Author: admin
Former Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario is resigning from her position on Rivian’s board of directors, according to a Friday afternoon stock exchange filing. Rivian wrote in the filing that Marcario’s last day will be on January 1, and that she is leaving “to focus on other commitments.” Rivian’s board will shrink from eight members to seven upon her resignation. Marcario’s departure and the downsizing of Rivian’s board comes on the eve of an important year for the company. Rivian plans to start selling its more affordable R2 SUV in the first half of 2026. The upcoming R2 is supposed to…
Building in regulated industries adds a massive hurdle to the already challenging journey of building a startup. And this week on Build Mode, Startup Battlefield editor Isabelle Johannessen spoke to two founders who are working to make progress in industries ripe for disruption, despite the regulatory headaches that might have deterred many other people. In this episode, we’re talking about life and death and how regulatory clearance doesn’t have to be a damper on innovation but it will elongate timelines and require careful planning from the jump. Isabelle is first joined by Gabriel Sanchez, the CEO and co-founder of Enspectra Health. The company has built a device that aims to do away with the need for dermatologist skin biopsies. Sanchez breaks down his decade-long journey to receiving FDA…
Resolve AI, a startup developing an autonomous site reliability engineer (SRE), a tool that automatically maintains software systems, has raised a Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, according to three people familiar with the deal. The headline valuation for the fresh round is $1 billion, sources said. However, the company’s actual blended valuation was lower because of a multi-tranched structure. In this setup, investors purchased some equity at a $1 billion valuation but acquired the remainder — likely a larger percentage of the round — at a lower price. This novel investment approach has recently become popular for the…
Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire is once again drawing unwanted attention to the prominent venture firm after falsely accusing a Palestinian student of being behind the December 13 Brown University mass shooting and the subsequent murder of an MIT professor. In since-deleted posts on X, Maguire speculated that “it seems very likely” the student was the perpetrator, pointing to Brown “actively scrubbing his online presence.” In reality, authorities identified the shooter as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national who was later found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility. Brown officials said they removed the student’s digital footprint…
OpenAI is in talks to raise up to $100 billion in a funding round that could value the ChatGPT maker at up to $830 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources. The company is aiming to raise the funding by the end of the calendar first quarter next year, and it may ask sovereign wealth funds to invest in the round, the WSJ reported. The Information first reported news of the deal, though it said the fundraise would land OpenAI a $750 billion price tag. The funding would come as OpenAI commits to spend trillions of dollars…
2025 was a chaotic year for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which was among the agencies impacted by the longest U.S. government shutdown in history.However, the year also stood out for the truly wild discoveries made by security screening officers at airports across the country. The year began with a head-scratching discovery at San Francisco International Airport, where officers uncovered crystal meth hidden in wax candles.”Whatever your methods are, we can all agree that this is not a very bright idea. To be crystal-clear, while we aren’t looking for your meth-od of madness, we are required to notify law enforcement…
Every year, TechCrunch looks back at the cybersecurity horror shows of the past 12 months — from the biggest data breaches to hacks resulting in weeks of disruption — to see what we can learn. This year, the data breaches were like nothing we’ve seen before. Here’s our look back at some of the biggest security incidents of 2025, starting with: The U.S. government remained one of the biggest targets in cyberspace. The year started with a brazen cyberattack by Chinese hackers on the U.S. Treasury, followed by the breaching of several federal agencies, including the agency tasked with safeguarding…
MSC Cruises opened bookings for the MSC Magnifica 115-day world cruise, which will call at 40 destinations in 29 countries.The ship is undergoing a major renovation, which is expected to be completed by year’s end. Travelers will be able to embark on the world cruise from Civitavecchia or Genoa, Italy; Marseille, France; or Barcelona, Spain, on Jan. 4, 5, 6 and 7, respectively.The itinerary will feature seven overnight stays in destinations such as Lima, Peru, a destination for the line; Papeete, Tahiti; Sydney, Australia; and Hanoi, Vietnam. In addition to Lima, other new destinations include Nuku’alofa, Tonga; Manta, Ecuador; Arica,…
Krafton, the South Korean gaming company behind hit titles such as PUBG and Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), is launching a growth investment fund focused on India, stepping up its push into the world’s largest internet user base. Called the Unicorn Growth Fund, the investment vehicle is a collaboration between Krafton and South Korean internet conglomerate Naver and investor Mirae Asset. It aims to deploy up to ₹60 billion (around $669.3 million) over four years, Krafton confirmed to TechCrunch. The fund, which will be managed by Mirae Asset Venture India, is expected to be established in January and begin operations with…
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Just before Thanksgiving, Claudio Neves Valente checked into a Boston hotel and traveled to Brown University, where he had studied physics 25 years earlier.The drive to Providence was short, and in the days that followed, the 48-year-old Portuguese national returned to the campus again and again. On most trips, he drifted around Brown and the surrounding neighborhoods in a gray Nissan rental car with Florida plates. A custodian noticed him inside an engineering building while most students were home on the holiday break and spotted him again three days later, according to authorities.Investigators say that on…