Quick mention that our podcast interview with VC Bill Gurley is now out and we think you’ll like it, particularly if you’re a student figuring out next steps, or you’re mid-career and looking to make a move to something you’d enjoy far more.

Jack Dorsey announced that Block is cutting more than 4,000 employees – nearly half its workforce – to rely more heavily on AI and operate with smaller teams, predicting most companies will follow Block’s lead within a year. The move sent shares up 24%. TechCrunch has more here.

According to reporting from The Information, Amazon’s proposed $50 billion bet on OpenAI would start with $15 billion upfront and hinge on the startup either going public or achieving artificial general intelligence. The investment would be part of a funding round that could top $100 billion and value OpenAI at a $730 billion pre-money valuation. PYMNTS has more here.

Netflix has walked away from its $27.75 per share bid for Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets after the board deemed Paramount Skydance’s $31 per share all-cash offer for the entire company to be superior. TechCrunch has more here.

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By Julie Bort

A group of notable open source programmers are joining with a VC investor to launch a nonprofit called the Open Source Endowment in hopes of permanently solving the perennial issue with developing open source software: funding. 

Backers of the Open Source Endowment include Thomas Dohmke (the former GitHub CEO who raised a record $60 million for his dev tool startup Entire); Mitchell Hashimoto (founder of HashiCorp, which sold to IBM for $6.4 billion last year); Supabase founder and CEO Paul Copplestone; an NGINX co-founder; the creators of Vue.js and cURL; plus execs from Elastic, Spotify, and others. All told, the project has over 50 donors so far. 

The nonprofit, which just achieved formal 501(c)(3) status, has currently raised more than $750,000 in commitments. But if things go according to the plan of its founder, Konstantin Vinogradov, it will have $100 million in assets within seven years. 

Vinogradov is a venture investor specializing in open source, AI, and infrastructure software, and was previously a general partner at Runa Capital. As such, he has “some experience with university endowments,” which are some of the largest investors in venture capital funds, he told TechCrunch.  

Vinogradov says as he scoured the world for open source projects, one complaint kept popping up: “There is no source of sustainable funding for open source maintainers. And that’s a really big problem.” (“Maintainer” refers to the developers who work on open source projects, such as debugging, choosing and verifying features submitted by the community, or programming new features themselves.)

The endowment will support projects based on criteria such as its number of users, or how many other projects rely on that specific software to operate. It will also choose projects that are not already well-supported by grants, donations, or umbrella organizations such as Linux’s Alpha-Omega. Vinogradov has already assembled a board for the nonprofit.

The lack of money in open source is hardly new. Open source software is typically given away, and since the community often contributes time and efforts freely, up to 86% of open source developers are not paid for their work.

Allica Bank, a nine-year-old London startup that provides bank accounts, loans, and savings products to established small and medium-sized businesses through an online platform, raised a $155 million Series D round at a post-money valuation of approximately $1.2 billion. Investors included Ventura Capital, GLG, and Sona AM as well as previous investors TCV and Blue Owl. More here.

BreezeBio, a 10-year-old company based in South San Francisco, CA, that uses gene editing to modify immune cells to treat type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases, raised a $60 million Series B round co-led by Yuanta Investment and DSC Investment. BioPharma Dive has more here.

Encord, a six-year-old San Francisco and London startup that prepares and manages training data for autonomous robots, drones, and vehicles, raised a $60 million Series C round led by Wellington Management, with Bright Pixel, Isomer Capital, and previous investors Y Combinator, CRV, N47, Crane Venture Partners, and Harpoon Ventures also opting in. The company has raised a total of $110 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Revel, a two-year-old Los Angeles startup that runs a unified software platform that lets engineering teams configure, test, monitor, and control aerospace, defense, energy, and industrial hardware systems in real-time, raised a $150 million Series B round led by Index Ventures, with Redpoint Ventures as well as previous investors Thrive Capital, Felicis, Abstract Ventures, and Dylan Field also investing. More here.

Shine Technologies, a 21-year-old company based in Janesville, WI, that uses nuclear fusion technology to test military and aerospace equipment and to produce medical isotopes used to diagnose and treat cancer, raised a $240 million round led by NantWorks, with additional support from Fidelity, Sumitomo, Pelican Energy Partners, Deerfield Management, and Oaktree Capital Management. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Viture, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that makes video display glasses for gaming, media, and enterprise use, raised a $100 million round led by Legend Capital

Bertelsmann Group also participating. The company has raised a total of $200+ million in the past six months. Forbes has more here.

Alveus Therapeutics, a three-year-old Philadelphia startup that operates clinical-stage drug programs focused on therapies for obesity and metabolic diseases, raised a $37 million Series A extension. Investors included Jeito Capital and Novo Holdings. More here.

Callosum, a two-year-old London startup that runs systems-level software that lets different AI models operate collaboratively across diverse chip architectures, raised a $10.25 million round led by Plural, with the U.K.'s Advanced Research and Invention Agency also participating. Tech Funding News has more here.

️Chariot Defense, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that operates a software-defined power system that manages, prioritizes, and routes electricity to support radios, drones, sensors, and other military hardware on the battlefield, raised a $34 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with DCVC, LMNT, Marlinspike, Overmatch, Shield Capital, Ensemble, Trenches Capital, General Catalyst, and XYZ also stepping up. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Cicada, a five-year-old startup based in Greenwich, CT, that connects global institutional investors to Latin American local-currency bond markets through an all-to-all electronic trading platform, raised a $13.5 million Series A round led by Citi, with L4, Kaszek, Dila, and Crestone also participating. More here.

Comp, a four-year-old São Paulo startup that provides HR teams with AI-assisted tools and expert support for recruiting, compensation, and performance review tasks, raised a $17.3 million Series A round led by Khosla Ventures, with Kaszek, Canary, Abstract Ventures, and Endeavor Catalyst also contributing. TechCrunch has more here.

Croissant, a four-year-old Nashville startup that drives repeat purchases by providing shoppers cash back and guaranteed resale prices while advancing payments to partner brands, raised a $14 million round. Investors included Portage, Third Prime, and George Roberts. More here.

Noda AI, a two-year-old Austin startup that orchestrates tactics and decision-making across mixed fleets of autonomous and manned systems for defense operations, raised a $25 million Series A round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with Booz Allen Ventures, Draper Associates, Bloomberg Beta, and Alumni Ventures also pitching in. More here.

Oska Health, a three-year-old Frankfurt startup that supports people with multiple chronic conditions between doctor visits through health coaches and AI guidance, raised a $13 million seed round co-led by Capricorn Partners and SwissHealth Ventures, with Revent, Calm Storm, LBBW Venture Capital, BMH, GoHub Ventures, and Aurum Impact also piling on. Tech Funding News has more here.

Third Way Health, a four-year-old Los Angeles startup that optimizes front-office operations for healthcare practices by combining human teams with AI tools to handle scheduling, authorizations, and administrative tasks, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Health Velocity Capital. The company has raised a total of $22.5 million. More here.

Baba, a newly unveiled New York startup that is building a patient advocacy platform to connect patients with nurses and social workers, supported by an AI tool to help manage insurance issues and medical appointments, raised a $6.5 million seed round led by General Catalyst, with Genius Ventures, Soma Capital, Ground Up Ventures, and Triedge Investments also digging in.

BeyondMath, a four-year-old London startup that runs an AI-based simulation platform designed to model aerodynamics, heat transfer, and other physical systems much faster than traditional physics software, raised a $10 million seed round led by Cambridge Innovation Capital, with previous investors UP Partners, Insight Partners, and InMotion Ventures also engaging. Tech Funding News has more here.

Gushwork, a three-year-old startup based in Lewes, DE, that helps businesses attract and track customer leads by using AI-driven search tools to generate optimized content and inbound leads, raised a $9 million seed round at a $33 million post-money valuation. The deal was led by Susquehanna Asia VC, with Lightspeed, B Capital, Seaborne Capital, Beenext, Sparrow Capital, and 2.2 Capital also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.

Jest, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that operates a marketplace that sells and distributes interactive games playable directly in messaging apps, raised a $7 million seed round led by Innovation Endeavors. TechCrunch has more here.

Luminos.AI, a four-year-old startup based in Washington, DC, whose automated AI governance platform assesses and flags legal risk in generative AI and agentic AI systems, raised a $6 million seed round. M13 was the deal lead, with Bloomberg Beta, Hawktail, AME Cloud Ventures, Crosscourt, Octave, Great Oaks, and Fundrise also anteing up. More here.

QuiverAI, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that treats vector graphics as structured code and generates editable SVG designs from images and text using AI models, raised an $8.3 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. More here.

Sophia Space, a three-year-old Pasadena startup that designs modular space-based computing hardware with integrated solar panels and passive cooling, raised a $10 million seed round from Alpha Funds, KDDI Green Partners Fund, and Unlock Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

TBD, a recently founded New York startup that operates prediction markets that let people measure and trade on verified human sentiment at scale, raised a $3 million seed round co-led by CMT Digital and ParaFi and including Jump Crypto. More here.

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According to the 2026 “AI Shift in Multilingual Translation” report, 96% of professionals deem translation quality mission-critical. While AI is now essential for global scale, a significant gap remains: only 57% of organizations successfully maintain a consistent brand voice across languages. This disparity between AI-driven speed and brand integrity proves that human oversight is still indispensable for high-stakes communication. To bridge the gap between cost savings and quality, read the full survey of 400+ industry experts today. 

Pegasus Tech Ventures, a 15-year-old San Jose, Ca.-based venture firm that manages corporate venture funds for global companies, raised a $100 million fund for Toyota subsidiary AISIN to back startups in AI, mobility, robotics, energy, and health. More here.

PayPal is not in talks to sell to Stripe or anyone else and has spent months preparing defenses against a potential activist campaign or takeover after a steep share decline left it exposed, contradicting a Bloomberg report that Stripe is weighing a bid. Semafor has more here.

Generate Biomedicines raised $400 million in an IPO priced at $16 per share, marking the largest biotech offering in nearly three years and capping a February that saw five biotech IPOs raise nearly $1.4 billion. BioPharma Dive has more here.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said he will not grant the Pentagon unrestricted use of Claude for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons ahead of a Friday deadline despite Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s threats to label the company a supply chain risk or invoke the Defense Production Act. TechCrunch has more here.

The high-profile AI startup Thinking Machines Lab has lost two more members of its starting line-up. Early employees Christian Gibson and Noah Shpak have reportedly joined Meta, adding to a string of departures from the $12 billion startup. Business Insider has more here.

Former Silicon Valley fixture Joi Ito, who resigned from M.I.T. in 2019 over concealed ties to Jeffrey Epstein, is helping lead a $400 million Japanese government-backed startup hub that potential partners M.I.T., Harvard, and Carnegie Mellon have signaled they will avoid if he remains involved. The New York Times has more here.

eBay is cutting 800 employees, marking its third round of layoffs in three years as it trims about 6% of staff despite posting more than $2 billion in 2025 profit and moving forward with a $1.2 billion Depop acquisition. SFGATE has more here.

Burger King is rolling out an OpenAI-powered chatbot called Patty into employee headsets to coach meal prep and score “friendliness” by tracking phrases like “please” and “thank you,” with pilots in 500 US restaurants and a nationwide platform launch planned by the end of 2026. The Verge has more here.

Young women in China are increasingly turning to AI companion apps instead of the marriages the government wants them to have — and that's helping drive a $600 million Hong Kong listing for MiniMax, the startup behind some of China's most popular AI companionship tools. The New York Times has more here.

Tech companies are increasingly using loans backed by GPUs to finance AI infrastructure, shifting billions in chip purchases into special-purpose vehicles that lease hardware back to them. The Financial Times has more here.

Wealthy American venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are buying multimillion-dollar homes in New Zealand and fueling the country's startup scene thanks to a revamped Active Investor Plus visa that lets foreigners invest about $2.9 million and gain residency. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

A new study finds that the unusual distribution of Neanderthal DNA on the human X chromosome suggests strong mating preferences between Neanderthals and modern humans tens of thousands of years ago.

Man builds electrified chessboard that shocks players for bad moves.

The Luminaire is offering a six-day, private samurai-themed luxury trip through Tokyo and Kagoshima that includes one-on-one sword training, closed-door Shinto ceremonies, artisan workshops, and stays at the Mandarin Oriental and heritage hotels. Prices start at $15,590. More here.

Tomorrow, Friday, at midnight PT, TechCrunch Disrupt ticket prices go up by as much as $680. Today is, in other words, a good day to buy. ⏰

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