61 US startups became unicorns in 2024: Here’s the full list

61 US startups became unicorns in 2024: Here’s the full list

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Despite the tight venture capital market, unicorns are still being created every month. Using data from Crunchbase, CB Insights, and PitchBook, TechCrunch tracked down the newly minted unicorns so far this year. The list includes Elon Musk’s xAI, which is already valued at a staggering $24 billion, as well as a good number of other…

Figure’s humanoid robot takes voice orders to help around the house

Figure’s humanoid robot takes voice orders to help around the house

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Figure founder and CEO Brett Adcock Thursday revealed a new machine learning model for humanoid robots. The news, which arrives two weeks after Adcock announced the Bay Area robotics firm’s decision to step away from an OpenAI collaboration, is centered around Helix, a “generalist” Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model. VLAs are a new phenomenon for robotics, leveraging…

California privacy regulator seeks to fine Florida data broker after huge breach of Social Security numbers

California privacy regulator seeks to fine Florida data broker after huge breach of Social Security numbers

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California’s privacy regulator is asking a court to fine a data broker that lost hundreds of millions of Social Security numbers in one of last year’s biggest data breaches. The California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA), which enforces California’s state rules on data protection and privacy rights, known as CCPA, said Thursday that it is seeking…

UK healthcare giant HCRG confirms hack after ransomware gang claims theft of sensitive data

UK healthcare giant HCRG confirms hack after ransomware gang claims theft of sensitive data

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U.K. healthcare giant HCRG Care Group has confirmed it’s investigating a cybersecurity incident after a ransomware gang claimed to have breached the company’s systems to steal troves of sensitive data.  HCRG Care Group is one of the largest independent providers of community health and care services in the United Kingdom. The organization, previously known as…

Valar Atomics comes out of stealth with $19M and a pilot reactor site

Valar Atomics comes out of stealth with $19M and a pilot reactor site

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Companies developing small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) have raised more than $1.5 billion in the past year, as tech companies hunger for power to train AI models and governments decide to commit to the industry. For example, X-energy raised $700 million this month, and Paris-based Newcleo raised $151 million last year, and one would be…