Author: GT

Microsoft Build, Microsoft’s biggest event of the year, is on the horizon. It’s scheduled to start May 19 at the Seattle Convention Center, and it’ll run through May 22. The keynote address featuring Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CTO Kevin Scott will take place May 19 at 9:05 a.m. PT. That’ll be followed by a deep dive with executives Charles Lamanna (CVP of business and industry Copilot) and Scott Guthrie (EVP of cloud and AI) on May 20 at 9 a.m. PT. Both presentations will be streamed live online for free. As for what to expect from Build, in particular…

Coinbase (COIN) has its own strategy for BTC on the corporate balance sheet, but it’s not a bitcoin maximalist play like that of Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR). On the company’s first quarter 2025 earnings call, CFO Alesia Haas revealed that Coinbase purchased $150 million in crypto, “predominantly bitcoin,” bringing its long-term investment portfolio to $1.3 billion, or 25% of net cash. Haas, however, went out of her way to draw a line between Coinbase and firms that explicitly tie their corporate identity to holding bitcoin on the balance sheet. “To be clear, we’re an operating company,” she said. “But we…

The tech layoff wave is still kicking in 2025. Last year saw more than 150,000 job cuts across 549 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. So far this year, more than 22,000 workers have been the victim of reductions across the tech industry, with a staggering 16,084 cuts taking place in February alone. We’re tracking layoffs in the tech industry in 2025 so you can see the trajectory of the cutbacks and understand the impact on innovation across all types of companies. As businesses continue to embrace AI and automation, this tracker serves as a reminder of the human…

Amid signs of improvement in the global trade situation, Bitcoin just hit $100,000 again. Gains for Bitcoin could be fleeting if there is not substantial improvement in the overall macroeconomic outlook. If history is any guide, Bitcoin could be nearing the end of the bullish phase of its four-year cycle. 10 stocks we like better than Bitcoin › On news of positive developments on the global trade front, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) once again regained the $100,000 price level. The euphoria in the crypto market was palpable, and just about every top cryptocurrency moved higher as soon as the first trade…

HR tech startup Rippling has raised a $450 million Series G round at a $16.8 billion valuation, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. It is also conducting a $200 million tender offer to give current and former employees some liquidity. The equity raise marks a big jump in valuation from a year ago. In April 2024, Rippling was valued at $13.4 billion when it raised a $200 million Series F round led by Coatue and a $590 million tender offer, with $200 million available for employees. (The other $390 million was available for seed and other investors.) The latest financing, which…

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week was busy for startups: While there were no IPOs of note, there were other exits and even unusual liquidity events, as well as a significant number of funding rounds of various sizes and stages. Most interesting startup stories from the week Image Credits:Tim Robberts / Getty Images This week brought us M&As from serial buyers, an exit option that may be reassuring for founders still struggling with customer retention and…

Bitcoin pushed past the six-figure mark for the first time in over two months, coming within a hair of $104,000 in early Asian hours Saturday, as crypto markets staged a sharp rebound on improving macro sentiment and Ethereum’s latest network upgrade. Dogecoin (DOGE) led altcoin gains with a 10% rally, while ether (ETH) rose 3.5% following the successful implementation of its long-awaited Pectra upgrade, bringing weekly gains over 30%.Other majors including Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), xrp (XRP) and BNB Chain’s BNB rose between 2-6%, driven by a shift in investor sentiment from caution to risk-on. The move follows a string…

U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as he gives remarks outside the West Wing at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 8, 2025. Kent Nishimura | ReutersPresident Donald Trump is standing in his own way when it comes to passing crypto legislation.Lawmakers this week rejected the GENIUS Act — a bill meant to establish federal rules for stablecoins — due in part to concerns that President Trump’s personal cryptocurrency ventures have created an unprecedented conflict of interest.”Currently, people who wish to cultivate influence with the president can enrich him personally by buying cryptocurrency he owns or controls,” Sen.…

DeepSeek has gone viral. Chinese AI lab DeepSeek broke into the mainstream consciousness this week after its chatbot app rose to the top of the Apple App Store charts (and Google Play, as well). DeepSeek’s AI models, which were trained using compute-efficient techniques, have led Wall Street analysts — and technologists — to question whether the U.S. can maintain its lead in the AI race and whether the demand for AI chips will sustain. But where did DeepSeek come from, and how did it rise to international fame so quickly? DeepSeek’s trader origins DeepSeek is backed by High-Flyer Capital Management, a Chinese quantitative hedge fund…

SoundCloud appears to have quietly changed its terms of use to allow the company to train AI on audio that users upload to its platform. As spotted by tech ethicist Ed Newton-Rex, the latest version of SoundCloud’s terms include a provision giving the platform permission to use uploaded content to “inform, train, [or] develop” AI. “You explicitly agree that your Content may be used to inform, train, develop or serve as input to artificial intelligence or machine intelligence technologies or services as part of and for providing the services,” read the terms, which were last updated February 7. SoundCloud seems…