SoftBank leads $104 million investment in travel startup TravelPerk

SoftBank leads 4 million investment in travel startup TravelPerk

TravelPerk CEO and co-founder Avi Meir. TravelPerk Barcelona-based startup TravelPerk, which helps automate corporate travel and expenses, has raised $104 million in fresh funding from Japanese tech investing giant SoftBank and a flood of other names, to invest in artificial intelligence development and new products. The company said Tuesday that it raised the cash in … Read more

Founders of Wise and Skype raise $436 million to back Europe tech

Founders of Wise and Skype raise 6 million to back Europe tech

The partners of European venture capital firm Plural, from left to right: Ian Hogarth, Taavet Hinrikus, Carina Namih, Sten Tamkivi and Khaled Helioui. Plural The founders of Wise, Skype and Songkick have raised 400 million euros ($436.4 million) for a new fund to back technology startups in Europe. It seeks to compete with established funds … Read more

MrBeast makes over $263,000 in X video, but calls it a ‘facade’

MrBeast makes over 3,000 in X video, but calls it a ‘facade’

YouTube personality Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, arrives for the 36th Annual Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on March 4, 2023. Michael Tran | Afp | Getty Images Jimmy Donaldson, the internet sensation known as MrBeast, recently took his talents to X, formerly known as Twitter, to see … Read more

Meta’s retreat from news accelerated in 2023, leaving media scrambling

Meta’s retreat from news accelerated in 2023, leaving media scrambling

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, testifies remotely as Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., watches during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing “Breaking the News: Censorship, Suppression, and the 2020 Election,” in Washington, Nov. 17, 2020. Bill Clark | Reuters Mother Jones CEO Monika Bauerlein has had a front-row seat in recent years to watch Facebook upend the … Read more

Blockchain, tech behind bitcoin, can be used to track AI training data

Blockchain, tech behind bitcoin, can be used to track AI training data

Vertigo3d | E+ | Getty Images DAVOS, Switzerland — Blockchain could be used to prevent bias in the data that artificial intelligence models are being trained on — and that could be a “killer use case” for the technology, executives told CNBC. One of the concerns about the AI models — the kind that underpin … Read more

Disney+ announces international crackdown on account sharing

Disney+ announces international crackdown on account sharing

Freeloading off your friends’ Disney+ accounts will very soon become a thing of the past. The streaming platform announced it is cracking down on password sharing, in an email sent out to customers on Friday. The changes, which also apply to ESPN+ subscriptions, will limit account usage outside user households, and come into effect for … Read more

Cryptographers Are Getting Closer to Enabling Fully Private Internet Searches

Cryptographers Are Getting Closer to Enabling Fully Private Internet Searches

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. We all know to be careful about the details we share online, but the information we seek can also be revealing. Search for driving directions, and our location becomes far easier to guess. Check for a password in a trove of compromised data, and we … Read more

2025 Honda Civic Hybrid Gets Sportier Styling, Will Be Available As A Sedan Or Hatchback

2025 Honda Civic Hybrid Gets Sportier Styling, Will Be Available As A Sedan Or Hatchback

Photo: Honda 2023 was a banner year for Honda’s hybrid lineup. Despite the brand’s only hybrid offerings being the Accord sedan and CR-V crossover, hybrids made up 25 percent of Honda’s total sales for the year, and those hybrid variants were more than 50 percent of each model’s individual sales totals. To capitalize on that … Read more

Electric Truckers Love Their Rigs But Employers Don’t Love Cost

Electric Truckers Love Their Rigs But Employers Don’t Love Cost

Photo: Smith Collection/Gado (Getty Images) The trucking industry seems like the perfect transportation sector to be electrified. Despite comprising only a tiny percentage of the national delivery and freight fleet, EV truck drivers love working with their vehicles. However, the move isn’t universally desirable for employers who have to cover the cost of purchasing an … Read more

Stellantis Will Launch 8 New EVs On Shared Platform That Will Have Up To 500 Miles Of Range

Stellantis Will Launch 8 New EVs On Shared Platform That Will Have Up To 500 Miles Of Range

Stellantis is busy revamping itself right now, killing off aging platforms, postponing new models, and developing a whole slew of new electric and hybrid vehicles. One of the major developments on this front is the introduction of a new modular platform uncreatively named STLA Large. This new chassis structure will underpin dozens of new models … Read more