A year after being pushed out of Intel, Pat Gelsinger is still waking up at 4 a.m., still in the thick of the semiconductor wars — just on a different battlefield. Now a general partner at venture firm Playground Global, he’s working with 10 startups. But one portfolio company has captured an outsized share of […]
Pat Gelsinger wants to save Moore’s Law, with a little help from the Feds Read More »
The Enhanced Games, a new sporting competition explicitly designed to allow performance-enhancing drugs, looks like a publicity stunt for the techno-macho era: Olympic athletes on steroids competing for million-dollar bounties in Las Vegas. But co-founder Aron D’Souza has a 90% gross margin telehealth business in mind, and a pitch to governments struggling with aging populations.
Can steroids combat population collapse? The Enhanced Games wants to find out. Read More »
Backed by Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr.’s 1789 Capital, the Enhanced Games aims to disrupt the Olympics with a competition that allows athletes to dope. Launching in Las Vegas in May 2026, the games promise $1 million bounties for breaking world records and lean on a business model reminiscent of Red Bull’s, using the
This Thiel-backed venture allows doping in its own sports Read More »
Can performance-enhancing drugs push the limits of human potential? The creators of the Enhanced Games say yes — and they’re building a new sporting event to prove it. Backed by Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr.’s 1789 Capital, the Enhanced Games aims to disrupt the Olympics with a competition that allows athletes to dope. Launching
Enhanced Games founder on the controversial ‘future of sports’ Read More »
Former Founders Fund GP Brian Singerman and co-founder and managing partner of Quiet Capital, Lee Linden, are seeking over $500 million for a new fund called GPx, three people familiar with their strategy told TechCrunch. A significant portion of GPx’s fund, potentially as much as 50%, will come from Founders Fund co-founder Peter Thiel, these
Brian Singerman’s new fund has a twist, and Peter Thiel as a big backer Read More »
Pharmaceutical scientists come up against a hard limitation here on Earth: gravity. Varda Space wants to change that. The company has raised a massive new round to turn space into the “ultimate high ground” for the production of critical pharmaceutical components that can be brought back to Earth and used to make finished drugs. The
With Varda Space, leading Silicon Valley players make big bet on making drugs in space Read More »
“Startup culture may be great for putting out a new app or building a successful company, but not for distributing tens of millions of people’s benefits. Real people with real interests are at stake,” says Daniel Weiner, director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Elections and Government Program. In other words, when it comes to
What founders need to know about tech’s growing influence in D.C. Read More »
Teddy Warner, 19, has always been interested in robotics. His family was in the industry, and he says he “grew up” working in a machinist shop while in high school. Now Warner is building a robotics company of his own, Intempus, that looks to make robots a bit more human. Intempus is building tech to
Why Intempus thinks robots should have a human physiological state Read More »
Elon Musk isn’t the only tech billionaire with power over the federal agencies that regulate his businesses. Since Donald Trump took office, more than three dozen employees, allies, and investors of Musk, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Palmer Luckey have taken roles at federal agencies, helping direct billions in contracts to their companies. Companies owned,
How Silicon Valley’s influence in Washington benefits the tech elite Read More »
Chapter, a Medicare advisory startup co-founded by former Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, has closed a $75 million funding round at a valuation of $1.5 billion led by private equity and venture firm Stripes. The startup helps seniors choose Medicare health plans analyzing doctors, hospitals, and prescription drug coverage. Unlike many other Medicare insurance brokers,
