Apple announced Wednesday that JPMorgan Chase is the new issuer of the Apple Card, replacing Goldman Sachs. Apple said that the transition will likely take up to 24 months. While Apple is changing its banking partner, the Apple Card will continue to use the Mastercard network for payments. For consumers, nothing is changing at the moment, including for those applying for new cards. JPMorgan said that the deal would bring over $20 billion in card balances to Chase. The Wall Street Journal noted that Goldman Sachs is offloading this amount at a $1 billion discount. Goldman Sachs said that for…

OpenAI announced ChatGPT Health on Wednesday, which the company said will offer a dedicated space for users to have conversations with ChatGPT about their health. People already use ChatGPT to ask about medical issues; OpenAI says that over 230 million people ask health and wellness questions on the platform each week. But the ChatGPT Health product silos these conversations away from your other chats. That way, the context of your health won’t come up in standard conversations with ChatGPT. If people start chats about their health outside of the Health section, then the AI aims to nudge them to switch…

Larry Page is starting to move some business assets away from California, as organizers work to get a proposed tax on billionaires added to the 2026 ballot, according to Business Insider. The Google co-founder has begun reincorporating several of his business entities in Delaware, including his family office, Koop; his influenza research company, Flu Lab; his aviation company, Dynatomics; and his flying car startup, One Aero. Page himself is reportedly no longer in the state, a source told Business Insider.  The news comes after the billionaire reportedly told others he was looking to leave the state amid the proposed tax,…

Waymo has spent the past three years refining and testing a minivan-like vehicle made by Chinese automaker Zeekr. And now, before this robotaxi joins Waymo’s official commercial fleet, it’s getting a new name, the company told TechCrunch. The Zeekr RT robotaxi will now be named Ojai (pronounced “oh-hi”) — after the village in the Topatopa Mountains above Los Angeles that is known for its arts community and focus on wellness. Waymo’s official explanation, per spokesperson Chris Bonelli, is that the company determined the U.S. public isn’t familiar with the Zeekr brand. That branding may even carry through to the rider…

In what may mark the tech industry’s first significant legal settlement over AI-related harm, Google and the startup Character.AI are negotiating terms with families whose teenagers died by suicide or harmed themselves after interacting with Character.AI’s chatbot companions. The parties have agreed in principle to settle; now comes the harder work of finalizing the details. These are among the first settlements in lawsuits accusing AI companies of harming users, a legal frontier that must have OpenAI and Meta watching nervously from the wings as they defend themselves against similar lawsuits. Character.AI founded in 2021 by ex-Google engineers who returned to…

After leading General Catalyst’s seed strategy for years, Niko Bonatsos has departed the firm. Known for backing an IPO-hopeful Discord and the $10 billion startup Mercor, Bonatsos told TechCrunch he intends to launch a new early-stage VC firm alongside “friends.” Bonatsos is the latest investor to leave General Catalyst, a firm that recently expanded beyond the traditional venture model. Over the last few years, General Catalyst unveiled a wealth management business, a strategy focused on PE-style AI roll-ups, and a Customer Value Fund (CVF), which provides late-stage startups with nondilutive financing secured by recurring revenue. Other recent General Catalyst departures include Deep Nishar and…

Ford is developing an AI assistant that will debut in the company’s smartphone app, before expanding to its vehicles in 2027, the company announced Wednesday at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show. The company also teased a next-generation of its BlueCruise advanced driver assistance system that is both cheaper to make and more capable — ultimately leading to eyes-off driving in 2028. Wednesday’s announcement was one of the only ones to come from a major automaker at CES, marking a sharp turnaround from the late 2010s when they dominated the show. And it wasn’t made at a flashy keynote event; rather,…

Over the past few days, several posts on LinkedIn and Twitter/X went viral after one of the most talked about AI companies in San Francisco suddenly vanished from LinkedIn: Artisan AI.   The company’s LinkedIn page, individual employee profiles, and posts from executives all displayed a “This post cannot be displayed” message.   The startup had been banned from the site, Artisan CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack confirmed to TechCrunch. However, after working with LinkedIn over the past two weeks — and addressing the social network’s concerns — Artisan is now being reinstated.  “Every startup inevitably has some kind of thing that comes back…

At CES 2026, Anthony Wood, Roku’s founder, chairman, and CEO, offered a hint about the future of the company’s newest streaming channel, Howdy, and its ambition to become a broader competitor in the market. Launched last August, the $2.99 per month streaming service offers ad-free access to library content, at a time when rival streamers are raising their prices. “The opportunity for Howdy was — if you just look at what’s going on in the streaming world with streaming services, they’re getting more expensive. They keep raising prices, and they keep adding larger and larger ad loads,” Wood explained at…

Lux Capital, a 25-year-old VC firm known for its investments in frontier science and defense technology, has closed a $1.5 billion ninth fund, the largest fund in the firm’s history. Despite 2025 marking a 10-year low for the number of new VC funds raised in the US venture fundraising, according to PitchBook, it’s not hard to see why limited partners are still piling into Lux. The firm has been investing in defense technologies for years before geopolitical shifts turned the sector into one of the most desirable investment categories. Lux was a seed-stage investor in Anduril, which was last valued…