While the venture world is abuzz over generative AI, Dayna Grayson, a longtime venture capitalist who five years ago co-founded her own firm, Construct Capital, has been focused on comparatively boring software that can transform industrial sectors. Her mission doesn’t exclude AI, but it also doesn’t depend on it. Construct recently led a seed-stage round, […]
Astera Labs’ IPO pops 54%, showing that investor demand for tech with an AI-twist is high
Astera Labs started its life as a public company trading at $ 52.56 per share, up 46% when the bell rang. The company priced its IPO last night at $ 36 per share, above its raised price range. Astera’s debut marks the first material technology offering this year that TechCrunch is tracking. Reddit, the well-known […]
After raising $1.3B, Inflection got eaten alive by its biggest investor, Microsoft
In June 2023, Inflection announced it had raised $ 1.3 billion to build what it called “more personal AI.” The lead investor was Microsoft. Today, less than a year later, Microsoft announced that it was essentially eating Inflection alive (though I think they phrased it differently). Co-founders Mustafa Suleyman and Karén Simonyan will go to […]
Another autonomous vehicle startup shutters, Zoox expands driverless testing and investor fervor for AI escalates
TechCrunch Mobility is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. I spent a few days in Austin […]
With liquidity rare, VCs may get creative to return investor cash
Welcome to the very last issue of The Exchange! With TechCrunch+ sunsetting this month, The Exchange column and its newsletter are also coming to an end. Thank you for reading, emailing, tweeting, and hanging out with us for so many years. P.S. A special thanks from myself to Anna, who was nothing short of a […]