Author: GT

President Trump just made it a lot more expensive for companies to hire foreign workers through the H-1B program. The White House announced Friday that Trump signed a proclamation requiring employers to pay a hefty $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa applications, an enormous jump from the current $215 lottery registration fee. H-1B visas allow U.S. companies to hire foreign workers in fields that typically require technical expertise like IT, engineering, mathematics, or medicine. The program is capped at 65,000 new visas annually, plus an additional 20,000 for foreign graduates with advanced degrees from U.S. universities. The visas are awarded…

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared on Fox News today and said that an agreement has been reached — but not signed — that would see TikTok’s U.S. operations spun out under majority American ownership. Leavitt said Americans will hold six of seven board seats in the restructured TikTok, and the short-form video app’s algorithm will be U.S.-controlled, according to Bloomberg. “So all of those details have already been agreed upon, now we just need this deal to be signed and that will be happening, I anticipate, in the coming days,” Leavitt said. Bloomberg also reports that a senior…

Jar, an Indian fintech startup that allows users to invest in gold, has turned profitable by helping millions of first-time savers use its app to build digital gold holdings. While many consumer fintechs focus on affluent urban users or credit products, Jar has gained traction by offering a culturally familiar asset — gold — as a low-barrier entry point to saving. The four-year-old startup targets low- to middle-income users — a segment often underserved by traditional financial institutions — by allowing them to save in gold for as little as ₹10 (about $0.11) a day. That strategy has helped Jar…

Mastodon, the non-profit organization that maintains the software powering the decentralized alternative to social networks like Threads and X, has a new plan to make money. Instead of relying entirely on donations and grants as before, the company announced on Friday that it will now offer paid hosting, moderation, and support services for organizations that want to join the open social web. That network, also called the fediverse, offers a way for individuals and organizations to set up their own servers that interconnect with others that run the same protocol, ActivityPub. ActivityPub powers a number of different software applications, including…

It’s official! We are in the final week to lock in your TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 pass and save up to $668. If you have been on the fence about joining one of the biggest tech gatherings of the year, where we will also celebrate 20 years of TechCrunch, now is the time to commit before prices rise. Register here to secure your discount before time runs out. Prices jump on September 26 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Top voices sharing key takeaways We’re bringing the biggest names in tech to San Francisco’s Moscone West this October 27–29. Who’s taking the stage?…

Earlier this year, Apple introduced its Foundation Models framework during WWDC 2025, which allows developers to use the company’s local AI models to power features in their applications. The company touted that with this framework, developers gain access to AI models without worrying about any inference cost. Plus, these local models have capabilities such as guided generation and tool calling built in. As iOS 26 is rolling out to all users, developers have been updating their apps to include features powered by Apple’s local AI models. Apple’s models are small compared with leading models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or Meta.…

British renewable energy provider Octopus Energy said this week that it’s spinning off Kraken, its tech platform for utilities, spurred in part by $500 million in committed annual revenue from other utilities and energy providers. An eventual Kraken IPO could be valued at $15 billion and could occur within a year, according to The Wall Street Journal. Kraken was actually the company’s initial product, per Octopus CEO Greg Jackson. “We created Octopus as the ‘demo client,’” he told the Journal earlier this year. That demo client has since grown to provide power to more than 7.7 million households in the…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Indian government expressed concern Saturday about President Donald Trump’s latest push to upend American immigration policy, dramatically raising the fee for visas that bring tech workers from India and other countries to the United States.The president on Friday signed a proclamation that will require a $100,000 annual fee for H-1B visas — meant for high-skilled jobs that tech companies find hard to fill. He also rolled out a $1 million “gold card” visa for wealthy individuals, moves that face near-certain legal challenges amid widespread criticism he is sidestepping Congress. If the moves survive legal muster, they…

The Startup Battlefield 200 global pitch competition at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, taking place October 27–29 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, is just weeks away, and the stakes have never been higher.  Twenty founders will pitch their companies on the Disrupt Stage, but only one will walk away with the $100,000 equity-free prize and the coveted Disrupt Cup. Helping to decide the winner is our world-class roster of judges, investors, and operators who know what it takes to build enduring companies. Image Credits:Kimberly White / Getty Images Today, we’re unveiling the third group of judges who will bring their expertise and tough questions to this year’s competition. And we’re not done yet. Stay tuned for two more batches…

WASHINGTON (AP) — An emerging TikTok deal with China will ensure that U.S. companies control the algorithm that powers the app’s video feed and Americans will hold a majority of seats on a board overseeing U.S. operations, the White House said Saturday.A central question to the tug of war between Washington and Beijing has been whether the popular social video platform would keep its algorithm after the potential divestment of Chinese parent company ByteDance.Congress passed legislation calling for a TikTok ban to go into effect in January, but President Donald Trump has repeatedly signed orders that have allowed TikTok to…