DOGE axes CISA ‘red team’ staffers amid ongoing federal cuts

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has fired more than a hundred employees working for the U.S. government’s cybersecurity agency CISA, including “red team” staffers, two people affected by the layoffs told TechCrunch.  The people, who asked not to be named, said affected employees were axed immediately when their network access was revoked with … Read more

Yet another AI robotics firm lands major funding, as Dexterity closes latest round

The intersection of robotics and AI continues to attract attention from investors and Big Tech alike. The latest indicator? Dexterity, a startup specializing in industrial robots with “human-like” finesse, has raised $95 million at a post-money valuation of $1.65 billion, per Bloomberg. The investment, which includes backing from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sumitomo Corp., highlights … Read more

Waymo expands its robotaxi service across Silicon Valley

Waymo will start offering robotaxi rides to people in its “Waymo One” early rider program in Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto, and “parts of Sunnyvale” starting Wednesday, an expansion that will bring its footprint in Silicon Valley to 27 square miles. The Waymo vehicles will be available around-the-clock, and the new territories add to … Read more

Trump nominates Sean Plankey as new CISA director 

President Donald Trump nominated Sean Plankey to head the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), according to a White House email sent to journalists on Tuesday. Plankey has several years of experience working for the U.S. government. In 2013, Plankey gave cybersecurity support to U.S. forces deployed in Afghanistan, then worked at U.S. Cyber Command, … Read more

Musk’s Starlink to launch in India through Airtel

Telco giant Airtel Tuesday announced a partnership with SpaceX to launch Starlink’s high-speed satellite internet services in India — years after Elon Musk’s company made its first moves to enter the country, the world’s second-largest internet market after China. Importantly, the deal is not a roll-out plan. Services are subject to SpaceX receiving regulatory clearance from … Read more

General Fusion fires up its newest steampunk fusion reactor

General Fusion announced on Tuesday that it had successfully created plasma, a superheated fourth state of matter required for fusion, inside a prototype reactor. The milestone marks the beginning of a 93-week quest to prove that the outfit’s steampunk approach to fusion power remains a viable contender. The reactor, called Lawson Machine 26 (LM26), is … Read more

Equator closes $55M fund to bring more private capital to African climate tech

African venture capital firm Equator has raised $55 million for its first fund, which will back climate tech startups through one of the most difficult and often overlooked phases in their journey: the early stage. Climate tech startups in African countries have to navigate a tougher funding landscape than their counterparts in more developed economies, … Read more

Eric Schmidt joins Relativity Space as CEO

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is taking over as the CEO of Relativity Space, a 9-year-old rocket startup, a company spokesperson confirmed in a statement to TechCrunch. This is Schmidt’s first CEO job since he left Google nearly 15 years ago. On Monday, Schmidt told employees of Relativity Space that he made a significant investment … Read more