TechCrunch

TechCrunch

5/16/2025, 4:20:57 PM

Coders were hit hardest among Microsoft’s 2,000-person layoff. Over 40% of the people laid off were in software engineering, making it by far the largest category. To be fair, coders are a big chunk of Microsoft’s workforce, although it doesn’t disclose the exact proportion. Read more here: https://tcrn.ch/4jYViiT

TechCrunch

5/15/2025, 4:47:32 PM

Crypto giant Coinbase has confirmed its systems have been breached and customer data, including government-issued identity documents, were stolen. In a legally required filing with U.S. regulators, Coinbase said a hacker this week told the company that they had obtained information about customer accounts, and demanded money from the company in exchange for not publishing the stolen data. Read more here: https://tcrn.ch/3GXtLzN

TechCrunch

5/14/2025, 4:35:40 PM

Y Combinator has some choice words for Google in an amicus brief it submitted in the U.S.’s monopoly case against the search giant. In the brief, YC charged that Google is a “monopolist” that has “stunted” the U.S. startup ecosystem by making VC firms like itself hesitate to fund web search and AI startups in what it calls a “kill zone” around Google. Read more here: https://tcrn.ch/42Yf7Rq

TechCrunch

5/13/2025, 4:17:34 PM

Buzzwords that are stretched to the point of being meaningless are as old as the tech industry itself. The top current one is “AI agent” and its variants, like “agentic.” So, unsurprisingly, no one really knows what an AI agent is. Even people with software engineering backgrounds who work for Andreessen Horowitz, one of the premier venture capital firms madly funding AI startups, say that there’s no agreed-upon definition. Read more here: https://tcrn.ch/3YGKfSR

TechCrunch

5/12/2025, 4:53:33 PM

23andMe, the genetic testing giant once valued in the billions, is now navigating Chapter 11 bankruptcy and notifying millions of current and former customers that they may be eligible to file claims as part of the restructuring process. The company and 11 of its subsidiaries, including Lemonaid Health and LPRXOne, filed for bankruptcy protection on March 23 of this year in the Eastern District of Missouri. Read more here: https://tcrn.ch/43cKSVs

TechCrunch

2/19/2025, 5:08:33 PM

As anticipated, Apple revealed the long-awaited iPhone SE refresh. The fourth generation device arrives three years after the last major update to the budget-minded smartphone. This one arrives with a twist, however. The SE branding has been dropped to keep the device more in line with the company’s flagships. The new iPhone 16e starts at $599 and will begin shipping February 28. Read more here: https://tcrn.ch/41nB2kf

TechCrunch

2/26/2025, 7:25:42 PM

At an event in NYC on Wednesday, Amazon announced an upgraded Alexa experience — Alexa+ — powered by generative AI technologies. Onstage, Amazon’s devices and services chief Panos Panay called it a “complete re-architecture” of the AI assistant. Amazon’s new and improved Alexa experience, Alexa+, starts at $19.99 per month, or free for Amazon Prime subscribers. Read more here: https://tcrn.ch/43fcBa2

TechCrunch

2/21/2025, 5:11:45 PM

Meta announced that it’s now accepting sign-ups for its Community Notes program on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. The announcement follows Meta news last month that it’s going to end its third-party fact-checking program and is instead moving to a Community Notes model similar to the one at X. Read more here: https://tcrn.ch/3D0XuGl

TechCrunch

2/27/2025, 5:27:35 PM

Digital payments platform Stripe has yet to lay out plans to go public, but in the meantime, the company has thrown past and present employees a line for some liquidity. The company on Thursday confirmed a tender offer where investors will buy up shares from those employees at a valuation of $91.5 billion. Stripe said it will also repurchase shares as part of the transaction. Read more here: https://tcrn.ch/4h08YYw

TechCrunch

2/20/2025, 4:58:46 PM

Mark Zuckerberg’s charity has eliminated its DEI programs and efforts just weeks after assuring staff it would continue supporting DEI efforts, The Guardian reports. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), co-founded by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, will end internal DEI programs and no longer provide “social advocacy funding,” which provided grants for racial equity and immigration reforms. Read more here: https://tcrn.ch/41mLRTA