Technology

LMArena reached a valuation of $1.7 billion four months after launching its product

LMArena reached a valuation of $1.7 billion four months after launching its product

✨ Discover this insightful post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: Startups,TC,Venture,Felicis Ventures,ai benchmarks,lm arena 📌 **What You’ll Learn**: LMArena, a startup that originally launched as a UC Berkeley research project in 2023, announced Tuesday that it has raised a $150 million Series A at a post-money valuation of $1.7 billion. The round was led by Phyllis and university fund, UC Investments. The startup broke out of the gate as a venture with a $100 million seed round in May at a valuation of $600 million. This new round means it has raised $250 million in about seven months. LMArena is…
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News of Meta’s Manus is getting mixed receptions in Washington and Beijing

News of Meta’s Manus is getting mixed receptions in Washington and Beijing

🔥 Check out this insightful post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: AI,Beijing,manus,Meta ✅ **What You’ll Learn**: Not surprisingly, Meta's $2 billion acquisition of assistive AI platform Manus has caught up in a regulatory tug of war — but not because of US regulators. They appear confident in the legitimacy of the deal despite previous concerns about Benchmark's investment in Manus. However, China's regulators are reportedly not entirely optimistic, according to the Financial Times. When Benchmark led a funding round for Manus earlier this year, the investment sparked immediate controversy. US Senator John Cornyn complained about the deal involving Company X,…
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Executives at McKinsey and General Catalyst say the era of “learn once, work forever” is over

Executives at McKinsey and General Catalyst say the era of “learn once, work forever” is over

🔥 Check out this awesome post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: AI,Startups,General Catalyst,Jason Calacanis,Jobs,labor ✅ **What You’ll Learn**: If there's one point of agreement among the keynote speakers at CES 2026, it's that AI is reshaping technology at a speed and scale unlike any previous technological revolution. In a live Tuesday recording of the All-In podcast, co-host Jason Calacanis interviewed Bob Sternfels, global managing partner of McKinsey & Company, and Hemant Taneja, CEO of General Catalyst. Their discussion focused on how AI will transform investment and workforce strategies. “The world has completely changed,” Taneja said of the unprecedented growth of…
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The most unusual technology announced yet at CES 2026

The most unusual technology announced yet at CES 2026

🚀 Check out this must-read post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: Startups,Hardware,AI,Gadgets,Robotics,CES,ces 2026 ✅ **What You’ll Learn**: While CES 2026 is full of tech giants unveiling their latest innovations, the real excitement comes from discovering unexpected and strange gadgets that will make you wonder: "Who thought of this?" We're here to highlight the wildest products we've found yet at CES 2026, from an AI-powered panda that responds to your touch, to Razer's anthropomorphic animation assistant, and plenty of weird stuff to make you do a double take. An AI anime companion that watches you from your desk Razer's Project AVA,…
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A viral Reddit post alleging fraud from a food delivery app turns out to have been generated by artificial intelligence

A viral Reddit post alleging fraud from a food delivery app turns out to have been generated by artificial intelligence

🚀 Check out this awesome post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: AI,misinformation,Reddit ✅ **What You’ll Learn**: A Reddit user claiming to be a whistleblower from a food delivery app has been exposed as fake. The user wrote a viral post claiming that the company he works for was exploiting drivers and users. “You always suspect that algorithms are rigged against you, but the reality is actually much more depressing than the conspiracy theories,” the alleged whistleblower wrote. He claimed he was drunk and was at the library to use the public Wi-Fi, where he was writing this long letter about…
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Wearable health devices could generate 1 million tons of e-waste by 2050

Wearable health devices could generate 1 million tons of e-waste by 2050

💥 Read this awesome post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: Biotech & Health,e-waste,e-waste recycling,In Brief,wearables 💡 **What You’ll Learn**: This week in Las Vegas, technology companies at CES 2026 are unveiling the latest wearable health devices — glucose monitors, blood pressure trackers, and fitness trackers. probably no Mentioned in the presentation is that these tools may cause a huge environmental problem. It's not something that tends to attract a lot of attention, but a new study by Cornell University and the University of Chicago found that by 2050, demand for health wearables could reach 2 billion units per year, or…
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How the 2026 World Cup is Permanently Changing US Sports Culture

How the 2026 World Cup is Permanently Changing US Sports Culture

When I stepped onto the empty stadium in Kansas City three weeks before the opening match, the silence was deafening—yet the air was thick with a secret that even the most seasoned fans hadn’t yet uncovered. Why were local vendors suddenly stocking Mexican street‑taco kits, why were high‑school coaches whispering about “new formations,” and why did my editor at ViralPique insist we treat this event as a cultural earthquake? The answer lies in a single, game‑changing phenomenon that’s about to rewrite the rulebook of American sports forever: the FIFA World Cup 2026. In the next 1500+ words I’ll peel back…
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CES 2026: Everything revealed, from Nvidia’s debut to AMD’s new chipsets to Razer’s AI oddities

CES 2026: Everything revealed, from Nvidia’s debut to AMD’s new chipsets to Razer’s AI oddities

💥 Read this trending post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: AI,Hardware,Robotics,Amazon,amd,boston dynamics,ces 2026,nvidia 💡 **What You’ll Learn**: CES 2026 is in full swing in Las Vegas, where the show floor is open to the public after two busy days of press conferences from the likes of Nvidia, Sony and AMD and previews from Sunday's Unveiled event. As has been the case over the past two years at CES, artificial intelligence is at the forefront of many companies' messaging, though the hardware upgrades and oddities that have long defined the annual event still have their place on the show floor and…
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Mobileye is acquiring humanoid robotics startup Mentee Robotics for $900 million

Mobileye is acquiring humanoid robotics startup Mentee Robotics for $900 million

💥 Explore this insightful post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: Robotics,Transportation,CES,ces 2026 💡 **What You’ll Learn**: Mobileye has made its name and money by supplying automakers with millions of computer vision chips designed to power car safety features and advanced driver-assistance systems. The Intel subsidiary and publicly traded company later expanded to address autonomous driving with its chips and software. Now, co-founder and president Amnon Shashua is taking the company into what he calls Mobileye 3.0. This means robots are gaining huge amounts. The Israeli company announced Tuesday during CES in Las Vegas that it has reached an agreement to…
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A California lawmaker is proposing a four-year ban on AI chatbots in children’s games

A California lawmaker is proposing a four-year ban on AI chatbots in children’s games

🚀 Read this awesome post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: AI,Government & Policy,AI chatbots,AI policy,sb 287 ✅ **What You’ll Learn**: Sen. Steve Padilla (D-CA) introduced a bill Monday that would impose a four-year ban on the sale and manufacture of toys containing AI-powered chatbot capabilities to children under 18. The goal is to give safety regulators time to develop regulations to protect children from "dangerous AI interactions." “Chatbots and other artificial intelligence tools may become an integral part of our lives in the future, but the risks they pose now require us to take bold action to protect our children,”…
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