November 29, 2025

US banks scramble to assess data theft after hackers breach financial tech firm: U.S. banking giants including JPMorgan Chase, Citi, and Morgan Stanley are working to identify what data was stolen in a recent cyberattack on a New York financial firm. Read More

How OpenAI and Google see AI changing go-to-market strategies: AI is changing how investors and startups bring their products to market. Three experts offered their insights at TechCrunch Disrupt. Read More

Former MrBeast content strategist is building an AI tool for creator ideation and analytics: Palo is a tool for short-video creators to gain insights into what is working for them. Read More

StrictlyVC ends its 2025 series with a rare, insider-level dive into deep tech. Enjoy an exclusive evening of candid discussions with VC and tech leaders, including Pat Gelsinger (former Intel CEO, now GP at Playground Global), Nicholas Kelez (CEO and CTO at xLight), and more — plus meaningful networking with investors and tech leaders.

A comprehensive list of 2025 tech layoffs: A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. Read More

Glīd won Startup Battlefield 2025 by building solutions to make logistics simpler, safer, and smarter: We're excited to interview the winner of Startup Battlefield 2025, and Glid co-founder Kevin Damoa, on this week's Build Mode! Read More

The future will be explained to you in Palo Alto: On Wednesday evening at PlayGround Global in Palo Alto, some very smart people who are building things you don't understand yet will explain what's coming. This is the final StrictlyVC event of 2025, and truly, the lineup is ridiculous. The series has traveled around the globe under the auspices of TechCrunch. Steve Case rented a theater in D.C.; we talked to Greece's prime minister in Athens; and Kirsten Green hosted us at the Presidio in San Francisco. The concept is always the same, though: bring together people who are working on genuinely important developments in a smaller setting, before everyone else figures out they're important. One of our favorite moments was when, in 2019, Sam Altman told a StrictlyVC crowd that OpenAI's monetization strategy was basically "build AGI, then ask it how to make money." Everyone laughed. He wasn't joking. This time we've got Nicholas Kelez, a particle accelerator physicist who spent 20 years at the Department of Energy building things that shouldn't be possible. Now he's tackling semiconductor manufacturing's biggest problem: every advanced chip depends on $400 million machines that use lasers only one Dutch company knows how to make. (More galling to some: Americans invented the technology, then sold it to Europe.) Kelez is building the next generation in America using particle accelerator tech. It's as nerdy as it sounds but also exceedingly important in this moment. There is also growing competition chasing after the same prize. Then there's Mina Fahmi, who's made a ring that captures your Read More

Anduril's autonomous weapons stumble in tests and combat, WSJ reports: Defense tech startup Anduril Industries has faced numerous setbacks during testing of its autonomous weapons systems, according to new reporting by the WSJ. Read More

ChatGPT's voice mode is no longer a separate interface: ChatGPT now lets you use voice and text in the same screen, making conversations feel more natural as responses and visuals appear in real time. Read More

From budget leaks to pipeline wins — join this free webinar hosted by Pantheon on Tuesday December 9 at 10 a.m. PT to learn where spend delivers and how to build a 2026 strategy grounded in real results.

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Why 'hold forever' investors are snapping up venture capital 'zombies': An investor explains the "buy, fix, and hold" model employed by Bending Spoons and similar companies that buy distressed startups. Read More