Author: Jason

We may see OpenAI’s agent tool, Operator, released sooner rather than later. Changes to ChatGPT’s code base suggest that Operator will be available as an early research preview to users on the $200 Pro subscription plan. The changes aren’t yet publicly visible, but a user on X who goes by Choi spotted these updates in… Read more

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is launching so-called “strategic market status” (SMS) investigations into the mobile ecosystems of Apple and Google. The investigations constitute part of the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA) which passed last year and came into effect in January. The Act includes provisions for digital markets regulation… Read more

An Indian tribunal on Thursday suspended restrictions that would have barred WhatsApp from sharing user data with its parent company Meta, delivering a significant victory for Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire in its largest market by users. The ruling by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal temporarily lifts a five-year ban imposed by India’s antitrust… Read more

Stockholm startup Neko Health has made a big bet on consumers wanting to learn about their state of health and how to prevent things going wrong. Now, investors are making a big bet on Neko.  The startup has raised a fresh $260 million in funding, a Series B that values Neko at $1.8 billion post-money,… Read more

A software engineer has bought the website “OGOpenAI.com” and redirected it to DeepSeek, a Chinese AI lab that’s been making waves in the open source AI world lately. Software engineer Ananay Arora tells TechCrunch that he bought the domain name for “less than a Chipotle meal,” and that he plans to sell it for more.… Read more

Google has agreed to acquire a part of HTC’s extended reality (XR) business for $250 million, expanding its push into virtual and augmented reality hardware following the recent launch of its Android XR platform. The deal involves transferring some of the HTC VIVE engineering staff to Google and granting non-exclusive intellectual property rights, according to… Read more

The $1 billion acquisition of rent-to-own startup Divvy Homes, which was announced Wednesday, is expected to leave some shareholders without a payout, according to sources familiar with the deal.  The terms — and Divvy’s journey from buzzy startup to acquisition target — reflects the rollercoaster ride the proptech industry has endured over the past decade.… Read more

Caffeinated Capital, a San Francisco venture firm started by a solo capitalist Raymond Tonsing, is raising a fifth fund of $400 million, according to a regulatory filing. The firm, an early investor in software company Airtable and defense startup Saronic, has already raised $160 million toward the fund. If Caffeinated hits its target, it will… Read more

Ati Motors, an Indian startup building AI-powered autonomous mobile robots, has raised $20 million in a Series B round. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Read more

Chris Young, Microsoft’s head of of business development and its venture unit, M12, resigned from his role on Wednesday, the company said. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Read more