One of SpaceX’s Starship rockets exploded on a test stand in Texas late on Wednesday night, as the company prepared for the tenth test flight of the heavy-lift rocket system. SpaceX said “all personnel are safe and accounted for” in a post on X, and claimed there are “no hazards to residents in surrounding communities.” … Read more
When Baiju Bhatt stepped away from his role as Chief Creative Officer at Robinhood last year, only those close to him could have predicted his next move: launching a space company built around tech that the aerospace industry has largely dismissed, and which might be more groundbreaking than anyone realizes. If people aren’t paying much … Read more
Over the last several years, fusion power has gone from the butt of jokes — always a decade away! — to an increasingly tangible and tantalizing technology that has drawn investors off the sidelines. The technology may be challenging to master and expensive to build today, but fusion promises to harness the nuclear reaction that … Read more
If you’re serious about traction, scale, and funding, you have 4 days left to secure your pass to TechCrunch All Stage — and save up to $210 while you’re at it. Prices rise after June 22 at 11:59 p.m. PT. This is not just another startup event. It’s your tactical launchpad and the fuel to … Read more
When Joe Kinvi joined Touchtech Payments in 2017 as head of finance, the Irish startup couldn’t afford his full salary. So he negotiated for stock to make up the difference. Eighteen months later, Stripe acquired the company, and that equity converted into Stripe shares, enough to let Kinvi leave his job, bootstrap a side project, … Read more
For some tense minutes on Wednesday, X users were surprised to see one of those crypto “airdrop” posts on Andreessen Horowitz’s blue check-marked account. A second tweet said that $5 million had already been given away. That account has 851,000 followers. A member of a16z’s crypto team saw the tweet and immediately posted a warning … Read more
In late 2022, Noah Pepper, a former Stripe business lead for the Asia Pacific region, founded Multiplier, a startup that aimed to sell software to tax accounts. But soon after ChatGPT was released, he realized that AI can change how professional service firms use technology. “I realized I was barking up the wrong tree by … Read more
Grifin, an investment app that simplifies investing by automatically purchasing stocks in brands where users regularly shop, announced on Wednesday that it has secured a $11 million Series A funding round, bringing the total amount raised to around $22 million. Alongside the announcement, Grifin also revealed it has surpassed 500,000 registered users, indicating that its … Read more
Sam Altman and “his tech CEO friends” have a betting pool on the year we will see the first one-person billion-dollar company. The idea of a single person reaching a billion-dollar valuation for a startup would have been unthinkable without AI. But single-person, AI-first businesses have been sprouting all over the tech industry and Birk … Read more
The latest San Francisco startup culture drama happened on Monday night. And it centered around “the most legendary party that never happened,” Cluely founder and CEO Roy Lee tells TechCrunch. Cluely had hoped to throw an after-party for a Y Combinator event occurring on Monday and Tuesday called AI Startup School. The event drew crowds … Read more
