Exclusive: Positron raises $230M Series B to take on Nvidia's AI chips: The investment comes from backers including the Qatar Investment Authority as demand for chips beyond Nvidia soars and as Qatar aims to build out its AI infrastructure. Read More |
After backlash, Adobe cancels Adobe Animate shutdown and puts app on 'maintenance mode': Adobe Animate will be discontinued on March 1, 2026, as Adobe shifts its focus to AI. Read More |
ElevenLabs raises $500M from Sequioia at a $11 billion valuation: ElevenLabs' valuation has raised more than three times in the last twelve months. Read More |
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Apeiron Labs gets $29M to flood the oceans with autonomous underwater robots: Most of what we know about the ocean just skims the surface, literally. We've gathered a large quantity of data on the oceans from satellites, but most of that is based on the top layer of water. Below that, the picture gets murkier. Buoys, ships, and some autonomous rovers have recently added some detail, but it's nothing like what we get from satellites today. It's frustrating to everyone from fishermen to the Coast Guard, meteorologists to offshore wind developers. "Getting data from the subsurface ocean has always been really hard," Ravi Pappu, founder and CEO of Apeiron Labs, told TechCrunch. "It's really slow. You need a ship that costs $100,000 a day, [and] steams out slowly. Everything's an expedition." Pappu hopes that his bobbing, autonomous underwater vehicle can change that. He founded Apeiron Labs in 2022 after a stint as CTO of In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture capital arm. There, the lack of data on the ocean was "a persistent problem" that kept coming up. To fill the gaps, Apeiron Labs is building low-cost vehicles that travel 400 meters up and down the water column (the vertical section of ocean from surface to seafloor), sampling temperature, salinity, and acoustics once or twice per day. Apeiron currently sells to both civilian and defense customers, Pappu said. To build and sell more of its autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), Apeiron Labs recently closed a $9.5 million Series A round led by Dyne Ventures, RA Capital Management Planetary Health and S2G Investments, the company exclusively Read More |
Alexa+, Amazon's AI assistant, is now available to everyone in the U.S.: Amazon opens Alexa+ to everyone in the U.S. The AI feature is free for Prime members across devices, and free for everyone on mobile and web. Read More |
The Minneapolis tech community holds strong during 'tense and difficult time': Founders and investors in the Minneapolis tech industry told TechCrunch they've put much of their work on hold to help out their community. Read More |
Intel will start making GPUs, a market dominated by Nvidia : Intel has been bulking up a team to focus on this effort and will develop its GPU strategy around customer needs. Read More |
India's Varaha bags $20M to scale carbon removal from the Global South: Varaha's fresh funding is part of a $45 million Series B round led by WestBridge Capital. Read More |
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Kindred talks home-swapping platform for travelers, Chef Robotics introduces AI into commercial kitchens, and Character.AI addresses chatbot safety with teens. |
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Epstein-linked longevity guru Peter Attia leaves David Protein, and his own startup 'won't comment': Attia co-founded longevity medical testing startup Biograph, which came out of stealth a year ago. Read More |
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