A major Silicon Valley medtech company just announced it was pausing H-1B hires Intuitive Surgical is best-known for building surgery robots. It just froze offers to H-1B candidates due to President Donald Trump's new policy.

🚨 Scoop with @charlesrollet.bsky.social: Intuitive Surgical, a $150-billion Silicon Valley medtech company with 13,000 employees, has paused job offers to all candidates who need H-1B sponsorship because of the recent Presidential proclamation. www.businessinsider.com/intuitive-si...

Peter Thiel Compared Tech Detractors to the Antichrist, Says a Lecture Attendee An attendee of the billionaire investor’s secretive Antichrist lecture series reveals new details from Peter Thiel's latest talk.

According to Peter Thiel, the "Antichrist" might be:

- Skeptics of the current AI boom
- Greta Thunberg.

www.inc.com/sam-blum/pet... great reporting from @samblum.bsky.social

Meta just missed a senator's deadline for submitting records about its AI chatbot policies for kids Sen. Josh Hawley's office says Meta hasn't complied with its request to hand over records on how its AI chatbot interacted with children.

🚨 Scoop with @charlesrollet.bsky.social:
Meta blew a Senate deadline to produce AI chatbot records tied to kids’ safety. “There’s no upside to meeting the deadline, no consequence for missing it, and a lot more options from buying time," experts said. www.businessinsider.com/meta-misses-...

Business Insider hires TechCrunch's Rollet - Talking Biz News Business Insider has hired TechCrunch reporter Charles Rollet as a tech reporter in San Francisco. He has been a senior writer covering artificial intelligence, security and startups. Rollet previousl...

@charlesrollet.bsky.social hired by @businessinsider.com as a tech reporter in San Francisco: talkingbiznews.com/media-news/b...

Google Worried It Couldn’t Control How Israel Uses Project Nimbus, Files Reveal Internal Google documents show that the tech giant feared it wouldn’t be able to monitor how Israel might use its technology to harm Palestinians.

NEW: I obtained two internal Google reports that indicate the company has little control over Project Nimbus, its contract with the Israeli gov/military, and is largely in the dark about how it's being used. theintercept.com/2025/05/12/g...

Exclusive: The Department of Labor just dropped its investigation into Scale AI The U.S. Department of Labor has dropped its investigation into Scale AI’s compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to a source directly The U.S. Department of Labor has dropped its investigation into Scale AI and it's investigation it's HR partner Upwork, TechCrunch has learned.

The Department of Labor just dropped its investigation into Scale AI

ChatGPT’s new image generator is really good at faking receipts This month, ChatGPT unveiled a new image generator as part of its 4o model that is a lot better at generating text inside images.  People are already using it to generate fake restaurant receipts, potentially adding another tool to the already-extensive toolkit of AI deepfakes used by fraudsters. Prolific social media poster and VC Deedy […]

ChatGPT’s new image generator is really good at faking receipts

19 founders and VCs working with Elon Musk's DOGE | TechCrunch Silicon Valley used to take a backseat to Washington, D.C. But now, the people disrupting technology have taken the wheel at the highest echelons of

🚨 BREAKING: A @techcrunch.com investigation reveals a previously unreported DOGE member: Mike Gonzalez, former founder of HR startup TraceHQ.

He quietly joined as a "Senior Advisor" to DOGE at OPM—then scrubbed it off his LinkedIn after we reached out.

***UPDATE***

I hate being right about things. #OSINT

What looks like the first photos of China’s ‘invasion barges’ we first reported in naval news recently www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2...

The front barge (self propelled) is the smallest type, some are twice this size

“The investigation has been active since at least August 2024, a document seen by TechCrunch shows. And it’s ongoing, according to a person directly familiar with the matter.”
bsky.app/profile/char...

SpaceX Starship spirals out of control in second straight test flight failure | TechCrunch SpaceX's Starship spiraled out of control while in space during a test flight on Thursday, marking the second launch in a row that the vehicle has

FAA briefly halted flights into major Florida airports and diverted flights, much like last time.

Bigger issue here is this could mean SpaceX has far more work to do than it was claiming on making Starship viable.

techcrunch.com/2025/03/06/s...

Exclusive: Scale AI is being investigated by the US Department of Labor Scale AI is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor for compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act.

SCOOP: Scale AI is being investigated by the US Department of Labor.

The startup's former managing director Michael Kratsios is set to be confirmed as a top tech advisor to President Trump.

techcrunch.com/2025/03/06/s... via @techcrunch.com

Defense tech startup Epirus raises $250M Series D to counter drone swarms | TechCrunch Defense tech startup Epirus has raised a $250m Series D to expand its counter-drone solutions.

Scoop! Defense tech startup Epirus just raised a $250 million Series D.

Epirus' flagship platform, Leonidas, uses electromagnetic pulses to take down drone swarms.

Read more on @techcrunch.com:
techcrunch.com/2025/03/04/d...

Singapore arrests alleged Nvidia chip smugglers Singapore just arrested 3 men for allegedly smuggling Nvidia chips. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Singapore arrests alleged Nvidia chip smugglers

Startup co-founded by longevity guru Peter Attia emerges from stealth Biograph, a company co-founded by longevity guru Peter Attia and a prominent Silicon Valley VC, has emerged from stealth.

NEW: A healthcare startup co-founded by longevity guru Peter Attia just emerged from stealth.

Its CEO is John Hering, a Silicon Valley VC best known for pouring billions into Elon Musk's ventures.

Hering also donated $500k to a pro-Trump super PAC.

techcrunch.com/2025/02/28/s...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang shrugs off DeepSeek as sales soar | TechCrunch Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is more bullish about Nvidia's sales than ever, despite a market panic last month induced by China's DeepSeek.

Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang is off DeepSeek as its sales soar.

In fact, Jensen thinks reasoning models like DeepSeek's will boost compute demand by at least 100x.

Read my latest on @techcrunch.com: techcrunch.com/2025/02/26/n...

Stripe says AI startups are growing faster than SaaS ever did and calling them wrappers ‘misses the point’ | TechCrunch In its annual letter released Thursday, payments giant Stripe declared that it was “seeing an AI boom” with its data revealing that artificial

Think 'GPT wrapper' startups are lame? Think again, says
Stripe's CEO: they're growing faster than SaaS ever did.

Good article from @maryannazevedo.bsky.social for @techcrunch.com

techcrunch.com/2025/02/27/s...

NEW: Apple said it "can no longer" offer iCloud end-to-end encryption in the UK, and turned off the option to enable it for new users in the country.

The unprecedented move comes after the British government demanded a backdoor into Apple's cloud service.

techcrunch.com/2025/02/21/a...

Exclusive: Despite recent layoffs, Meta is expanding in India Meta is expanding in India, despite recent layoffs of what the tech giant controversially deemed "low performers."

Scoop: Despite recent layoffs, Meta is expanding in India by setting up a 'brand new' engineering site in Bangalore.

This is a significant move by Meta, which hasn't used India as an engineering hub before.

techcrunch.com/2025/02/21/d... via @techcrunch.com

After raising $1 billion, fintech Varo closes another $29 million, replaces founder CEO Fintech Varo has been hoping to raise a $55 million Series G round but has, so far, closed on $29 million to date, according to a recent SEC filing. Varo

Varo, a fintech that has already raised over $1 billion (!), is quietly trying to raise another $55 million, a filing shows.

Its CEO also recently resigned.

techcrunch.com/2025/02/19/a...

Good post by @maryannazevedo.bsky.social

Exclusive: Elon Musk staffer created a DOGE AI assistant for making government “less dumb” A senior Elon Musk staffer created a custom AI chatbot that's supposed to help DOGE "eliminate" government waste.

NEW: The custom AI chatbot for DOGE has been taken down.

techcrunch.com/2025/02/18/e... via @techcrunch.com

Exclusive: Elon Musk staffer created a DOGE AI assistant for making government “less dumb” A senior Elon Musk staffer created a custom AI chatbot that's supposed to help DOGE "eliminate" government waste.

Breaking: A senior Elon Musk staffer with a role in the White House has quietly created an AI assistant to help DOGE "eliminate" government waste.

The chatbot is powered by Musk's startup xAI.

techcrunch.com/2025/02/18/e... via @techcrunch.com

Trump’s USAID Cuts Halt Agent Orange Victims Program in Vietnam Fifty years after the Vietnam War ended, President Trump’s gutting of foreign aid has halted American efforts to address a toxic legacy and build a strategic partnership.

the human cost

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/w...

Exclusive: Elon Musk staffer created a DOGE AI assistant for making government “less dumb” A DOGE staffer created a custom AI chatbot that's supposed to help "eliminate" government waste.

New: A senior Elon Musk staffer, who has a role in the White House, created a custom AI chatbot that purports to help DOGE eliminate government waste, TechCrunch has learned. The chatbot is powered by Musk’s AI company, xAI.

w/ @charlesrollet.bsky.social.

techcrunch.com/2025/02/18/e...

The Risk of a Taiwan Invasion Is Rising Fast | Recorded Future assessment based on a range of behaviors and trends across China, Taiwan, and the United States (US) www.recordedfuture.com/research/ris...

Shopify took down Kanye’s swastika t-shirt shop, but another antisemitic storefront still operates Shopify took down Kanye West’s online store after the musician sold t-shirts with the swastika symbol. West, who also goes by Ye, advertised his online store in a Super Bowl commercial on Sunday, directing viewers to his website, where the only item…

Shopify took down Kanye’s swastika t-shirt shop, but another antisemitic storefront still operates

Exclusive: Carta settles two more lawsuits that alleged sexual harassment and discrimination Carta, which previously faced scrutiny over its workplace environment, has settled two lawsuits filed by women who used to work there.

Scoop: Carta has quietly settled two more lawsuits from women who accused the firm of sexual harassment and discrimination.

As of last month, Carta has now settled 3 such suits in San Francisco's superior court.

techcrunch.com/2025/02/10/c...

via @techcrunch.com