Author: TechBrunch
The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has more than 130,000 job cuts across 457 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized startups have also seen a fair amount of cuts, and in some cases, have shut down operations altogether. By tracking these layoffs, we’re able to understand the impact on innovation across companies large and small. We’re also able to see the potential impact of businesses…
AMD confirmed it will lay off 4% of its workforce to focus on “significant growth opportunities.” It's unclear how many employees or which departments were affected by the cuts. AMD had about 26,000 employees as of last year, according to the company's annual 10-K filing. 4 percent equals approximately 1,000. “As part of aligning our resources with our biggest growth opportunities, we are taking a number of targeted steps,” an AMD spokesperson told CRN. “We are committed to treating affected employees with respect and helping them navigate this transition.” We have reached out to the company for more information and…
Starfish Space has completed new financing led by a leading defense technology investor to launch three full-scale satellite maintenance and inspection spacecraft in 2026. The Washington-based startup Otter Spacecraft has two main objectives: extending the operational life of expensive satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO) and disposing of malfunctioning satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). Designed for the mission. This is a set of capabilities previously unavailable to satellite operators who launch satellites with the expectation that they will have a limited service life. As Starfish CEO and co-founder Austin Link said in a recent interview, the goal is to “make…
Silicon Valley battery startup Leiten announced today that it will acquire manufacturing assets from struggling Swedish battery maker Northvolt. As part of the deal, Northvolt will sell the manufacturing facilities it inherited when it acquired another battery startup, Qberg, in 2021. Leiten will also assume the lease of Kuberg's old manufacturing facility in San Leandro, California. Leiten plans to invest $20 million next year to expand its San Leandro facility and existing operations in San Jose. Neither Mr. Leiten nor Mr. Northvolt immediately responded to questions about the financial terms of the deal. Unlike many other battery manufacturers, Lyten does…
Paris's iconic startup campus, Station F, hosts over 1,000 startups each year. Sifting through 1,000 startup descriptions is difficult, so Station F selects the 40 most promising startups and shares a list called the Future 40. The campus has also invested in 10 of these startups (though the list has never been made public). The 10 startups the company invests in are part of programs run by Station F itself or partners such as Binance, LVMH, Meta, and Microsoft. Station F's flagship program is the Founder Program. Companies apply to participate in this highly competitive accelerator program and are invited…
App developers now have a new way to promote their app releases, updates, and other new features on Apple's App Store. First announced at the company's Worldwide Developer Conference in June, Apple this week introduced a “Featuring Nominations” option to App Store Connect. App Store Connect is a service that developers use to submit apps, games, and updates to the App Store. Now, instead of waiting for Apple to recognize their work, developers can nominate their apps to be featured. This allows developers to notify Apple about three different types of updates: new content, app enhancements, or new app releases.…
Millions of Hot Topic customers were informed that their personal data had been compromised during a data breach at an American retailer in October. Breach notification service Have I Been Pwned announced this week that it had alerted 57 million Hot Topic customers that their data had been breached. Stolen data includes email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, purchases, gender, and date of birth. According to HIBP, the breach also included some credit card data, including credit card type, expiration date, and the last four digits of the card number. Hot Topic, which has more than 640 stores across the…
The European Union is developing new legal compliance guidance regarding AI. As part of that process, we have launched a council (here) seeking input on two areas. The first is how the law defines AI systems (as opposed to “simpler traditional” software). We are asking people from the AI industry, business, academia, and civil society to comment on clarity on key elements of the law's definition, as well as examples of software that should be excluded. The second question concerns prohibited uses of AI. The law includes several use cases, such as Chinese-style social scoring, that are considered “unacceptable risks”…
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says the next big thing for enterprise software, and Salesforce in particular, is AI agents, software bots that perform limited tasks themselves, separate from human workers. “What would happen if there were no limits for employees? That's a question I haven't been able to ask in not just the last 25 years of working at Salesforce, but in the 45 years I've been in the software business,” Benioff said. told TechCrunch on the Equity podcast. He said that “hundreds of customers” are already using Agentforce, the company's AI agent platform, for their businesses. “Our goal is…
Nokia, once the world's largest mobile phone company but now primarily a provider of infrastructure and services to carriers, made the acquisition with the aim of becoming a bridge between the worlds of technology and communications. Acquired Rapid (formerly RapidAPI), a startup that operates an API marketplace. Nokia plans to integrate Rapid into the platform it is building to help 5G carriers open up their networks to more developers. Raghav Sahgal, President, Cloud and Network Services, Noka We need to build bridges,” the statement said. The deal includes a public marketplace, enterprise services, and an enterprise-grade API hub designed for…