Equity is back with its first tech news roundup of 2025, perfectly timed with this year's CES.

Kirsten Korosec caught up with Zoox co-founder and CEO Jesse Levinson about robotaxis, Tesla, and the future landscape of AI on wheels.

Instead of our usual Friday news rundown, we're bringing you a conversation between TechCrunch Editor in Chief and General Manager Connie Loizos and Robinhood CEO and co-founder, Vlad Tenev.

Happy new year, Equity listeners! Today, we're bringing you a conversation between TechCrunch senior reporter Max Zeff and Bluesky CEO Jay Graber.

From AI advancements and CrowdStrike's crash to WordPress drama and which startups VCs have their eyes on next, Equity is saying goodbye to 2024 with a look back at the year's biggest stories in tech.

Today on Equity, Dominic Midori-Davis is sitting down with Sara and Erin Foster along with their advisor at Oversubscribed Ventures, Phil Schwarz.

Happy Friday the 13th! Today on Equity, we're unpacking the week's news from Lumen Orbit, Cruise and Freysa.ai with a deeper dive into social media startups amid the looming TikTok ban and new accelerators for African startups.

With Elon Musk in charge of government efficiency, it's worth taking a closer look at whether business principles can be applied to government. Today on Equity, Rebecca Bellan is discussing the intersection of tech, business and politics with Columbia Business School Professor Michael Morris.

Hosts Margaux MacColl, Devin Coldewey and Anthony Ha are back for another Friday news roundup with deals of the week from /dev/agents, ServiceTitan and Yurts, plus a deeper dive into which Founders Fund VCs are stepping back and strange AI.

How can founders scale frontier tech? Today on Equity, Rebecca Bellan is finding out with Tom Biegala and Ben Hemani, the co-founders of early-stage venture firm, Bison.

AI startups are everywhere, but there can't be any innovation without proper computing power. This week, Equity is bringing you an episode of our sister show, Found. Found hosts Becca and Dom sat down with Gavin Uberti, co-founder and CEO of Etched, an AI chip startup focusing on developing specialized chips. Gavin shares the bold bet his startup is making on transformer models for AI chips, aiming to take on industry giant Nvidia. They discuss how Etched is developing specialized chips that they claim will be an order of magnitude faster than competitors, and Uberti shares his insights on the future of AI hardware as models continue to rapidly scale up in size and capability.

At this year's TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, President and CEO of the Aerospace Corporation Steve Isakowitz and Agency Chief Technologist at NASA A.C. Charanya Charania took the stage to discuss a literal moonshot: how to build a thriving lunar ecosystem. Today, we’re taking you behind the scenes of TechCrunch Disrupt once again, this time with Devin Coldewey at the helm. For those keeping track, Devin’s kept the Equity crew up to date on space startups over the past few months, including Starfish Space’s $29 million round and, more recently, SpaceX’s second commercial deal for the Starship lunar lander with Lunar Outpost. Listen to the full conversation to hear Devin and Steve Isakowitz discuss: - What the path ahead looks like for space startups - The shift away from government-dominated space programs to a more commercial landscape - And what’s in store for Aerospace Corporation in 2025. Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate, and we’ll be back on Friday for a special episode from our sister podcast, Found.

Today, on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey and Margaux MacColl dig into the week’s tech and startup news, including what a new scaling method could mean for AI startups if it works and for chip providers if it fails. Listen to the full episode to hear about: - The DOJ’s latest proposal for Google: it should divest its Chrome browser. While we wait for a break in the monopoly case and a better search alternative to arise, the Equity crew thinks that Wiz might’ve been on to something when they said no to Alphabet. - Dual-use drone startup Tekever’s $74 million raise and its part in the European defense tech boom - How Converge Bio plans to build an ’everything store’ for biotech LLMs. While on the subject of LLMs, Kirsten took us deeper into ServiceTitan’s S-1, including its boilerplate warning about AI. - Network states 2.0. Margaux had the latest on Praxis’s unusual $525 million raise and the regions its founder is eyeing for a new city.

Late last week, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler said that he was “proud to serve” the agency, which some are taking as a hint at an upcoming resignation. Gensler has faced heavy criticism for his crackdown on crypto, including a recent lawsuit from 18 states - and is likely to be replaced under President-Elect Donald Trump who has vowed to oust Gensler. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump is meeting with Brian Armstrong, the CEO of crypto exchange Coinbase, to discuss potential personnel appointments. Today on Equity, we're bringing you an interview between Rebecca Bellan and co-founder and CSO of blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, Jonathan Levin. The pair caught up at our Strictly VC event in New York shortly before the Gary Gensler news dropped to discuss the imminent change for crypto in the wake of the US election, trends in crypto crime, Chainalysis’s choice to run its operations in the US, and how to build trust in crypto.

Over the last few years, VC Ben Horowitz has donated at least $7.6 million to fund police department purchases - including the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s new drones from a16z-backed Skydio. Skydio is not the first of a16z’s portfolio companies to benefit from these donations, either. Today, on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey and Margaux MacColl dug into the implications of Horowitz’s approach and why others in the VC world should maybe hold off on praising the controversial move. Listen to the full episode to hear about: Elon Musk’s new role in the Department of Government Efficiency. The crew wondered how much change Musk and co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy will actually be able to enact. And yes, DOGE jokes were made. Klarna’s plans for a U.S. IPO. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll have to wait for 2025 before we get another IPO, but Margaux has a theory about what might be behind the slowdown. Vecna Robotics’ $14.5 million raise and the CEO choice that caught Kirsten’s attention. Starfish Space’s latest round and impressive batch of contracts for its full-size Otter spacecraft. Who’s joining the unsolicited bidding war over Cursor-maker Anysphere.

Today on Equity, TechCrunch Editor Julie Bort is sitting down with Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce and one of the tech industry’s biggest hype men, about his latest work with Time Ventures and Salesforce Ventures, and why he thinks AI agents are the next big thing for enterprise software. Listen to the full episode to hear about: The impact of AI on customer experience The application of AI agents in the healthcare space - and what it could mean for data privacy Marc's thoughts on Salesforce competitor Microsoft's Copilot The range of gadgets that have piqued Benioff’s interest lately As always, Equity will be back on Friday with our news round-up!

A tech regulation shakeup is on the way with President-elect Donald Trump set to take office in January. Trump has made it clear that he plans to dismantle Biden’s AI policies on "day one," aligning himself with those who’ve pushed back against regulation. Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey and Margaux MacColl  dove into what Trump’s win could mean for AI policy and innovation moving forward. While AI is always on the mind these days, there was so much more startup and venture news for the Equity crew to get into this week. Listen to the full episode to hear about: OpenAI’s acquisition of Chat.com, the domain previously acquired by HubSpot co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah for a whopping $15.5 million. We’re not sure if this signals a brand change for the AI startup, but users’ trips to ChatGPT just got three letters shorter. DeepRoute’s $100 million raise and the startup’s race to get its automated systems out before Tesla FSD is available in China. Biotech startup Archon’s $20 million effort to power up drug development with its ‘antibody cages’. Of course, we couldn’t talk about the news without a biochemistry lesson from Devin where we learned a new scientific term: thingies. Google’s new AI-focused data center and collaboration with the Saudi Public Investment fund. The move had the team thinking more about tech’s climate commitments at large, and who is walking back their pledges in favor of AI. The election bidding boom - from Polymarket to Kalshi and a potential $450 million payout.

Today on Equity, we’re taking you backstage at TechCrunch Disrupt. Rebecca Bellan caught up with Rebecca Gevalt, Managing Partner at Dcode Capital following their onstage discussion about the boom in national interest startups. Also on the panel was Topher Haddad, CEO of satellite imagery startup Albedo, and Kai Klepfer, CEO of biometric gun startup Biofire. Tune in to hear Bellan and Gevalt dive deeper into how startups can get a foot in the door of government contracts. Check out the full onstage conversation on TechCrunch.com, and Equity will be back on Friday!

As the founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, Peter Beck is a familiar face to anyone in the space industry. But the company's ambitions go far beyond its popular Electron launch vehicle. Today, we're bringing you an interview from TechCrunch Disrupt when Devin Coldewey sat down with Beck to discuss his belief that to thrive, perhaps even to survive, space companies will have to become fully integrated one-stop shops.

The Equity crew was live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024! Hosts Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey and Margaux MacColl took over the Builders Stage to kick off day 2 of Disrupt with no shortage of conference highlights, startups deals and venture news to chew through. Listen to the full episode to hear about: Devin’s plans to go to space thanks to his chat with Rocket Lab Founder Peter Beck. What Sierra, the AI startup co-founded by Bret Taylor, plans to do with its fresh $175 million funds. Waymo’s who’s who of Silicon Valley round, and why Kirsten’s routing for the robotaxis over the competition. How General Catalyst is breaking down its latest fund and setting its sights on European startups. Equity will be back with a special interview episode on Friday, so stay tuned!

It’s no secret that Stripe has doubled down on its crypto offerings, enabling crypto purchases in the EU back in July and announcing a Pay with Crypto feature earlier this month. This week, the fintech giant made its dedication to crypto even clearer with its largest deal to date: its acquisition of stablecoin platform Bridge for an eye-popping $1.1 billion. Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha and Devin Coldewey kicked off the show with their thoughts on the deal – mainly how surprising it is to see anyone spending over $1 billion on crypto in 2024. But of course, there was so much more startup and venture news for the crew to get into this week. Listen to the full episode for more about: Mobileye founder and CEO Amnon Shashua’s latest startup A 3D metal printing startup’s $14 million round from Boeing’s AE Ventures and Nvidia Andreessen Horowitz’s plans to provide its portfolio companies with Nvidia GPUs And who we’re expecting to see at TechCrunch’s Disrupt 2024. Equity will be live at Disrupt on Tuesday, so we'll see you there!

“It's a bit too early to say that the race is over,” said Philippe Botteri when asked about European startups’ AI progress. “I think we're just at the very early innings of this race.” Botteri is a partner at early-stage investment firm Accel with over 13 years under his belt at the firm, leading investments in DocuSign, UiPath and more recently Snyk and Chainalysis. Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, host Rebecca Bellan caught up Botteri to dive deep into Accel’s Euroscape 2024 Report. Tapping into Botteri’s experience in Cloud, SaaS security, and enterprise sectors, the pair discuss AI's rising influence, its impact on software and cloud investments, and how European startups can compete with the US. Listen to the full episode for more about: How AI is eating the software market, with AI and cloud funding predicted to hit $79.2 billion by the end of 2024. The challenges faced by traditional software companies as funding growth slows outside of AI. Why Europe’s strong talent pool gives it an edge in the AI race, even as startups on the continent struggle to compete with the ungodly amounts of money U.S. tech giants have. Increased M&A activity globally amid a slow IPO market. Why 2025 will be the year of the “agentic revolution” with AI significantly impacting software development and productivity.

Today on Equity, Devin, Margaux and Anthony Ha are rounding up the week's startup and venture news, kicking things off with a look at the $400 million raised by Lightmatter, and the importance of fast networking within the fast growing datacenter industry today — not just in years to come — makes the impressive round a little more understandable. Our Deals of the Week continue with Paladin's drone play for first responders and police, and Abel aiming to reduce the substantial paperwork backlog that officers accrue in their everyday duties. Abel Founder Daniel Francis brings a chaotic energy (having landed a Twitter job from Musk after pretending to have been laid off) that could shake things up. Diving deeper, Anthony breaks down the complex back-and-forth that is the WordPress/WP Engine dispute - and we're left wondering why the obligations of and to the "open source community" are not entirely clear. What does it mean for an open source ecosystem when one person (in this case WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg) still seems to exercise tremendous influence? And could we say the same of Meta's Llama or other "open" AI solutions? Last, the "bummer" results from PitchBook showing that although founders are founding and investors are investing, there isn't a huge amount of money being made. Turns out they weren't just in it to change the world after all. What could this lack of liquidity be attributed to? Is it the macroeconomic climate, the sectors being invested in, the VC's strategies changing... or something else? At least defense and AI are doing OK, and Europe seems to be chugging along, so maybe it's specific to America? Check back in a month.