Browsing: Exclusive

U.S. battery startups hit a rough patch when the One Big Beautiful Bill eliminated battery and EV incentives, undercutting a chunk of future demand. But recently, they’ve found a lifeline in the defense world, helping to power everything from drones and torpedoes to infantry radios and fighter jets.

Anthropic’suniversal usage standards for Claude forbid the model from generating sexually explicit content, including depicting or requesting sexual intercourse or sex acts, generating content related to sexual fetishes or fantasies, or engaging in erotic chats. But that hasn’t stopped Claude Opus 4.6, an Anthropic model released earlier this year, from readily engaging in erotic roleplay…

A Department of Energy lab is investigating whether Chinese lidar sensors might pose a security risk if they become widely used on vehicles in the United States, TechCrunch has learned.

Starcloud, a startup developing satellites that can perform AI inference in orbit, told TechCrunch that it has added a $250 million extension to its March $170 million Series A funding round. The extension values the company at $2.3 billion.

Democratic senator Ron Wyden is asking the U.S. government to review how federal law enforcement agencies use hacking tools and spyware against Americans, citing a lack of transparency into how often or for what reasons these tools are deployed.  

In a cheeky marketing campaign, Liquid Death teamed up with former Philadelphia Eagles star Jason Kelce to share a solution to mitigate the environmental impact of AI data centers, which require massive quantities of water to prevent servers from overheating.

The nuclear power industry is undergoing something of a renaissance, with startups raking in funding to develop advanced reactors in a quest to lower costs. But based on recent projections, it’s unlikely those reactors will be cost-competitive anytime soon.

Days after reporting an incident affecting a number of its customers, enterprise data giant Alation on Thursday confirmed a cyberattack.

Anthro Energy broke ground on Tuesday on a factory in Louisville, Kentucky, that can make enough battery materials for more than 300,000 electric vehicles.

Reach Capital announced Tuesday the close of a $265 million Fund V. The thesis of the 11-year-old, San Francisco firm is to back founders building AI applications that can “expand human potential,” Tony Wan, head of platform at Reach Capital, told TechCrunch. In practice, he added, that means looking at founders building across three areas:…