News
Silicon Valley news.
- Squishmallows, dentures, and an ‘I Heart Hot Dads’ bag: Uber has found thousands of items left in robotaxis
Even in a future of robot taxis, someone still has to return the things passengers leave behind.
TechCrunch · 6/2/2026
- Cyera eyes $12B valuation at 80x ARR multiple despite operating losses
The cybersecurity company is nearing a $300 million round led by Evolution Equity Partners.
TechCrunch · 6/2/2026
- Blue Origin CEO pledges to repair ruined launch pad and return to flight by the end of the year
CEO Dave Limp shares 'good news' about the Florida launch pad's condition after New Glenn rocket explosion. Read More
GeekWire · 6/2/2026
- Alibaba's Qwen3.7-Plus supports text, video and imagery inputs at low cost of $0.4/$1.6 per 1M token — but it's proprietary
Alibaba this week released Qwen3.7-Plus, the latest AI large language model (LLM) in its globally beloved and increasingly expansive Qwen family, boasting more multimodal capabilities and a 60% lower cost than the prior, text-only Qwen3.7-Max model released just weeks ago. However, like its immediate predecessor Qwen3.7-Plus is available only under a "closed" commercial license via proprietary application programming interfaces (API) and Qwen Chat. That marks a big departure from the Q
VentureBeat · 6/2/2026
- Mary Jo Foley: No Copilot ‘Super App’ at Microsoft Build, but plenty of agentic fodder
Microsoft teased its rumored Copilot "Super App" at Build but didn't demo it. Longtime Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley assesses the no-show, explains why the initiative matters, and considers what the company actually did announce. Read More
GeekWire · 6/2/2026
- Microsoft unveils seven homegrown AI models in new bid for ‘long term self-sufficiency’
Microsoft used its Build conference to unveil seven in-house AI models, including a reasoning model it says draws even with Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.6 — part of a push to depend less on the AI partners it has invested billions in. Read More
GeekWire · 6/2/2026
- Cyberdecks are having a moment, rejecting big tech surveillance with style and substance
Over the last few months, these DIY hardware communities have exploded in popularity as people on social media show off their solar-powered game emulators, pocket-sized ereaders, and clamshell purse computers.
TechCrunch · 6/2/2026
- WTIA selects 21 startups for 14th Founder Cohort Accelerator Program
The early stage companies from across Washington state are working in areas such as AI, cybersecurity, healthcare, enterprise software, and other emerging technologies, the WTIA said Tuesday. Read More
GeekWire · 6/2/2026
- Uber caps employee AI spending after blowing through budget in 4 months
Uber's cutback has occurred after the company had reportedly encouraged staff to use AI as much as possible.
TechCrunch · 6/2/2026
- Perplexity AI unveils hybrid local-cloud inference system at Computex 2026
Perplexity AI, the fast-growing search startup now valued at $20 billion, unveiled what it calls the first hybrid local-server inference orchestrator at Computex 2026 on Monday night, demonstrating software that autonomously decides — in real time and mid-task — which AI workloads stay on a user's device and which get routed to frontier models in the cloud.CEO Aravind Srinivas demonstrated the system onstage alongside Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan during Intel's keynote address, using Perplexit
VentureBeat · 6/2/2026
- New Microsoft tool lets devs spin up AI behavior tests using text descriptions
Microsoft on Tuesday took the wraps off Adaptive Spec-driven Scoring for Evaluation and Regression Testing, an open source framework for spinning up AI evaluations.
TechCrunch · 6/2/2026
- The Agentic Reckoning: Enterprise AI organizations have a runtime problem, not a model problem — and most are building the wrong solution
In Q1 2026, VentureBeat's Pulse Research surfaced the “Governance Mirage”: the gap between the governance org charts enterprises had drawn and the control layers they had actually built. Forty-three percent said a central team owned AI governance; 23% couldn't agree on who owned it at all; and 31% named vendor opacity as the single biggest obstacle.This new wave of research asks the next question: Once you've admitted the governance problem, what breaks first when you try to fix i
VentureBeat · 6/2/2026
- A startup, Everand, is now bundling e-books, audiobooks, and book clubs in challenge to Amazon
A new reading subscription from Everand offers access to both e-books and audiobooks, and Fable's book club community.
TechCrunch · 6/2/2026
- Martin Scorsese becomes the latest — and most unlikely — Hollywood voice for AI
The caveat is that one of the world's most famous living directors is using the tech solely for storyboarding.
TechCrunch · 6/2/2026
- Microsoft launches Scout, an OpenClaw-inspired personal assistant
Launched at Build, Microsoft Scout is a new AI assistant meant to bring the power and flexibility of OpenClaw into the Microsoft 365 system.
TechCrunch · 6/2/2026
- Enterprise AI agents keep creating data silos. Microsoft's Build answer is Microsoft IQ and Rayfin.
Every new AI agent your team deploys starts from scratch: no memory of how the business works, where data lives, or what rules apply. And as agentic coding tools spin up applications faster than anyone can govern them, each one risks becoming another silo outside your data layer entirely. Microsoft is addressing both problems directly at Build 2026.According to VentureBeat's VB Pulse's Q1 2026 RAG Infrastructure Market Tracker, hybrid retrieval intent among 100-plus employee organizati
VentureBeat · 6/2/2026
- Microsoft offers devs a better way to control AI agent behavior
The specification lets developer, compliance, and security teams define their own policies for agents to follow in portable policy files.
TechCrunch · 6/2/2026
- Google rolls out fake call detection to protect against AI deepfake impersonation scams
As people increasingly refuse to answer calls from unknown numbers, scammers are shifting their tactics by spoofing trusted phone numbers and using AI deepfake technology to sound like authority figures, family members, or employers.
TechCrunch · 6/2/2026
- Ex-Anduril engineer raises $42M to build the Amazon of composite parts
Layup Parts co-founder Zack Eakin has drawn on a motorsports background, and his experience working for Palmer Luckey and Elon Musk, to tackle making faster, cheaper, and better composites.
TechCrunch · 6/2/2026
- Amazon faces class action lawsuit over Ring facial-recognition feature
The class action lawsuit, filed in Seattle by Virginia resident Charles Sigwalt, claims that Ring's Familiar Faces feature stores images of passersby without consent.
TechCrunch · 6/2/2026
- Inside Microsoft’s Project Solara: A new platform for devices that run AI agents instead of apps
A team inside Microsoft has been quietly building a platform for devices that run AI agents instead of apps, based on Android instead of Windows. The first two concept devices, a desktop hub and a wearable badge, are headed to pilots with some big-name businesses. Read More
GeekWire · 6/2/2026
- Tech Moves: Expedia names SVP; Microsoft AI leader departs for Uber; ZeroAvia CEO steps down
Expedia names SVP in global advertising; a Microsoft AI technical lead departs for Uber; and the CEO of the sustainable aviation startup ZeroAvia steps down. Read More
GeekWire · 6/2/2026
- Focused Energy raises whopping $240M Series A for laser-powered fusion tech
Another fusion startup has raised another a massive round to make this type of power a reality.
TechCrunch · 6/2/2026
- Microsoft debuts Surface RTX Spark Dev Box to run large AI models without cloud costs
Microsoft on Monday unveiled the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a compact desktop computer designed to let software developers run large AI models on their desks instead of paying for cloud computing — a move that directly challenges the per-token pricing model that has defined the AI industry's economics since ChatGPT launched three and a half years ago.The device, announced at Microsoft Build 2026, packs Nvidia’s new Blackwell-architecture RTX Spark processor and 128 gigabytes of unified memo
VentureBeat · 6/2/2026
- Microsoft launches MXC, an OS-level sandbox for AI agents, with OpenAI and Nvidia already on board
For the past two years, the technology industry has raced to make AI agents more capable — teaching them to write code, navigate software interfaces, manage files, and orchestrate multi-step workflows with increasing autonomy. What the industry has not done, at least not with any consistency, is answer the question that keeps chief information security officers awake at night: what happens when an agent goes wrong?On Tuesday at its annual Build developer conference, Microsoft offered what may be
VentureBeat · 6/2/2026
- Trump signs narrower executive order on AI oversight after industry objections
After industry objections, President Trump signed a revised AI executive order requiring only voluntary prerelease government reviews of advanced models.
TechCrunch · 6/2/2026
- Version One Ventures raises fresh capital for early bets on AI, robotics and deep tech
The firm announced that it closed Version One Fund V, a $78 million fund focused on pre-seed and seed investments, along with Opportunities Fund III, a $30 million fund designed to make follow-on investments in its most promising portfolio companies. Read More
GeekWire · 6/2/2026
- OpenAI's Codex update lets agents build interactive enterprise workspaces via Sites and role-specific plugins
Agentic AI is moving rapidly from the developer terminal to the corporate world.On Tuesday, OpenAI announced a major update of its agentic AI platform Codex, introducing domain-specific workflows, a rapid, semi-private web hosting feature within it for enterprises called "Sites," and an in-place editing tool named "Annotations". The release marks a deliberate strategy to transform Codex from a specialized programming assistant into an everyday operating environment for busine
VentureBeat · 6/2/2026
- OpenAI launches new Codex tools for white-collar work
OpenAI released a set of six plug-ins aimed at specific jobs: data analytics, creative production, sales, product design, equity investing, and investment banking. Available from within the Codex app, each of the new tools bundles integrations, instructions, and context to allow Codex to approximate a specific job.
TechCrunch · 6/2/2026
- Board, the new game startup from Mirror founder Brynn Putnam, raises $20M, has already sold thousands
Board, the startup building what it calls "together tech" designed to bring people into the same room, has closed a Series A led by Union Square Ventures.
TechCrunch · 6/2/2026