Julie Bort
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Startups and VC desk editor, TechCrunch. Formerly Business Insider, IDG, author of two books. I'm a mom, skier and mountain biker.
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Articles by Julie Bort
OpenAI, Google’s Wiz find ancient holes, panicking the internet
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Year-old AI lab Flapping Airplanes raises $1B at a $6B valuation Original
Year-old startup Flapping Airplanes has wowed Silicon Valley with an impressive founding team and a mission to find ways to train large models with less data. On Wednesday, the company announced it had raised a $1 billion Series A round, co-led by Index and Lux, reportedly at a $6 billion valuation. The round comes just nine months after the company launched with a $180 million seed round from GV, Sequoia, and Index.
PHP armageddon: OpenAI, Google’s Wiz find ancient holes, panicking the internet
Tech News Tube is a real time news feed of the latest technology news headlines.Follow all of the top tech sites in one place, on the web or your mobile device.
PHP armageddon: OpenAI, Google’s Wiz find ancient holes, panicking the internet
8 hours ago The iPhone Duo is the biggest change to the iPhone’s form factor in its nearly 20-year history. It combines a compact, notebook-style design with an iPad-like inner display. It might look a little awkward, but that’s for good reason. I’ve spent the last week using the iPhone Duo. Here’s everything …
PHP armageddon: OpenAI, Google’s Wiz find ancient holes, panicking the internet
The NSA warned that these holes are so severe that if a website can’t be patched immediately, it should be pulled off the web until it can be. The holes allow attackers to infiltrate the server’s file system or a database that may be used by the web app. Interestingly, these holes have been tucked away in all versions of PHP since version 5, which was released in 2004.
OpenAI Acquires Orchestra Bio to Enhance Biotech Software Capabilities
OpenAI announced the acquisition of Orchestra Bio, a four-year-old AI biotech software startup, to strengthen its biotech initiatives. The financial terms of the deal remain undisclosed, although Orchestra Bio had raised approximately $20 million by 2025 from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Atria, and 8VC.
Google has joined Amazon in attacking Nvidia’s stronghold with AI app developers
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Hugging Face CEO warns that Netflix’s OpenAI hack documentary isn’t accurate
Before you share the Netflix documentary “AI Gone Rogue” with family or friends to help them understand why the AI industry freaked out so badly that leaders called for a slowdown, take note: Clem Delangue, co-founder and CEO of the AI platform Hugging Face, says the film isn’t accurate. He appears in it because it’s supposed to be about the famed attack on his company by rogue OpenAI agents.
Hugging Face CEO warns that Netflix’s OpenAI hack documentary isn’t accurate
9 hours ago Brace yourself, because it’s about to be a standoff! On Oct. 20, Venus Retrograde will meet with Pluto in a harsh square, leaving us with no choice but to get to the bottom of things in our relationships and finances. In astrology, a square occurs when two planets of the same modality sit 90 degrees …
OpenAI acquires startup Orchestra Bio to beef up its biotech business Original
In Brief 1:35 PM PDT · October 20, 2026 Image Credits:FotografiaBasica (opens in a new window) / Getty Images OpenAI acquires startup Orchestra Bio to beef up its biotech business OpenAI on Tuesday acquired a four-year-old AI biotech software startup called Orchestra Bio, the company announced via its website. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the startup had reportedly raised around $20 million as of 2025 from backers like Andreessen Horowitz, Atria, and 8VC.
Google has joined Amazon in attacking Nvidia’s stronghold with AI app developers
On Tuesday, Google announced that TorchTPU, its long-awaited version of PyTorch, is now available as an open-source project. With this, Google joins Amazon in trying to break Nvidia’s stranglehold on the AI industry, where most AI apps are written by default to run on Nvidia’s chips, or GPUs. PyTorch is the popular open-source toolkit that AI app developers and startups use to build, train, and run AI models. It is, by some accounts, used by 85% of the AI apps.
Microsoft Introduces Guardian Agents to Combat AI Threats Amid Trust Concerns
Microsoft has launched new security features, including Guardian Agents, to safeguard enterprises from AI agents' threats. This initiative is part of Project Perception, which aims to address vulnerabilities posed by powerful AI models like Anthropic’s Mythos and OpenAI’s Daybreak. The importance of this development lies in Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's warning that AI agents could act as insider threats, similar to rogue employees.
Amazon is taking its biggest shot at Nvidia yet with new TorchNeuron dev tool
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Microsoft says AI agents are like insider threats as ‘frontier models can’t be trusted’
Perhaps the most notable addition is Guardian Agents, a new feature intended to monitor the AI agents a company uses. Guardian Agents is part of Project Perception, a product introduced in June. Project Perception was Microsoft’s answer to powerful hacking models like Anthropic’s Mythos and Fable and OpenAI’s security vulnerability scanning system Daybreak.
Amazon is taking its biggest shot at Nvidia yet with new TorchNeuron dev tool
On Monday, Amazon Web Services released a tool called TorchNeuron that lets AI startups easily move their AI apps onto Amazon’s AI chip, Trainium. In doing so, Amazon is also taking a direct stab at the the software advantage that has helped Nvidia become the default hardware choice for AI apps, and spurred its rise as AI hardware provider of choice. TorchNeuron works with PyTorch, a free, open-source toolkit that developers use to build, train, and run AI models.
Nvidia launches new open models to run agents in the enterprise and on PCs
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Nvidia launches new open models to run agents in the enterprise and on PCs
Tech News Tube is a real time news feed of the latest technology news headlines.Follow all of the top tech sites in one place, on the web or your mobile device.
Nvidia launches new open models to run agents in the enterprise and on PCs
Nvidia on Thursday launched new open-weight models designed for always-on agents and edge computing. The Nemotron 3.5 Super VL is a large, 120-billion-parameter model geared for agents used by the enterprise. While it uses fewer parameters than the Nemotron 3 Ultra model, Nvidia says it can deliver similar accuracy in instruction-following and tool-use tasks.
Popular AI leaderboard Arena nearly doubles valuation to $3.1B valuation in 10 months
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Popular AI leaderboard Arena nearly doubles valuation to $3.1B valuation in 10 months Original
Arena, which originated in 2023 as a research project at UC Berkeley that crowdsourced rankings of AI models, has raised a $200 million Series B round at a $3.1 billion valuation, it said on Thursday. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Khosla Ventures, with Salesforce Ventures, 01 Advisors, Dell Technologies Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, a16z, Felicis and others joining in. Arena previously announced a $150 million Series A in January at a $1.7 billion post-money valuation.
Popular AI leaderboard Arena nearly doubles valuation to $3.1B valuation in 10 months
Arena, which originated in 2023 as a research project at UC Berkeley that crowdsourced rankings of AI models, has raised a $200 million Series B round at a $3.1 billion valuation, it said on Thursday. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Khosla Ventures, with Salesforce Ventures, 01 Advisors, Dell Technologies Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, a16z, Felicis, and others joining in. Arena previously announced a $150 million Series A in January at a $1.7 billion post-money valuation.
Cal AI’s 19-year-old founder just raised $10M for his new AI startup
Tech News Tube is a real time news feed of the latest technology news headlines.Follow all of the top tech sites in one place, on the web or your mobile device.
Cal AI’s 19-year-old founder just raised $10M for his new AI startup Original
Zach Yadegari, the teen co-founder of calorie tracking app Cal AI, has launched Persona, a new AI agent startup, and already raised $10 million. Vine Ventures led the round, with Z Fellows founder Cory Levy and Collective Global participating. In March, MyFitnessPal acquired Cal AI for an undisclosed sum after it zoomed ahead of the older calorie app in the app store rankings.
Microsoft Unveils New AI PCs Featuring Nvidia's RTX Spark Chip and Enhanced Windows 11
Microsoft has announced the specifications and pricing for its new Surface Laptop Ultra and Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, powered by Nvidia's RTX Spark chip. The Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,600, while the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box is priced from $6,000, designed for on-device AI model execution with enhanced hardware capabilities.
Microsoft releases new Nvidia-chip AI PCs with revamped Windows 11
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Microsoft releases new Nvidia-chip AI PCs with revamped Windows 11
Back in June, Nvidia announced that it had secured agreements with Microsoft and a host of other PC makers to develop AI- and agent-ready PCs for Windows based on its RTX Spark chip, but details on the machines were scant at the time. On Wednesday, at an event held in San Francisco during the city’s Tech Week, Microsoft revealed the specs and price for its new Surface Laptop Ultra. The PC comes in two base models, one that starts at $2,600 and one with a more powerful chip that starts at $3,700.
Silicon Valley’s AI wunderkind launches Underdog, the most private Instinct/Muse competitor yet
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Silicon Valley’s AI wunderkind launches Underdog, the most private Instinct/Muse competitor yet
Tech News Tube is a real time news feed of the latest technology news headlines.Follow all of the top tech sites in one place, on the web or your mobile device.
Silicon Valley’s AI wunderkind launches Underdog, the most private Instinct/Muse competitor yet
When self-taught coder Sigil Wen was 17, he moved to Silicon Valley and lived in an AI hacker house with famed AI researcher Andrej Karpathy. While there, he hacked and coded alongside other people who would become the biggest names in AI, like Perplexity founder Aravind Srinivas and OpenAI researcher Noam Brown.
Silicon Valley’s AI wunderkind launches Underdog, the most private Instinct/Muse competitor yet
Anthropic 5 hours ago The Anthropic researcher whose resignation made waves last month says he was 'working to automate' himself Business Insider - Natalie Musumeci • 5h Automated AI research is on the horizon, a former Anthropic and OpenAI researcher said, warning it could leave humans totally unable to control what comes next.
After Factory’s public spat with Khosla, Menlo proudly invests
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After Factory’s public spat with Khosla, Menlo proudly invests Original
Menlo Ventures partner Matt Murphy and his team announced Monday in a blog post that the firm has invested in AI coding startup Factory. Menlo declined to comment on how much it invested but said the deal was part of Factory’s latest funding round announced last month at a $5 billion valuation. A source familiar with the deal told us the investment was significant to Menlo — not a token gesture — and that Menlo would have invested more had there been room on the cap table.
After Factory’s public spat with Khosla, Menlo proudly invests
Tech News Tube is a real time news feed of the latest technology news headlines.Follow all of the top tech sites in one place, on the web or your mobile device.
Circuit Breaker Labs hopes to make AI safer for your kids (and you)
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Circuit Breaker Labs hopes to make AI safer for your kids (and you)
Tech News Tube is a real time news feed of the latest technology news headlines.Follow all of the top tech sites in one place, on the web or your mobile device.
Circuit Breaker Labs hopes to make AI safer for your kids (and you)
With all the talk about how AI might one day kill us all, it’s easy to forget that AI has already been life-threatening to some, not through bioweapons, but psychologically. Making AI safer across languages and cultures is the mission of Circuit Breaker Labs, one of TechCrunch’s 2026 Startup Battlefield 200 finalists.
Kevin Mandia’s new ‘agent swarm’ security startup Armadin raises $255.5M at $2.5B valuation
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Kevin Mandia’s new ‘agent swarm’ security startup Armadin raises $255.5M at $2.5B valuation Original
Kevin Mandia, best known as the founder of cybersecurity startup Mandiant, which sold to Google for $5.4 billion in 2022, has raised $255.5 million for his latest startup, Armadin, at a valuation of more than $2.5 billion, the company announced on Thursday. The Series B round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Accel, with Bain Capital Ventures, Redpoint, 8VC, Ballistic Ventures, Google Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Kleiner Perkins, and Menlo Ventures joining in.
Valor, Atreides, and Sequoia back AI startup Flow Engineering at $750M valuation
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Valor, Atreides, and Sequoia back AI startup Flow Engineering at $750M valuation Original
Flow Engineering, a startup that offers AI tools for hardware design, has raised a $50 million Series B round at a $750 million valuation from some big-name investors, the company announced on Wednesday. The round was co-led by Antonio Gracias of Valar Equity Partners (best known for its investments in Elon Musk’s companies, particularly SpaceX) and Gavin Baker of Atreides Management (a hedge fund that has also backed Musk’s companies and others like AI chipmaker Cerebras).
Factory CEO just accused his VC board advisor of spying for Cognition
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Factory CEO just accused his VC board advisor of spying for Cognition Original
Matan Grinberg, co-founder and CEO of the AI coding startup Factory, said in a post on X on Wednesday that he fired VC Chris Degnan from role as a board advisor. Grinberg alleges that Degnan shared confidential information with Factory’s biggest competitor, Cognition. Two hours later, Degnan announced on both X and LinkedIn that he has joined Cognition as its chief revenue officer. Degnan was Snowflake’s first sales hire and later spent 11 years as the data company’s chief revenue officer.
The internet is convinced Elon Musk’s xAI trolled OpenAI’s ‘Dots’ launch
On Tuesday, OpenAI launched a new product called Dots, an always-on AI agent with a bubbly, blobby avatar. While the colorful avatar might evoke a smile, the biggest laugh from the launch is (we imagine) being had by Elon Musk, the former OpenAI founder who left, launched competitor Grok, and unsuccessfully sued. That’s because the domain “dot.com” belongs to Musk’s xAI, and it currently redirects to the download page for xAI’s Grok chatbot app.
Here’s why OpenAI is absent from Nvidia’s industry-wide effort to end rogue AI agents
Tech News Tube is a real time news feed of the latest technology news headlines.Follow all of the top tech sites in one place, on the web or your mobile device.
Here’s why OpenAI is absent from Nvidia’s industry-wide effort to end rogue AI agents
While OpenAI wasn’t the only big tech player that didn’t sign on — Amazon, Google, and Apple haven’t joined either — it was the most obvious missing player, especially because Anthropic is a supporter. However, despite OpenAI’s lack of a public pledge to the consortium, which presumably means that each company will use and sell some version of the technology and contribute features back to the project, an OpenAI spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company is supportive of Nvidia’s work.
PrismML brings its tiny LLMs to Qualcomm-powered smart glasses
The AI Lab PrismML — founded by Caltech researchers and advised by UC Berkeley’s Ion Stoica — has created a version of its tiny language models for smart glasses running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips. On Wednesday, at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit, the chipmaker showcased PrismML’s 1-bit Bonsai LLM, which can be run locally on AI smart glasses built on the Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 Platform.
PrismML brings its tiny LLMs to Qualcomm-powered smart glasses
Tech News Tube is a real time news feed of the latest technology news headlines.Follow all of the top tech sites in one place, on the web or your mobile device.
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