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US sanctions Chinese cyber firm linked to Flax Typhoon hacks
U.S. officials say the sanctioned Chinese firm provided botnet infrastructure for the China-backed hacking group Flax Typhoon © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
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These MagSafe earbuds snap on to the back of an iPhone
We’ve seen a handful of AirPod-charging iPhone battery cases come and go over the years. Artronic’s new earbuds take a different approach, with a slim charging case that snaps directly to the back of MagSafe-compatible phones. The Komutr buds were announced on Friday, a few days ahead of their CES 2025 debut. In a sea…
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Electra found a cheap, clean way to purify iron, and it’s raising $257M to make it happen
Electra has raised $76.3 million to clean up the dirty ironmaking industry, TechCrunch has learned. The startup has developed a novel method of using electricity to coax pure iron out of low-grade ores, opening the door to cleaner steel. The new funding round, which was disclosed in a regulatory filing, seeks to raise a total…
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Online gift card store exposed hundreds of thousands of people’s identity documents
The gift card store secured the public cloud storage server containing customer ID documents, which was not protected with a password. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
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Rivian wraps 2024 with more than 50,000 EVs delivered
Rivian finished last year having delivered 51,579 electric SUVs, trucks, and vans, more than triple the number it shipped to customers in 2023. The company announced Friday that it also built 49,476 EVs in 2024. That’s about 8,000 fewer than it expected to manufacture as recently as July. Rivian was forced to lower its expectations,…
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Hindustan Unilever in talks to acquire Peak XV-backed Minimalist for up to $350M
Consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever is in advanced talks to acquire four-year-old direct-to-consumer startup Minimalist for up to $350 million, according to two people familiar with the matter. An acquisition would add to the Unilever subsidiary’s buying spree in India, where it expanded into the health and wellbeing category by acquiring Oziva and Wellbeing Nutrition…
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Cloudflare’s VPN app among half-dozen pulled from Indian app stores
More than half-a-dozen VPN apps, including Cloudflare’s widely-used 1.1.1.1, have been pulled from India’s Apple App Store and Google Play Store following intervention from government authorities, TechCrunch has learned. The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs issued removal orders for the apps, according to a document reviewed by TechCrunch and a disclosure made by Google to…
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Peter Thiel-backed venture debt firm Tacora raises $268.7M for new fund
Tacora Capital has raised its second fund, after Peter Thiel backed its first fund with $250 million. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
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KoBold used AI to find copper — now investors are piling in to the tune of $537M
The Bill Gates-backed startup uses AI to comb through massive data sets in an attempt to find more critical minerals. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
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xAI’s next-gen AI model didn’t arrive on time, adding to a trend
The list of flagship AI models that missed their promised launch windows continues to grow. Last summer, billionaire Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of AI company xAI, said that Grok 3, xAI’s next major AI model, would arrive by “end of year” 2024. Grok, xAI’s answer to models like OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Google’s Gemini,…