The AI era is giving fracking a second act, a surprising twist for an industry that, even during its early 2010s boom years, was blamed by climate advocates for poisoned water tables, man-made earthquakes, and the stubborn persistence of fossil fuels. AI companies are building massive data centers near major gas-production sites, often generating their…
The Department of Energy said Thursday that it had finalized a $1.6 billion loan guarantee to upgrade around 5,000 miles of transmission lines. The grid upgrades would ease the flow of electricity in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. The project, which will address lines owned by American Electric Power, won’t add any new…
ChatGPT’s mobile app growth may have hit its peak, according to a new analysis of download trends and daily active users provided by the third-party app intelligence Apptopia. Its estimates indicate that new user growth, measured by percentage changes in new global downloads, slowed after April. The firm looked at the global daily active user…
A Facebook feature that gives Meta AI the ability to suggest edits to photos stored on your phone’s camera roll, but haven’t yet been shared, is now rolling out to all users in the U.S. and Canada. The company announced on Friday that users can choose to opt in to receive these sharing suggestions, which…
The tech layoff wave is still kicking in 2025. Last year saw more than 150,000 job cuts across 549 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. So far this year, more than 22,000 workers have been the victim of reductions across the tech industry, with a staggering 16,084 cuts taking place in February alone. We’re…
Solana Labs CEO and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko takes the Disrupt Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, happening October 27–29 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, to chart where crypto goes next — from the meme coin frenzy to real-world finance and everything in between. This is one fintech conversation you will not want to miss. Save…
Today is your last chance to save! Register for TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 before 11:59 p.m. PT tonight and save up to $624 on your pass. This is the lowest rate available before Disrupt kicks off in San Francisco’s Moscone West on October 27-29. After today, prices rise to Late Bird rates and eventually Walk-up rates. Reasons to…
In Evelyn Mora’s early career, she realized that fashion designers, although often deeply focused on sustainability, couldn’t stage environmentally friendly large-scale fashion shows. In 2021, she launched VLGE, a gaming and immersive-world-building platform that specializes in working with brands. It lets brands build their own worlds, fill them with interactive content and games, and export said…
As geopolitical tensions intensify between the U.S. and China, tech giants Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are ramping up efforts to move production of their products and data centers outside of China, Nikkei reported, citing supply chain sources. In particular, Microsoft wants to have up to 80% of the components needed to make its Surface notebooks…
Meta on Friday previewed its upcoming parental control features for teens’ conversations with AI characters on its platforms. The features, which will be rolled out next year, include the ability to block certain characters and monitor conversation topics. Starting in the coming months, parents will be able to turn off chats with AI characters entirely…
