April 25, 2025

The Download: how Trump’s tariffs will affect US manufacturing, and AI architecture

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. Sweeping tariffs could threaten the US manufacturing rebound Despite the geopolitical chaos and market collapses triggered by President Trump’s announcement of broad tariffs on international goods, some supporters still hope the strategy will…

Intel reverses course, opts not to spin out Intel Capital

April 24, 2025
Semiconductor giant Intel won’t spin out its venture arm, Intel Capital, after all. During Intel’s Q1 earnings call Thursday, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the company has reversed its decision to spin out its 34-year-old venture arm. Instead, Intel Capital will remain internal and continue to invest with Intel’s interests in mind. “We have made […]

Intel mandates four days in the office

April 24, 2025
Intel says that it’ll require employees to work from the office four days a week, a shift from the company’s old policy. CEO Lip-Bu Tan made the announcement during Intel’s Q1 2025 earnings call on Thursday. Previously, Intel allowed staff to work from home two days a week, but Tan said that adherence to the […]

Public comments to White House on AI policy touch on copyright, tariffs

April 24, 2025
Individuals, industry groups, and local governments submitted over 10,000 comments to the White House about its work-in-progress national AI policy, also known as the AI Action Plan. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on Thursday published the text of the submissions in a PDF spanning 18,480 pages. The comments, which touch […]

Astro Teller is joining us at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 in October

April 24, 2025
We are thrilled to announce that Astro Teller, the head honcho of Alphabet’s X, the Moonshot Factory, will be joining us as a featured speaker at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, happening October 27-29 at Moscone West in San Francisco. The whole affair promises to be fun filled and rife with intel and insights that you won’t […]

Evernote founder’s video startup mmhmm becomes Airtime, launches new products

April 24, 2025
Evernote founder Phil Libin is ready to liven up your video meetings. The entrepreneur’s video startup, mmhmm, launched in 2020 amid the pandemic, on Thursday unveiled its latest product: a video toolkit for online meetings called Airtime. The suite includes two related tools: a virtual camera that helps you appear more polished on video calls, […]

Report: Adam Neumann’s Flow raises $100M+, more than doubles valuation to $2.5B

April 24, 2025
Former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann has raised over $100 million in capital for his proptech startup, Flow, in a round that values that company at about $2.5 billion, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.  Citing anonymous sources familiar with the deal, Bloomberg reported that existing backer Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) participated in the financing. Neumann told Bloomberg that […]

Report: Neumann’s Flow raises $100M+, more than doubles valuation to $2.5B

April 24, 2025
Former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann has raised over $100 million in capital for his proptech startup, Flow, in a round that values that company at about $2.5 billion, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.  Citing anonymous sources familiar with the deal, Bloomberg reported that existing backer Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) participated in the financing. Neumann told Bloomberg that […]

OpenAI wants its ‘open’ AI model to call models in the cloud for help

April 24, 2025
For the first time in roughly five years, OpenAI is gearing up to release an AI system that’s truly “open,” meaning it’ll be available for download at no cost and not gated behind an API. TechCrunch reported on Wednesday that OpenAI is aiming for an early summer launch, and targeting performance superior to open models […]

OpenAI may be developing its own social platform but who’s it for?

April 24, 2025
OpenAI is reportedly building its own X-like social network. The project is still in the early stages, but there’s an internal prototype focused on ChatGPT’s image generation that contains a social feed, The Verge reports. A social app would give OpenAI its own unique, real-time data that X and Meta already use to help train […]