‘Silicon Valley’ star Thomas Middleditch makes a surprise appearance at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

‘Silicon Valley’ star Thomas Middleditch makes a surprise appearance at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

If you were wandering the Expo Hall at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, or watching our pitch stage earlier Tuesday, you might have noticed a familiar face from Pied Piper. Thomas Middleditch, who starred in HBO’s popular “Silicon Valley” show that prominently featured Disrupt back in 2014, had a planned takeover of Australian startup (and Battlefield 200…

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OceanPal raises 0M to build NEAR token treasury company

OceanPal raises $120M to build NEAR token treasury company

The new company will use NEAR’s blockchain and NVIDIA technology to build privacy-preserving AI infrastructure, while offering exposure to the NEAR token. Nasdaq-listed OceanPal Inc. has raised $120 million through a private investment in public equity deal to launch SovereignAI, a new subsidiary focused on commercializing the NEAR Protocol and developing AI infrastructure. According to…

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PayPal partners with OpenAI to let users pay for their shopping within ChatGPT

PayPal partners with OpenAI to let users pay for their shopping within ChatGPT

Paypal said on Tuesday that it is adopting a protocol in combination with OpenAI’s “Instant Checkout” feature to let users pay for their shopping directly within ChatGPT, starting in 2026. Paypal is adopting the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), an open-source specification developed by OpenAI that lets merchants make their products available within AI apps, consequently…

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Zoom CEO Eric Yuan says AI will shorten our workweek

Zoom CEO Eric Yuan says AI will shorten our workweek

Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan believes that AI assistants will finally allow us to shorten our workweek. Speaking on stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 conference on Monday, Yuan discussed his videoconferencing product’s embrace of AI, which includes a “digital twin” feature where an AI avatar can speak for you. Yuan began using his…

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Disrupt 2025: Day 1 | TechCrunch

Disrupt 2025: Day 1 | TechCrunch

Today, Day 1, TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 goes full throttle — 10,000 founders, investors, and builders flooding Moscone West for a nonstop run of ideas, demos, and deals. The energy is electric, the conversations are everywhere, and the breakthroughs are only just beginning. From the Startup Battlefield to the AI Disruptors 60, from space entrepreneurs to…

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