That’s one way to think about direct air capture, a technology which uses machines to pull carbon dioxide straight from the atmosphere.
The ability to use heat from geothermal energy, Cyffka said, is helpful.
Geothermal is a really promising pathway for where DAC needs to go.”Along those lines, the company is working with Fervo, pairing its carbon capture system with the geothermal startup’s advanced geothermal project in Utah.
In 2026, AirMyne is planning to deploy its carbon capture technology to a sequestration site in San Joaquin County, California, where it will be injected underground.
Still, the demand for carbon capture is likely to be so large that the market will have space for several different companies.
Los Angeles-based Gitai said Tuesday that its autonomous robotic arm has nailed a tech demonstration outside the International Space Station.
Autonomous robotic systems still have a ways to go before they render human labor obsolete, especially here on Earth; but in space, human labor is expensive (and dangerous), which provides an opening for a robotic alternative.
The 1.5-meter autonomous robotic arm, which the startup calls S2, launched to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 in January.
In the nearer term, the company is targeting on-orbit satellite servicing for spacecraft in low Earth orbit and geostationary orbit.
The arm’s technology readiness level (TLR), a standard used by NASA to chart the maturity of technology, is now at 7, the highest level, Gitai said.
Despite all that growth, Eric Gylman, the co-founder and CEO of Ramp thinks that the industry, and companies like his, are just scratching the surface.
Glyman and his current co-founder Karim Atiyeh launched their first fintech startup, Paribus, back in 2014.
The company raised a mere $2 million before getting snapped up by Capital One.
When the team was building Paribus, the generative AI technology to craft the emails was still relatively rudimentary and the rest of the company’s AI technology was built on very simple language models.
The startup has raised more than $1.7 billion from venture capitalists and was last valued at $5.8 billion in August 2023.
Deal of the weekIf you’re looking for yet another example of investor enthusiasm for AI just take a look at the latest fundraise over at autonomous vehicle software company Applied Intuition.
Other deals that got my attention …Anaphite, a battery technology startup, raised £1.6 million ($2 million)via a government-backed grant investment led by Elbow Beach Capital.
Motional, the autonomous vehicle technology startup Motional, secured a bridge loan that provides a temporary financial reprieve as the company searches for a longer-term source of funding, TechCrunch exclusively learned.
Phantom Auto, a remote driving startup that launched seven years ago amid the buzz of autonomous vehicle technology, shut down after failing to secure new funding.
You might recall that VW’s autonomous vehicle ambitions were wrapped up in Argo AI, a startup backed solely by the automaker and partner Ford.
It’s extremely heartening to see our little list effectively double since the last time we did one of these.
While it’s true that layoffs continue to plague the tech industry at large, there are few better fields to be expert in at the moment than Robotics and AI.
With more than 60 entries this week, there are plenty of jobs and companies to choose from, across a broad range of different segments from mail sorting to surgery to space.
To everyone who lost a job, recently graduated or is just looking for something new, here’s to finding your next big thing.
ACK Robotics (10 roles)Advanced Construction Robotics (3 roles)Aescape (7 roles)Aigen (16 roles)Ambi Robotics (2 roles)ANYbotics (24 roles)Astrobotic (40 roles)Aurora (63 roles)Austrian Institute of Technology (1 role)Avidbots (12 roles)Baubot (12 roles)Bloomfield Robotics (5 roles)Bridge Appliances Inc (2 roles)Carnegie Robotics (3 roles)Chef Robotics (9 roles)Collaborative Robotics (8 roles)Covariant (14 roles)Crimson Tech (3 roles)Cyvl.ai (3 roles)Dexterity (39 roles)Edge Case Research (3 roles)Exotec (176 roles)Formic (7 roles)Formlogic (10 roles)Four Growers (4 roles)Foxglove (2 roles)Gather AI (5 roles)GrayMatter Robotics (8 roles)Hellbender (6 roles)Honeywell (10 roles)Identified Technology (5 roles)Kef Robotics (3 roles)Kewazo (2 roles)Matic Robotics (12 roles)Medra AI (2 roles)Mine Vision Systems (2 roles)Motional (19 roles)National Robotics Engineering Center (3 roles)Near Earth Autonomy (7 roles)Neya Systems (6 roles)Nimble Robotics (9 roles)Onward Robotics (3 roles)Point One Navigation (5 roles)Pudu Robotics (2 roles)Reframe Systems (3 roles)Roboto AI (1 role)Robust AI (12 roles)Sanctuary AI (12 roles)Scythe Robotics (7 roles)Seegrid (10 roles)ST Engineering Aethon (4 roles)Stack AV (40 roles)Standard Bots (8 roles)Stratom Inc (7 roles)Symbotic (95 roles)The AI Institute (18 roles)Titan Robotics (3 roles)Vayu Robotics (4 roles)Vecna Robotics (5 roles)Vention (19 roles)Volley Automation (6 roles)
Two months ago, media giant Fox Corp. partnered with Polygon Labs, the team behind the Ethereum-focused layer-2 blockchain, to tackle deepfake distrust.
Fox and Polygon launched Verify, a protocol that aims to protect their IP while letting consumers verify the authenticity of content.
“When you put that content on chain, you can now validate that content was created by a certain individual or brand,” Blank said.
This story was inspired by an episode of TechCrunch’s podcast Chain Reaction.
Subscribe to Chain Reaction on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to hear more stories and tips from the entrepreneurs building today’s most innovative companies.
Almost a decade ago, Desktop Metal was one of the early darlings in accessible 3D printing in metal.
Last year, Stratasys tried to merge with Desktop Metal in a $1.8 billion deal, but the deal fell through, and these days, Desktop Metal is worth less than $210 million.
In June 2020, he split off and started his own thing — Fluent Metal — which is taking a different technology path than Desktop Metal’s technology.
It accomplishes this through liquid metal printing technology, which it hopes will set a new standard in additive manufacturing.
“In the near term, Fluent Metal will spark the imagination of designers, engineers, and technologists to consider how rapid, on-demand production of custom metal parts could transform their capabilities.
The UK has exited the European Union, but semiconductor development is emerging as one of the areas where it hopes to partner for better economies of scale — and much-needed funding.
The UK itself said it would put up a more modest £35 million ($44 million) in funding for UK efforts over the next few years as part of that.
The Chips Joint Undertaking, for example, has an overall budget of about €11 billion from both public and private contributions.
In December 2023, Pragmatic Semiconductor, another Cambridge-based chip company, raised $231 million at a $500 million valuation.
“We are very happy to welcome the UK to the Chips Joint Undertaking as a participating state,” said Jari Kinaret, Chips JU Executive Director, in a statement.
Employee-focused mental health company Journey is acquiring Felt, a startup formerly known as Mine’d that specializes in matching individuals with therapists using artificial intelligence.
Journey, which offers a mental health employee assistance program used by companies like Walgreens and Universal Music Group, says the acquisition aligns with its mission to revolutionize employee well-being and mental health support while leveraging the power of AI.
While Felt’s technology was initially designed for a consumer-facing app, it will be integrated into Journey’s backend product.
Journey CEO and founder Stephen Sokoler told TechCrunch that Felt’s technology will be integrated into the company’s Proactive EAP platform.
The company plans to pair Felt’s AI-based technology with its existing human-enabled therapist pairings in order to better match employees with therapists.
The movie later went on to win 7 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.
And this is why it’s so hard to find fulfillment in this current system.
“Which brings me back to AI,” Kwan continued, to a thunder of applause and cheers.
“So imagine what this technology will do within this current system, within this current incentive structure.
“I also want to say, we’re not saying ‘don’t use AI.’ I don’t believe in dogmas.
