Technology

Benchmark raises $225 million from private funds to double its funding in Cerebras

Benchmark raises $225 million from private funds to double its funding in Cerebras

💥 Check out this must-read post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: AI,Fundraising,TC,Venture,Benchmark,Cerebras 💡 **What You’ll Learn**: AI chip maker Cerebras Systems announced this week that it has raised $1 billion in new capital at a valuation of $23 billion — nearly triple the $8.1 billion valuation reached by rival Nvidia just six months ago. While the round was led by Tiger Global, a significant portion of the new capital came from one of the company's early backers: Benchmark Capital. The prominent Silicon Valley company invested at least $225 million in Cerebras' latest round, according to a person familiar with the…
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Spotify is changing its developer mode API to require premium accounts, and limit trial users

Spotify is changing its developer mode API to require premium accounts, and limit trial users

💥 Explore this must-read post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: Media & Entertainment,developers,Spotify,web API ✅ **What You’ll Learn**: Spotify is changing how its APIs work in developer mode, its layer that lets developers test their third-party apps using the audio platform's APIs. Changes include a mandatory privileged account, fewer test users, and a limited number of API endpoints. The company first launched developer mode in 2021 to allow developers to test their apps with up to 25 users. Spotify is now limiting each app to just five users and requiring developers to get a Premium subscription. If developers need to…
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How AI helps solve the labor problem in treating rare diseases

How AI helps solve the labor problem in treating rare diseases

💥 Read this awesome post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: AI,Biotech & Health,AI drug discovery,Exclusive,gene editing,geneditbio,Insilico Medicine,web summit 💡 **What You’ll Learn**: Modern biotechnology has the tools to edit genes and design drugs, yet thousands of rare diseases remain untreated. According to executives at Insilico Medicine and GenEditBio, the missing ingredient for years is finding enough smart people to keep the business going. They say AI has become a force multiplier that allows scientists to tackle problems that the industry has long left unsolved. Speaking this week at Web Summit Qatar, Insilico's president, Alex Aliper, outlined his company's goal of…
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Senator, who has repeatedly warned against secret US government surveillance, sounds new alarm over ‘CIA activities’

Senator, who has repeatedly warned against secret US government surveillance, sounds new alarm over ‘CIA activities’

🚀 Read this insightful post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: Security,cia,cyberattack,cybersecurity,Ron Wyden,Trump Administration,us government ✅ **What You’ll Learn**: A top Democratic lawmaker familiar with some of the U.S. government's most secret operations said he has "deep concerns" about some of the CIA's activities. The two-line letter, written by Senator Ron Wyden, the longest-serving member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, does not reveal the nature of the CIA's activities or the senator's specific concerns. But the letter follows a pattern in recent years in which Wyden has publicly hinted at wrongdoing or illegality within the federal government, sometimes referred to as…
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AI startup founder says he’s planning a ‘billionaires’ march’ to protest California’s wealth tax

AI startup founder says he’s planning a ‘billionaires’ march’ to protest California’s wealth tax

✨ Explore this must-read post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: Government & Policy,billionaires tax,california,Gavin Newsom 💡 **What You’ll Learn**: The war over California's proposed "billionaire tax" is getting weird. This week, amid the ongoing rancor from tech elites over the much-criticized bill, it became clear that someone was planning a so-called “Billionaires March” in San Francisco. A website advertised the event, offering little context other than a pithy slogan: “Denigration of billionaires is common. Losing them is expensive.” The immediate reaction was skepticism, and most people assumed the site was some kind of bizarre hoax. “This is a joke/satire isn't…
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Season 4 of “Industry” depicts tech fraud better than any TV show right now

Season 4 of “Industry” depicts tech fraud better than any TV show right now

💥 Explore this insightful post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: Media & Entertainment,Fintech,HBO,Industry,media,tv 📌 **What You’ll Learn**: HBO's hit financial thriller "Industry" delivered one of its most compelling stories so far this season: a chase to expose a fraudulent financial technology company called Tender. The show follows Harper Stern, who leads her newly launched investment firm and searches for a company to short sell — essentially betting that its stock will collapse. After a journalist tipped her off that something was wrong with Tender, she sent her colleagues Sweetpea and Kwabena to Ghana to investigate. What they discovered was a…
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From Svedka to Anthropic, brands are making bold moves using AI in Super Bowl ads

From Svedka to Anthropic, brands are making bold moves using AI in Super Bowl ads

✨ Discover this insightful post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: Media & Entertainment,Adtech,AI,Anthropic,Football,super bowl 💡 **What You’ll Learn**: Following last year's trend of featuring AI in multi-million dollar ad spots, the 2026 Super Bowl ads are taking it a step further by leveraging AI to create commercials and promote the latest AI products. Love it or hate it, this technology has become a star in its own right, alongside the latest movie commercials and snack brands. Let's explore the biggest moments from this year's big toy announcements, which featured everything from robots and AI glasses to a touch of drama…
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It’s easier than ever for Claude to check in to your WordPress site

It’s easier than ever for Claude to check in to your WordPress site

💥 Discover this awesome post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: AI,Anthropic,Claude,WordPress 📌 **What You’ll Learn**: WordPress on Thursday launched a new Claude Connector, enabling site owners to share backend data with Anthropic's chatbot system. Users can control what specific data they want to share, and can also revoke access if and when the user chooses. Notably, Claude is granted read-only access, which means he will not be able to change anything within the user's content management system. However, WP claimed last year that it would eventually offer "write-in" access to the MCP integration, allowing users to perform editorial tasks directly…
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Prince Andrew’s advisor offered Jeffrey Epstein to invest in electric car startups such as Lucid Motors

Prince Andrew’s advisor offered Jeffrey Epstein to invest in electric car startups such as Lucid Motors

✨ Explore this insightful post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: TC,Transportation,Canoo,david stern,EVs,Exclusive,faraday future,lucid,prince andrew 💡 **What You’ll Learn**: Electric vehicle startup Lucid Motors was scrambling to raise a Series D funding round in 2017. It had courted Ford as a potential investor, but Jia Yueting, founder of electric vehicle startup Faraday Future, had quietly raised about 30% equity and was essentially holding off new investors. David Stern, the mysterious businessman and close advisor to former Prince Andrew, saw an opportunity to break the impasse: bring in Jeffrey Epstein. "Ford will likely lead Lucid's $400 million Series D," Stern wrote to…
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Maybe AI agents can become lawyers after all

Maybe AI agents can become lawyers after all

✨ Discover this insightful post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: AI,agentic ai,benchmarks,Exclusive,Mercor ✅ **What You’ll Learn**: Last month I wrote about the new Merkur standard for measuring the capabilities of AI agents in professional tasks such as law and corporate analysis. At the time, the results were very poor, with every major lab scoring below 25%, so we concluded that lawyers were safe from being displaced by AI, at least for now. But AI capabilities can change a lot in a couple of weeks. This week's release of Opus 4.6 has shaken up the leaderboards, with the new Anthropic model…
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