Author: TechBrunch

Periodic Labs, a new startup from Liam Fedus, one of OpenAI's most respected researchers, and his former Google Brain colleague Ekin Dogus Cubuk, emerged from stealth last month with a hefty $300 million seed round. It was led by Felicis and included Angel and other top VC figures. The startup began about seven months ago when Fedus had a conversation with Cubuk (known to his friends as “Doge”). Cubuk was one of Google Brain's leading machine learning and materials science researchers. After endless discussions about how GenAI would fundamentally change scientific discovery, Silicon Valley has finally decided that the ingredients…

San Francisco is about to receive an iconic jolt as newly elected Mayor Daniel Lurie takes to the Disrupt stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, October 27-29 at Moscone West. This is a homecoming of sorts for both the technology and the city that helped define it. Disrupt has long been a springboard for founders and investors chasing the next wave. Lurie's visit signals a new effort to weave innovation into San Francisco's future. Register now to save up to $444 on passes and get 60% off +1 tickets. Mr. Lurie, who has called for revitalizing the city's economy and restoring…

Today begins the seven-day countdown to TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, the flagship technology conference bringing together more than 10,000 leaders, venture capitalists, operators, and innovators, to be held from October 27th to 29th at Moscone West in San Francisco. To celebrate the countdown, we're offering a special 60% discount on +1. Save up to $444 when you purchase a pass, plus 60% off a second ticket for co-founders, partners, friends, and team members. Get two discounted passes here. Disrupt 2025 ticket type benefits Industry stage programming: 5 stages For attendees, founders, investors, students, and non-profit passes Five massive stages designed to…

Today begins the seven-day countdown to TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, the flagship technology conference bringing together more than 10,000 leaders, venture capitalists, operators, and innovators, to be held from October 27th to 29th at Moscone West in San Francisco. To celebrate the countdown, we're offering a special 60% discount on Plus Ones. Save up to $444 when you purchase a pass, plus 60% off a second ticket for co-founders, partners, friends, and team members. Get two discounted passes here. Disrupt 2025 ticket type benefits Industry stage programming: 5 stages For attendees, founders, investors, students, and non-profit passes Five massive stages designed…

7 days left until TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 officially opens at Moscone West in San Francisco! One of the year's biggest tech events is poised to dominate the Bay Area's vibrant tech landscape for nearly a week. Get ready for the biggest tech gathering October 27-29. Technology experts from around the world come together to tackle the latest innovations, learn about trends, and connect through unparalleled networking. Don't miss out on Disrupt's ticket savings! Save up to $444 with your pass. Get 60% off tickets when you bring +1 and 30% off when you bring community. Why you can't miss Disrupt…

An outage that affected web hosting giant Amazon Web Services (AWS) brought down vast swathes of the web, including websites, banks, and some government services. Amazon announced Monday morning that the outage had been “fully alleviated” and that most services were returning to normal after a several-hour period in which much of the internet was unloadable. The internet giant blamed the outage, which began around 3 a.m. on the U.S. East Coast, on DNS, the system that translates web addresses into IP addresses so customers' apps and websites can load them. Some issues can be resolved quickly, but DNS issues…

A federal judge has granted Meta-owned WhatsApp's request for a permanent injunction to prevent Israeli cyberintelligence company NSO Group from targeting users of the messaging app. At the same time, the judge significantly reduced the fine that NSO Group had to pay to Mehta. Earlier this year, a jury ruled that the cyber intelligence company must pay Meta more than $167 million following a 2019 campaign that targeted more than 1,400 WhatsApp users, including human rights activists and journalists. However, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled Friday that because the court did not have enough evidence to find NSO Group's…

Kevin Hurts tends to be the first through the door. In 2001, he co-founded Xoom. Those were the days when you had to wait in line at Western Union to send money across the border. The company went public in 2013, and PayPal paid $1.1 billion for it in 2015. Four years after launching Xoom, he co-founded Eventbrite. Eventbrite went public in 2018, making it possible to purchase event tickets without throwing your laptop into the ocean. After working at Founders Fund, Hertz co-founded his own venture firm, A* Capital (An homage to computer science algorithms), and in 2020 discovered…

The tech layoff wave is still kicking in 2025. Last year saw more than 150,000 job cuts across 549 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. So far this year, more than 22,000 workers have been the victim of reductions across the tech industry, with a staggering 16,084 cuts taking place in February alone. We’re tracking layoffs in the tech industry in 2025 so you can see the trajectory of the cutbacks and understand the impact on innovation across all types of companies. As businesses continue to embrace AI and automation, this tracker serves as a reminder of the human…

Anatoly Yakovenko, CEO of Solana Labs and co-founder of Solana, will take to the Disrupt stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, October 27-29 at Moscone West in San Francisco, to chart where cryptocurrencies are headed next, from the meme coin craze to real-world finance and everything in between. This is one fintech conversation you won't want to miss. Save up to $624 on passes before the sale ends tonight at 11:59pm PT. Save up to 30% on group passes. Disrupt shares lessons on scaling blockchain and crypto adoption Yakovenko sheds light on Solana's breakout year, the growing demand for scalable, low-cost…