Spotify is rolling out Prompted Playlists, a new AI playlist creation tool, to Premium subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. The feature, which was originally tested in New Zealand, allows users to make a playlist by describing what they want to hear, in their own words.
Prompted Playlists builds on an earlier AI playlist product, launched in 2024, which allowed for simpler prompts like “get…
Companies and governments are looking for tools to run AI locally in a bid to slash cloud infrastructure costs and build sovereign capability. Quadric, a chip-IP startup founded by veterans of early bitcoin mining firm 21E6, is trying to power that shift, scaling beyond…
Big Tech companies and upcoming startups want to use generative AI to build software and hardware for kids. A lot of those experiences are limited to text or voice, and kids might not find that captivating. Three former Google employees want to get over that hurdle with…
Zanskar thinks 1 TW of geothermal power is being overlooked
January 22, 2026
The ground beneath our feet holds so much energy that experts at the Department of Energy (DOE) think geothermal power could generate 60 gigawatts – or nearly 10% of U.S. electricity – by 2050.
Zanskar co-founder and CEO Carl Hoiland thinks that lofty number is too low, mostly because it’s discounting conventional geothermal’s potential.
The DOE’s figures assume…
Language learning marketplace Preply is now valued at $1.2 billion after raising a $150 million Series D round that marks a new chapter for the 14-year-old company, whose previous backers include Horizon Capital, Hoxton Ventures, Owl Ventures and Techstars Berlin.
While…
In 2025, consumers spent more money on non-game mobile apps than they did on games for the first time, according to the findings from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower’s annual “State of Mobile” report. While this milestone had been seen in particular…
Elon Musk said over the long weekend that Tesla aims to restart work on Dojo3, the electric vehicle company’s previously abandoned third-generation AI chip. Only this time, Dojo3 won’t be aimed at training self-driving models on Earth. Instead, Musk says it will be dedicated to “space-based AI compute.”
The move comes five months after Tesla effectively shut down its Dojo…
Humans&, a ‘human-centric’ AI startup founded by Anthropic, xAI, Google alums, raised $480M seed round
January 21, 2026
Humans&, a startup with a philosophy that AI should empower people rather than replace them, has raised $480 million in seed funding at a $4.48 billion valuation, reports The New York Times. Investors in the round include chipmaker Nvidia, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and…
Sequoia Capital is reportedly joining a blockbuster funding round for Anthropic, the AI startup behind Claude, according to the Financial Times. It’s a move sure to turn heads in Silicon Valley.
Why? Because venture capital firms have historically avoided backing…
Here are the 55 US AI startups that raised $100M or more in 2025
January 20, 2026
The AI industry entered 2025 with strong momentum.
There were 49 startups that raised funding rounds worth $100 million or more in 2024, per our count at TechCrunch; three companies raised more than one “mega-round,” and seven companies raised rounds that were $1 billion in size or larger.
The industry didn’t slow down in 2025. While less companies raised rounds larger than $1…
