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‘Star Wars’ lasers and waterfalls of molten salt: How Xcimer plans to make fusion power happen

Conner Galloway and Alexander Valys have followed developments in nuclear fusion research since they were roommates at MIT some 20 years ago. For much of that time, it wasn’t the most exciting pastime: breakthroughs were few and far between, and commercial fusion remained perpetually on the horizon, always 20 years away from providing inexpensive, inexhaustible,

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Inside EV startup Fisker’s collapse: how the company crumbled under its founders’ whims

An autonomous pod. A solid-state battery-powered sports car. An electric pickup truck. A convertible grand tourer EV with up to 600 miles of range. A “fully connected mobility device” for young urban innovators to be built by Foxconn and priced under $30,000. The next Popemobile. Over the past eight years, famed vehicle designer Henrik Fisker

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Instagram tests ‘trial reels’ that don’t display to a creator’s followers

Instagram is testing a way for creators to experiment with reels without committing to having them displayed on their profiles, giving the social network a possible edge over TikTok and a way for creators to test new content without pressure to perform. The company this week began global tests of this new “trial reels” feature

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VC firm Antler’s CEO says Asia presents ‘biggest opportunity’ in the world for growth

Asia’s startup ecosystem hasn’t been doing well in the past couple years, as everything from geopolitics to higher interest rates affected investors’ willingness to write checks. Many venture firms have exited China, which used to be the continent’s biggest venture market. Though there hasn’t been a huge decline in the number of fundraising rounds, the

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Fisker cuts hundreds of workers in bid to keep EV startup alive

Struggling EV startup Fisker has laid off hundreds of employees in a bid to stay alive, as it continues to search for funding, a buyout or prepare for bankruptcy. Workers suspected layoffs were coming when the company directed everyone to work from home on Wednesday — an out-of-character directive, according to multiple current and former

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This founder says memetech is the next big thing

Alex Taub, a longtime founder with multiple exits under his belt, believes it’s time to disrupt the meme industry. “I have this big thesis that memetech is going to be the next big category,” Taub told TechCrunch. “Like, there’s healthtech, there’s proptech, there’s adtech, there’s fintech… I think memetech is about to have a big

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Onyx Motorbikes was in trouble — and then its 37-year-old owner died

James Khatiblou, the owner and CEO of Onyx Motorbikes, was watching his e-bike startup fall apart.  Onyx was being evicted from its warehouse in El Segundo, Los Angeles. The company’s unpaid bills were stacking up. His chief operating officer had abruptly resigned. A shipment of around 100 CTY2 dirt bikes from Chinese supplier Suzhou Jindao

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Indian EV startup Zypp Electric secures ENEOS backing to fund expansion to Southeast Asia

Indian startup Zypp Electric plans to use fresh investment from Japanese oil and energy conglomerate ENEOS to take its EV rental service into Southeast Asia early next year, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. The company aims to be in 15 markets over the next two years. Of those 15 markets, Zypp Electric plans to launch its

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