Category: info1
Big tech is paying for Trump’s White House ballroom
While the U.S. government remains in limbo during a shutdown, the White House grounds have been busy this week. Construction workers have begun demolition on the White House’s East Wing, which will be replaced by a 90,000-square-foot ballroom that’s estimated to hold up to 1,000 guests. Taxpayers are not funding President Donald Trump’s $250 million…
20-year-old dropouts built AI notetaker Turbo AI to 5 million users
Five million users. Eight-figure annual recurring revenue. Twenty thousand new users joining daily. These are some solid numbers for a startup called Turbo AI launched in early 2024 by Rudy Arora and Sarthak Dhawan, two 20-year-old college dropouts. Most of this growth has come in the past six months, the founders tell TechCrunch, during which…
YouTube paid out $8B to the music industry in 12 months
YouTube has paid more than $8 billion to the music industry in the 12 months between July 2024 and July 2025, the company announced on Thursday. “Today’s $8 billion payout is a testament to the fact that the twin engine of ads and subscriptions is firing on all cylinders,” said YouTube’s Global Head of Music,…
Elon Musk frets over controlling Tesla’s ‘robot army’ as car biz rebounds slightly
Tesla’s record sales quarter has offered the company a reprieve after a terrible start to 2025. But CEO Elon Musk is focused on building a “robot army” and making good on his years-long, unfulfilled promise of self-driving cars — tasks he needs to accomplish if he is to unlock the full value of the $1…
As China’s 996 culture spreads, South Korea’s tech sector grapples with 52-hour limit
As the world races to stay ahead in the deep tech revolution — from AI and semiconductors to quantum computing — innovation has become the new currency of power. For many companies, that pressure has translated into heavier workloads and more intense work cultures. Yet they face a real dilemma: they can’t simply ease up…
Amazon unveils AI smart glasses for its delivery drivers
Amazon announced on Wednesday that it’s developing AI-powered smart glasses for its delivery drivers. The idea behind the glasses is to give delivery drivers a hand-free experience that reduces the need to keep looking between their phone, the package they’re delivering, and their surroundings. The e-commerce giant says the glasses will allow delivery drivers to…
OpenAI’s Atlas is more about ChatGPT than the web
OpenAI unveiled its AI browser, ChatGPT Atlas, during a livestream on Tuesday. There are other AI browsers such as The Browser Company’s Dia, Opera’s Neon, Perplexity’s Comet, and General Catalyst-backed Strawberry. OpenAI’s launch is notable because of the sheer scale of reaching potentially 800 million of its weekly ChatGPT users. For the company, the browser…
Open source agentic startup LangChain hits $1.25B valuation
LangChain raised $125 million at a $1.25 billion valuation, the company announced on Monday. TechCrunch reported in July that the provider of a popular open source framework for building AI agents was raising fresh funds at a valuation of at least $1 billion. The deal was led by IVP, as we previously reported. New investors…
Netflix goes ‘all in’ on generative AI as entertainment industry remains divided
As the entertainment industry reckons with when and how to use generative AI in filmmaking, Netflix is leaning in. In its quarterly earnings report released on Tuesday afternoon, Netflix wrote in its letter to investors that it is “very well positioned to effectively leverage ongoing advances in AI.” Netflix isn’t planning to use generative AI…
Sources: Multimodal AI startup Fal.ai already raised at $4B+ valuation
Fal.ai, a startup that hosts image, video, and audio AI models for developers, has closed a new round valuing the company at over $4 billion, four people familiar with the deal said. The company raised approximately $250 million, two of the people said. Major investors in the round are Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia, according to…
