These days, nothing is certain about the tech market or the world at large. Even Nvidia’s seemingly bulletproof stock took a hammering on Monday, enduring a $589 billion market cap decline after China-based DeepSeek raised questions for investors about more efficient AI models. But Apple’s stock has remained steady ahead of its first-quarter earnings report,…
8VC, a venture firm led by Palantir founder Joe Lonsdale, is seeking nearly $1 billion for its sixth fund, according to a regulatory filing. The Austin-based firm’s latest fund aims to raise nearly 14% more than its previous $880 million flagship vehicle, which closed in February 2023. TechCrunch has reached out to the firm for…
Threads, Meta’s microblogging service, is growing at a fast pace as users gravitate to the app over rivals like X. During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings presentation on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Threads now has 320 million monthly active users (MAUs), up from 300 million last month. The app had 275 million monthly active…
Meta says its controversial decision to put an end to its fact-checking program hasn’t impacted advertiser spend. On its Q4 2024 call, Meta CFO Susan Li assured investors that advertiser demand remains strong and the company’s commitment to brand safety remains unchanged, despite the new measures. Meanwhile, CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted that the community notes…
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday that his company will launch a paid ride-hailing robotaxi service in Austin, Texas using its own fleet vehicles this coming June — the latest in a long line of sky-high promises he has yet to meet about autonomy. Musk was otherwise unsurprisingly light on details. He said that there…
U.S. markets panicked on Monday over speculation that DeepSeek’s AI models would crush demand for GPUs, with Nvidia’s stock dropping almost 20%. But Meta isn’t backing off, with its CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledging that the tech giant would invest “very heavily” in AI – even “hundreds of billions of dollars” – over the long term,…
LinkedIn, the social platform where people look for and talk about work, may be less visible in Microsoft’s earnings compared to the years when it was an independent company. But around earnings time, LinkedIn often reveals some figures that point to how it continues to grow. On Wednesday, as Microsoft reported its Q2 numbers, the…
Hackers are exploiting outdated versions of WordPress and plugins to alter thousands of websites in an attempt to trick visitors to download and install malware, security researchers have found. The hacking campaign is still “very much live,” Simon Wijckmans, the founder and CEO of web security company c/side, which discovered the attacks, told TechCrunch on…
Microsoft’s close partner and collaborator, OpenAI, might be suggesting that DeepSeek stole its IP and violated its terms of service. But Microsoft still wants DeepSeek’s shiny new models on its cloud platform. Microsoft today announced that R1, DeepSeek’s so-called reasoning model, is available on Azure AI Foundry service, Microsoft’s platform that brings together a number…
Chinese AI company DeepSeek has been accused of IP theft, faced privacy inquiries in Europe, and has been the target of an enormous cyberattack. Now, it appears the company has a new headache on its hands: a U.S. trademark conflict. On Tuesday, DeepSeek filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) seeking…