Tech

The 2024 runner-up in the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield, geCKo Materials, returned to the stage at this year’s show to debut new products as it pushes deeper into commercializing its tech. Founder Dr. Capella Kerst revealed four new uses of geCKo’s super-strong dry adhesive: a semiconductor wafer handling tool, a robotic gripper for smooth surfaces (like solar panels or glass), …

Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie doesn’t think AI agents will replace enterprise SaaS (software as a service) companies. Instead, he believes that the more likely future is a hybrid combination of SaaS plus agents, he said, speaking on stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 conference on Wednesday. “Generally, once you have a business process, you want to be able …

Waymo and Zoox robotaxis are a regular sight on San Francisco streets, and soon Uber, through a partnership with Lucid and Nuro, will descend on the city as well. It is exactly how San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie likes it. “I think we should be the testbed for emerging technology and AI and healthcare tech — and all of it,” …

Microsoft Azure, the cloud computing service provided by the company, is experiencing a significant outage on Wednesday. The problems started around 12 p.m. ET, and Microsoft has acknowledged the issue on the service’s status page. According to Microsoft, “We suspect that an inadvertent configuration change triggered this issue.” The company has not indicated when service will be restored. Multiple Microsoft …

General Motors is laying off thousands of workers across multiple electric vehicle and battery plants in the U.S., according to multiple outlets. Around 1,200 employees at the company’s EV factory in Detroit, Michigan, are being placed on “indefinite layoff.” Further cuts and temporary layoffs are being made at GM’s Ultium Cells battery factories in Ohio and Tennessee. GM will also …

Peter Williams, the former general manager at defense contractor L3Harris, has pleaded guilty to selling surveillance technology to a Russian broker that buys “cyber tools,” the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed Wednesday.  “The material, stolen over a three-year period from the U.S. defense contractor where he worked, was comprised of national-security focused software that included at least eight sensitive and …

Google announced this week it is working with NextEra Energy to revive a nuclear power plant in Iowa that had closed in 2020. NextEra has been looking for a partner to reopen the reactor for the past year, and it found one in Google, which has been steadily adding zero-carbon energy sources to power its growing data center fleet. Neither …

Bending Spoons, one of Europe’s largest mobile app developers, announced on Wednesday that it has agreed to buy AOL from Yahoo, which is backed by private equity giant Apollo. Bending Spoons says it has secured a $2.8 billion debt financing package to support the purchase. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the year and is subject …

AI audio company ElevenLabs‘ co-founder and chief executive Mati Staniszewski believes that AI models will be commoditized over time, a revealing comment for a company focused today on building them. Speaking onstage at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 conference on Tuesday, the ElevenLabs founder was discussing both his short-term and long-term views of the AI audio space. Staniszewski said that his …

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 is here! If you’re still on the fence about attending in person, dive into the extensive schedule of speakers, networking opportunities, workshops, after-parties, and more that’s available here. There’s still time to get a last-minute ticket, and we’re giving a 50% discount since there’s just one day left! If you’re not able to attend in person, the …