Author: Editor-in-Chief

Just nine months after raising a whopping $10 billion (plus $5 billion in debt) in January, Databricks has confirmed another $1 billion raise at a $100 billion valuation. When rumors of the raise first broke last month, Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi told TechCrunch that the company is using the funds to invest in its Supabase-competitor database for AI agents. “A year ago, we saw in the data that 30% of the databases were not created by humans,” said Ghodsi. “For the first time, they were created by AI agents. And this year, the statistic is 80%.” The round was co-led…

By the time Harry Qi was 23 years old, he had achieved the kind of financial success that most people will never attain: making about $1 million a year. He was working as “a quant” in his first job out of college. That’s hedge-fund speak for a stock-trading analyst at a statistical-model driven “quant” fund. But, like many people who spend their energies pursuing ever more money, he felt empty. “At some point you just want to make a much bigger impact on this world,” Qi, now 29, tells TechCrunch. So in 2019, he and his high school buddy, Omid…

Want to launch a startup? Build a brand? Run a large-scale conference like this one day? Volunteering at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 is one of the best ways to see how the magic happens — and learn what it takes to pull off a world-class event. IMAGE CREDITS:SLAVA BLAZER PHOTOGRAPHY TechCrunch Disrupt returns to San Francisco this October 27–29, and we’re calling in the crew to roll up their sleeves and help make it all happen. Whether you’re greeting attendees, supporting speakers, or running backstage ops, volunteering gets you free event access, real-world experience, and direct exposure to the startup scene.…

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has agreed to acquire 50MHz of wireless spectrum and Mobile Satellite Service spectrum licenses from EchoStar, for use in the Starlink satellite network. EchoStar will sell its AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licenses in exchange for $8.5 billion in cash and $8.5 billion SpaceX stock. SpaceX said the deal would let it develop and deploy its “Direct to Cell” constellation, which it claims can provide broadband-speed internet access to mobile phones across the world. Of the cash, $2 billion will be made as a direct cash interest payments on debt held by Echostar. SpaceX last year received the…

Effective immediately, employers hiring for Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA)-based jobs must use the “Direct Apply” feature on Canada’s National Job Bank, as part of the advertising requirements to receive a positive LMIA. These employers must also consider all applications received through the Job Bank via the Direct Apply function, or risk failing to meet the advertising requirements for an LMIA and having their LMIA application rejected. Impact on employers For employers, the new Direct Apply requirement introduces a stricter standard for meeting LMIAadvertising rules. Previously, employers hiring for LMIA-based positions were already required to post their roles on…

How can startups and developers actually monetize their AI products? A startup called Koah, which recently raised $5 million in seed funding, is betting that ads will be a big part of the answer. If you spend any time online, there’s a good chance you’ve seen plenty of ugly, AI-generated ads — but few to none when interacting with AI chatbots themselves. Koah co-founder and CEO Nic Baird argued that will inevitably change. “Once these things get outside San Francisco, there’s only one way to make [them profitable] on a global scale,” Baird told TechCrunch over Zoom. “It’s happened time…

A new research paper from OpenAI asks why large language models like GPT-5 and chatbots like ChatGPT still hallucinate, and whether anything can be done to reduce those hallucinations. In a blog post summarizing the paper, OpenAI defines hallucinations as “plausible but false statements generated by language models,” and it acknowledges that despite improvements, hallucinations “remain a fundamental challenge for all large language models” — one that will never be completely eliminated. To illustrate the point, researchers say that when they asked “a widely used chatbot” about the title of Adam Tauman Kalai’s Ph.D. dissertation, they got three different answers,…

InDrive, known for its bidding-based ride-hailing model across Asia and Latin America, is rolling out a “super-app” strategy aimed at frontier markets — expanding beyond cabs to deliver daily essentials to its users. Beginning with grocery deliveries in Kazakhstan, InDrive plans to expand into multiple verticals over the next 12 months across its top markets, including Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Pakistan, Peru, and Mexico. The shift comes on the heels of more than 360 million app downloads and 6.5 billion transactions globally, cementing its position as the world’s second most-downloaded ride-hailing app, behind Uber, since 2022. “If customers use you…

Hyundai’s  electric air taxi startup Supernal has paused work on its aircraft program after a rocky few months that saw staff cuts and the departure of its CEO and CTO, two people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The shakeup comes at a time when Supernal has barely gotten off the ground — literally. The first test flight of its technology demonstrator happened earlier this year. And though Supernal has performed subsequent tests, the company was still working toward its first untethered test flight before the pause. The company had planned to launch a commercial service in 2028. Supernal…

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has issued more invitations to apply (ITA) through the Express Entry system. The immigration department issued 1,000 ITAs in a draw for Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidates. To be considered in this draw, candidates needed to have: A minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of 534; and Created an Express Entry candidate profile before 8:28 a.m., Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) on August 14, 2025. See how competitive your Express Entry profile is Summary of Express Entry draws in 2025 Date Draw Type Number of ITAs Cut-off CRS score September 3 Canadian Experience…