Tech

X, formerly Twitter, has started rolling out its new encrypted messaging feature called “Chat” or “XChat.”  The company claims the new communication feature is end-to-end encrypted, meaning messages exchanged on it can only be read by the sender and their receiver, and — in theory — no one else, including …

Acqui-hires feel like they’re here to stay: The team behind Alex Codes, a popular tool that lets developers use AI models within Apple’s development suite Xcode, is joining OpenAI. In a post on X, Alex Codes’ founder Daniel Edrisian said the startup’s team is joining OpenAI’s Codex division, which is …

Isotopes came out of stealth on Thursday with a healthy $20 million seed round. It offers an AI agent to solve a problem that data analytics products have struggled with for decades: The people who know how to run the big data infrastructure are not the ones who actually need …

When you design for people instead of institutions, you don’t just build a product. You build a movement. That’s the idea behind this live Builders Stage session called “Creating Communities and Companies That Last,” only at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 on October 27-29 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. This fireside chat …

Tesla shareholders will soon vote whether to let the electric vehicle maker invest in Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI, a proposal pitched as a way to strengthen Tesla’s ambitions in AI, robotics, and energy.  Listed in Tesla’s proxy statement alongside a company-backed push to raise Musk’s 10-year pay package to …

If you’re a founder who planned to wait until the last minute … this is it. Today is the final day to secure your exhibit table at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025. If you want to get in front of more than 10,000 startup and VC leaders, connect with media, and generate a …

Snapchat is launching a new Lens that lets users create and edit images using a text-to-image AI generator, the company told TechCrunch exclusively. The new “Imagine Lens” is available to Snapchat+ Platinum and Lens+ subscribers. Imagine Lens allows users to create, edit, and recreate Snaps by entering their own prompts. …

Tesla has proposed a new 10-year compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk that could be worth as much as $1 trillion even as the EV maker’s car business stumbles and it sets its sights on humanoid robotics and AI. The company has tied the compensation to a number of benchmarks, …

Investors are clearly bullish about former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor’s AI agent startup Sierra. Sierra, which helps enterprises build customer service AI agents, announced it raised a $350 million funding round on Thursday. The round, led by earlier investor Greenoaks Capital, values the startup at $10 billion, according to a …

Rivian is laying off around 150 workers — its second small staff cut in a matter of months — as the company readies itself for the all-important launch of its more-affordable R2 SUV next year. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that the new cuts were mostly to its “commercial” team, …