Author: GT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — President Donald Trump wants the U.S. government to own a piece of Intel, less than two weeks after demanding the Silicon Valley pioneer dump the CEO that was hired to turn around the slumping chipmaker. If the goal is realized, the investment would deepen the Trump administration’s involvement in the computer industry as the president ramps up the pressure for more U.S. companies to manufacture products domestically instead of relying on overseas suppliers.What’s happening?The Trump administration is in talks to secure a 10% stake in Intel in exchange for converting government grants that were pledged to…

Microplastics are increasingly being found in our bodies and food supply. They are defined as pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters — about the size of a pencil eraser. But they can also be much smaller, like the size of a virus particle or a strand of DNA.Petrochemicals, the building blocks of plastic, are produced from oil and gas. The business is a small but profitable area of the fossil fuel industry, and any push back on the use of plastics is seen as a threat to the oil and gas industry.”Where the industry is most vulnerable is on the…

Hertz sells hundreds of thousands of vehicles per year, in addition to running its signature car rental business.Courtesy of HertzHertz on Wednesday announced it will start selling pre-owned vehicles on Amazon Autos, a move meant to bolster the car rental company’s retail operations as it looks to bring in more profits.Shares of Hertz soared in premarket trading Wednesday.Under the partnership, customers can browse from thousands of used Hertz vehicles on Amazon Autos, e-sign the paperwork, complete their purchase online and pick up their vehicle at Hertz locations.Customers who live within 75 miles of the four initial cities — Dallas, Houston,…

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 lands in San Francisco from October 27-29, and the Expo Hall is already packed with early adopters, startup scouts, and enterprise buyers looking to discover what’s next. If you’re not there to show off your product, your competitors will be — and they’ll be closing deals that could’ve been yours. There’s still time to book your exhibit table, but space is disappearing fast. The brands that move now will be the ones getting the face time, the leads, and the traction that matters most. This isn’t an opportunity to sit on. Time is ticking, tables are booking,…

Meta is rolling out an AI-powered voice translation feature to all users on Facebook and Instagram globally, the company announced on Tuesday. The new feature, which is available in any market where Meta AI is available, allows creators to translate content into other languages so it can be viewed by a broader audience. The feature was first announced at Meta’s Connect developer conference last year, where the company said it would pilot test automatic translations of creators’ voices in reels across both Facebook and Instagram. Meta notes that the AI translations will use the sound and tone of the creator’s…

Visitors attend UGM 2025.Courtesy of EpicSpace travelers, robots and, of course, artificial intelligence.They were all on display on Tuesday at Epic Systems’ annual Users Group Meeting, held at the health software giant’s 1,670-acre campus in Verona, Wisconsin.Judy Faulkner, Epic’s 82-year-old CEO, dressed for the occasion in a purple wig with neon green shoes and an iridescent vest, reminiscent of the fictional character Buzz Lightyear from the “Toy Story” franchise.At the science fiction-themed event, Faulkner told the crowd that Epic has roughly 200 different AI features in development that aim to assist patients, clinicians and insurers.”We are combining the intelligence and…

Databricks is in the process of closing a fresh round at a $100 billion valuation, sources confirmed to TechCrunch. The round was originally reported by the Wall Street Journal. A source familiar with the deal tells TechCrunch exclusively that the new round is about $1 billion and was wildly oversubscribed. Databricks, best known for its data analytics products, refrained from selling even more equity because it didn’t need cash for operations after its once record-breaking $10 billion raise at a $62 billion valuation in January, according to the source. (OpenAI has since squashed the record with a $40 billion raise in…

The Council for Science and Technology (CST) urges the UK to seize a “once-in-20-years opportunity” to build a world-class AI chip design industry, or risk becoming a nation that simply consumes, rather than creates, the technology that will define our future.In a report published this week, the council argues the UK must get serious about designing its own AI chips. This isn’t just about economic growth; it’s about national security and sovereignty.The market for specialised AI chips is exploding, set to grow by 30% every year and make up more than half of the entire global semiconductor industry by 2030.…

From no-code to AI-assisted dev environments, “vibe coding” is changing how early-stage startups build — and who they need to hire. The once-standard idea of landing a “10x engineer” as your first critical hire is getting a serious reality check at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, taking place October 27-29 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. Vibe coding: Hype or new reality? Join Lauri Moore, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, and David Cramer, co-founder and chief product officer at Sentry, on the Builders Stage for a candid conversation about how developer tools are reshaping early product development. Moore brings deep expertise in AI,…

On Friday, The Information reported that Meta was preparing to tear down its existing AI org and reorganize it into four new groups. Four days later, the change has been made official with an internal memo, as reported by Bloomberg and The New York Times. The changes were announced by Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, who joined Meta as chief AI officer in June. Meta’s new organization for AI will be called the Meta Superintelligence Labs, or MSL. The centerpiece is a new group called TBD Labs, which will be run by Wang. The group will focus on foundation models…