This week, the Equity pod gang — which included newcomer Max Zeff, Margaux MacColl, and Kirsten Korosec — noticed an emerging trend: the worlds of AI and defense tech are colliding.

Listen to the full episode to hear about:

• A new fund is in town. And surprise, surprise, Humba Ventures' $40 million fund is focused on deep tech and defense. 
• How enterprise AI startup Cohere is unlike all the other AI startups out there, and why they've been so quiet. Particularly in this new deal with Palantir.
• Dig into the great philosophical question of 2024: is it dumb to IPO in an election year? And, perhaps more importantly, will this IPO dry spell continue in 2025?
• Should founders be cautious of investors with foreign backing?

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here.

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

This week on Equity Wednesday, Rebecca Bellan is joined by Louis, co-founder of America's Frontier Fund, to discuss the pressing trends in tech innovation. From robotics and AI reshaping manufacturing to Silicon Valley's embrace of defense technology, plus Louis shares his main predictions for 2025.

Listen tot he full episode for a deeper conversation on:

• Silicon Valley's deep roots in defense tech
• The advantages and challenges facing founders seeking government contracts rather than VC funding
• The role startups play in shifting American leadership from the digital world back into physical manufacturing

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here.

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Today, on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha and Margaux MacColl are unpacking the week’s news, including GM’s decision to give up on self-driving startup Cruise. The choice initially came as a shock considering the $10 billion GM pumped into the company over the years, but it became clearer when examining Cruise’s tumultuous 2023 and 2024. 

Listen to the full episode to hear about:

• Freysa.ai’s public challenge and what’s motivating users to make the AI chat bot fall in love with them.
• Why VCs are lining up to back Lumen Orbit’s moonshot of data centers in space.
• Which startups are stepping up amid a looming TikTok ban and if we’ll see another company capture Bluesky’s success. According to Anthony, it all depends on, "luck, timing, and something to do with critical mass."
• Who’s stepping up to fill Y Combinator’s place in Africa and where else we could see a pivot to local accelerators.

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. 

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here.

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

While the idea that the government “should be run like a business,” is by no means a new one, with Elon Musk in charge of government efficiency, it's worth taking a closer look at whether business principles can be applied to government. 

Today on Equity, Rebecca Bellan is discussing the intersection of tech, business and politics with Columbia Business School Professor Michael Morris. Morris is also the author of Tribal, how the cultural instincts that divide us could help bring us together, a nominee for the 2024 Financial Times Business Book of the Year award.

Listen to the full episode to hear more about:

• How Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy's new initiative plans to save $2 trillion in government spending.
• The impact of other tech leaders joining government and the potential for these leaders to influence decisions on crypto and AI regulation.
• What challenges lie ahead for startups bringing innovation to the military. Spoiler: higher costs of error and slower logistics chains are on the list.

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here.

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

AI agent startup /dev/agents announced a massive $56M seed round, putting the company’s valuation at a whopping $500 million. The amount is impressive given the company won’t have a first version of its product available until at least early next year. The reason behind investors’ trust, however, becomes a bit clearer when you consider the founders’ pedigree:  /dev/agents’ co-founders were both on Google’s Android team during the early days of the smartphone era.

The round, as well as whether or not to include “slash” when pronouncing the company’s name, was the first of many deals discussed on today’s episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. 

Listen to the full episode to hear hosts Margaux MacColl, Devin Coldewey and Anthony Ha dig into:

• How Yurts plans to become the DoD’s go-to AI integration platform and compete with AI chatbot the Pentagon is developing itself.
• Why ServiceTitan’s IPO keeps getting weirder and if it’s a sign of IPOs to come. 
• The latest wave of VC turnover, including Brian Singerman’s choice to step back from Founders Fund and Sriram Krishnan’s departure from a16z, and where they’re going next. The crew was left wondering if we’ll see other investors following in Krishnan’s footsteps. 
• Strange AI. Who is David Mayer? And why does ChatGPT hate him so much?

Equity will be back next week, so stay tuned!

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. 

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Check out our full archive of episodes here.

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

How can founders scale frontier tech? Today on Equity, Rebecca Bellan is finding out with Tom Biegala and Ben Hemani, the co-founders of early-stage venture firm, Bison. Bison invests in what they call 'frontier tech' companies building in the material science, robotics, biotech, climate, and sustainability verticals.

Listen to the full episode to hear Rebecca and Bison's founding team discuss:

• Why AI isn't a 'silver bullet' for biotech companies, although it is central to modern drug discovery
• Which robotics startups are catching investors' eyes
• How - and how not - to find product-market-fit when building frontier technology
• When to seek out venture funding over grant funding

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes on TechCrunch.

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

We hope those of you in the U.S. had a Happy Thanksgiving! And as a holiday treat this week, Equity is bringing you an episode of our sister show, Found. 

AI startups are everywhere, but there can't be any innovation without proper computing power. Found hosts Becca and Dom sat down with Gavin Uberti, co-founder and CEO of Etched, an AI chip startup focusing on developing specialized chips. Gavin shares the bold bet his startup is making on transformer models for AI chips, aiming to take on industry giant Nvidia. They discuss how Etched is developing specialized chips that they claim will be an order of magnitude faster than competitors, and Uberti shares his insights on the future of AI hardware as models continue to rapidly scale up in size and capability.

Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week.

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

At this year's TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco,  President and CEO of the Aerospace Corporation Steve Isakowitz and Agency Chief Technologist at NASA A.C. Charanya Charania took the stage to discuss a literal moonshot: how to build a thriving lunar ecosystem. Today on Equity, we’re taking you behind the scenes of TechCrunch Disrupt once again, this time with Devin Coldewey at the helm. 

For those keeping track, Devin’s kept the Equity podcast crew up to date on space startups over the past few months, including Starfish Space’s $29 million round and, more recently, SpaceX’s second commercial deal for the Starship lunar lander with Lunar Outpost.

Listen to the full conversation to hear Devin and Steve Isakowitz discuss: 

• What the path ahead looks like for space startups
• The shift away from government-dominated space programs to a more commercial landscape
• And what’s in store for Aerospace Corporation in 2025.

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate, and we’ll be back on Friday for a special episode from our sister podcast, Found.

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. 

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast.

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Today, on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey and Margaux MacColl dig into the week’s tech and startup news, including what a new scaling method could mean for AI startups if it works and for chip providers if it fails.

Listen to the full episode to hear about:

• The DOJ’s latest proposal for Google: it should divest its Chrome browser. While we wait for a break in the monopoly case and a better search alternative to arise, the Equity crew thinks that Wiz might’ve been on to something when they said no to Alphabet.
• Dual-use drone startup Tekever’s $74 million raise and its part in the European defense tech boom
• How Converge Bio plans to build an ’everything store’ for biotech LLMs. While on the subject of LLMs, Kirsten took us deeper into ServiceTitan’s S-1, including its boilerplate warning about AI.
• Network states 2.0. Margaux had the latest on Praxis’s unusual $525 million raise and the regions its founder is eyeing for a new city.

Equity will be back next week, so stay tuned!

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. 

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast.

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Late last week, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler said that he was “proud to serve” the agency, which some are taking as a hint at an upcoming resignation. Gensler has faced heavy criticism for his crackdown on crypto, including a recent lawsuit from 18 states, and is likely to be replaced under President-Elect Donald Trump who has vowed to oust Gensler. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump is meeting with Brian Armstrong, the CEO of crypto exchange Coinbase, to discuss potential personnel appointments. 

Today on Equity, we're bringing you an interview between Rebecca Bellan and co-founder and CSO of  blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, Jonathan Levin. The pair caught up at our Strictly VC event in New York shortly before the Gary Gensler news dropped to discuss: 

• The imminent change for crypto in the wake of the US election 
• Trends in crypto crime
• Chainalysis’s choice to run its operations in the US 
• How to build trust in crypto

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. 

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast.

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Over the last few years, VC Ben Horowitz has donated at least $7.6 million to fund police department purchases - including the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s new drones from a16z-backed Skydio. Skydio is not the first of a16z’s portfolio companies to benefit from these donations, either.

Today, on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey and Margaux MacColl dug into the implications of Horowitz’s approach and why others in the VC world should maybe hold off on praising the controversial move.

Listen to the full episode to hear about:

• Elon Musk’s new role in the Department of Government Efficiency. The crew wondered how much change Musk and co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy will actually be able to enact. And yes, DOGE jokes were made. 
• Klarna’s plans for a U.S. IPO. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll have to wait for 2025 before we get another IPO, but Margaux has a theory about what might be behind the slowdown.
• Vecna Robotics’ $14.5 million raise and the CEO choice that caught Kirsten’s attention. 
• Starfish Space’s latest round and impressive batch of contracts for its full-size Otter spacecraft.
• Who’s joining the unsolicited bidding war over Cursor-maker Anysphere.

Equity will be back next week, so stay tuned!

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. 

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes 

over at Simplecast.

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.