Author: GT

This week on StrictlyVC Download, TechCrunch EIC Connie Loizos sits down with former Vice President Al Gore and Lila Preston of sustainability-focused investment firm Generation Investment Management to explore their ninth annual Sustainability Trends Report and how the global climate transition is accelerating despite political headwinds. While traditional media focuses on Trump administration rollbacks, the three discuss why renewable energy economics have fundamentally shifted, with 65% of energy investment now flowing to renewables versus just 35% to fossil fuels, a complete reversal from a decade ago. They dive into how China has become the world’s first “electro-state” with EVs representing…

Zoom on Wednesday launched new products at its Zoomtopia conference, including an upgraded AI companion that can work across meeting apps, as well as the ability to add your own notes, AI-powered meeting scheduling, and AI avatars that resemble users. With these features, the company aims to compete with verticalized meeting startups and productivity suites. The company has long offered an AI bot that can record and transcribe Zoom meetings. However, cross-application meeting notetakers like Read AI, Otter, Fireflies, Granola, and Circleback have made great progress. To tackle that, Zoom is making its AI companion work with other platforms such…

Europe’s startup scene is having a moment, with European unicorns multiplying and American VCs setting up shop across the pond. But while European funding dominates the early stages, late-stage capital still flows primarily from the U.S. So what does this mean for European founders, and how is the continent carving out its own identity in an increasingly AI-driven world? Today on Equity, we were joined by Shamillah Bankiya, newly appointed Partner at Dawn Capital, to talk through it all. She and Dominic-Madori Davis discuss AI’s impact on European startups, the regulatory landscape, and her journey from Uganda to venture capital.…

The iPhone Air’s thin design might be eye catching, and the amount of engineering that went into miniaturizing its logic board is impressive. But according to Gene Berdichevsky, co-founder and CEO of battery materials manufacturer Sila, the real breakthrough might lurk elsewhere inside the aluminum and glass enclosure. “The battery in the new iPhone is pretty remarkable,” Berdichevsky told TechCrunch. “The completely arbitrary, two-dimensional shape — you look at the shape, and it’s pretty amazing.” “I just got back from Asia and, and I got a chance to see some of these cells,” he added. “It’s a revolutionary piece of…

Nvidia just got shut out of the Chinese market — this time by the Chinese government instead of the US.   China’s internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, banned domestic tech companies from buying Nvidia AI chips on Wednesday, as first reported by the Financial Times.   The agency also told tech companies including ByteDance and Alibaba to stop testing and ordering Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D server, a device designed specifically for the market in China.   Beijing had previously discouraged companies from buying these chips in late August, instead promoting alternatives from local manufacturers. This ban will deliver quite a blow to China’s tech ecosystem. While companies like Huawei…

The founders who previously sold their livestreaming video startup Periscope to Twitter are back with a new startup — and no surprise, it’s an AI-focused company this time around. On Wednesday, former Twitter head of product Kayvon Beykpour announced the launch of Macroscope, an AI system aimed at developers and product leaders that summarizes updates to a codebase and catches bugs, among other things. The startup was co-founded by Beykpour, now Macroscope CEO, in July 2023, along with childhood friend Joe Bernstein, also previously of Periscope and their prior enterprise startup, Terriblyclever, which was sold to Blackboard in 2009. They’re…

Jaque Silva | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesGoogle is adding more artificial intelligence into its Chrome browser as the search giant tries to fend off burgeoning competition from AI startups OpenAI and Perplexity.In a blog post Thursday, Google said it’s rolling out Gemini in Chrome to users of Mac and Windows computers in the U.S. as well as to mobile devices. Users will be able to ask Gemini for help understanding the contents of a particular webpage, work across tabs, or do more within a single tab, such as schedule a meeting or search for a YouTube video.”We are evolving the…

For decades, Fortune 500 companies had to hire market research firms to get meaningful insights into customer satisfaction. These services come with a hefty price tag and often take weeks to complete. Keplar, a market research startup, uses voice AI to conduct customer interviews, providing clients with analysis much faster and at a fraction of the cost of traditional research consulting firms. On Wednesday, the two-year-old company announced that it raised $3.4 million in seed funding led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from SV Angel, Common Metal, and South Park Commons. The idea for Keplar was conceived in 2023 when…

A new research report from technology advisory firm Information Services Group (ISG) has revealed AI threats and more stringent regulations are shifting the French cybersecurity landscape, resulting in businesses reassessing their security strategies.Increasing security budgets mean many French enterprises require fresh guidance and expertise to establish effective priorities and combat their security challenges.According to the 2025 ISG Provider Lens Cybersecurity – Services and Solutions report, businesses in France are adapting to a more complex, layered security landscape, with many adopting AI-powered defence. This is to meet the demands introduced by new regulations, cloud adoption, financial constraints, and a shortage of…

Tesla is “working on” redesigning its door handles so they are less likely to trap people inside the company’s cars, chief designer Franz von Holzhausen told Bloomberg News on Wednesday. The news comes just one day after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an probe into Tesla’s door handles, and one week after a Bloomberg News investigation highlighted multiple instances where owners or passengers were stuck in their cars following a crash. Von Holzhausen didn’t specify when Tesla made the decision to rethink how its door handles work, according to Bloomberg. China has already been pushing automakers to…