European embedded banking startup Swan adds another $44M to its Series B

French startup Swan has raised another €42 million (around $44 million at current exchange rates). The company considers this round as the second part of the Series B that was originally announced in September 2023. Swan helps other companies offer financial products at scale. The company can ge

SoftBank in talks to invest as much as $25B in OpenAI, report says

SoftBank is in talks to invest up to $25 billion in OpenAI as part of a broader partnership that could see the Japanese conglomerate spend more than $40 billion on AI initiatives with the Microsoft-backed startup, according to the Financial Times. The potential investment would make SoftBank OpenA

Meta says end of fact-checking hasn’t impacted ad spend

Meta says its controversial decision to put an end to its fact-checking program hasn’t impacted advertiser spend. On its Q4 2024 call, Meta CFO Susan Li assured investors that advertiser demand remains strong and the company’s commitment to brand safety remains unchanged, despite the ne

Zuck shrugs off DeepSeek, vows to spend hundreds of billions on AI

U.S. markets panicked on Monday over speculation that DeepSeek's AI models would crush demand for GPUs, with Nvidia’s stock dropping almost 20%. But Meta isn’t backing off, with its CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledging that the tech giant would invest “very heavily” in AI ̵

LinkedIn passes $2B in premium revenue in 12 months, with overall revenue up 9% on the year

LinkedIn, the social platform where people look for and talk about work, may be less visible in Microsoft's earnings compared to the years when it was an independent company. But around earnings time, LinkedIn often reveals some figures that point to how it continues to grow.  On Wednesda

Elon Musk claims Tesla will launch a self-driving service in Austin in June

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday his company will launch a paid ride-hailing robotaxi service in Austin, Texas using its own fleet vehicles this coming June — the latest in a long line of sky-high promises he has yet to meet about autonomy. Musk was otherwise unsurprisingly light on detail

Threads adds another 20M monthly users since December, reaching 320M

Threads, Meta’s microblogging service, is growing at a fast pace as users gravitate to the app over rivals like X. During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings presentation on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Threads now has 320 million monthly active users (MAUs), up from 3

Hackers are hijacking WordPress sites to push Windows and Mac malware

Hackers are exploiting outdated versions of WordPress and plug-ins to alter thousands of websites in an attempt to trick visitors to download and install malware, security researchers have found. The hacking campaign is still “very much live,” Simon Wijckmans, the founder and CEO of web se

Microsoft brings a DeepSeek model to its cloud

Microsoft’s close partner and collaborator, OpenAI, might be suggesting that DeepSeek stole its IP and violated its terms of service. But Microsoft still wants DeepSeek’s shiny new models on its cloud platform. Microsoft on Wednesday announced that R1, DeepSeek’s so-called reason

Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC seeking $1B for new fund

8VC, a venture firm led by Palantir founder Joe Lonsdale, is seeking nearly $1 billion for its sixth fund, according to a regulatory filing. The Austin-based firm's latest fund aims to raise nearly 14% more than its previous $880 million flagship vehicle, which closed in February 2023. TechCru

DeepSeek might have a trademark problem in the US

Chinese AI company DeepSeek has been accused of IP theft, faced privacy inquiries in Europe, and has been the target of an enormous cyberattack. Now, it appears the company has a new headache on its hands: a U.S. trademark conflict. On Tuesday, DeepSeek filed an application with the U.S. Patent an

What DeepSeek, China, and Trump mean for Apple ahead of its Q1 earnings

These days, nothing is certain about the tech market or the world at large. Even Nvidia’s seemingly bulletproof stock took a hammering on Monday, enduring a $589 billion market cap decline after China-based DeepSeek raised questions for investors about more efficient AI models. But Apple'

MoviePass might pivot to crypto

After MoviePass’s historic implosion, subscribers to the “Netflix for movie theaters” were already cautious around the company’s 2023 relaunch. These moviegoers may grow even more skeptical after MoviePass sent out an email blast on Wednesday, which surveyed customers about

Instagram gives creators more insight into their reels’ performance

Meta continues to target creators in the days following the U.S. TikTok ban. In addition to paying TikTok creators big bonuses to publish reels, Instagram announced on Wednesday that it’s introducing new ways for creators to better understand how their short videos are performing. The platfor