Equity Archives | TechCrunch

Ben Horowitz’s tight ties with the Las Vegas Police Department — and why it matters

Theresa Loconsolo — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 15:55:20 +0000

Over the last few years, Andreessen Horowitz co-founder and famed VC Ben Horowitz has donated at least $7.6 million to fund purchases by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, including new drones from a16z-backed Skydio. Skydio is not the first of a16z’s portfolio companies to benefit from these donations, either. Today, on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts […]

Marc Benioff says it’s ‘crazy talk’ that AI will hurt Salesforce, wants a billion AI agents in a year

Julie Bort, Theresa Loconsolo — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 15:10:00 +0000

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says the next big thing for enterprise software, particularly Salesforce, is AI agents — or software bots that will do limited tasks on their own taking those tasks off of human workers. “What if your workforce had no limits? Now, that is a question we could not ask in the last […]

Trump’s election throws tech regulation a curveball

Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey, Margaux MacColl, Theresa Loconsolo — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 16:07:23 +0000

President-elect Donald Trump has made a slew of “day one” pledges, including dismantling President Biden’s AI policies. While we’re not sure exactly if Trump will take action the first day he takes office in January, it’s clear that a tech regulation shakeup is on the way. Today, on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Devin […]

Equity Live: Bret Taylor’s $4.5 billion startup and Waymo’s $5.6 billion round

Theresa Loconsolo — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 16:41:29 +0000

The Equity crew was live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024! Hosts Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey and Margaux MacColl took over the Builders Stage to kick off day 2 of Disrupt with no shortage of conference highlights, startups deals and venture news to chew through. Listen to the full episode to hear about: Equity will be back with a special interview episode on […]

Stripe’s biggest acquisition yet, and what’s a16z doing with all of those Nvidia GPUs?

Theresa Loconsolo, Anthony Ha, Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 14:35:56 +0000

It’s no secret that Stripe has doubled down on its crypto offerings, enabling crypto purchases in the EU back in July and announcing a Pay with Crypto feature earlier this month. This week, the fintech giant made its dedication even clearer with its largest deal to date: its acquisition of stablecoin platform Bridge for an […]

The race isn’t over for European AI startups and the upcoming ‘agentic revolution’

Rebecca Bellan, Theresa Loconsolo — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 15:21:10 +0000

The top U.S. tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Apple have deep enough pockets to spend tens of billions of dollars on AI development and infrastructure. Next in rank are heavy hitters like OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI, which are spending billions on AI. Then there are a handful of challengers, like Mistral and […]

Investor FOMO returns, and what happened with WordPress and WP Engine?

Margaux MacColl, Anthony Ha, Devin Coldewey — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 14:46:16 +0000

Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Devin Coldewey, Margaux MacColl and Anthony Ha are rounding up the week’s startup and venture news, kicking things off with a look at the $400 million raised by Lightmatter, and the importance of fast networking within the fast growing data center industry today — not just in years to come […]

Tesla’s bot non-disclosure and why humanoid robots are taking off

Rebecca Bellan, Brian Heater — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 14:19:55 +0000

At Tesla’s robotaxi reveal event last week, several Optimus humanoid robots mingled with guests, pouring drinks and cracking jokes. Impressive technology, but the vocals and some of the gesticulations appear to have been remotely controlled by humans, something Tesla did not disclose. On today’s episode of Equity, Rebecca Bellan chatted with TechCrunch’s hardware editor Brian […]

AI ‘no one wants’ and Google’s potential breakup

Margaux MacColl, Devin Coldewey, Anthony Ha — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 15:49:37 +0000

Did OpenAI really ask its investors to avoid backing rivals like Anthropic and xAI? That’s what hosts Devin Coldewey, Margaux MacColl and special guest Anthony Ha wanted to know on today’s episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. The team kicked off the show with a look at OpenAI’s $6.6 billion round, which is being called the […]

Investors are betting on user-generated content in video games. Gamebeast’s founder explains why

Rebecca Bellan — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 15:22:04 +0000

Today on Equity, Rebecca Bellan sat down with Zander Brumbaugh, the 22-year-old founder of Gamebeast, a startup that offers Roblox developers tools like A/B testing and LiveOps to modify games without needing to release a new version or interrupt a user’s ongoing game. Gamebeast recently raised a $3.7 million pre-seed round, led by J2 Ventures […]

YC takes a bite out of PearAI, and French startups have a new home

Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey, Margaux MacColl — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 14:37:20 +0000

Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey, and Margaux MacColl are unpacking another busy week in the tech world, kicking things off with Governor Newsom’s veto of SB 1047, the controversial AI bill aimed at stopping real-world disasters caused by AI systems before they happen. This may not be the last we’ll see of the bill, however, as […]

Green flags for defense tech and Silicon Valley’s longevity obsession

Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey, Margaux MacColl — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 17:50:13 +0000

This episode of Equity had so many themes: VC karaoke, the SpaceX economy, no moats for AI, OpenAI versus open source. You know it’s going to be good when the conversation between host Kirsten Korosec and fellow TCers Devin Coldewey and Margaux MacColl starts with the evergreen question: Is it ever OK to use a […]

Toyota Ventures on the hydrogen plateau and the IRA funding crutch

Rebecca Bellan — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 14:43:27 +0000

Toyota Ventures started in 2017 to help startups figure out what the future will look like, with an eye toward ensuring Toyota as an automaker and brand would stay at the forefront of innovation. While the firm initially targeted mobility startups, the crossover into climate tech was a natural progression. Today, Toyota Ventures has over […]

‘Super weird’ is the best way to describe this startup’s pivot

Devin Coldewey, Kirsten Korosec, Rebecca Bellan — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 15:30:00 +0000

Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey, and Rebecca Bellan got back on the mic for the latest episode of Equity to discuss several weird things and at least one cool thing. First, the crew talked about the least weird thing of the week: how nice it is that Cohere co-founder Nick Frosst has a band that people […]

JP Morgan’s head of startup banking says ‘Founder Mode’ won’t get you a unicorn

Kirsten Korosec — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 20:35:06 +0000

Ashraf Hebela, J.P. Morgan’s Head of Startup Banking, may sit on the finance side of startups these days. But he once sat in the founder seat. It’s been his experience in these two worlds — as a founder and in his decades-long finance career, including a 13-year stint at Silicon Valley Bank — that informs […]

AI’s tween years, who’s taking over climate tech, and the latest for Fearless Fund

Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey, Tim De Chant, Dominic-Madori Davis — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 15:01:49 +0000

What could be more frightening than Friday the 13th? How about a realization that AI is in its awkward tween stage? At least, it was for the TC Equity pod crew, which this week included hosts Devin Coldewey and Kirsten Korosec, along with TC reporters Tim De Chant and Dominic-Madori Davis. AI is often a […]

AI illusions and navigating ‘The Money Trap’ with Alok Sama

Rebecca Bellan — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 20:30:12 +0000

On today’s episode of Equity, Rebecca Bellan sat down with Alok Sama, a Morgan Stanley veteran and former president and CFO of SoftBank Group International. They discussed the latest Apple tech announcements, Sama’s views on the AI hype cycle, and changes to the technology investment landscape since the dot-com era. He also provided insights from […]

Telegram founder’s arrest, and who’s using acqui-hires to tip-toe around antitrust

Mary Ann Azevedo, Devin Coldewey, Rebecca Bellan — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 14:11:01 +0000

On today’s episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Devin Coldewey kicked off our Deals of the Week rundown with Piramidal, a startup that offers a foundational model for analyzing brain scan data that just raised $6 million. The premise behind the company is fascinating — its technology aims to help complement the work of nurses and doctors […]

Are Google’s monopoly cases 5 years too late or 2 years too early?

Rebecca Bellan — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 21:56:25 +0000

Google suffered a major defeat when U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta found that the tech giant had acted illegally to maintain its monopoly in online search. Mehta has yet to decide on the consequences — which Google will undoubtedly fight — but many have speculated how the decision could alter the way Google does […]

AI talent managers, technocapitalist college towns and a rise in defense tech acquisitions

Devin Coldewey — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 14:03:00 +0000

This week on Equity are some deals that are unusual for a few reasons — some good, some… well, we’ll find out. First up is the $80 million round for Story, which is trying to apply that ol’ web3 magic to AI and talent management. As one investor puts it, “What Bitcoin did for money […]