OpenAI may have billions of dollars in the bank. But it’s gearing up to raise billions more, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Per The WSJ, OpenAI is in talks to secure up to $40 billion in a funding round that would value the startup at $340 billion. SoftBank would lead the…

Amazon is eliminating a small number of roles in its Communications and Sustainability departments, according to an internal memo viewed by TechCrunch. Per the memo, these cuts appear related to Amazon’s controversial return to office policy. In September, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy notified employees that they would be expected to return to the office five…

Google SVP Rick Osterloh issued an internal memo to the Pixel/Android/Chrome team Thursday, announcing a “voluntary exit program.” TechCrunch has confirmed the letter’s existence with the company, after it was first reported by 9 to 5 Google. In a statement to TechCrunch, a spokesperson notes, The Platforms & Devices team is offering a voluntary exit…

Despite news that Andreessen Horowitz closed its London crypto-focused office, the VC giant has dozens of scouts across Europe looking for early-stage startups, reports Sifted. Some scouts are said to work at companies like Poolside and 11x, the latter of which just raised a $50 million Series B led by the firm.  Though many of…

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! In case you missed it, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company would launch a paid ride-hailing service with a fleet of driverless vehicles in Austin in…

On Thursday, an international coalition of law enforcement agencies from Australia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Romania, Spain and the United States took down and seized two prominent hacking forums and two other related cybercriminal services.  After the takedown operations were revealed by Europol and Germany’s Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice published…

To make smart bets on the current wave of startups, Matt Hartman thinks venture capitalists will need a deeper understanding of the tech those startups are building. Hartman (pictured above) spent nine years as a partner Betaworks before starting a new firm, Factorial Capital, where he’s developed a different approach to identifying the startups with…

Microsoft announced Thursday that it’s buying over 7 million tons of carbon credits from Chestnut Carbon. The 25-year deal would enable Chestnut Carbon to reforest 60,000 acres of land across Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas, Axios reported. Recently, the tech company has struggled to rein in its carbon emissions as AI has driven a surge in…

Waymo said it is launching fully driverless robotaxi rides for employees in Atlanta, an important step before the company opens the service up to members of the public later in 2025. This is the latest signal of Waymo’s push into new markets, and it comes two months after the company closed a $5.6 billion Series…

ElevenLabs, one of the more popular startups working in the field AI audio, said Thursday that it has raised a Series C round of $180 million, valuing the company at $3.3 billion post-money. a16z and ICONIQ Growth are co-leading investment. Rumors of the fundraise were first reported by TechCrunch. The final numbers confirm some but…