Author: TechBrunch
A year ago, Bluesky was opening up to the public and was known as one of the many X competitors that emerged after Elon Musk acquired the network formerly known as Twitter. Today, Bluesky’s social network has grown to over 33 million users, while the technology it’s built upon — the AT Protocol (or ATProto for short) — is being used to develop dozens more applications designed to work together as part of an open social web. The developers behind many of these apps attended the first conference dedicated to the AT Protocol, ATmosphere, held in Seattle last weekend. There,…
The temporary restart of the IPO window has already been closed again. The public stock market has fallen free-fall after President Trump announced he had wiped out tariffs, and two of the highly anticipated IPOs in the tech industry are suspended, the Wall Street Journal reports reports from Klarna and Stubhub. Stubhub, both Fintech Klarna and Ticket Marketplace, released public documents for the IPO last month. Both are scheduled to launch roadshows next week, and spoke with potential investors about the IPO, but they have decided to postpone it, a source told WSJ. Both Klarna and Stubhub declined to comment…
On his 50th birthday, Microsoft is teaching the AI-powered Copilot Chatbot some new tricks. Copilot can take action on “most websites,” Microsoft says, allowing you to book tickets and book restaurants. The bot has acquired the ability to remember certain things about you, just like your favorite foods and movies, as well as Openai's ChatGpt. You can also analyze real-time video from your mobile phone and answer questions in the context of “watching.” The upgrade is reportedly Microsoft is pondering the Copilot update. Copilot is often behind rivals ChatGpt and Google's Gemini. As of Friday, Copilot can complete tasks on…
Since IPOS was slow to drip a few years ago, limited partners investing in venture capital funds have had one huge problem. This is a lack of fluidity. The lack of cash revenues is particularly troublesome for the offices of wealthy individuals and their small family who manage wealthy assets, as they invested heavily in VC funds. Locking funds in venture capital has been a major problem for entrepreneur Mike Hearst. After selling the exact (the payment startup he founded) to Citi National Bank in 2018, he invested most of the revenue from the exit into tech stocks and venture…
TechCrunch All Stage, our big event for startup founders at every stage of fundraising (see what we did there?) will be appearing at the Sova Power Plant in Boston on July 15th. And we are pleased to announce that Underscore VC investment partner Chris Gardner will be joining the loaded lineup of speakers by leading a breakout session entitled “Age of Ai: What and Bot and When Not Not.” Spoiler: Expect to learn a lot about using AI for minimal, viable products. Our limited time discount on investors and founder passes will soon be over, each with a discount of…
The Trump administration fired Timothy Howe, the director of National Security and Cyber Command. A career military official, Haugh led the National Security Agency, the leading US eavesdropping and intelligence newsletter agency, less than a year after his predecessor's retirement. Haugh also oversaw Cyber Command, a military unit that engages in offensive cyber operations against US enemies. The Washington Post and the New York Times, which first reported the news, said shootings would occur after right-wing activist Laura Rumer, along with other national security officials, advocated for the firing of Howe during a meeting with President Donald Trump on Thursday.…
Strictlyvc is crossing the Atlantic! On May 13th, London will host the exclusive StrictlyVC Evening, offering the same high-speed VC insider content that made these events alike mandatory for investors and startup leaders. If you are a venture capitalist or founder, trade insights with your peers and jump into a powerful, unfiltered conversation around wine and canapes, this event is for you. StrictlyVC is known for hosting detailed discussions with some of the biggest names of venture, tech and entrepreneurship. Sam Altman, CEO of Openai Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz Katie Haun, founder of Haun Ventures Hans Tung, managing…
Amazon is introducing a new “summary” feature that can help Kindle users recall plot points and character arcs before picking up the latest books in the series. Although the company's press release for the new feature does not mention AI, Amazon has confirmed that TechCrunch has a summary generated by AI. “We use technology that includes Genai and Amazon moderators to create short summary of the book that accurately reflects the content of the book,” Amazon spokesperson Ale Iraheta said in an emailed statement. Users joined Reddit to share concerns about the use of AI for features. The company says…
Generation AI has greatly expanded the toolkit available to hackers and other bad actors. From deepening your CEO to creating fake receipts, you can do everything. Openai, the biggest generation AI startup of all of them, knows this better than anyone else. They have also just invested in another AI startup that will help businesses defend against these types of attacks. New York-based Adaptive Security has raised a $43 million Series A co-led by Openai's Startup Fund and Andreessen Horowitz. This was Openai's first investment in an open security startup, and Openai was confirmed by TechCrunch. Adaptive Security simulates AI-generated…
Ballistic Ventures, a VC company co-founded by Ted Schlein (known for his year at Kleiner Perkins), has raised $100 million for the new fund. This week, the San Francisco-based VC company filed to raise a new fund with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, just $360 million since closing its second fund. Ballistic Target Cybersecurity Startup Founded in the second half of 2021. In a previous interview, Schlein (photo above, fourth from left) told TechCrunch that the ballistic crew with years of experience is extremely practical. They take seats on the board, help with hiring, land the first 10 customers,…