from user‑uploaded scalp photos. The platform tracks hair density over time, recommends personalized products, and connects users with...

By TechCrunch AI
Onton Raises $7.5M to Expand Its AI-Powered Shopping Site Beyond Furniture
NewsNov 26, 2025

Onton Raises $7.5M to Expand Its AI-Powered Shopping Site Beyond Furniture

Onton, formerly Deft, announced a $7.5 million Series A led by Footwork, bringing its total funding to $10 million. The AI‑powered platform has surged from 50,000 to over 2 million monthly active users, handling millions of searches and image generations. Leveraging...

By TechCrunch AI
Character AI Will Offer Interactive ‘Stories’ to Kids Instead of Open-Ended Chat
NewsNov 25, 2025

Character AI Will Offer Interactive ‘Stories’ to Kids Instead of Open-Ended Chat

Character.AI announced the launch of "Stories," an interactive‑fiction feature that lets users create guided adventures with their favorite AI characters, replacing open‑ended chatbot access for users under 18. The company has fully blocked minors from chatting with its AI characters...

By TechCrunch AI
Google Teams up with Accel to Hunt for India’s Next AI Breakouts
NewsNov 25, 2025

Google Teams up with Accel to Hunt for India’s Next AI Breakouts

Google and venture firm Accel have launched a joint initiative under the Google AI Futures Fund to invest up to $2 million per early‑stage AI startup in India and among the Indian diaspora, with each party contributing $1 million. The program, targeting...

By TechCrunch AI
OpenAI Learned the Hard Way that Cameo Trademarked the Word ‘Cameo’
NewsNov 24, 2025

OpenAI Learned the Hard Way that Cameo Trademarked the Word ‘Cameo’

OpenAI’s new Sora social app featured a deep‑fake tool called “Cameo,” prompting a trademark dispute with video‑message platform Cameo. A U.S. District Judge issued a temporary restraining order on November 21, 2025, barring OpenAI from using the word “cameo” or...

By TechCrunch AI
Hands on with Stickerbox, the AI-Powered Sticker Maker for Kids
NewsNov 24, 2025

Hands on with Stickerbox, the AI-Powered Sticker Maker for Kids

Brooklyn‑based Hapiko has launched Stickerbox, a $99.99 voice‑activated AI sticker printer for children that turns spoken prompts into printable, colorable stickers on BPA‑free thermal paper. The device connects to Wi‑Fi in under a minute, uses proprietary kid‑safe AI models to...

By TechCrunch AI
AWS Is Spending $50B Build AI Infrastructure for the US Government
NewsNov 24, 2025

AWS Is Spending $50B Build AI Infrastructure for the US Government

Amazon Web Services announced a $50 billion investment to build AI‑focused high‑performance computing infrastructure for U.S. federal agencies, adding 1.3 GW of compute capacity and expanding access to services such as SageMaker, Bedrock, and Anthropic’s Claude. The rollout, slated to begin construction...

By TechCrunch AI
Anthropic Releases Opus 4.5 with New Chrome and Excel Integrations
NewsNov 24, 2025

Anthropic Releases Opus 4.5 with New Chrome and Excel Integrations

Anthropic unveiled Opus 4.5, the final model in its 4.5 series, delivering state‑of‑the‑art results across coding (first to exceed 80% on SWE‑Bench verified), tool‑use, and general problem‑solving benchmarks. The release includes broader rollout of Claude for Chrome to all Max users...

By TechCrunch AI
A New AI Benchmark Tests Whether Chatbots Protect Human Wellbeing
NewsNov 24, 2025

A New AI Benchmark Tests Whether Chatbots Protect Human Wellbeing

Building Humane Technology has released a new benchmark, HumaneBench, to assess whether AI chatbots protect user wellbeing. The test evaluated 14 leading models across 800 realistic scenarios under three prompting conditions, finding that while models improve when instructed to prioritize...

By TechCrunch AI
Momentic Raises $15M to Automate Software Testing
NewsNov 24, 2025

Momentic Raises $15M to Automate Software Testing

AI‑testing startup Momentic announced a $15 million Series A financing led by Standard Capital, with participation from Dropbox Ventures and existing backers. The round builds on a $3.7 million seed round and will fund product expansion, including mobile‑environment support and advanced test‑case management....

By TechCrunch AI
AI Is Too Risky to Insure, Say People Whose Job Is Insuring Risk
NewsNov 23, 2025

AI Is Too Risky to Insure, Say People Whose Job Is Insuring Risk

Major U.S. insurers including AIG, Great American and WR Berkley have petitioned regulators to carve AI‑related liabilities out of corporate insurance policies, citing the technology’s opaque "black‑box" nature. Recent high‑profile incidents—Google’s AI generating a false $110 million lawsuit claim, Air Canada’s chatbot‑driven...

By TechCrunch AI
How This Founder’s Unlikely Path to Silicon Valley Could Become an Edge in Industrial Tech
NewsNov 22, 2025

How This Founder’s Unlikely Path to Silicon Valley Could Become an Edge in Industrial Tech

Interface, a San Francisco AI startup founded by 24‑year‑old Thomas Lee Young, uses large‑language‑model‑driven audits to spot safety‑procedure errors in heavy‑industry operations. In its first deployment with a major Canadian energy firm, the platform identified 10,800 procedural flaws in 2½...

By TechCrunch AI
AI Mania Is Making Nvidia a Lot of Money
NewsNov 21, 2025

AI Mania Is Making Nvidia a Lot of Money

Nvidia's data‑center segment is now generating close to $50 billion in annual revenue as AI startups and enterprises pour massive capital into GPU‑powered infrastructure. The surge reflects a broader AI spending wave, but analysts question whether the growth is sustainable or...

By TechCrunch AI
The Hottest AI Wearables and Gadgets You Can Buy Right Now
NewsNov 21, 2025

The Hottest AI Wearables and Gadgets You Can Buy Right Now

A new wave of AI‑powered wearables is hitting the consumer market, ranging from affordable pendants to higher‑end voice recorders. Amazon‑owned Bee offers a $49.99 pendant with a $19 monthly AI assistant subscription, while Friend’s $129 emotional‑support pendant has sparked privacy...

By TechCrunch AI
Gemini 3 Refused to Believe It Was 2025, and Hilarity Ensued
NewsNov 20, 2025

Gemini 3 Refused to Believe It Was 2025, and Hilarity Ensued

Google released Gemini 3 on November 18, 2025, touting it as a breakthrough foundation model for reasoning. In a viral test, AI researcher Andrej Karpathy discovered the model still believed the current year was 2024 because it lacked 2025 training data...

By TechCrunch AI
The Best Guide to Spotting AI Writing Comes From Wikipedia
NewsNov 20, 2025

The Best Guide to Spotting AI Writing Comes From Wikipedia

Wikipedia’s volunteer editors have produced a public "Signs of AI writing" field guide as part of their Project AI Cleanup, offering concrete heuristics for spotting large‑language‑model‑generated prose. The guide notes that automated detection tools are largely ineffective and instead highlights...

By TechCrunch AI
India’s TCS Gets TPG to Fund Half of $2B AI Data Center Project
NewsNov 20, 2025

India’s TCS Gets TPG to Fund Half of $2B AI Data Center Project

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has secured a $1 billion investment from private‑equity firm TPG to fund the first half of a $2 billion, multi‑year "HyperVault" project that will build gigawatt‑scale, liquid‑cooled AI data centers in India. The initial phase targets about 1.2 GW...

By TechCrunch AI
Sortera Is Turning America’s Scrap Aluminum Problem Into Cash
NewsNov 20, 2025

Sortera Is Turning America’s Scrap Aluminum Problem Into Cash

Sortera has launched an AI‑driven sorting system that can identify and separate aluminum alloys with over 95% accuracy in just 10 milliseconds, using laser, X‑ray fluorescence and high‑speed camera data. The technology, deployed at its Indiana plant, enables profitable, high‑margin...

By TechCrunch AI
Finland’s NestAI Lands €100M, Partners with Nokia to Build AI for Defense Applications
NewsNov 20, 2025

Finland’s NestAI Lands €100M, Partners with Nokia to Build AI for Defense Applications

Finnish AI startup NestAI raised €100 million ($115 million) in a round led by sovereign fund Tesi and Nokia, and announced a strategic partnership with Nokia to develop "physical AI" for defense, unmanned vehicles and command‑and‑control systems. The capital will fund the...

By TechCrunch AI
Function Health Raises $298M Series B at $2.5B Valuation
NewsNov 19, 2025

Function Health Raises $298M Series B at $2.5B Valuation

Function Health announced a $298 million Series B financing round led by Redpoint Ventures, valuing the company at $2.5 billion and bringing total capital raised to $350 million. The round, which included a16z, Battery Ventures and several NBA athletes, will fund the launch of...

By TechCrunch AI
Amazon’s Prime Video Is Getting AI-Generated Video Recaps for some TV Shows
NewsNov 19, 2025

Amazon’s Prime Video Is Getting AI-Generated Video Recaps for some TV Shows

Amazon Prime Video announced the beta rollout of AI-generated video recaps for select Prime Originals such as Fallout, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, and Upload. The generative‑AI system stitches together narration, dialogue, and music to produce theatrical‑quality season summaries, building on last year’s text‑based...

By TechCrunch AI
Target Joins OpenAI’s Growing List of Retail Apps
NewsNov 19, 2025

Target Joins OpenAI’s Growing List of Retail Apps

Target will launch a beta ChatGPT‑powered shopping app within the next week, allowing users to generate ideas, browse products, build multi‑item baskets, shop for groceries and complete checkout directly in the chat interface. The rollout expands OpenAI’s retail app portfolio,...

By TechCrunch AI
OpenAI Board Member Larry Summers Steps Down Amid Epstein File Revelations
NewsNov 19, 2025

OpenAI Board Member Larry Summers Steps Down Amid Epstein File Revelations

Former Treasury Secretary and Harvard professor Larry Summers resigned from OpenAI’s board after a congressional release of Jeffrey Epstein’s email cache revealed intimate and inappropriate communications between Summers and Epstein. The emails, spanning November 2018 to July 2019, show Summers...

By TechCrunch AI
As Lovable Hits $200M ARR, Its CEO Credits Staying in Europe for Its Success
NewsNov 19, 2025

As Lovable Hits $200M ARR, Its CEO Credits Staying in Europe for Its Success

Swedish AI‑assisted coding startup Lovable announced it has doubled its annual recurring revenue to $200 million within four months, reaching the milestone just four months after crossing $100 million in July. CEO Anton Osika attributed the rapid growth to the company’s decision...

By TechCrunch AI
Hugging Face CEO Says We’re in an ‘LLM Bubble,’ Not an AI Bubble
NewsNov 18, 2025

Hugging Face CEO Says We’re in an ‘LLM Bubble,’ Not an AI Bubble

Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue told an Axios event that the current hype surrounds large language models (LLMs) rather than AI as a whole, warning that the "LLM bubble" could burst as early as next year. He argued that LLMs...

By TechCrunch AI
Stack Overflow Is Remaking Itself Into an AI Data Provider
NewsNov 18, 2025

Stack Overflow Is Remaking Itself Into an AI Data Provider

Stack Overflow wants to remake its classic problem-solving forum into a tool for translating human expertise into an AI-accessible format.

By TechCrunch AI