Tech

Rivian is changing the door handle design on its upcoming R2 SUV after employees and customers raised safety concerns, according to Bloomberg News. The automaker is one of many that has leaned into electronically latched door handles over the last few years. While this allows for sleeker presentation and more aerodynamic design, it often results in the automaker tucking the …

Welcome to YC Arena, which is not a top secret fight club for Y Combinator founders but rather a suite of games that give you a vague sense of what it’s like to be a partner at YC. Created by a student in Berlin, YC Arena’s YC Partner Simulator game shows you a publicly available pitch video from a company …

The U.S. government shutdown that began this week is the first in seven years. While it might not feel immediately disruptive, for startups waiting on permits, visas, or regulatory approvals, even a few weeks can become an existential problem.  On this episode of Equity, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Max Zeff talk through how uncertainty is affecting startups in ways …

It’s been a whirlwind year for the vibe-coding world’s database of choice: Supabase. On Friday, Supabase announced that it raised a fresh $100 million Series E at a $5 billion valuation, led by Accel and Peak XV. This is just four months after closing its $200 million Series D at a $2 billion valuation, led by Accel. And that Series …

Speaking by video at the UN Climate Summit in New York last week, China’s president Xi Jinping laid out his country’s climate ambitions. While the stated goals may not have been aggressive as some environmentalists would like, Xi at least reaffirmed China’s green commitment. “Despite some countries going against the trend, the international community should stay on the right track, …

OpenAI’s Sora app for AI videos is a viral hit, despite being invite-only for now and limited to users in the U.S. and Canada at launch. On its first day, Sora saw 56,000 downloads, and is now ranked as the No. 3 Top Overall app on Apple’s U.S. App Store, according to new data from app intelligence provider Appfigures. On …

Aarian Marshall: Hello. Michael Calore: Given today’s topic, I’m curious to know what is the most unexpected thing you’ve both ordered through a delivery app? Louise Matsakis: So I was on a press trip to China recently, and I was taking notes during an interview, and I got pen all over my white pants. So I ordered the Chinese equivalent …

This week, the Department of Energy canceled nearly $8 billion worth of awards — a move touted by the Trump administration as an effort to protect fossil fuels at the expense of renewables. But documents obtained by TechCrunch show that the reality is more complex than that simple message. The agency has not released a list of the cancelled awards, …

OpenAI’s August launch of its GPT-5 large language model was somewhat of a disaster. There were glitches during the livestream, with the model generating charts with obviously inaccurate numbers. In a Reddit AMA with OpenAI employees, users complained that the new model wasn’t friendly, and called for the company to restore the previous version. Most of all, critics griped that …

The space economy isn’t just about rockets and satellites anymore — it’s about building resilient infrastructure, deploying autonomous systems, and creating entirely new models for how we operate and defend assets off-Earth. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, taking place October 27–29 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, the Space Stage is where these seismic shifts in space innovation come to life. Save …