What is worth $11 billion and wants to go to Mars to collect rocks?
NASA’s mission to Mars to collect rocks that was expected to cost $11 billion and take ages.
So, the U.S. space agency is throwing the doors open to get more input, and that means that startups are looking at an opportunity that is truly out of this world.
To close, the massive, gobsmackingly big $7.2 billion worth of new funds from a16z.
For the full interview transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, read on, or check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast.
The U.K. government has blamed China for a 2021 cyberattack that compromised the personal information of millions of U.K. voters.
The data breach began as early as 2021 but wasn’t detected until a year later.
Dowden said that a separate attempted cyberattack by a China-backed hacking group targeted the email accounts of U.K. lawmakers in 2021, but that parliamentary authorities mitigated the attempted breaches before any email accounts were compromised.
The Norwegian government previously attributed a 2018 data breach on its systems to APT31.
In 2020, Google security researchers linked APT31 to the targeting of email accounts belonging to the Trump and Biden presidential campaigns.
Chip giant Nvidia is hosting a massive AI conference as part of its GTC event this week, which kicks off Monday.
With a keynote planned from Jensen Huang, CEO and co-founder, of the company best known in year’s past for its gaming hardware and today for its massive market share in the burgeoning AI hardware market, expect Nvidia to make some news.
Given how many AI startups and giants alike use Nvidia gear, TechCrunch is expecting quite a lot to shake loose over the next few days.
To presage the confab, and detail just why we’re paying such close attention to a single company’s industry event, hit play below.
Stick close to TechCrunch for coverage throughout the week.
SpaceX will attempt to send the massive Starship rocket to orbit for the third time early Thursday morning after U.S. regulators gave the green light for launch.
The first took place last April, and ended with both the upper stage (which is also called Starship) and the Super Heavy booster exploding mid-air.
Anytime an anomaly occurs during a rocket launch, the Federal Aviation Administration steps in to oversee a company-run investigation.
The investigation into the second Starship launch closed last month, so the only thing left was for the regulator to issue a launch license for the test flight.
Due to the in-space engine burn, the company is also targeting a new flight trajectory, with the upper stage splashing down in the Indian Ocean.
Reports are coming in that a number of Meta’s top social apps, including Facebook and Instagram, as well as its new app Threads, are all experiencing an outage on Tuesday morning.
We’ve reached out to Meta to confirm the timing and the reports and will update if we hear more information.
In the meantime, Meta communications director Andy Stone has confirmed the outage in a post on X, noting, “We’re aware people are having trouble accessing our services.
To quell its potential role in influencing the elections’ outcome, Meta disables political ads in the timeframe leading up to key elections, like the U.S. midterms.
To address newer concerns, Meta also announced it would label political ads with AI-generated imagery for the 2024 election cycle.
Brex might not be having a good couple of quarters, but there’s sufficient positive news from the world of fintech to offset all the negativity around the sector.
So, yeah, while there has been a stark lack of fintech companies going public recently, capital is flowing into the sector because venture investors are still cautiously optimistic about it.
We can answer that question relatively easily today thanks to a new list compiled by GGV US that highlights 50 fintech startups venture capitalists think are hot stuff.
We also spoke to GGV managing partner Hans Tung about what he’s seeing in the sector today.
Why does fintech look like it’s stuck in first gear today?
Brex might not be having a good couple of quarters, but there’s sufficient positive news from the world of fintech to offset all the negativity around the sector.
So, yeah, while there has been a stark lack of fintech companies going public recently, capital is flowing into the sector because venture investors are still cautiously optimistic about it.
We can answer that question relatively easily today thanks to a new list compiled by GGV US that highlights 50 fintech startups venture capitalists think are hot stuff.
We also spoke to GGV managing partner Hans Tung about what he’s seeing in the sector today.
Why does fintech look like it’s stuck in first gear today?
Brex might not be having a good couple of quarters, but there’s sufficient positive news from the world of fintech to offset all the negativity around the sector.
So, yeah, while there has been a stark lack of fintech companies going public recently, capital is flowing into the sector because venture investors are still cautiously optimistic about it.
We can answer that question relatively easily today thanks to a new list compiled by GGV US that highlights 50 fintech startups venture capitalists think are hot stuff.
We also spoke to GGV managing partner Hans Tung, about what he’s seeing in the sector today.
Why does fintech look like it’s stuck in first gear today?
I don’t know that anyone expected such a massive deal to simply skate past regulators — particularly with all of the heat Amazon has received for privacy concerns and noncompetitive practices over the last decade.
At the same time, I don’t think too many of us assumed that we would be barreling into 2024 with this big, open question mark.
The deal has already been greenlit by a number of governmental bodies, but the process has felt drawn out at every step.
If you’re a regular Actuator reader, you likely already know my feelings about outside scrutiny of business practices (I’m generally pro), but I expected something definitive by now.
Amazon will be just fine, of course, but I can’t imagine this waiting game has been easy on iRobot, which underwent two rounds of layoffs in mid-2022 and early 2023.
Defense tech startup Shield AI has expanded its latest funding round with another $300 million in equity and debt, bringing its total Series F to $500 million, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.
This total amount reflects $200 million in equity closed in November, $100 million in new equity raised at the Series F price, and $200 million in debt.
Shield AI is building an “AI pilot” to turn aircraft into autonomous systems.
“AI pilots are becoming a strategic conventional deterrent in class with our aircraft carriers andguided missile submarines,” he said in a statement.
“Adopt AI pilots too slow, and we will fail.
