Shortly after Hunter Lightman joined OpenAI as a researcher in 2022, he watched his colleagues launch ChatGPT, one of the fastest-growing products ever. Meanwhile, Lightman quietly worked on a team teaching OpenAI’s models to solve high school math competitions. Today that team, known as MathGen, is considered instrumental to OpenAI’s industry-leading effort to create AI […]
Inside OpenAI’s quest to make AI do anything for you Read More »
Daniel Liss, co-founder of the social network Dispo and the dating app Teaser AI, is convinced he’s onto the next big thing: steelmaking. It all started, incongruously, with a few op-eds he wrote for TechCrunch about anti-trust enforcement in social media. The commentaries apparently caught the attention of some folks in Washington D.C., Liss told
Why Dispo’s co-founder made the leap from social media to steelmaking Read More »
U.S. insurance giant Allianz Life has confirmed to TechCrunch that hackers stole the personal information of the “majority” of its customers, financial professionals, and employees during a mid-July data breach. When reached by TechCrunch, Allianz Life spokesperson Brett Weinberg confirmed the breach. “On July 16, 2025, a malicious threat actor gained access to a third-party,
Allianz Life says ‘majority’ of customers’ personal data stolen in cyberattack Read More »
Google has suspended the account of phone surveillance operator Catwatchful, which was using the tech giant’s servers to host and operate the monitoring software. Google’s move to shut down the spyware operation comes a month after TechCrunch alerted the technology giant the operator was hosting the operation on Firebase, one of Google’s developer platforms. Catwatchful
A self-styled “leaking and cracking forum” where users advertise and share breached databases, stolen credentials, and pirated software was leaking the IP addresses of its logged-in users to the open web, security researchers have found. Leak Zone left an Elasticsearch database exposed to the internet without a password, according to researchers at UpGuard. In a
Cybercrime forum Leak Zone publicly exposed its users’ IP addresses Read More »
Los Angeles-based Nevoya came out of stealth last year with the ambitious goal of breaking the EV truck adoption logjam. Nevoya made enough progress on its goal to attract investors — and a $9.3 million seed round — to help it move even faster. The young company, which buys electric trucks and offers them to
Nevoya raises $9.3M as its EV truck fleet reaches cost parity with diesel Read More »
Ask any founder or investor: fundraising is never easy. And in a market with this level of uncertainty, the difficulties are compounded. “Everyone has to go through fundraising, and it’s a relatively challenging market right now,” Kyle Teamey, managing partner at RA Capital Planetary Health, told TechCrunch. “That’s good for a bit of empathy.” Teamey
Three things veteran planetary health investors look for in a startup Read More »
Silicon Valley is doubling down on defense as geopolitical tensions rise and appetite for modernizing warfare grows. And while many of the startups garnering large valuations are focused on hardware and weaponry — think Anduril, Shield AI, and Skydio — Rune Technologies wants to tackle AI-enabled software for military logistics. “The U.S. military runs on
The startup behind the viral AI coding app Cursor is snapping up top talent from AI enterprise startups in a bid to bolster its competition with Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot and win over businesses looking to supercharge their employees with AI coding tools. In one recent case, Cursor maker Anysphere struck a deal to acquire the
Cursor snaps up enterprise startup Koala in challenge to GitHub Copilot Read More »
Rivian will resume prep-work on its planned Georgia factory in August and is still looking to break ground early next year, according to emails TechCrunch obtained through a public records request. The restarted effort comes months after the Biden administration’s Department of Energy approved a $6.6 billion meant to fund construction. Rivian has invested more
Rivian restarting work on its Georgia factory, emails show Read More »
