Author: admin
In November 2017, TechCrunch brought Startup Battlefield to Australia for the first time. Fifteen startups from across Australia and New Zealand took the stage in Sydney, pitched in front of investors and judges, and competed for a shot at the global stage. It was one day. One stage. And what happened next is exactly why we’re coming back. Sydney, August 19, 2026 On August 19, Startup Battlefield is returning to Sydney in partnership with Stripe, one of the world’s most iconic technology companies. We’re taking over Stripe Tour Sydney for a night that the Australian startup ecosystem won’t forget. Ten…
Using an ad blocker is good for your security, privacy, and even the FBI recommends them to defend from online harms. But as much as ad blockers are great for cleaning up your browsing experience, these tools often do little to prevent the pervasive tracking from ads within apps. Now, thanks to a new feature in iOS 26 and macOS 26, one developer has built the first device-level ad blocker that works across all of Apple’s main products — iPhones, iPads, and Macs — and isn’t just limited to the browser. Filtr is a new tool created and maintained by…
Have you ever had the desire to see Sam Altman and Palmer Luckey square off over a moderately suspenseful card game? If so, you are in luck. Silicon Valley’s leaders are rushing to embrace the power of media for the purposes of marketing and political capital. Now, in a sign of the times, Founders Fund, the venture capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, has launched its own game show. “MAFIA the GAME,” will apparently be an ongoing thing, where prominent tech luminaries get together and face off over a game of cards (the show is named after the party-game favorite).…
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has had enough of merely being an artificial intelligence kingmaker. He now plans to back a new AI lab of his own. The news, broken by Bloomberg and confirmed to TechCrunch by a person familiar with the situation, marks Chesky as one of many Silicon Valley machers who are unsatisfied with the models coming out of the frontier labs. While Airbnb has adopted AI coding tools, Chesky said last year it hasn’t struck an LLM partnership because existing products weren’t quite ready. Still, Chesky has plenty of insight. He met Sam Altman in 2006 through Y…
Walmart shoppers can now add Subway sandwiches to their delivery orders in locations where the sandwich chain has a shop inside the retailer.The companies tested the partnership at two stores in Connecticut last month, and the program is currently live in Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. By the end of July, Subway delivery will be available through all of the roughly 1,400 Walmart stores where Subway is an in-store tenant, operating the fast food establishment from inside the retailer. The announcement was made at Walmart’s annual Associates Week event at the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.Making Subway delivery available…
Private investors have been falling over themselves to get a piece of Anthropic, given the AI model maker is growing at a dizzying pace. Multiple investors told TechCrunch that the company’s $65 billion fundraise at a $965 billion valuation, announced last week, was greatly oversubscribed. Now, with that private demand still strong, Anthropic has revealed that it’s taking steps towards a public listing by filing confidentially for an IPO. Co-founder Daniela Amodei, speaking at the Bloomberg Tech conference on Thursday, said the decision comes down to capital. “It’s a really big upfront cost to train the models and to serve…
A case of New World screwworm has been confirmed in South Texas, the US Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday night. It marks the first detected breach of the US-Mexico border by the ravenous flesh-eating flies, which have been making their way up through Central America for the past several years.In a social media post on Wednesday afternoon, the USDA revealed that a sample from Texas had been sent to the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa, for confirmatory testing of a screwworm infection. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins later posted that the testing had confirmed the infection, which was…
This is TVNewser’s basic cable network ranker and cable news report for the week of May 25, 2026.All three cable news networks came out of the Memorial Day Holiday weekend with some semblance of good news. However, it was MS NOW that finished the week on a better footing, as it was the only one to show gains in one of the measured categories during primetime and total day.MS NOW recorded week-to-week growth in the advertiser-coveted Adults 25-54 demo during primetime and total day. Fox News was the only network to finish in the positive column in total viewers during…
With just two weeks to go, StrictlyVC Los Angeles is quickly approaching. On Thursday, June 18, at The Aerospace Corporation Campus in El Segundo. Investors, founders, and tech leaders will gather for an evening of conversations exploring some of the most consequential shifts taking place across venture capital, defense technology, artificial intelligence, and advanced industry. Secure your spot here. For executives navigating a rapidly changing technology landscape, StrictlyVC offers something increasingly difficult to find: direct access to the people building, funding, and shaping the next generation of companies. The conversations are candid, the audience is highly curated, and the insights extend far beyond what can be found in headlines,…
It’s strange to see your life playing out on the big screen, but that’s what it felt like when I got an advanced look at TikTok Never Dies, a new documentary chronicling the high-stakes legal drama around banning TikTok in the United States. I’m not actually in the film, but as a China tech reporter, I’ve closely followed every twist and turn of the saga it covers, from when President Donald Trump first threatened to block TikTok in August 2020 to when he ended up brokering a sale of the app’s US operations in January 2026.Directed by Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker…
Netflix has a very literal game plan for the 2026 World Cup.Though the English-language rights for the upcoming soccer tournament fall under Fox’s control, Netflix is getting in on the Men’s World Cup action with a new game, FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition, which is available starting June 11.The game allows users to play as any of the 48 teams in the tournament, host games in virtual versions of 16 real-world stadiums, and control any of the 1,248 players in the real-life World Cup, according to the company.User experience was apparently one of the game’s main focuses, with Netflix promoting…
Just when you thought the AI data center boom couldn’t get any crazier, Meta has gone and built data centers in tents. The strategy appears to borrow in equal parts from Tesla and xAI. In a bid to cut construction time in half, Meta has built six tents — or “rapid deployment structures” as the company describes them — outside of New Albany, Ohio, according to Michael Thomas, founder of Cleanview, which tracks data center deployments. Thomas’ findings aren’t totally new. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke to the Information last year about his plan to use weatherproof tents to house the…
For six years, I have found myself randomly wondering, “Is this the year Phoebe Bridgers finally puts out a new album?” The answer has always been a resounding “no.”That changed on May 8, when mysterious flyers appeared in Roswell, New Mexico, announcing a show that same day at the Liberty, a venue that holds a few hundred people. Equally small pop-ups announced by flyer have followed in places ranging from Lubbock, Texas, to Macon, Georgia. On Thursday, another pop-up—also announced via flyer—is happening at a decidedly bigger venue: Madison Square Garden, where Tidal is a sponsor and tickets are $1.Yet…
Helion, the fusion startup backed by Sam Altman, announced on Thursday that it had raised $465 million in a new funding round that values the company at $15.5 billion. The cash infusion lands as Helion is racing to complete Orion, its first power plant. The startup has set an aggressive timeline to deploy fusion power to the grid, as early as 2028 if it can deliver on the terms of its deal with Microsoft. The startup last raised $425 million in January 2025. Altogether, Helion said it has raised $1.5 billion. The new round, a Series G, was led by…
Zoë Schiffer: Deviance and freaks, the new name of our podcast. And this is, I mean, just going back to red teaming, that’s work that a trust and safety team typically does. And those teams—Leah Feiger: We don’t have those anymore.Zoë Schiffer: They’re not as big as they used to be. There’s just not as much work. So yeah, I mean, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Obviously within Meta, we’ve been talking to folks this week who kind of met the news with SI. The company has just laid off a large portion of the…
NBC News’ Today led the way during the final week of May as it was the only morning show to record any positive growth in one of the two measured categories.Today had gains in the advertiser-coveted Adults 25-54 demo the week after Memorial Day. However, in total viewers, Today joined ABC News’ Good Morning America and CBS News’ CBS Mornings in recording declines for the week of May 25.NOTE: All three morning shows were coded as specials on Monday (05/25/26) due to Memorial Day. These telecasts are excluded from the weekly and season averages. ABC News, NBC News, and CBS…