Author: GT

French AI startup Mistral AI is finalizing a €2 billion investment at a post-money valuation of $14 billion, reports Bloomberg, positioning the company as one of Europe’s most valuable tech startups. The two-year-old OpenAI rival, founded by former DeepMind and Meta researchers, develops open source language models and Le Chat, its AI chatbot built for European audiences. Mistral isn’t commenting on the report, but the round would represent Mistral’s first major raise since June 2024, when it was valued at €5.8 billion. The company has previously raised over €1 billion from prominent investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst. The…

Artificial intelligence, apparently, is the new “fake news.”Blaming AI is an increasingly popular strategy for politicians seeking to dodge responsibility for something embarrassing — among others. AI isn’t a person, after all. It can’t leak or file suit. It does make mistakes, a credibility problem that makes it hard to determine fact from fiction in the age of mis- and disinformation. And when truth is hard to discern, the untruthful benefit, analysts say. The phenomenon is widely known as “the liar’s dividend.” On Tuesday, President Donald Trump endorsed the practice. Asked about viral footage showing someone tossing something out an…

Google will not be forced to break up its search business, but a federal judge has tentatively ordered other changes to the tech giant’s business practices to keep it from further anticompetitive behavior. U.S. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta outlined remedies on Tuesday that would bar Google from entering or maintaining exclusive deals that tie the distribution of Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, or Gemini to other apps or revenue arrangements. For example, Google wouldn’t be able to condition Play Store licensing on the distribution of certain apps, or tie revenue-share payments to keeping certain apps. Google will also have…

Finnish quantum computing startup IQM is now a unicorn: The company just raised more than $300 million in a Series B funding round that was led by Ten Eleven Ventures, a U.S. investment firm focused on cybersecurity. A university spinout, IQM builds quantum computers meant for on-premises installations as well as a cloud platform that taps this hardware. The company has already sold its quantum computers to enterprises in APAC and the U.S., but its strongest market remains Europe. That’s what this round is intended to change: The startup is planning to use the fresh cash for both a commercial push…

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will host a high-powered list of tech CEOs for a dinner at the White House on Thursday night. The guest list is set to include Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a dozen other executives from the biggest artificial intelligence and tech firms, according to the White House. One notable absence from the guest list is Elon Musk, once a close ally of Trump, whom the president tasked with running the government-slashing Department of Government Efficiency. Musk had a public break with Trump earlier this year. The…

Netflix launched a scene-clipping feature for mobile last year called “Moments,” which lets users quickly save their favorite scenes from shows and movies within the Netflix app. The streaming giant rolled out an update on Wednesday, allowing users to specify both a starting point and an endpoint when saving a scene. People now have the option to adjust the scene’s ending, allowing them to create clips that are as long or as short as they prefer. Previously, users could only set a starting point when saving a scene. To use the feature, begin watching a show or movie, then tap…

Invites to Perplexity’s new AI-powered web browser, Comet, are one of the web’s hottest commodities these days. The new product was made available first to the AI firm’s $200-per-month Max subscribers and a small group of invitees. But now there’s a new way to jump ahead on the waitlist. On Wednesday, PayPal announced it’s giving its customers, including PayPal and Venmo users, early access to Comet as well as a free year’s subscription to Perplexity’s premium service, Perplexity Pro, normally $200 per year. The browser, launched in July, offers an integrated AI assistant, AI-generated summaries of search results, product comparisons,…

Fizz, the college social app, is expanding into grocery delivery thanks to a new partnership with Gopuff, the startup told TechCrunch exclusively. The partnership will allow students to order anything from late-night snacks to weekly groceries directly within the Fizz app in as fast as 15 minutes, Fizz says. Founded in 2021, Fizz is available at more than 620 campuses across the United States, with over 27 million posts shared to date. The social platform allows students to connect anonymously with others at their university. Fizz also features a marketplace where users can buy and sell items locally. Fizz co-founder…

When congressional Republicans took a sledgehammer to the Inflation Reduction Act last summer, advanced geothermal startups were largely spared. Drilling for renewable energy appears to be one of the few things that engenders bipartisan support. Now, with the uncertainty settled, geothermal companies are announcing deals that promise to pave the way for broader deployment of their technology. Houston-based Fervo Energy said on Tuesday it has picked a supplier for key parts of its power plants, signaling that the second phase of the Cape Station project in Utah was moving full steam ahead. The startup said that Baker Hughes, the major…

Startups don’t build themselves, and the Builders Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 — taking place October 27–29 at San Francisco’s Moscone West — is where founders, operators, and investors get real about what it actually takes. This stage is all tactics, the nitty-gritty of turning an idea into a business that works. We’ve already announced heavy hitters like Elad Gil, Dick Costolo, and Ryan Petersen — and now the lineup is getting even bigger. New speakers, including Discord’s Jason Citron, and new sessions, like live demos of the latest robots, are joining the agenda. Expect fresh insights on everything from…