Author: TechBrunch

Andreessen Horowitz co-founder and well-known VC Ben Horowitz has contributed at least $7.6 million in recent years to fund purchases by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, including a new Skydio drone backed by A16Z. Skydio is not the first a16z portfolio company to benefit from these donations. Today on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey, and Margaux MacColl discuss the implications of Horowitz's approach and how others in the venture capital world are praising the controversial move. We dug into the reasons why you should refrain. Listen to the full episode to hear: Stocks will be back…

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Friday that his company's X competitor, Threads, is testing custom feeds for specific topics and profiles to help users find communities and conversations that interest them. announced that it would start. The news follows the rapid growth of social networking startup and X rival Bluesky. Bluesky prioritizes tools that allow users to build their own algorithms and feeds, create lists, set their own moderation rules, and more. After the US presidential election, X gained more right-wing attention, with X's owner Elon Musk heavily campaigning for Trump using the platform formerly known as Twitter. Recruitment is…

If you're an hourly worker, your options for finding a new job are slightly reduced. JobGet, a Boston-based startup that operates an hourly job site with LinkedIn-like social features, is acquiring one of its rivals in the U.S. market, Snagajob. JobGet claims this makes it the largest job platform for hourly and frontline workers in the U.S., covering 100 million people. But to be clear, that's not the company's user base. JobGet doesn't reveal how many active users it has, other than to say it works with tens of thousands of customers and helps secure millions of jobs. Snagajob says…

InStyle reported yesterday that Meghan is investing in Highbrow Hippie, a hair and wellness company founded by colorists Kadi Lee and Micah Harris. The company has announced the launch of new hair care products, and Meghan told the outlet: “I'm proud to invest as a friend and as a female founder.” News about the growth of Meghan's investment portfolio is becoming more and more widespread. In August, she spoke to the New York Times about her investment in basket bag company Cesta Collective, saying she had “five to 10 brands” in her portfolio. Her first investment was in instant vegan…

Early Thursday morning, excited Afrotech attendees walked into the conference room to see something. Hannah Bronfman, a prominent angel investor with over 1 million followers on social media, is in conversation with Morgan DeBaun, founder and CEO of Blavity. Bronfman is a wellness content creator, author, and investor in more than 70 companies, including beauty brands Topicals and Sienna Naturals. She is best known for founding the health, beauty and fitness marketplace HBFIT, which closed last year after eight years in business. She told the Afrotech audience that she has learned a lot during her time as a founder. She…

Elon Musk's lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its nonprofit mission was dismissed in July, but the lawsuit was refiled in August. The amended complaint names Microsoft, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and former OpenAI board member and Microsoft vice president Dee Templeton as new defendants. The amended filing also adds new plaintiffs: Shivon Zilis, a Neuralink executive and former OpenAI board member, and Musk's AI company xAI. Musk is one of the founders of OpenAI, which aims to research and develop AI for the benefit of humanity and was initially established as a nonprofit organization. He left the company in 2018…

Musk's lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its nonprofit mission was dismissed in July, but the lawsuit was refiled in August. The amended complaint names Microsoft, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and former OpenAI board member and Microsoft vice president Dee Templeton as new defendants. The amended filing also adds new plaintiffs: Shivon Zilis, a Neuralink executive and former OpenAI board member, and Musk's AI company xAI. Musk's lawyers allege in the complaint that OpenAI is “actively seeking to exclude competitors” such as xAI by “extracting commitments from investors not to provide funding.” The company is also said to have unfairly benefited…

In a splashy Time Magazine op-ed published this summer, HuffPost founder Arianna Huffington and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman talk about AI-powered assistants that promote healthier lifestyles. announced Thrive AI Health, a venture company with the goal of building With support from Huffington's mental wellness company Thrive Global and OpenAI Startup Fund, Thrive AI Health is building an “AI health coach” that provides personalized advice on sleep, eating, fitness, stress management, and “connection.” Huffington and Altman write. . It's been a few months now, and Thrive AI Health's assistant is looking pretty well developed. TechCrunch spotted a demo of a minimally…

Bluesky is continuing to blow up. The Twitter-like service and alternative to Elon Musk’s X, has now surpassed 16 million users after seeing rapid growth in the days following the U.S. presidential election. While many are leaving X over the service’s increasing right-wing leanings and Musk’s campaigning for Trump, others are unhappy with other changes Musk has made — like how blocks work or how their content on X will be used to train AI. Despite those issues, X is still the leader in the space in terms of monthly active users, while Threads is quickly catching up. Meta announced…

Pony AI is inching closer to an initial public offering in the U.S., even as the minimum amount it hopes to raise in the deal continues to be lowered. Pony operates 190 “robot trucks” in Beijing and Guangzhou, and more than 250 robot taxis in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai. The company told TechCrunch that robotaxis can be charged in all four cities, and are completely driverless in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. The Chinese self-driving technology company said in a Thursday filing that it plans to issue 15 million American depositary shares, with the possibility of issuing an additional 2.25…