Amazon
Unacademy, one of India’s fastest growing education startups, has just received the backing of a major technology giant: Facebook. The social juggernaut has participated in the four-year-old Indian startup’s Series…
Cloud spending said to top $30B in Q4 as Amazon, Microsoft battle for market share
We all know the cloud infrastructure market is extremely lucrative; analyst firm Canalys reports that the sector reached $30.2 billion in revenue for Q4 2019. Cloud numbers are hard to…
The Station: Lucid Motors spy shot and the birth of an AV startup
It was a drama-filled week with a hearing on the hill in DC about autonomous vehicle legislation, Uber tipped its hat to the past, EV startup Lucid started to lift…
Smart speaker sales reached new record of 146.9M in 2019, up 70% from 2018
Global smart speaker sales hit a record high last year with shipments of 146.9 million units, up 70% over 2018, according to a recent report on the state of the…
7-month-old Simsim secures $16M for its social commerce in India
Simsim, a social commerce startup in India, said on Friday it has raised $16 million in seven months of its existence as it attempts to replicate the offline retail experience…
Judge temporarily halts work on JEDI contract until court can hear AWS protest
A sealed order from a judge today has halted the $10 billion, decade-long JEDI project in its tracks until AWS’s protest of the contract award to Microsoft can be heard…
Astranis raises $90 million for its next-gen satellite broadband internet service
YC-backed Astranis has raised $90 million of new combined debt and equity funding in a Series B round led Venrock, with a sizeable contribution by existing investor (and lead of…
Orbital debris startup Astroscale chosen by JAXA for its first space junk removal mission
Japanese orbital debris removal technology startup Astroscale is going to be working with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on the agency’s first mission to remove some of the junk…
Featured Article
The engineers behind Google’s Bookbot have launched a delivery robot startup
The engineers behind Google’s short-lived Bookbot — a robot created within the company’s Area 120 incubator for experimental products — have launched their own startup to bring the sidewalk delivery bot back to life. The secretive startup called Cartken was formed in fall 2019 after Google shuttered an internal program to develop a delivery robot…
FTC to examine every acquisition by Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft in 2010-2019 over antitrust issues
Companies like Apple, Amazon and Google do not always disclose every acquisition they make, especially when the companies in question are little fish in the big tech pond. But in…
Nearly 70% of US smart speaker owners use Amazon Echo devices
Amazon’s dominant position in the U.S. smart speaker market will continue through this year and the next, with rivals like Google and Apple only making slight dents in Amazon Echo…
Amazon wants to depose president and secretary of Defense as part of JEDI protest
Today, AWS made public its Motion to Supplement the Record in its protest of the JEDI contract decision. As part of that process, the company has announced it wants to…
Sony to pull out of MWC over coronavirus outbreak
Japanese electronics firm Sony is the latest phone maker to announce it’s withdrawing from the Mobile World Congress (MWC) tradeshow, citing concerns about the coronavirus outbreak. “As we place the…
Amazon withdraws from MWC over coronavirus-related concerns
Amazon is the latest company to cancel its plans for the Mobile World Congress, which will take place later this month in Barcelona, over coronavirus-related concerns. In a statement emailed…
The CIA wants to upgrade its cloud tech without DoD’s JEDI drama
The CIA is ready to update its cloud technology, and multiple reports this week indicated that the agency has begun a multi-billion-dollar procurement process. A CIA spokesperson was tight-lipped when…
Netflix announced this week that it has started to stream titles in AV1 on Android in what could significantly help the two-year-old media codec gain wider adoption. The world’s biggest…
Watch OneWeb launch 34 satellites for its broadband constellation live
One of the various companies looking to deploy a globe-spanning broadband internet satellite constellation is adding 34 satellites to its existing operations in space. OneWeb will launch that many satellites…
Featured Article
Why Astra built a space startup and rocket factory in Silicon Valley
There’s a new launch startup in the mix called Astra, which has been operating in semi-stealth mode for the past three years, building its rockets just a stone’s throw from the heart of startup central in Alameda County, Calif. Astra’s approach isn’t exactly a secret — its founders didn’t set out to hide anything and…
Shopping via smart speakers is not taking off, report suggests
U.S. consumers aren’t adopting voice-based shopping as quickly as expected, according to a new report today from eMarketer. While consumers have been happy to bring smart speakers into their home,…
Alphabet earnings show Google Cloud on $10B run rate
Today after the bell, Alphabet reported its fourth-quarter and full-year financial results. The company’s revenue grew from $39.3 billion in 2018 to $46.1 billion in 2019. The firm’s net income…
Watch this year’s tech-themed Super Bowl ads from Amazon, Google and more
Many of the companies spending big bucks on today’s big game have already released their ads (or teasers for those ads) on YouTube. So if you’re curious about how tech…
To be successful, a company should adopt a consumer-first philosophy that informs its product ideation and development process.
After earnings, Amazon joins the $1T club as Alphabet dips out
American tech companies almost did something neat today before messing it up. After reporting earnings yesterday, Amazon’s shares shot higher this morning, pushing the company’s value north of $1 trillion.…
Even as Microsoft Azure revenue grows, AWS’s market share lead stays strong
When analyzing the cloud market, there are many ways to look at the numbers; revenue, year-over-year or quarter-over-quarter growth — or lack of it — or market share. Each of…
Just as Amazon was basking in the news of a massive earnings win, the tech giant quietly published — as it always does — its latest transparency report, revealing a…
On the same day that a Mississippi family is suing Amazon-owned smart camera maker Ring for not doing enough to prevent hackers from spying on their kids, the company has…
AWS partners with sports leagues to change how we watch games
Since the inception of professional sports, fans have sought statistics about how their favorite teams and players are performing. Until recently, these stats were generated from basic counting, like batting…
Techstars Detroit, the accelerator that has funded 54 startups in the past five years, is shutting down, TechCrunch has learned. In an email to supporters, Techstars Detroit managing director Ted…
Spatial raises $14M more for a holographic 3D workspace app, a VR/AR version of Zoom or Hangouts
The worlds of virtual and augmented reality have yet to land on the applications and hardware to truly spark mass-market, consumer interest in the space, but in the meantime, a…
Five reasons you (really) don’t want to miss TechCrunch’s AI and Robotics show on March 3
TechCrunch’s fourth Robotics and AI show is coming up on March 3 at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. If past experience is any guide, the show is sure to draw a…
