Sierra raises $950M as the race to own enterprise AI gets serious
The raise gives Sierra more than $1 billion to work with — capital the company says it will use to become the “global standard” for AI-powered customer experiences.
The Download: unlocking lithium and controlling Ebola
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. How a new extraction process could unlock the world’s lithium A new method for extracting lithium could cut costs and emissions from one of the world’s most important materials for EVs…
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Elon Musk sent ominous texts to Greg Brockman, Sam Altman after asking for a settlement, OpenAI claims
Musk texted OpenAI’s president and co-founder saying that he and CEO Sam Altman “will be the most hated men in America.”
Anthropic and OpenAI are both launching joint ventures for enterprise AI services
Both Anthropic and OpenAI have partnered with asset managers to more aggressively market their enterprise AI products.
As X shuts down Communities, Acorn debuts an alternative that puts creators in control
Acorn lets organizations build and run their own online communities using decentralized tech, with custom feeds, moderation, and analytics tools.
US healthcare marketplaces shared citizenship and race data with ad tech giants
Virginia and Washington D.C. paused the data collection and sharing, after Bloomberg’s investigation found their health insurance marketplaces were sharing users’ information with advertisers.
Amazon opens up its global logistics network to all businesses
The new service, called Amazon Supply Chain Services, pits the e-commerce giant directly against UPS and FedEx.
5 days only: Bring a partner or colleague and get 50% off a second TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 pass
The BOGO offer is live. For a limited time, buy one pass to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 and get 50% off a second of the same ticket type. Offer ends this Friday, May 8. Save here.
Tailoring AI solutions for health care needs
The AI market is full of big promises of grand transformation. Health care is a prime target for those promises, beset as it is by financial pressures, labor shortages, and the growing burden of caring for an aging population. AI developers are targeting functions that vary widely, from curing cancer and performing surgery to streamlining…
Barocal can cool your food and drink by squeezing a hunk of plastic crystals
Barocal might have discovered a cheap, nonpolluting material that could dethrone today’s refrigeration technology.
Doordash adds AI tools to speed up merchant onboarding, edit photos of dishes
DoorDash on Monday added new AI-powered tools that let merchants speed up onboarding, edit photos to make dishes look better, and create new websites from existing content.