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  1. Hank Green’s Focus Friend app is climbing the App Store charts — and it’s extremely cute

    19 augustus 2025 · 6 min

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    This is the premise of Focus Friend, a productivity app created by Honey B Games and Hank Green, the longtime online creator/entrepreneur/educator/sock salesman. Though the app was soft launched last month, Focus Friend is only now gaining momentum on the App Store charts — likely because Green and his brother, author John Green, are posting about it more — reaching No. 4 among all free apps and No. 2 among productivity apps. Also, another crypto company is headed for the public markets. This time, it’s Gemini Space Station Inc., the New York-based crypto exchange and custodian bank founded by billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
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  2. Buzzy AI startup Multiverse creates two of the smallest high-performing models ever ... and more news

    18 augustus 2025 · 9 min

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    It humorously calls this family the Model Zoo because one is like the size of a fly's brain and the other the size of a chicken's. Also, Ultrahuman acquires viO HealthTech to launch enhanced cycle and ovulation tracking. Cycle and Ovulation Pro is available starting Friday as a premium PowerPlug in the Ultrahuman app for $3.99 per month or $39.99 per year for users in the U.S., U.K., EU, Australia, and Canada; and Loveable projects $1B in ARR within next 12 months. Loveable is a vibe coding startup growing phenomenally quickly, according to new sales projections from CEO Anton Osika.
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  3. Anthropic nabs Humanloop team as competition for enterprise AI talent heats up ... and more

    18 augustus 2025 · 8 min

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    While an Anthropic spokesperson confirmed that the AI firm did not acquire Humanloop or its IP, that’s a moot point in an industry where IP lives in the brain. And what Humanloop’s team is bringing to Anthropic is experience developing the tools that help enterprises run safe, reliable AI at scale. Also, India’s Rapido begins testing food delivery to take on Swiggy, Zomato. Rapido's beta food delivery service has popped up in three key localities in Bengaluru before a broader rollout.
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  4. Cohere hires long-time Meta research head Joelle Pineau as its chief AI officer ... and more

    15 augustus 2025 · 8 min

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    Cohere has hired Joelle Pineau, Meta's former VP of AI research who previously oversaw the tech giant's fundamental AI research (FAIR) lab. In her newly created Chief AI Officer role, Pineau will oversee AI strategy across Cohere's research, product and policy teams. Also, Monarch Tractors won’t be built by Foxconn after Ohio factory sale. The tractors were the only vehicles being built by Foxconn in Ohio after Lordstown Motors, Fisker Inc., and IndiEV went bankrupt.
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  5. Uber Freight CEO Lior Ron leaves to join self-driving startup Waabi as COO

    15 augustus 2025 · 5 min

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    Self-driving truck maker Waabi has hired autonomous vehicle industry veteran and Uber Freight CEO, Lior Ron, to step in as chief operating officer, as the startup looks to scale its commercial operations ahead of its planned launch of driverless trucks on public highways later this year.
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  6. Sam Altman, OpenAI will reportedly back a startup that takes on Musk’s Neuralink

    14 augustus 2025 · 3 min

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    Neuralink has been making serious progress. Soon Sam Altman and OpenAI could be backing a challenger.
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  7. Anduril opens solid rocket motor factory amidst ongoing chemical chokepoint

    14 augustus 2025 · 5 min

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    As more solid rocket motor suppliers are coming online, a supply chain chokepoint looms.
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  8. TDK backs Ultraviolette with $21M to take India-made electric motorcycles global

    13 augustus 2025 · 7 min

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    Ultraviolette aims to expand its electric motorcycles to 40 European countries, as well as Latin America and Southeast Asia.
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  9. Nigerian profitable food delivery Chowdeck lands $9M from Novastar, Y Combinator

    13 augustus 2025 · 5 min

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    Chowdeck, a Lagos-based food delivery startup that has stayed profitable in a notoriously tough and low-margin market, has raised $9 million in Series A funding to launch a quick commerce strategy and expand into more cities in Nigeria and Ghana.
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  10. Why investors just bet $85M on this Indian company’s generic drug strategy

    12 augustus 2025 · 6 min

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    Truemeds has taken a different route from other Indian online pharmacies — and it has helped the startup double its revenue.
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  11. AI agents aren’t the ‘new Google,’ says Airbnb CEO

    12 augustus 2025 · 4 min

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    "I think we're still kind of feeling out the space," CEO Brian Chesky told investors on the Q2 earnings call.
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  12. The high costs and thin margins threatening AI coding startups

    11 augustus 2025 · 7 min

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    Coding assistant startups are highly unprofitable, says a source familiar with Windsurf financials.
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  13. AI startup OpenArt now creates ‘brain rot’ videos in just one click, also OpenAI priced GPT-5 so low, it may spark a price war

    11 augustus 2025 · 11 min

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    AI-generated “brain rot” videos are popping up all over the internet and getting a lot of attention. Currently gaining traction among younger users, these clips feature wild characters, like a shark wearing sneakers and a ballerina with a cappuccino for a head. One startup driving this trend is OpenArt, founded by two former Google employees in 2022. It touts around 3 million monthly active users. In other news, OpenAI astounded the tech industry for the second time this week by launching its newest flagship model, GPT-5, just days after releasing two new freely available models under an open source license. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman went so far as to call GPT-5 “the best model in the world.” That may be pride or hyperbole, as TechCrunch’s Maxwell Zeff reports that GPT-5 only slightly outperforms other leading AI models from Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and xAI on some key benchmarks, and slightly lags on others.
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  14. Billing platform Lava raises $5.8M to build digital wallets for the ‘agent-native economy’

    8 augustus 2025 · 5 min

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    Lava is a digital wallet that lets merchants use credits to facilitate transactions.
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  15. Photo-sharing app Locket is banking on a new celebrity-focused feature to fuel its growth plus Tavily raises $25M to connect AI agents to the web

    8 augustus 2025 · 6 min

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    Celebrity Lockets is a new feature where celebrities can engage with their most loyal followers on their home screens. Also, Tavity, the one-year-old startup raised a Series A led by Insight Partners.
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  16. For the first time, OpenAI models are available on AWS and ElevenLabs launched an AI music generator

    7 augustus 2025 · 7 min

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    This is a juicy competitive move for both companies after AWS faced an onslaught of criticism over its progress with AI. Lees meer

    In other news, the AI audio-generation unicorn ElevenLabs announced the launch of a new model that allows users to generate music that's cleared for commercial use.
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  17. Clay confirms it closed $100M round at $3.1B valuation and Substack rival Ghost connects to the open social web with its latest public release

    7 augustus 2025 · 6 min

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    -The AI sales automation startup raised fresh funds, led by CapitalG, just months after its last round. Lees meer

    -While the ActivityPub integration is a main selling point for Ghost 6, this major release includes a number of other changes and new additions.
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  18. OpenMind wants to be the Android operating system of humanoid robots

    6 augustus 2025 · 4 min

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    OpenMind is building humanoid robot operating software designed for robots that interact with people and other robots.
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  19. Germ brings end-to-end encrypted messages to Bluesky

    6 augustus 2025 · 5 min

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    Germ's new app lets users send end-to-end encrypted messages on Bluesky. TechCrunch speaks with the Germ founders to hear why they came up with the idea.
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  20. Jeh Aerospace nets $11M to scale the commercial aircraft supply chain in India

    5 augustus 2025 · 7 min

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    Indian startup Jeh Aerospace has secured $11 million in a new funding round to help ease global supply chain bottlenecks.
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  21. Anthropic cut off OpenAI’s access to its Claude models, also PlayerZero raised $15M and Figma’s stock soared in its IPO

    5 augustus 2025 · 8 min

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    Anthropic has revoked OpenAI’s access to its Claude family of AI models, according to a report in Wired. Sources told Wired that OpenAI was connecting Claude to internal tools that allowed the company to compare Claude’s performance to its own models in categories like coding, writing, and safety. Also, as Silicon Valley races toward a future where AI agents do most of the software programming, a new problem is created: finding the AI-generated bugs before they are put into production. Even OpenAI is dealing with such issues, a former employee has described; Figma began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday after a long delay. It soared so quickly that trading was halted for a short time due to market volatility.
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  22. Handwave lends a hand to retailers with its European alternative to Amazon’s palm payments

    4 augustus 2025 · 5 min

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    Latvian startup Handwave aims to compete with Amazon palm payments by offering an independent alternative.
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  23. Female-founded semiconductor AI startup SixSense raises $8.5M

    4 augustus 2025 · 5 min

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    SixSense offers an AI-powered platform that helps chip makers prevent defects. It landed backing led by Peak XV’s Surge (formerly Sequoia India & SEA).
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  24. AIR lands $23M to bring its eVTOLs to the US

    1 augustus 2025 · 5 min

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    Israel-based eVTOL startup AIR has raised $23 million to scale production of both its piloted and uncrewed cargo aircraft, and enter the U.S.
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  25. How 2 UC Berkeley dropouts raised $28 million for their AI marketing automation startup

    1 augustus 2025 · 4 min

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    A marketing automation startup called Conversation has a founding story that sounds like it could have been an episode of the HBO show “Silicon Valley.”
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  26. Fed up with brands that use corn syrup and skim milk, this mother developed her own ‘clean’ baby formula

    31 juli 2025 · 6 min

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    Nara Organics is a new organic, whole milk baby formula brand that's free from palm oil, soy, corn syrup, maltodextrin, and GMOs.
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  27. This founder left Silicon Valley to challenge U.S. defense supremacy from Athens, and investors are paying attention

    31 juli 2025 · 8 min

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    Delian Alliance Industries recently raised $14 million in funding to continue building its defense products, which include surveillance towers, and concealed sea drones.
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  28. Index Ventures’ Jahanvi Sardana shares the truth about TAM and what founders should focus on instead

    30 juli 2025 · 4 min

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    Index Ventures partner Jahanvi Sardana has a reminder for all those founders worried about finding TAM for their product or service: many startups have emerged from markets that, at the time, were essentially nonexistent.
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  29. This industrial AI startup is winning over customers by saying it won’t get acquired

    29 juli 2025 · 6 min

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    In red-hot acquisition market, this CVector founders answer this key question in its first conversation with prospective customers.
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  30. How a Y Combinator food delivery app used TikTok to soar in the App Store ... and Chime backer Lauren Kolodny bets on AI

    29 juli 2025 · 9 min

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    The internet trend is simple: A friend or family member looks into the camera and tells viewers, in a slightly aggressive tone, that they are about to witness a presentation and that they had better be nice. Also, Acrew Capital's Lauren Kolodny led a $20 million Series A in Alix, a startup that uses AI to automate estate processing.
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  31. Preston Thorpe is a software engineer at a San Fransisco startup. He’s also serving his eleventh year in prison.

    28 juli 2025 · 8 min

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    A senior software engineer for Turso, Thorpe is part of an experimental program in the Maine state prison system that allows incarcerated people to work remote jobs from custody.
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  32. Mission Barns is betting that animal-free pork fat will make artificial meat delicious ... and more

    28 juli 2025 · 8 min

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    It’s the first such product to reach the market, and it could unlock a host of fattened-up meat alternatives. Also, iRocket is aiming to hit the public markets but the SPAC vehicle has hardly any cash left.
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  33. SoftBank-backed LegalOn lands $50M to streamline legal workflow with AI

    25 juli 2025 · 5 min

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    LegalOn Technologies, a Tokyo- and San Francisco-headquartered legal tech startup that has built an AI contract review software for legal teams, has raised $50 million in Series E funding led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, along with existing investor World Innovation Lab (WiL), and new investors Mori Hamada & Matsumoto
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  34. Nevoya raises $9.3M as its EV truck fleet reaches cost parity with diesel

    25 juli 2025 · 6 min

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    All-electric truck fleet startup Nevoya has landed a fresh round of capital and plans to expand.
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  35. Robot guard dogs help Asylon raise a $26M Series B ... plus Eight months in, Swedish unicorn Lovable crosses the $100M ARR milestone

    24 juli 2025 · 7 min

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    DroneDogs can be sent to places unsafe for humans or real dogs and can do tasks like dangerous chemical detection. In other news, less than a week after becoming Europe’s latest unicorn, Swedish vibe coding startup Lovable has now crossed the $100 million annual recurring revenue mark.
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  36. Three things veteran planetary health investors look for in a startup

    24 juli 2025 · 4 min

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    RA Capital Planetary Health closed a $120 million fund. Here's the rubric two investors use to determine where to place their fund's money.
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  37. This startup thinks email could be the key to usable AI agents

    23 juli 2025 · 6 min

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    Startup Mixus has built an AI agent platform that not only keeps humans in the workflow, but also allows those humans to interact with agents directly from their email or Slack.
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  38. Cursor snaps up enterprise startup Koala in challenge to GitHub Copilot

    23 juli 2025 · 6 min

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    Cursor-maker Anysphere is snapping up top talent from AI enterprise startups in an effort to compete with Microsoft's GitHub Copilot.
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  39. The perfect pitch: This NEA partner says every founder should answer these 5 questions

    22 juli 2025 · 5 min

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    Tiffany Luck, a partner at NEA, outlined what she looks for in a pitch, during a presentation at TechCrunch’s All Stage event in Boston.
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  40. After raising over $3M, popular VC-backed beauty brand Ami Colé is shuttering

    22 juli 2025 · 3 min

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    Diarrha N'Diaye-Mbaye, one of the first among the small number of Black women to raise more than $1 million in venture capital, announced on Thursday the closure of her award-winning beauty startup Ami Colé.
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  41. Confident Security, ‘the Signal for AI,’ comes out of stealth with $4.2M

    21 juli 2025 · 4 min

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    San Francisco-based startup Confident Security wants to be “the Signal for AI." The company just came out of stealth with $4.2 million and a tool that wraps around AI models to guarantee data stays private.
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  42. Rex Salisbury’s Cambrian Ventures raises new fund, bucking fintech slowdown

    21 juli 2025 · 4 min

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    Spurred by the performance of its first fund, Cambrian Ventures' $20 million second fund will continue the firm's thesis of focusing on fintech startups.
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  43. Lovable becomes a unicorn with $200M Series A just 8 months after launch

    18 juli 2025 · 4 min

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    Only eight months after its launch, Sweden's Lovable has raised a $200 million Series A round led by Accel at a $1.8 billion valuation.
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  44. Auriga Space raises $6M to shoot rockets off an electromagnetic launch track

    18 juli 2025 · 5 min

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    Auriga Space wants to reimagine launch by using electromagnetic forces.
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  45. AV startup Pronto.ai acquires off-road autonomous vehicle rival SafeAI

    17 juli 2025 · 4 min

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    Pronto.ai CEO Anthony Levandowski said the move is meant to help bolster his company's ranks with like-minded talent and complimentary technology.
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  46. Rainmaker partners with Atmo to squeeze more rain from clouds

    17 juli 2025 · 3 min

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    Atmo will use its deep learning models to help Rainmaker identify clouds that have potential for seeding.
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  47. Rwazi raises $12M Series A to help companies with consumer insights and intelligence

    16 juli 2025 · 4 min

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    Rwazi has raised a $12 million Series A led by Bonfire Ventures to help companies with market intelligence and consumer insights
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  48. Firefly Space files for an IPO

    16 juli 2025 · 5 min

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    Firefly Space has filed for a initial public offering.
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  49. A cloud seeding startup did not cause the Texas floods

    15 juli 2025 · 5 min

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    Despite conspiracy theories, there's no way that cloud seeding operations days before the storm could have influenced the floods, scientists say.
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  50. RealSense spins out of Intel to scale its stereoscopic imaging technology

    15 juli 2025 · 4 min

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    RealSense is building vision tech that helps machines like robots and drones navigate and respond to a 3D world.
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