Friday afternoon, just as this interview was getting underway, a news alert flashed across my computer screen: the Trump administration was severing ties with Anthropic, the San Francisco AI company founded in 2021 by Dario Amodei. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had invoked a national security law to blacklist the company …

Plaid, a company that connects financial applications to users’ bank accounts, enabling payments and data verification, has allowed employees to sell some of their shares at an $8 billion valuation, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Thursday. The valuation represents a 31% increase from the $6. 1 billion valuation the …

Ultrahuman on Friday unveiled a new smart ring with longer battery life and a redesigned form factor, as the Bengaluru-based wearable maker seeks to revive its U. business that was disrupted last year by a patent dispute with rival Oura. The Ring Pro, Ultrahuman’s third-generation smart ring, offers up to …

After years of appeals, Google has finally received conditional approval to export high-precision geographic information out of South Korea, a move that opens the door to let the company provide proper Google Maps services in the country, such as walking and real-time driving directions. The move reverses a long-standing policy …

OpenAI has raised $110 billion in private funding, the company announced Friday morning, commencing one of the largest private funding rounds in history. The new funding consists of a $50 billion investment from Amazon as well as $30 billion each from Nvidia and SoftBank, against a $730 billion pre-money valuation. …

Weeks after stepping down as CEO from food delivery service Zomato and its parent Eternal, Indian entrepreneur Deepinder Goyal is back with a $54 million raise for wearable startup Temple, part of what the 43-year-old earlier described as a shift toward “higher-risk exploration and experimentation. ” On Friday, Goyal said …

Today is it! When the clock hits 11:59 p. PT, the lowest ticket rates of the year for TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 go up. The same access will cost more tomorrow. If you’re planning to attend, this is your final window to lock in up to $680 off your pass or …

Spotify is launching Audiobook Charts for the U. , the company announced on Friday. Similar to the streaming giant’s Music and Podcast Charts, the Audiobook Charts will be updated weekly and highlight the top audiobooks overall and by genre. These rankings are based on listening behavior and engagement on the …

This week it was reported that U. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is in dire shape, after a year of cuts, layoffs, and furloughs under the Trump administration. Now the agency has replaced its top acting leader, a CISA spokesperson tells TechCrunch. The move to replace Madhu Gottumukkala as the …

Anthropic has reached a stalemate with the United States Department of War over the military’s request for unrestricted access to the AI company’s technology. But as the Pentagon’s Friday afternoon deadline for Anthropic’s compliance approaches, more than 300 Google employees and over 60 OpenAI employees have signed an open letter …