Tech

Sila, the battery materials startup, started operations Tuesday at its facility in Moses Lake, Washington. The factory, which will initially be capable of making enough battery materials for 20,000 to 50,000 EVs, is the first large-scale silicon anode factory in the West, and future expansion could fulfill demand for as many as 2.5 million vehicles. Silicon anodes promise to improve …

OpenAI is expanding its budget-friendly ChatGPT subscription plan beyond India. The company launched its sub-$5 ChatGPT Go paid plan for the country’s users last month and now is rolling out the same plan in Indonesia for Rp75,000 ($4.50) per month. The ChatGPT Go plan is a mid-tier subscription option that sits between OpenAI’s free version and its premium $20-per-month ChatGPT …

Rocket.new, an Indian startup building an AI-powered app development platform, has raised $15 million in a seed round led by Salesforce Ventures to take on viral vibe-coding rivals like Lovable, Cursor, and Bolt by letting users build full, production-ready apps from natural-language prompts rather than just quick prototypes. Accel and Together Fund joined Salesforce Ventures in the all-equity seed round, …

Seven years after unveiling Mirror at TechCrunch Disrupt 2018, Brynn Putnam is returning to the stage where it all began. The serial entrepreneur who turned a fitness concept into a $500 million acquisition by Lululemon will debut her latest venture at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 at San Francisco’s Moscone West in October. Putnam’s path from that breakthrough Disrupt moment to today …

Meta announced on Monday that it’s bringing an AI assistant to Facebook Dating. This chatbot is intended to help users find matches who are more closely tailored to what they are looking for. For example, Meta might suggest users ask it to find “a Brooklyn girl in tech” or a user could ask the AI to help refine their profile. …

One year ago, Stellantis announced plans to add an electrified 4xe plug-in hybrid Jeep Gladiator to North America by the end of 2025. The electrified Jeep Gladiator never made it into production. The automaker will no longer include an electrified Gladiator in its Jeep lineup as it reassesses its product strategy, the company told TechCrunch in an emailed statement. The …

There’s a classic Simpsons episode in which the sly businessman Mr. Burns recruits real Major League Baseball players to join his company softball team in order to win a bet. But when the championship is on the line, Mr. Burns pulls eight-time National League all-star Darryl Strawberry for a substitute, Homer Simpson. “You’re a left-hander, and so is the pitcher. …

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 📍 October 27–29, Moscone West, San Francisco🎟️ Register now — Regular Bird savings of up to $668 end September 26 at 11:59 p.m. PT Why join this conversation on the Builders Stage? This honest and tactical conversation will cover what really matters when raising your first institutional check — from telling a compelling story to building trust …

Ahead of the curve — he practically lives there. Before most of the world had even asked ChatGPT its first question, Elad Gil was writing early checks into companies like Perplexity, Character.AI, and Harvey. That’s just a slice of his story. His track record spans seed and Series A investments in over 30 unicorns and involvement with some of the …

Stellantis, the car-making giant behind Chrysler, Fiat, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, and other brands, has confirmed a data breach involving customers’ personal information.  In a statement published Sunday, Stellantis said it experienced a breach of a “third-party service provider’s platform that supports our North American customer service operations.”  The statement said “contact information” was taken, but Stellantis spokesperson Kaileen Connelly declined …