Author: GT

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 is just days away, with tickets still available here! And there’s no better time to announce that, alongside our flagship event and annual Startup Battlefield 200 competition, we’re launching a brand-new TechCrunch franchise: Build Mode.  Hosted by Startup Battlefield editor Isabelle Johannessen, Build Mode is a survival guide for early-stage founders navigating the messy, high-stakes chaos of building a company from scratch. No sugarcoating. No hype. Just candid conversations and tactical advice from the people who’ve done it before and have the scars (and term sheets) to prove it.  Starting November 13, Isabelle will sit down with…

Meta is bringing its AI-powered photo and video editing tools directly to Instagram Stories, allowing users to enter text prompts to add or remove things in photos and videos or even change it completely.  While Meta has already offered image editing capabilities on Instagram, those tools were limited to interactions with the Meta AI chatbot. The addition of text-based prompts in Stories now makes these editing features much more accessible.  The new features can be found in the “Restyle” menu located at the top of Instagram Stories when tapping the paintbrush icon. To edit an image, choose “add,” “remove,” or…

Five million users. Eight-figure annual recurring revenue. Twenty thousand new users joining daily. These are some solid numbers for a startup called Turbo AI launched in early 2024 by Rudy Arora and Sarthak Dhawan, two 20-year-old college dropouts. Most of this growth has come in the past six months, the founders tell TechCrunch, during which their AI-powered note-taking and study tool grew from one million to five million users, while remaining profitable. They say the idea for Turbo stemmed from a classroom problem many college students face, which is trying to take notes while paying attention to a lecture at…

Mustafa Suleyman CEO and co-founder of Inflection AI speaks during the Axios BFD event in New York City, U.S., October 12, 2023. Brendan Mcdermid | ReutersMicrosoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman said the software giant won’t build artificial intelligence services that provide “simulated erotica,” distancing itself from longtime partner OpenAI.”That’s just not a service we’re going to provide,” Suleyman said on Thursday at the Paley International Council Summit in Menlo Park, California. “Other companies will build that.”Suleyman’s comments come a week after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said his company plans to allow verified adults to use ChatGPT for erotica. Altman said that…

YouTube has paid more than $8 billion to the music industry in the 12 months between July 2024 and July 2025, the company announced on Thursday. “Today’s $8 billion payout is a testament to the fact that the twin engine of ads and subscriptions is firing on all cylinders,” said YouTube’s Global Head of Music, Lyor Cohen, in a statement. “This number is not an endpoint; it represents meaningful, sustained progress in our journey to build a long-term home for every artist, songwriter, and publisher on the global stage.” Cohen first announced the milestone during a talk at Billboard Latin…

Signage outside Applied Materials headquarters in Santa Clara, California, U.S., on Thursday, May 13, 2021. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesChip equipment manufacturer Applied Materials is laying off 4% of its workforce.The company on Thursday began notifying impacted employees around the world “across all levels and groups,” it said in a filing. Applied Materials provides equipment, services and software to industries, including the semiconductor industry.Applied Materials had approximately 36,100 full-time employees, according to an August 2025 filing. A layoff of 4% would represent about 1,444 employees.”Automation, digitalization and geographic shifts are redefining our workforce needs and skill requirements,”…

Rivian’s founder and CEO RJ Scaringe is taking on a new role at his company as part of a restructuring ahead of next year’s launch of the R2 SUV, which involves a layoff of more than 600 employees. Scaringe told employees in an email on Thursday that he will be acting as Rivian’s chief marketing officer on an interim basis as the company searches for someone to fill that position for the first time. The head of Rivian’s “marketing experiences” team and the lead of the company’s creative studio will now report directly to Scaringe, according to a copy of…

OpenAI announced on Thursday it has acquired Software Applications, Inc., the makers of an AI-powered natural language interface for Mac computers called Sky. The software product, which had not been released to the public, is designed to work alongside you throughout your day, as you use apps on the computer, writing, planning, coding, and more. Similar to AI browsers, Sky can see what’s on the your screen and take action in your apps for you. The move is a significant step toward embedding OpenAI’s technology into consumers’ everyday lives and within businesses that run on Mac. “We’ve always wanted computers…

Priscilla Chan, left, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Lauren Sanchez are among guests attending Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th U.S. president in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2025.Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty ImagesMeta said Thursday that it’s laying off an undisclosed number of employees in its risk organization as the company shifts to use artificial intelligence to automate its compliance review process.Michel Protti, Meta’s chief privacy and compliance officer for product, disclosed the layoffs on Wednesday to members of the company’s risk organization, according to a report by Business Insider. CNBC confirmed the contents of…

President Trump had planned an operation to “surge” San Francisco by marching National Guard troops into the city, but was convinced to alter course, he said on a post on his social network Truth Social on Thursday. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff were among the tech industry’s luminaries who called him and convinced him to change his mind, the post said. San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie confirmed in a statement that the military operation had been planned and called off, although he didn’t name names as to who had conversations with the President. Benioff’s involvement is particularly…