OpenAI released a new model today called GPT-4.5 that apparently has a lot of emotional intelligence but falls short of newer AI “reasoning” models from DeepSeek, Anthropic, and OpenAI itself and is very expensive to operate. TechCrunch has more here.

Speaking of OpenAI, despite raising billions and billions of dollars, co-founder and CEO Sam Altman tweeted the company is "out of GPUs." TechCrunch has more here. 

After years of “software eating the world,” it’s hardware’s turn to feast. AI hardware is poised for explosive growth. Are you on board? Here’s a list of the top 50 companies to track in 2025.

By Zack Whittaker

A little-known phone surveillance operation called Spyzie has compromised more than half a million Android devices and thousands of iPhones and iPads, according to data shared by a security researcher.

Most of the affected device owners, who are unknown, are likely unaware that their phone data has been compromised.

The security researcher told TechCrunch that Spyzie is vulnerable to the same bug as Cocospy and Spyic, two near-identical but differently branded stalkerware apps that share the same source code and exposed the data of more than 2 million people, as we reported last week. The bug allows anyone to access the phone data, including messages, photos, and location data, exfiltrated from any device compromised by the three apps.

The bug also exposes the email addresses of each customer who signed up to Spyzie to compromise someone else’s device, the researcher said.

The researcher exploited the bug to collect 518,643 unique email addresses of Spyzie customers and provided the cache of email addresses to TechCrunch and to Troy Hunt, who operates the Have I Been Pwned data breach notification site.

This latest leak shows how increasingly prevalent consumer phone surveillance apps have become among civil society, even from little-known operations like Spyzie, which barely have any online presence and are largely banned by Google from running ads in search results, and yet have amassed thousands of paying customers.

More here.

Bitwise, a nine-year-old San Francisco startup that offers cryptocurrency investment products including index funds and ETFs to financial advisors, family offices, and institutional investors, raised a $70 million round. Electric Capital led the transaction, with MassMutual, Highland Capital, MIT Investment Management Co., Haun Ventures, ParaFi Capital, Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Blockchain Coinvestors, and Nikesh Arora also piling on. PYMNTS has more here.

MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson), the social media star know for creating high-budget challenge videos, extravagant giveaways, and charity-driven content, is reportedly in the market to raise "a couple hundred million dollars" at a $5 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg, which has more here.

Shop Circle, a five-year-old London startup that provides AI-powered software tools to help online brands with sales, customer engagement, and store management, raised a $60 million Series B round led by Nextalia Ventures, with Endeavor Catalyst as well as previous investors NFX, QED Investors, 645 Ventures, 3VC, and i80 Group also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.

Taktile, a five-year-old New York startup that enables financial institutions and fintech companies to design, test, and optimize AI-driven decisions in areas like credit underwriting and fraud detection, raised a $54 million Series B round led by Balderton Capital, with previous investors Index Ventures, Tiger Global, Y Combinator, Prosus Ventures, Visionaries Club, and Larry Summers also contributing. TechCrunch has more here.

CompScience, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to analyze existing workplace video footage, identifying potential safety hazards to help businesses reduce accidents and lower workers' compensation costs, raised a $27.6M Series B round led by Sands Capital. More here.

Enveda, a seven-year-old Boulder startup that is analyzing molecules produced by living organisms to create a vast database of chemical information for use in developing treatments for diseases like atopic dermatitis and asthma, raised a $20 million Series C extension. Sanofi provided the funding. More here.

Loyal, a seven-year-old San Francisco startup that is dedicated to developing drugs that aim to extend the healthy lifespan of dogs, raised a $22 million Series B-2 round. Investors included Valor Equity Partners and Collaborative Fund. The company has raised a total of $150+ million. More here.

Napo, a four-year-old London startup that provides comprehensive pet insurance for cats and dogs, raised a $15.1 million Series B. Mercia Ventures was the deal lead, with DN Capital, Companion Fund, MTech Capital, and Helvetia Venture Fund also chipping in. EU-Startups has more here.

Prime Intellect, a San Francisco startup that allows researchers and developers to train and scale AI models by aggregating resources from multiple cloud providers, raised a $15 million round led by Founders Fund, with Menlo Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $21 million. More here.

Relay, a three-year-old London startup, raised a $35 million Series A round led by Plural, with Project A and Prologis Ventures also investing. TechCrunch has more here.

Skylo, a nine-year-old startup based in Mountain View, CA, that provides satellite connectivity for smartphones, vehicles, and IoT devices, enabling them to stay connected even when cellular networks are unavailable, raised a $30 million round led by NGP Capital, with Westly Group as well as previous investors Intel Capital, BMW i Ventures, Samsung Catalyst Fund, and Next47 also pitching in. More here.

Turing, a two-year-old Boston startup that whose AI-driven software helps industries and municipalities monitor and optimize water treatment and distribution systems, raised a $14 million round. Safar Partners led the investment. More here.

Unique, a four-year-old Zürich startup that creates AI tools for financial institutions to automate various back-office and middle-office functions such as research, compliance, and client onboarding, raised a $30 million Series A round co-led by CommerzVentures and DN Capital, with previous investors VI Partners and Pictet Group also stepping up. TechCrunch has more here.

Anagram, a two-year-old New York startup that offers interactive training programs featuring short videos and engaging puzzles to help employees recognize and avoid security threats, raised a $10 million Series A round led by Madrona and including previous investors General Catalyst, Bloomberg Beta, Operator Partners, and Secure Octane. More here.

Charta Health, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to help healthcare providers identify missed billing opportunities, prevent claim denials, and ensure compliance with documentation standards, raised an $8.1 million seed round led by Bain Capital Ventures, with SV Angel, South Park Commons, SpringRock Ventures, and Refract Ventures also chiming in. More here.

Deepnight, a startup that develops AI-driven night vision technology, raised a $5.5 million round led by Initialized Capital, with Y Combinator also opting in. TechCrunch has more here. 

Ethos, a two-year-old New York startup that provides a platform to help financial institutions manage the risks associated with their decision-making models, including those driven by artificial intelligence, raised a $6 million seed round led by Canapi Ventures, with Capital One Ventures and Better Tomorrow Ventures also investing. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Firstwork, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to streamline hiring, onboarding, training, and payroll processes for industries like healthcare, hospitality, logistics, and transportation, raised a $5 million seed round led by Gradient, with Y Combinator, Soma Capital, 468 Capital, Houghton Street Ventures, and Deel Leadership also anteing up. More here.

Lockchain.ai, a two-year-old startup based in Athens, GA, that helps cryptocurrency traders and asset managers monitor and manage risks associated with their digital asset portfolios, raised a $5 million Series A round led by White Star Capital and including Lerer Hippeau, Arrington Capital, and Sonic Boom Ventures. More here.

Qanta, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that is building an AI-powered accounting service tailored for software companies, raised a $4.7 million seed round led by Accel, with basecase, Comma Capital, and Elad Gil also ponying up. TechCrunch has more here. 

SimCare AI, a one-year-old Chicago startup that uses AI to create realistic virtual patients that medical students and professionals can use to practice and assess their skills, raised a $2 million seed round co-led by Y Combinator and Drive Capital, with Harper Court Ventures Fund, Singularity Capital, Triple S Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Asymmetry Ventures, Sand Hill North, and Transpose Platform also joining in. More here.

SkyMirr, a five-year-old startup based in Melbourne, FL, that designs antennas and modules for improved satellite communications, 5G networks, and medical devices, raised a $7.4 million Series A round. Solyco Capital was the deal lead. More here.

SponsWatch, a five-year-old Stockholm startup that helps sports teams, leagues, and federations assess the exposure and effectiveness of their sponsors, enabling brands to maximize their visibility and return on investment,
raised $1.05 million seed round led by node.vc and supported by Venrex. ArcticStartup has more here.

Affinity's guide shows how private capital firms are using advanced analytics to optimize their deal pipelines, automate their reporting workflows, and monitor their execution strategy. As Speedinvest's Lukas Huber notes, "By using a data-driven approach with the help of the Affinity dashboards, we help break or at least mitigate these biases" that often influence VC strategy. View the guide to find out how you can start tracking deal flow and engagement, as well as make more data-driven decisions.

Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW), a cloud-based data platform that helps businesses store, manage, and analyze data, has added $200 million to the kitty of its startup accelerator, which invests in AI startups. A portion of the cash will come from VCs like Bain Capital Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here. 

Despite announcing a tender offer that values Stripe at $91.5 billion, company co-founder and President John Collison told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin that Stripe has "no near-term IPO plans." CNBC has more here. 

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC that next-generation AI will need 100 times more compute than older models because of new reasoning approaches. More here. 

Google co-founder Sergey Brin thinks Google could become a leader in AI if the company's employees just worked harder. "I recommend being in the office at least every weekday," he said in an internal memo wrote, adding that "60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity." The New York Times has more here. 

Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan, the brother of the United Arab Emirates' president, controls two Abu Dhabi wealth funds worth an estimated $1.4 trillion and is committed to spending much of this money to make the UAE a leader in AI. The Wall Street Journal has more here. 

Sequoia managing partner Roelof Botha is warning the world about SPVs. "SPVs are making a come-back, where the lead investor speaks for less than 10% of the capital, yet eagerly lines up the latest set of tourist chumps who think the story will end differently this time," he tweeted. TechCrunch has more here. 

Speaking at conference at Georgetown University, VC Keith Rabois reportedly noted that it's getting pretty crowded in Washington. "Without any pre-existing knowledge, I ran into Mark Zuckerberg and Jensen from Nvidia. . . . That never would've happened in my entire life before in DC, like zero chance." Rabois reportedly added that he doesn’t expect Washington to become a more powerful startup hub, despite the current influx of power players. Being in the district is "unlikely to drive me to meet some undiscovered talent who's going to create the next iconic company." Business Insider has more here.

Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia just took the wraps off his first assignment for DOGE. In TechCrunch.

One of the ways OpenAI used to demonstrate the sophistication of its latest GPT-4.5 model was to show how successful it was in conning other LLMs to give it money. TechCrunch has more here. 

Wired reports on Telegrams groups that have sprung up to doxx and harass women who joined “Are We Dating the Same Guy?” groups on Facebook. More here. 

Local officials where the second Fyre Festival is supposedly taking place say they "have no knowledge of this event, nor contact with any person or company about it ... For us, this is an event that does not exist.” The Guardian has more here. 

Take a peek inside this year's Oscars gift bag, which contains swag worth over $216,000.

Tommy Boy shoots his shot on Shark Tank.

A cool new Arc’teryx shoe is climbing the ranks. 

Live like Der Bingle in this $40 million, 14,000 square foot manse located in the tech investor enclave of Hillsborough, CA.