Tech

The Trump administration last Friday announced a new $100,000 annual levy on H-1B visas, which allow 85,000 skilled foreign workers to enter the U.S. each year. The fee applies to companies hiring these workers, primarily in tech. Veteran venture capitalist Michael Moritz isn’t having it. In a new, scathing Financial Times op-ed, the former Sequoia Capital honcho compares the White …

Medical device funding is hitting levels we haven’t seen since 2021, with investors pouring billions into diagnostics and imaging companies. While innovation has raced ahead, a fundamental problem still hasn’t changed: Critical medical hardware like MRI machines cost millions of dollars and is limited to large hospitals. So how do you take one of the most expensive, hospital-bound technologies and …

A new app offering to record your phone calls and pay you for the audio so it can sell the data to AI companies is, unbelievably, the No. 2 app in Apple’s U.S. App Store’s Social Networking section. The app, Neon Mobile, pitches itself as a moneymaking tool offering “hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year” for access to …

Zoox has asked federal regulators for an exemption that would allow the Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company to commercially deploy its custom-built robotaxis, which lack traditional controls like pedals and a steering wheel. The exemption request was first reported by Bloomberg. A Zoox spokesperson confirmed that it has submitted a petition for a “555 exemption” and continues to work closely with …

The Trump administration might be fond of calling the energy transition the “green new scam,” but that isn’t stopping it from seeking a significant stake in what promises to be the largest lithium mine in the Western Hemisphere. In exchange for renegotiating the repayment period of a $2.26 billion Department of Energy loan, the Trump administration is asking for as …

The Trump administration might be fond of calling the energy transition the “green new scam,” but that isn’t stopping it from seeking a significant stake in what promises to be the largest lithium mine in the Western Hemisphere. In exchange for renegotiating the repayment period of a $2.26 billion Department of Energy loan, the Trump administration is asking for as …

YouTube will finally allow you to hide the pop-up recommendations that appear at the end of videos, the company announced on Wednesday. Now when you see an end screen, you can tap a new “Hide” button in the top-right corner of the video player to hide the pop-ups from the current video you’re watching. Selecting this button will only hide …

On Wednesday, Enterprise AI model-maker Cohere said it raised an additional $100 million — bumping its valuation to $7 billion — in an extension to a round announced in August. The August round was an oversubscribed $500 million round at a $6.8 billion valuation, the company said at the time. Cohere also announced an interesting twist on a partnership. While …

Microsoft is leaning into its new partnership with OpenAI’s chief rival, Anthropic. Starting Wednesday, the software giant will incorporate Anthropic’s AI models into its AI assistant Copilot, which has previously been fueled mainly by OpenAI.   The deal signals yet another step toward the slow disentangling between the erstwhile exclusive partners, and comes a couple of weeks after Microsoft inked …

Go-to-market is often where great startups stumble — but it doesn’t have to be. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 in San Francisco this October 27-29, GTM pros Max Altschuler, Alison Wagonfeld, and Marc Manara take the Builders Stage to show founders how to build a go-to-market engine that doesn’t just support the product, but also scales with it. Register now to …