Fintech Block laid off 931 people Tuesday, according to a leaked message from the company seen by TechCrunch. The news was announced to staff in an email from Block’s co-founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey. Dorsey told staff that Tuesday, Block will be “making some org changes, including eliminating roles and beginning the consultation process in…

When Kat Abughazaleh got laid off from her job as an extremism researcher and video producer at Media Matters last year, Elon Musk personally chimed in on X to celebrate her misfortune. “Karma is real,” Musk said. But as Abughazaleh said in a video on Monday announcing her campaign for Congress, she’s not afraid of…

French VC firm Daphni is announcing the first closing of its new fund, Daphni Blue. The firm has raised €200 million (around $215 million at current exchange rates). It expects to raise as much as €250 million ($270 million) by the end of the year. Some of Daphni’s most remarkable past investments include Back Market,…

OpenAI released updates Monday for Advanced Voice Mode, its AI voice feature that enables real-time conversations in ChatGPT, to make the AI assistant more personable and interrupt users less frequently. Manuka Stratta, an OpenAI post-training researcher, announced the changes in a video posted Monday to the company’s official social media channels. OpenAI’s latest update aims…

Vertical farming company Plenty has filed for bankruptcy, the company said in a press release on Monday. In its statement, Plenty said it has received a commitment for $20.7 million in debtor-in-possession financing as part of a proposed restructuring plan. It plans to continue to operate a strawberry farm in Virginia and a plant science…

Calling all tech innovators, startup fanatics, marketing gurus, and emerging VCs — this is your moment! You’ve waited long enough, and now the time has come to step into the spotlight at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, taking place October 27–29 in San Francisco. Share your expertise with over 10,000 eager attendees and make an impact by…

FuriosaAI, a South Korean startup that makes chips for AI applications, has rejected an $800 million acquisition offer from Meta, opting instead to focus on developing and producing its AI chips, according to a local media report. Disagreements over post-acquisition business strategy and organizational structure, rather than price issues, caused the negotiations to break down,…

The Bot Company, the robotics startup founded by former Cruise co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt, has raised $150 million in a round led by Greenoaks, according to Reuters, citing unnamed sources. Vogt founded the startup with Paril Jain, who led the AI tech team at Tesla, and former Cruise software engineer Luke Holoubek. Vogt did…

Social network Bluesky, an alternative to X built on open source technologies, has scored a big win in terms of attracting notable users to its platform. The company on Sunday confirmed that former president Barack Obama has joined its service. Bluesky OOO Rose Wang replied to a post where someone wondered if the account posting…

We may not have an agreed-upon definition of AI “agent” yet, but a multitude of startups want to create “agentic” tools to automate various tasks online. One such firm, Browser Use, has attracted a ton of interest from developers and investors thanks to its solution that makes websites more “readable” for AI agents. Browser Use…