Author: TechBrunch

Intel announced that CEO Pat Gelsinger will retire from the company's board of directors effective December 1. Intel executives David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus have been named interim co-CEOs. Mr. Zinsner is Intel's CFO and Mr. Holthaus is GM of Intel's Client Computing Group. Mr. Holthaus has also been named to the newly created CEO position of Intel's product division, which spans the chipmaker's consumer-focused organization and data center, AI, network and edge businesses. Frank Yeary, independent chairman of Intel's board of directors, will serve as interim executive chairman during the transition period. Intel said its leadership of Intel…

In November, cybersecurity startup Upwind broke the news about how it was attracting a lot of inbound interest to raise funding at a high valuation. You can now confirm that the transaction has been completed. Upwind has closed a $100 million Series A. The company confirmed that the round is valued at $900 million post-money. Craft Ventures, the investment firm founded by David Sachs, is leading the deal, with participation from TCV, Alta Park Capital, and all of Upwind's previous backers. Past investors include Greylock, Cyberstarts, Leaders Fund, Omri Casspi's Sheva Fund, basketball star Stephen Curry's investment fund, and Penny…

Former NBA athlete Omri Casspi has raised $60 million for his latest venture fund, Swish Ventures, which invests in early-stage cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and AI startups. The fund plans to support 10 companies, investing between $5 million and $7 million in each deal. Swish Ventures is Caspi's second fund, following the launch of Sheva Capital, a $50 million fund in 2022. Caspi said he now manages Sheva's portfolio now that the investment period has ended. “While I am fully committed to continuing to grow the company, I have no intention of raising any new capital under Sheva,” Caspi told TechCrunch,…

A ransomware attack on supply chain software giant Blue Yonder continues to cause disruption to the company's customers, nearly two weeks after the initial outage began. Arizona-based Blue Yonder said in a short update to its cybersecurity incident page on Sunday that its recovery from the Nov. 21 attack on an environment hosted by its managed services is “on track.” ” he said. It added that the affected customers have been brought back online and are “actively working” with other customers to “return to normal business operations.” The number of customers affected is not yet known, and Blue Yonder spokeswoman…

Nebius, a publicly traded European AI infrastructure company formerly known as Yandex NV, has raised $700 million to fuel its expansion in the United States. Nebius CEO Arkady Volozh (pictured above) told TechCrunch in a press conference today that the funding comes from “dozens of very well-known investors.” The names of all investors will be disclosed in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but the company has so far only disclosed its existing partners, including GPU giant Nvidia and Silicon Valley's There are only three companies: venture capital firm Accel and asset management company Orbis. . The private…

The Browser Company, which makes Arc Browser for both desktop and mobile, unveiled a new web browser called Dia on Monday. This time we're focusing on AI tools. Over the past few years, the company has released Arc on Mac and Windows and Arc Search on iOS and Android, but the company is starting to develop new products with broader appeal. This browser is expected to be released in early 2025. The startup has launched a new website with videos about the browser and a list of various roles available within the company. “AI does not exist as an app…

Prosus expects up to five potential IPOs from its Indian portfolio over the next 18 months, indicating growing momentum in the world's second-largest internet market. A Dutch investment group on Monday named payments giant PayU, e-commerce startup Meesho and online jewelry seller Bluestone among the startups preparing for an IPO. TechCrunch reported last month that more than 20 Indian startups are aiming to go public in 2025. These include Prosus-backed Urban Company, Pharmagy and Captain Fresh. Prosus' announcement comes after food delivery company Swiggy raised $2 billion in its initial public offering (IPO) last month. Swiggy's $1.34 billion listing became…

When a startup raises a seed round, the eternal question arises: how much should the founders pay themselves and their first few employees? Kruze Consulting, a CPA firm specializing in venture-backed startups, recently analyzed the average salary range of over 450 seed-stage startups and shared the data with TechCrunch. The averages below are based on actual payroll records, not survey responses, Kruse said. Perhaps unsurprisingly, technical engineering/product positions tend to pay more than CEOs. One surprise is that salaries for those with the COO/Operations title tend to be even higher on average. This is frowned upon. That's because the title…

Companies often struggle with responding to cybersecurity incidents. A recent poll found that only three out of five organizations have an incident response plan in place, and one-third regularly train to maintain the effectiveness of their plan. It's just a matter of degree. The consequences of poor incident response can be costly. The International Monetary Fund estimates that the global cost of cyberattacks will rise from approximately $8.4 trillion in 2022 to more than $23 trillion by 2027. It is against this backdrop that Amazon saw an opportunity. Today, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company's cloud computing division, launched AWS…

As promised, startup accelerator Y Combinator's impending demo day will be held in person. In fact, YC appears to have begun resuming IRL demo days at the end of the Thanksgiving long weekend, holding an in-person alumni demo day on Sunday for startups in the fall 2024 class. Squad founder (and later Twitter and Meta product manager) Esther Crawford, Milo founder and CEO, praised the “high energy” of being able to hear pitches from 93 startups firsthand. Avni Patel Thompson calls it “a great pay-forward, not just for the founders, but also for alumni to come back and support the…