Latest AI News
Investors back Skye’s AI home screen app for iPhone ahead of launch
Skye, an iPhone app still in private testing, wants to change how people interact with AI on their smartphones. And even before it’s launched, it’s already attracted interest online and from investors and “tens of thousands” of users, according to its creator — a sign that consumers might want a more AI-aware iPhone. Instead of launching an app or speaking to an AI chatbot, the startup is working to design an “agentic homescreen” for the iPhone, using iOS widgets as its interface. Through those widgets, Skye would bring a sort of ambient intelligence to your device, offering personalized insights about your local weather, your current context, your health, and more, according to apostfrom its creator, who goes bysignüllon X. The app can also draft email replies, help you with your meeting prep, send reminders, and flag suspicious charges in your bank accounts. Its creator also claims it can provide location-specific recommendations and additional information about local businesses, neighborhoods, and attractions while you’re out and about. Much of this data would be pulled in through authorized connections granted by the user. The app, which is beingbuiltby a small team from the startupSignull Labs, has already attracted investor attention, despite not yet having a public product. Accordingto an SEC filing, the startup has raised north of $3.58 million in pre-seed funding, in a round that closed in September 2025.Pitchbookalso currently lists New York-based Signull Labs’ funding along with a post-money valuation of $19.5 million. Since announcing the startup’s plans on X, signüll, whose name TechCrunch confirmed as Nirav Savjani according to theSEC filingsand other documents, claims the app has added “tens of thousands” of users to the waitlist. This metric, if accurate, would suggest strong consumer interest in a more AI-aware iPhone. (And potentially, the possibility that a new type of AI device, like therumored OpenAI smartphone, could have a chance.) holy fuck the response to yesterday's lunch has been absolutely unreal. ~million views on our video, tens of thousands added to a waitlist that was already 25k+, & hundreds & hundreds of emails & DMs from investors & ppl genuinely excited about what we're building. our discord is…https://t.co/jqtU9zELqH TechCrunch spoke to signüll, who shared more about the product and funding, under the condition of protecting his pseudonymity. TechCrunch declined, as signull’s name is listed publicly in the SEC filings establishing Signull Labs. (TechCrunch said we would still be happy to publish an interview with him when he’s prepared to go on the record.) The founder noted he’s previously worked at Google and Meta, though he has no obvious LinkedIn presence. He also told TechCrunch that Skye’s early backers includeda16z(Andreesen Horowitz), True Ventures, SV Angel, and other individuals.Offline Venturesalso lists Signull Labs in its online portfolio, we found. Since announcing Skye, Savjani hasappeared on the TBPN podcastas his avatar and has beenposting on Xabout his use of the app. He told TechCrunch that the Skye app plans to launch to its waitlist of users soon, though he declined to give specifics.
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The $100,000 Experiment: What Happens When an AI Agent Manages a Store with Its Own Credit Card?
The world's first artificial intelligence (AI) store, which is entirely designed, managed, and run by an AI agent, is here. Even five years ago, the previous sentence would have sounded like it was taken from science fiction; however, today it is reality. A San Francisco-based startup, Andon Labs, designed an AI agent with all the necessary tools required to run a physical store, and gave it the keys to a retail store and a corporate credit card with $100,000 (roughly Rs. 94.25 lakh) in the bank.
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Meta AI Business Assistant Expanded to Global Markets, to Let Advertisers Optimise Marketing Campaigns
Meta is now expanding its artificial intelligence (AI) tool for marketing campaigns to major global markets. Dubbed the Meta AI Business Assistant, it is a conversational AI platform designed to help advertisers optimise marketing campaigns, resolve account issues, and manage customer interactions across Meta's platforms. It was first introduced last year and was limited to select advertisers in the US. The Menlo Park-based tech giant is now widely rolling out the AI tool globally across its key markets.
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Meta inks deal for solar power at night, beamed from space
The race to secure electricity for AI models has reached new heights: Meta has signed an agreement with the startup Overview Energy that could see a thousand satellites beam infrared light to solar farms that power data centers at night. In 2024, Meta’s data centers used more than 18,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity—roughly enough to power more than1.7 million American homesfor a year—and its need for compute power is only increasing. The company has committed to building 30 gigawatts of renewable power sources, with a focus on industrial-scale solar power plants. Typically, data centers turning to solar power must either invest in battery storage or rely on other generation sources to operate at night. Overview, a four-year-old, Ashburn, Virginia, outfit thatemerged from stealthin December, has a different solution: The company is developing spacecraft that collect plentiful solar power in space. It then plans to convert that energy to near-infrared light and beam it at sufficiently large solar farms—on the order of hundreds of megawatts—which can convert that light to electricity. By using a wide, infrared beam to power existing terrestrial solar infrastructure, Overview thinks it can sidestep the technological challenges and safety and regulatory issues that bedevil plans to transmit power to Earth through high-power lasers or microwave beams. CEO Marc Berte says you’ll be able to stare right into his satellite’s beam with no ill effects. The technology would increase the return on investment from building solar farms and reduce reliance on fossil fuels — if it can be deployed at scale. Overview says it has already demonstrated power transmission to the ground from an aircraft, and is planning to launch a satellite to low Earth orbit in January 2028 to perform its first power transmission from space. In today’s announcement, Meta said it signed the first capacity reservation agreement with Overview to receive up to 1 gigawatt of power from the company’s spacecraft, although it’s not clear if any money changed hands. Overview developed a new metric for this contract, megawatt photons, which is the amount of light required to generate a megawatt of electricity. Berte expects to begin launching the satellites that would fulfill that commitment in 2030, with a goal of flying 1,000 spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit, a high orbit in which each satellite remains fixed above the same point on Earth. He expects each of the company’s spacecraft to provide power from space for more than 10 years. Once in space, Berte says the fleet of spacecraft will be able to cover about a third of the planet, with an initial deployment that will reach from the West Coast of the United States across to Western Europe. As the Earth rotates below and customer solar farms enter evening and night, Overview’s spacecraft should boost their electrical generation with additional light from space. Berte sees opportunity in combining both generation and transmission, with the flexibility to deliver power to solar farms wherever and whenever it is most valuable. “There’s a big difference between being in any one energy market, and being in all of the energy markets,” Berte told TechCrunch.
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TSMC Unveils A13 Node for AI Computing, But Production Begins in 2029. Why?
This new process technology targets AI and high-performance computing workloads, with production planned for 2029.
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Meta-Manus Deal Blocked by China: Report
Last month, Chinese regulators barred Manus co-founders Xiao Hong and Ji Yichao from leaving the country.
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What’s Behind HGS’s 90-Day AI ROI Push? CEO Explains
Global CEO Venkatesh Korla outlines HGS’s 90-day AI ROI push, move to outcome-based pricing, and evolving workforce model.
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OpenAI Developing Custom Chips With MediaTek, Qualcomm for ‘AI Agent’ Smartphones: Ming-Chi Kuo
OpenAI is said to be moving towards building new custom processors for smartphones. According to an analyst, the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence (AI) company has partnered with MediaTek and Qualcomm, and both chipmakers are expected to benefit from long-term demand if smartphones with agentic AI capabilities gain traction. The project, however, is still believed to be in the infancy stage, with mass production currently targeted for 2028. The analyst said that the supply chain is expected to involve Luxshare as the exclusive system co-design and manufacturing partner.
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Shopify Builds Qwen3-32B Agent For 68% Cheaper Store Automations
Shopify’s custom tool-calling agent, which serves the Sidekick commerce assistant, also operates 2.2 times faster.
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China Cloud Spend Hits $14.7 Bn as AI Agent Adoption Accelerates
Alibaba Cloud is the market leader with a 37% share.
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Indian IT's AI Startups Deals Have Changed Since 2024—For the Better
Indian IT firms are rapidly moving beyond AI pilots, forging deep partnerships with global tech giants and startups to deploy agentic AI at scale.
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NatWest Group Partners With IIT Delhi to Drive AI, Fintech Innovation in India
A key priority will be translating academic insights into scalable innovations.
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