OpenAI is getting serious about courting enterprise users. On Tuesday, the AI lab released a new set of capabilities for Codex, meant to expand the agentic tool’s uses in the workplace. Together with the new tools, the company released an internal report on how Codex is being used for knowledge work, finding its uses go…

Focused Energy recently raised an oversubscribed $240 million Series A round, one of the largest early-stage rounds for a fusion power startup.  The new round, announced last week, brings the company’s total private capital raised to $300 million, the company told TechCrunch. The startup has also received $200 million in grants, collectively making it one…

As AI agents grow ever more capable, enterprises racing to put them to work across applications, workflows, and products face a new challenge: ensuring an agent does what it’s supposed to do when it’s deployed across different environments. Microsoft is trying to solve this problem with a new open source standard called Agent Control Specification…

Before Zack Eakin sold investors on his new startup, he practiced on Palmer Luckey. When Eakin left Luckey’s defense startup, Anduril, in 2024 to start a new composites company called Layup Parts, Luckey — along with Anduril co-founders Brian Schimpf and Matt Grimm — let him workshop the pitch. He got different feedback from each,…

Google announced on Tuesday that Android is launching fake call detection to protect against AI deepfake impersonation scams. The feature is rolling out globally in Phone by Google to Android 12+ devices this month, starting with Pixel devices. As people increasingly refuse to answer calls from unknown numbers, scammers are shifting their tactics by spoofing…

In the first weeks of 2026, OpenClaw spread through the AI world like a sonic boom, introducing many of the industry’s most ambitious technologists to the joy and chaos of an unrestrained AI agent. The project’s momentum tailed off after OpenAI scooped up its founder, but the influence is still being felt — particularly at…

Martin Scorsese has signed on as a partner and adviser to AI image-generation startup Black Forest Labs, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. The caveat is that one of the world’s most famous living directors is using the tech solely for storyboarding. “For 70 years, I’ve been creating my own storyboards,” he said in…

For the past 10 years, Uber’s annual Lost & Found Index has provided a rather quirky anthropological snapshot of its riders — and even a few insights into society. The annual catalogue of millions of forgotten items ranges from mundane modern-day tools such as smartphones and laptops, to more eyebrow-raising objects like live fish, an…

Data storage security company Cyera is finalizing a round led by Evolution Equity Partners of at least $300 million at a $12 billion valuation, according to four people with knowledge of the deal. Calcalist was first to report the funding deal, although TechCrunch’s sources added new details about the company and its financials. Cyera has…

AI researchers and labs have advanced by leaps and bounds in evaluating AI models for everything from safety and compliance to sycophancy and alignment. But it appears companies and developers are faced with a new, specific need: making sure their AI system behaves as intended for their specific product or service. In a bid to…