OpenAI makes it easier to build AI agents

Plus: Waymo expands robotaxi service

View this email online in your browser By Dominic-Madori Davis Tuesday, March 11, 2025 Welcome to TC PM! We've got lots of great stories for you today, like Waymo expanding into Silicon Valley, Mark Cuban's thoughts on AI (spoiler: He's bullish!), and Hugging Face teaming up with Yaak. Let's dig in! TechCrunch Top 3 Image Credits: Getty Images/SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP 🕵 Agents incoming: OpenAI released a new set of tools to help developers build their own AI agents on OpenAI's models. It's part of the company's Responses API, which lets companies develop agents that will perform tasks such as searching the web.  🍎 Another Apple update is coming: This one is poised to change almost everything. It will reportedly include a substantial design overhaul with refreshed menus, apps, windows, and buttons, and more simplified navigation and control options.  🚗 Waymo hits more streets: Waymo has officially expanded throughout Silicon Valley. It will now offer rides in Los Altos, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and parts of Sunnyvale.   Afternoon must-reads Image Credits: SXSW 🛠️ "AI is a tool": Mark Cuban shared his thoughts about AI at SXSW, saying that AI itself is not an answer but rather a tool that can help make it easier for founders to grow their businesses. He said founders today should spend their time learning more about AI because of its potential.  💵 Worth it: Worth, a fintech startup, has raised a $20 million seed round to provide "frictionless" onboarding services to small businesses applying for loans, financing, or other credit-based products. The company launched a year ago and has more than 25 clients.  🎉 The IPO market is coming back! Virtual physical therapist Hinge Health filed to go public, hoping to raise $500 million in its offering. The company, which is 10 years old, made $290 million in revenue last year, up 33% from the year prior.  💸 Don't fall for it: The FTC says that Americans lost $12.5 billion in scams last year, a massive jump from $2.3 billion in 2024. Social media remains one of the biggest culprits, but the most common scams seem to be people falling for bad actors pretending to be family members, technical support, or other entities.  🤖 Hugging Face is expanding its LeRobot training: The company is teaming up with AI startup Yaak. Testing of this set, which helps train autonomous robots and cars, will start this summer.    A Message from RemoFirst Global Expansion, Locally Compliant As you take your business global, trust RemoFirst to manage your international workforce. We ensure full compliance with global AML and KYC standards in 185+ countries. Discover why leading startups and Fortune 500s rely on us for seamless global HR solutions. Employ Global Talent   Around the web 🗣️ Speaking out about Meta: Another ex-Facebook employee is speaking out about her time at the company. NBC News got the exclusive with Sarah Wynn-Williams and her new book, where she alleges sexual harassment at the company and speaks about Meta's pursuit of growth at the expense of human rights.  🇮🇳 Elon's global expansion continues: His company Starlink is coming to India after striking a deal with one of the country's largest telecommunication companies. Rest of World has the deets on what this all means and what happens now. Featured jobs from CrunchBoard Head of Strategic Finance, GITAI USA (Torrance, CA) Senior Software Engineer, Source (Remote) Engineering & Support Senior Director, AAOS (Rosemont, IL) Research Systems Engineer - Computing Services, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) Machine Control Technician, Sinacola (Dallas, TX) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.   Check out some of our other newsletters: Startups Weekly TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Update your preferences here at any time Copyright © 2024 TechCrunch, All rights reserved.Yahoo Inc. 680 Folsom Street,San Francisco,CA Privacy Policy

OpenAI signs $11.9B cloud deal with CoreWeave

Also: Elon Musk says doing it all is hard

View this email online in your browser By Rebecca Bellan Tuesday, March 11, 2025 Welcome to TechCrunch AM! I'm writing to you this morning from SXSW — we're still live blogging the festival, so keep checking on that! Besides that, today we've got notes on OpenAI's huge cloud deal, Elon Musk having difficulty multitasking, and the future of fusion. We've also got cyberattacks at X, a new VC firm secretly backed by Volkswagen, and more. Let's go! — Rebecca TechCrunch Top 3 Image Credits: Microsoft 1. Big brain moment: OpenAI has signed a five-year, $11.9 billion agreement with cloud service provider CoreWeave. It's a bold move, considering CoreWeave's last biggest, and most important, customer was Microsoft. Read More 2. What, like it's hard? Elon Musk admitted on a Fox interview that his involvement in DOGE is making it difficult to run his other businesses, including Tesla, where he's currently duking it out to secure a $56 billion pay package. Read More 3. Straight out of sci-fi: General Fusion has successfully created plasma, a type of matter needed for nuclear fusion, inside its steampunk-looking prototype reactor. It's a big milestone for the company as it rushes to deliver a power plant amid a new nuclear race. Read More   A Message from TechCrunch Events From seed to scale — TechCrunch All Stage unites founders & VCs TechCrunch All Stage is where founders & VCs at every level connect, learn & scale. Join 1,200 peers for hands-on Breakouts, expert-led Roundtables & top networking. Hear from scaling experts like Charles Hudson (Precursor Ventures), Jahanvi Sardana (Index Ventures) & Cathy Gao (Sapphire Ventures). Super Early Bird rates save you up to $310—act now. Register Now   Morning Must-Reads Image Credits: TechCrunch 😵 Down for the count: X was inaccessible after cyberattacks purportedly resulted in eight hours of outages. Elon Musk said the "massive cyberattack" was "done with a lot of resources" from either "a large, coordinated group and/or a country." Read More 💶 Operating in secret: A new venture firm called Leitmotif has been quietly funding around 20 startups that are focused on decarbonization – startups working on EVs, space tech, batteries, and nuclear fusion. What makes things even more interesting is that the firm's sole limited partner is Volkswagen. Read More 🔐 Like Stripe, but for security: An Israeli startup called Sola has emerged from stealth with $30 million in funding for its low/no-code platform that lets users design and tailor cybersecurity apps to specific needs. Read More 🤑 For the H1Bs: Zolve is a neobank that helps highly skilled immigrants moving to the U.S. get financial access, and it's just raised $251 million in a new equity and debt round to expand its business further. Read More Around the Web 🔑 From rags to riches: Israeli-U.S. cybersecurity company Cybereason has raised a $120 million round led by SoftBank and Liberty Strategic Capital, per Globes. The round comes after Cybereason's founder and CEO Lior Div stepped down last year, saying the company had been on the verge of bankruptcy at the time. Read More 🎮 More fanservice: A leaked video shows Sony is working on a prototype AI-powered version of one of its PlayStation game characters, reports The Verge. The character in question is Aloy from "Horizon Forbidden West" and it can chat to a player through voice prompts during gameplay. Read More 🔍 Don't believe everything you read: A Columbia Journalism Review study of eight AI search engines found that they provided incorrect citations of news articles for 60% of queries. Grok 3 answered 94% of the queries wrong. Read More Before You Go Image Credits: Jaque Silva/NurPhoto / Getty Images 📹 Bring on the video: Bluesky is now letting people post videos that are up to three minutes long, up from the previous 60-second time limit. It's a welcome change for Bluesky users and others who are leaving X and want a more full-fledged alternative. Read More Featured jobs from CrunchBoard Head of Strategic Finance, GITAI USA (Torrance, CA) Senior Software Engineer, Source (Remote) Engineering & Support Senior Director, AAOS (Rosemont, IL) Research Systems Engineer - Computing Services, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) Machine Control Technician, Sinacola (Dallas, TX) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.   Check out some of our other newsletters: Startups Weekly TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Update your preferences here at any time Copyright © 2024 TechCrunch, All rights reserved.Yahoo Inc. 680 Folsom Street,San Francisco,CA Privacy Policy