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Equity

TechCrunch, Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, Sean O'Kane, Theresa Loconsolo

The intersection of technology, startups, and venture capital touches everything now. That’s why Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast, digs into the business of startups for entrepreneurs and enthusiasts alike. Every Wednesday and Friday, TechCrunch reporters keep you up-to-date on the world of business, technology, and venture capital. Equity is ranked the No.2 podcast in the Top 100 Venture Capital All time leaderboard on Goodpods—As well as No.17 for the Top 100 Finance All time chart and No.32 for the Top 100 Business News All time chart.

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  • 34 episodes
  • a few times a week
  • Avg 33 min
  • English

Episodes 34

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  • Friday · 35 min

    Automattic's 33-Hour coup, and can AI labs police themselves?

    A week after an Anthropic researcher's doomsday warning rattled the AI world, the company's CEO Dario Amodei has outlined his plan to “pace the frontier” of AI development. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into whether companies can agree on what slowing down means and who gets to police it. Plus, WordPress parent Automattic's boardroom coup, and a couple of the week's biggest deals.

  • September 11 · 39 min

    An ex-Anthropic researcher’s doomsday warning comes at a very interesting time

    An Anthropic researcher resigned this week, warning in a post on X that the company is “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives”. The company's own alignment lead even co-signed the message rather than walking it back. It's the kind of doomer warning the AI industry has flirted with before, but the timing, with Anthropic reportedly preparing for an IPO, makes it land differently. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into the latest AI safety warning and what it says about the industry's race toward increasingly capable models. Plus, Apple's first big event under new CEO John Ternus and more of the week's headlines. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: Why Apple leaned hard into AI at its hardware event, and how always-on features baked into the Watch and AirPods may matter more than the splashy new foldable iPhone How Stokes Space's $1 billion raise reflects a launch market that's suddenly wide open now that SpaceX is winding down its Falcon rockets Why investors poured $2 billion into coding startup Cognition at a $48 billion valuation, and what it says about how much room VCs think is left in AI coding What a $50 million seed round for floating nuclear reactors says about the scramble to power AI data centers Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 3:28 Anthropic researcher's resignation warning 9:33 What's actually being done about AI risk? 15:56 Apple's AI-first hardware event 19:56 The case against a standalone AI wearable 21:53 Always-on listening: watch, AirPods, and privacy tradeoffs 26:43 The foldable iPhone's odds 27:16 Stoke Space raises $1B for a reusable rocket 31:17 Cognition raises $2B, betting on room for more AI coding players 34:13 BlueCore Energy's floating nuclear reactors 37:38 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • September 2 · 25 min

    We're ‘dangerously close’ to dead internet theory according to Pangram's CEO

    The internet has a trust problem, and it’s not just because social media feeds are filling up with AI slop. AI-generated text and images are now making their way into job applications, product reviews, and even insurance claims, leaving platforms and users alike scrambling to figure out what’s real. A handful of startups have cropped up in the past couple of years to become the “trust layer” the internet needs — including Pangram. The startup recently snapped up $9 million for its AI detection system and landed a partnership with Substack, which is now using Pangram’s tech to show readers which of their favorite authors use AI to write their newsletters. Pangram also recently dropped a new AI image detection tool. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Pangram co-founder and CEO Max Spero joins Rebecca Bellan to dig into the promise of AI detection tools and where to draw the line between AI assisted and AI generated. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: Why Spero thinks the internet could be “dangerously close” to the dead internet theory becoming reality within a few years. Why figuring out how much AI went into something is harder — and potentially more useful — than simply labeling it AI or human. The stakes of getting AI detection wrong, especially when false positives involve sensitive images. Why Spero thinks the “bottom tier” of writing jobs may be gone for good, while genuinely good human writing could become more valuable. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 1:15 Building Pangram: from binary detector to gauging AI assistance 2:06 Why job applications, reviews, and Amazon are drowning in slop 5:39 How Pangram actually spots AI writing 9:26 Where people draw the line on AI-assisted vs. AI-generated 12:50 The false positive problem, and "America has a Pangram problem" 14:30 Detecting fake images, now that AI photos are scarily good 19:13 Competing with GPTZero, Winston, and building "core infrastructure" 21:43 Will good writing jobs actually come back? 23:36 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • August 28 · 33 min

    Will TikTok and YouTube follow Meta’s new rules for teens?

    Earlier this week, Meta agreed to pay $18 billion and make sweeping changes to how minors access its social networks to settle a lawsuit brought by 29 states. But the eye-popping settlement figure wasn't what caught the attention of the Equity podcast team. Instead, it was what Meta did next. The social media giant sent an open letter to TikTok and YouTube asking the companies to join it in setting industry-wide standards for teens, including daily time limits, blocking access to apps at night, and restricting notifications during school hours. But will these other companies follow? The Equity team doesn't think they will. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec, and Sean O'Kane dig into the Meta settlement, what it could mean for other social media companies, and more of the week’s headlines. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: How investors are pouring money into robotics startups and driving up valuations. For instance, Generalist reached a $3 billion valuation, while General Intuition hit the $6 billion mark. Even though robotics is a hot sector, there is pain point: robots still lack the know-how to do value-creating work. What senior reporter Sean O'Kane discovered when he dug into OSHA data connected to robotaxi companies like Waymo and Zoox. What self-driving truck startup Gatik's $200 million raise means for the sector. Hugging Face is reportedly being acquired by Nvidia. The team weighs in what this means for the industry. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • August 19 · 32 min

    AI has a GPU pricing problem. Silicon Data wants to fix it.

    Rebecca Bellan is joined by ⁠Steve Hou⁠, head of research at Silicon Data, to discuss the health of the AI buildout, and why the data is telling a different story than the doom and gloom headlines about depreciating chips and ⁠stalled⁠ ⁠data centers⁠. 

  • August 7 · 28 min

    Jill Lepore on the ‘Artificial State’ and why Silicon Valley's leaders are bad sci-fi readers

    On this episode of TechCrunch's⁠ Equity⁠ podcast, Anthony Ha talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard historian and New Yorker writer Jill Lepore about her upcoming book and why she thinks today's AI leaders — who promise a future where AI makes government more efficient, more responsive, and maybe even unnecessary — are selling an old fantasy in new packaging. 

  • August 5 · 31 min

    Why Lightspeed is going all-in on creator-led venture capital

    On this episode of Equity, Lightspeed Venture Partners' Claire Zau and Josh Machiz join Dominic-Madori Davis to unpack whether the "creator-investor" is becoming a real function in venture capital or just a trend firms are still figuring out.

  • July 29 · 31 min

    ‘If this isn't addiction, I don't know what is’: Light Phone's founders get real about screen time and building for the anti-smartphone generation

    With the Light Phone, Kaiwei Tang and Joe Hollier have spent over a decade exploring the value of simplicity in our relationship to technology, partnering along the way with players like Andrew Yang, Kendrick Lamar, and Pete Davidson. Now, with a new flip phone and a growing wave of “attention activists” pushing back on big tech, they think the rest of the world is finally catching up to them. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Amanda Silberling talks with Tang and Hollier about the company's newly announced flip phone, why they think the anti-smartphone backlash is only just getting started, and what it takes to break an addiction that fits in your pocket. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: How the design lessons from the original Motorola Razr shaped the new Light Flip What the "Summer of Ludd" attention activist movement says about Gen Z's relationship with big tech Why Light Phone is opening up an SDK so users can build their own tools instead of opting for an app store Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 0:51 Building Light Phone 3:10 The user shift: why people are finally ready to unplug 7:54 Designing outside the Silicon Valley bubble 9:54 Why simple tech is making a comeback (CDs, iPods, flip phones) 13:50 From the Motorola Razr to the Light Flip 17:54 Pricing and the Noble Mobile phone plan 19:44 What actually happens when you switch (and the Flip Your Life program) 23:13 Building an open-source app library for Light Phone 26:38 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • July 24 · 38 min

    ‘AI communism’, rogue models, and the why Kimi K3 spooked Wall Street

    Chinese AI lab Moonshot's open model Kimi went viral this week for reasons that had less to do with the model itself and more to do with how the U.S. AI industry reacted to it. Meanwhile, an unreleased OpenAI model wandered outside its test environment and ended up connected to a real security breach at Hugging Face — a reminder that “China risk” isn't the only kind of AI risk worth worrying about. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into why Kimi K3 set off a fresh round of AI panic, the industry’s response to an OpenAI staffer's “regulatory FUD” post, and what that OpenAI breach means for AI security more broadly. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: Why EVs are getting killed off across the U.S. even as automakers roll out new models, and how Rivian and Ford, and a wave of new startups are betting on different EV strategies to survive What Sila's $300 million raise says about where battery investment is headed even as EV demand cools Travis Kalanick's comeback with a $1.7 billion raise for his robotics startup, Atoms, and why we’re surprised to see Uber among its investors Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 1:39 Chinese AI model Kimi sparks a Wall Street freakout 10:45 OpenAI model breaks out of a test, Hugging Face breach 15:53 Why EVs are getting killed off in the U.S. 20:35 Tax credits, free markets, and the road ahead for EVs 28:56 Sila raises $300M for battery materials 32:20 Travis Kalanick's Atoms raises $1.7B, with Uber as an investor 36:39 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • July 17 · 34 min

    Apple's lawsuit couldn't come at a worse time for OpenAI

    Apple filed a trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI last Friday, and it's not messing around. The complaint alleges a pattern of misconduct reaching all the way up to OpenAI's chief hardware officer and claims more than 400 former Apple employees now work at the company. OpenAI's response so far has been carefully hedged, and the timing couldn't be worse with the company reportedly eyeing an IPO as early as later this year. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into what the lawsuit could mean for OpenAI's own hardware ambitions and IPO timeline, plus a bigger theme running through the week's news: how much should anyone trust AI companies with their data? Listen to the full episode to hear more about: Why Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is warning enterprises about handing data over to AI labs, and whether open source is really a way out of the “Trojan horse” data-trust problem How forward-deployed engineers (FDEs) are changing the relationship between AI labs and their enterprise customers Why General Catalyst just handed David Beckham's health drink startup a $1 billion customer value fund The scoop on a new $200M drug-discovery startup from an ex-OpenAI researcher Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:40 Would you want Sam Altman listening to you? 01:53 Apple sues OpenAI over trade secrets 13:24 Satya Nadella's warning: "you're paying twice" with your data 19:03 Open source vs. going deeper with AI labs 24:52 General Catalyst gives David Beckham's health drink startup $1B 30:05 Ex-OpenAI researcher raises $200M for drug discovery startup 32:58 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Showing 1–20 of 34 episodes