Author: GT

Google CEO Sundar Pichai gestures to the crowd during Google’s annual I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California, on May 20, 2025.David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesWhen OpenAI rocked the tech world with the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, Google scrambled to roll out what employees called a “rushed,” “botched” and “un-Googley” competitor. Those early stumbles may have been a blessing in disguise.On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled against the most severe consequences that were proposed by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a landmark antitrust case filed in 2020. Google lost the case last year, but the…

OpenAI announced in a blog post on Tuesday that it agreed to acquire the product testing startup Statsig, and bring on its founder and CEO, Vijaye Raji, as the company’s CTO of Applications. OpenAI is paying $1.1 billion for Statsig in an all-stock deal — one of the largest acquisitions ever for the ChatGPT maker — under the company’s current $300 billion valuation, OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood told TechCrunch. The acquisition marks OpenAI’s latest effort to build out its Applications business, helmed by the former CEO of Instacart, Fidji Simo, who started work at the company a few weeks ago.…

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a major makeover of Google’s search engine in a crackdown aimed at curbing the corrosive power of an illegal monopoly, but rebuffed the U.S. government’s request to break up the company.The 226-page decision made by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C., will likely ripple across the technological landscape at a time when the industry is being reshaped by artificial intelligence breakthroughs — including conversational “answer engines” as companies like ChatGPT and Perplexity try to upend Google’s long-held position as the internet’s main gateway.Mehta is trying to rein in…

Dario Amodei, Anthropic CEO, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 21st, 2025.Gerry Miller | CNBCAnthropic on Tuesday announced it has closed a $13 billion funding round at a $183 billion post-money valuation, roughly triple what the artificial intelligence startup was worth as of its last raise in March.The most recent funding round was led by Iconiq, Fidelity Management & Research Co. and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Other investors including Altimeter, General Catalyst and Coatue also participated, Anthropic said.”This financing demonstrates investors’ extraordinary confidence in our financial performance and the strength of their collaboration with…

Swedish buy now, pay later (BNPL) startup Klarna and its shareholders are reviving its initial public offering, hoping to raise as much as $1.27 billion in a listing that would value the company at up to $14 billion. The company and some of its shareholders are together selling approximately 34.3 million shares between $35 and $37 each, the company said in an update to its registration statement on Tuesday. Klarna would receive proceeds from about 5.6 million shares, while its shareholders are offloading nearly 29 million shares. The company plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange…

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.David A. Grogan | CNBCOpenAI continued its spending spree, announcing on Tuesday that it’s acquired Statsig, a product development startup, for $1.1 billion.Statsig helps OpenAI and other companies test features and use real-time data in their operations. As part of the acquisition, Statsig CEO Vijaye Raji is joining OpenAI as technology chief in the applications unit. He will report to Fidji Simo, the former Instacart CEO who was tapped to lead OpenAI’s applications…

OpenAI said Tuesday it plans to route sensitive conversations to reasoning models like GPT-5 and roll out parental controls within the next month — part of an ongoing response to recent safety incidents involving ChatGPT failing to detect mental distress. The new guardrails come in the aftermath of the suicide of teenager Adam Raine, who discussed self-harm and plans to end his life with ChatGPT, which even supplied him with information about specific suicide methods. Raine’s parents have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI.  In a blog post last week, OpenAI acknowledged shortcomings in its safety systems, including failures…

LONDON (AP) — Bulgaria will not investigate suspected Russian electronic interference with a top European official’s plane, officials said Monday — because this kind of GPS jamming is now so common. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was flying to Plovdiv, Bulgaria on Sunday when her plane was hit by GPS jamming. It landed safely but the disruption was the latest in a string of almost 80 incidents tracked by The Associated Press and blamed on Russia by Western officials since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.This year, Nordic and Baltic nations — including Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia —…

A worker prepares orders at an Amazon.com Inc. fulfillment center.Jason Alden | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesAmazon is eliminating a program that allows members of its Prime subscription program to share free shipping benefits with people outside their household.The company began notifying users in recent days that it plans to end the Prime Invitee Program on Oct. 1, according to a notice viewed by CNBC.”We are writing to inform you that the Prime Invitee Program, which allowed sharing Prime’s fast, free delivery with others, will end on October 1, 2025,” the notice states. “Your invited guests will be notified directly about…

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 is about to get even more exciting. We’re thrilled to announce that Astro Teller, the head of Alphabet’s X (aka the Moonshot Factory), will take the stage at Disrupt, happening October 27–29 at Moscone West in San Francisco. For more than a decade, Teller has guided X’s audacious mission to tackle the world’s toughest problems. Under his leadership, X has birthed game-changing projects like Waymo (self-driving cars), Wing (delivery drones), and Loon (internet-beaming balloons). Not every moonshot sticks — but that’s the point. Teller believes failure should be celebrated quickly, because it clears the runway for the…