Elon Musk says it’s his duty to “make new humans.” Now, a WSJ investigation suggests he may have fathered more than the 14 children already known, with sources claiming the real number could be significantly higher. The report also describes how Musk keeps those details under wraps. At the center of it all, per the...
Category: Tech Crunch
TS Anil, CEO of Monzo, is joining our StrictlyVC London lineup
StrictlyVC, the boutique brand powered by TechCrunch and known for evening events that invite headliners into smaller rooms to connect with live audiences, is headed back to London on May 13 — and its latest speaker lineup is one of its strongest yet. Joining the stage is TS Anil, CEO of Monzo Bank, the digital...
Opera adds its Aria AI assistant to Opera Mini browser
Norway-based browser company Opera said today that it is making its AI assistant Aria available to Opera Mini users on Android. This move will help users with low-end devices and data constraints access better AI features. Aria AI can help users get the latest news and information on different topics, learn more about various subjects, and...
Debates over AI benchmarking have reached Pokémon
Not even Pokémon is safe from AI benchmarking controversy. Last week, a post on X went viral, claiming that Google’s latest Gemini model surpassed Anthropic’s flagship Claude model in the original Pokémon video game trilogy. Reportedly, Gemini had reached Lavender Town in a developer’s Twitch stream; Claude was stuck at Mount Moon as of late...
Marshmallow, the UK insurance startup for migrants, raises $90M at a $2B+ valuation
U.K. startup Marshmallow has blown up over the years by using innovations in data science to build car insurance policies for immigrants and other consumers who have been overlooked or priced out of traditional insurance. Now, with a million drivers insured and a profitable annual revenue run rate of $500 million, Marshmallow has raised a...
Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani spills business tea with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex
Reshma Saujani, founder of the non-profit Girls Who Code, got straight to the point. “If I had applied to be the CEO of Girls Who Code, I wouldn’t have gotten the job,” she told Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, on the latest episode of the duchess’ podcast, “Confessions of a Female Founder.” “I didn’t code,” Saujani...
RLWRLD raises $14.8M to build a foundational model for robotics
As robotics has advanced, industry has steadily adopted more robots to automate away many kinds of grunt work. More than 540,000 new industrial robots were installed worldwide in 2023, taking the number of total industrial robots active to above 4 million, per IFR. Industrial robots typically excel at repetitive tasks, but they find it challenging...
Lime’s scooter and e-bike batteries will be recycled by Redwood Materials
Shared micromobility company Lime has reached an agreement to send batteries used in its scooters and e-bikes to Redwood Materials, which will extract and recycle critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and copper. The agreement announced Monday makes Redwood Materials the exclusive battery recycling partner for Lime’s shared scooters and e-bikes located in cities...
Tech tariff exemptions are only temporary, according to Trump’s commerce secretary
The tech industry may not be safe from new tariffs, according to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The Trump administration announced Friday evening that consumer electronics such as laptops and smartphones would be exempt from the tariffs it unveiled earlier this month. (While Trump delayed many of those tariffs this week, he left a 10%...
Apple reportedly working on a Vision Pro that plugs into your Mac
Apple isn’t giving up on its mixed reality headset the Vision Pro, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The company has been debating the best direction forward for the product after disappointing sales, Gurman says, but is now moving forward with two different models. One would address probably the two biggest complaints about the initial product...