The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved eight pilot programs that will allow a handful of companies, including Archer Aviation, Beta Technologies, Joby Aviation, and Wisk to start widespread electric aircraft testing as early as this summer. The three-year program, which will span 26 states, is designed to ensure U. companies …

Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund is nearing the close of its fourth growth fund, Founders Fund Growth IV, with $6 billion in capital commitments, per sources close to the firm. As with most of the firm’s fundraises, demand from outside investors exceeds the fund’s capacity, according to those sources. Additionally, about …

Electric air taxi developer Archer Aviation responded to a lawsuit Monday with its own counterclaims that rival Joby Aviation allegedly defrauded the U. government and its competitors by falsely presenting itself as an American-made company. The counterclaim, filed in federal court, alleges Joby relied on a Chinese manufacturing subsidiary to …

A mass hacking campaign targeting iPhone users in Ukraine and China used tools that were likely designed by U. military contractor L3Harris, TechCrunch has learned. The tools, which were intended for Western spies, wound up in the hands of various hacking groups, including Russian government spooks and Chinese cybercriminals. Last …

AMI Labs, the new venture cofounded by Turing Prize winner Yann LeCun after he left Meta, has raised $1. 5 billion pre-money valuation. AMI is working on world models, or AI that learns from reality, not just from language. This category has fewer players than generative AI, but maybe not …

While Washington’s breakup with Anthropic exposed the complete lack of any coherent rules governing artificial intelligence, a bipartisan coalition of thinkers has assembled something the government has so far declined to produce: a framework for what responsible AI development should actually look like. The Pro-Human Declaration was finalized before last …

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for all things “future of transportation. ” To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! I was out for a few days last week and we have a bit of catching up to do! I …

To house the hundreds or thousands of temporary workers needed to build an AI data center, developers are increasingly relying on temporary villages known as man camps. This style of camp was popularized as housing for men working in remote oil fields. For example, as a Bitcoin mining facility in …

In just over a week, negotiations over the Pentagon’s use of Anthropic’s Claude technology fell through, the Trump administration designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk, and the AI company said it would fight that designation in court. OpenAI, meanwhile, quickly announced a deal of its own, prompting backlash that saw users …

ModRetro, the vintage gaming startup by Palmer Luckey, is in talks to raise funding at a $1 billion valuation, according to the Financial Times. The company launched its first product, a Game Boy-style handheld device called the Chromatic, in 2024. The Verge’s Sean Hollister said it “might be the best …