Tech

The U.S. Department of Energy has taken equity stakes in Canadian company Lithium Americas and its Nevada mining joint venture with General Motors as part of a renegotiation of a federal loan. Under the new terms, the U.S. government will take a 5% equity ownership in Lithium Americas and a 5% ownership in the Lithium Americas-GM joint venture. The equity …

Starbase is a city without a police department, but not without police. For months, Cameron County sheriff’s deputies have patrolled the roads and beaches surrounding SpaceX’s sprawling rocket facility in South Texas. Now, less than a year after Starbase residents voted to incorporate, the city has signed formal agreements making those deputies its de facto police force and Cameron County …

Toyota is looking for the next new thing in mobility, climate, AI, and industrial automation. Its answer is $1.5 billion in new capital that will focus on, and invest in, the life cycle of startups — from the first seeds of an invention through its growth stage and eventually to mature companies. Toyota made two related announcements Tuesday that provide …

South Korea is world-famous for its blazing-fast internet, near-universal broadband coverage, and as a leader in digital innovation, hosting global tech brands like Hyundai, LG, and Samsung. But this very success has made the country a prime target for hackers and exposed how fragile its cybersecurity defenses remain.   The country is reeling from a string of high-profile hacks, affecting credit …

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint against Sendit, an anonymous question app that became popular with Gen Z and younger, for unlawfully collecting children’s data, deceiving users about who sent them messages, and tricking users into buying memberships. On Sendit, users — who are mostly teens — can send each other anonymous questions via integrations with Instagram, TikTok, …

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has blocked an effort to pass legislation that would have extended data privacy protections for federal lawmakers and public officials to everyone in the United States. On Monday night, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) asked the U.S. Senate for unanimous consent from fellow senators to pass his legislation, S.2850. Wyden’s bill, if passed, would have taken bipartisan-passed …

Periodic Labs came out of stealth on Tuesday with a war chest of $300 million as a seed round, backed by a tech industry’s who’s who: Andreessen Horowitz, DST, Nvidia, Accel, Elad Gil, Jeff Dean, Eric Schmidt, and Jeff Bezos. Period Labs was founded by Ekin Dogus Cubuk and Liam Fedus. Cubuk led the materials and chemistry team at Google …

On Tuesday, OpenAI announced the release of Sora 2, an audio and video generator to succeed last year’s Sora. Along with the model, the company also launched a linked social app called Sora, where users can be able to generate videos of themselves and their friends to share on a TikTok-style algorithmic feed. OpenAI’s work on a new social platform …

What happens when your first 10 hires aren’t people at all? At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, happening October 27–29 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, we’re digging into the new wave of startups replacing or augmenting early employees with AI agents. Think outbound sales, billing, and customer support — automated from day one. This panel, hosted on the Builders Stage, features a …

Fubo, the popular live sports TV streaming service, announced on Tuesday that its shareholders have approved its transaction with Disney, combining Fubo with Hulu Live TV.  Initially announced in January, the deal brings the companies closer to finalizing an agreement that is anticipated to disrupt the streaming industry by making Hulu a far bigger threat to its larger rival, YouTube. …