Harvey, the high-flying legal AI startup, has acquired Hexus — a two-year-old startup that builds tools for creating product demos, videos, and guides — as the company continues its aggressive expansion amid fierce competition in the legal tech market. Hexus founder and CEO Sakshi Pratap, who previously held engineering roles at Walmart, Oracle, and Google, tells TechCrunch that her San Francisco-based team has already joined Harvey, while the startup’s India-based engineers will come onboard once Harvey establishes a Bangalore office. Pratap adds that she will lead an engineering team focused on accelerating Harvey’s offerings for in-house legal departments. “What we’re…

With the change in TikTok ownership, TikTok users in the U.S. are collectively freaking out over the company’s updated privacy policy after being alerted to the changes through an in-app message. The revised document details the U.S. joint venture’s conditions for using its service, including the specific location information it may collect. Many users are also posting to social media about language found in the policy, which says that TikTok could collect sensitive information about its users, including their “sexual life or sexual orientation, status as transgender or nonbinary, citizenship or immigration status.” But despite the panic, this disclosure isn’t…

TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has been at the center of controversy in the U.S. for years now due to concerns about user data potentially being accessed by the Chinese government. On Thursday, January 22, 2026, TikTok announced that the TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC had officially been established to comply with President Trump’s executive order that approved the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to an American investor group. Now, ByteDance will own less than 20% of the new entity, with the rest of it falling into non-Chinese ownership. Over the years, U.S. users have often found themselves…

The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos felt different this year, and not just because Meta and Salesforce took over storefronts on the main promenade. AI dominated the conversation in a way that overshadowed traditional topics like climate change and global poverty, and the CEOs weren’t holding back. There was public criticism of trade policy, warnings about AI bubbles popping, and a lot of talk about what comes next for the industry.  Watch as TechCrunch’s Equity podcast discusses which conversations took over Davos this week, the latest startup raises that caught our eye, and more. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow…

A failed December effort to bring down parts of Poland’s energy grid was the work of Russian government hackers known for causing past energy disruptions, according to a security research firm that investigated the incident.  Last week, Polish Energy Minister Milosz Motyka told reporters that the attempted cyberattack on December 29 and 30 saw hackers targeting two heat and power plants, as well as trying to disrupt the communication links between renewable installations, such as wind turbines and power distribution operators. Motyka called the incident the “strongest attack” on Poland’s energy infrastructure in years, with the Polish government blaming Moscow…

Yann LeCun’s new venture, AMI Labs, has drawn intense attention since the AI scientist left Meta to found it. This week, the startup finally confirmed what it’s building — and several key details have been hiding in plain sight. On its newly launched website, the startup disclosed its plans to develop ‘world models’ in order to “build intelligent systems that understand the real world.” The focus on world models was already hinted at by AMI’s name, which stands for Advanced Machine Intelligence, but it has now officially joined the ranks of the hottest AI research startups. Building foundational models that…

The Department of Justice has reportedly opened a criminal investigation into HR and payroll startup Deel over allegations that it hired a corporate spy to leak information on its biggest rival, Rippling, reports The Wall Street Journal. In an emailed statement to TechCrunch, Deel says that it is “not aware of any investigation. We will always cooperate with the relevant authorities and provide any necessary information in response to valid inquiries.” Deel’s statement then makes its own allegations against Rippling. It points to its own lawsuit that alleges its rival has been on a “smear campaign,” claiming it’s beating the…

The National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation into Waymo after its robotaxis have been spotted illegally passing stopped school buses numerous times in at least two states. The NTSB is specifically focusing on the more-than-20 incidences that have occurred in Austin, Texas, it said in a post on X on Friday. “Investigators will travel to Austin to gather information on a series of incidents in which the automated vehicles failed to stop for loading or unloading students,” the NTSB said in a statement to TechCrunch. A preliminary report is expected within 30 days, and the safety board will…

​If you thought 2025 couldn’t get any crazier, the streaming world had one more surprise up its sleeve before the year ended.  Netflix, already the largest streaming platform with over 325 million subscribers, took a bold step by acquiring Warner Bros.’ film and television studios, as well as HBO, HBO Max, and other assets. The deal, announced in early December, will bring together some of the most legendary franchises, such as Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and DC Comics properties, among others, all under one roof. ​The scale of this megadeal has stunned industry observers. It’s not only historic in…

Meta today said that it is pausing teens’ access to its AI characters globally across all its apps. The company mentioned that it is not abandoning its efforts but wants to develop an updated version of AI characters for teens, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. The move comes days before a case against Meta is set to go to trial in New Mexico, in which the company is accused of not making an effort to protect kids from sexual exploitation on its apps. Wired reported Thursday that Meta has sought to limit discovery related to social media’s impact on teen…