Equity

Tech companies are racing to build data centers in space, pitching orbital compute as the next frontier for AI infrastructure, even as the technical and economic realities remain far from clear. Add in OpenAI’s massive $122 billion round and Bluesky’s latest AI backlash, and the message is clear: The future of AI is being shaped as much by ambition and hype as it is by real-world constraints. 

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane unpack these massive capital bets, user backlash, and off-world compute plans along with Whoop’s major valuation and the literal downfall of robot Olaf.  

Listen to the full episode to hear about: 

OpenAI’s $122 billion fundraise and what its near-trillion-dollar valuation says about expectations for AI.  

Whoop’s $575 million raise and the shift toward “wearables 2.0” (and what happens to all that data).  

Bluesky’s AI-powered feed builder and why it triggered a major user backlash.  

The rise of data centers in space and whether they are financially or physically feasible.  

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 

Chapters: 
00:00 Intro 
00:20 A humanoid Olaf robot collapses at Disneyland Paris 
03:30 OpenAI raises $122B at an $852B valuation 
11:30 Whoop lands $575M and bets big on wearable data 

18:50 The risks (and value) of personal health data 
23:00 Bluesky’s AI feed builder sparks backlash 
30:00 Can Bluesky keep growing — and compete with X? 
36:30 The race to build data centers in space 
44:30 SpaceX, Starlink, and the business of orbital compute 
49:30 Outro 

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The VC middleman is getting cut out faster than anyone expected. Family offices and private wealth firms are going direct: writing checks, taking board seats, even incubating companies from scratch. And more founders are starting to notice. In February alone, family offices made 41 direct investments, including one Midwest-based firm that led a $230 million Series B into an AI chip startup. 

On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan caught up with Mitch Stein and Ari Schottenstein, founder and head of alternatives at ARENA Private Wealth, to find out what this shift means for founders, cap tables, and the future of AI investment. 

Listen to the full episode to hear: 

How Arena landed the lead on Positron's $230 million Series B, and why the CEO specifically wanted them on his cap table 

How Arena does due diligence on technical companies 

What "tourist capital" actually looks like, and the red flags founders should watch for as family offices flood into AI deals 

Why some VCs are quietly unhappy about this trend (and why Arena thinks that's their problem) 

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 

Chapters: 

00:00 Intro  

03:13 Why family offices are going direct now 

06:03 The gen 2 & gen 3 family office shift 

07:22 Is this strategic or just AI FOMO? 

10:17 How Arena got into the Positron deal 

14:30 Why founders want private wealth on their cap table 

18:31 Due diligence on technical companies 

21:56 Red flags founders should watch for 

25:04 Are VCs threatened by this trend? 

27:47 Taking board seats & level of involvement 

34:17 Outro 

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When an 82-year-old Kentucky woman was offered $26 million from an AI company that wanted to build a data center on her land, she said no. Sure, that same company can try to rezone 2,000 acres nearby anyway, but as AI infrastructure stretches further into the real world, the real world is starting to push back. 

That tension is everywhere this week, from OpenAI shutting down its Sora app to courts finally starting to hold social platforms accountable. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into what it looks like when the AI hype cycle meets reality. 

Listen to the full episode to hear about: 

Why rival prediction market CEOs of Kalshi and Polymarket are co-investing in a $35M VC fund 

How drone startups like Zipline, Lucid Bots, and Brinc are finding real traction where other robotics plays have stalled 

What Kleiner Perkins' $3.5B raise says about where the biggest VC firms think the next AI wave is going 

Why two separate court verdicts against Meta in the same week could be the “tobacco moment” for social media 

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 

Chapters: 

00:00 Intro 

00:30 Would you turn down $26M for your farm? 

03:56 Rivals Kalshi & Polymarket CEOs are investing together 

10:28 Deals for drones: Zipline, Brinc & Lucid Bots 

18:17 Kleiner Perkins goes all-in on AI with $3.5B raise 

22:52 OpenAI shuts down Sora 

28:04 Meta gets hit with dual verdicts 

34:56 Outro 

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Over the past few years, a new category of mobile apps has quietly exploded into a multi-billion dollar business. They're called “micro dramas” — short-form, mobile-first scripted shows designed to be watched vertically on your phone. Think soap opera meets TikTok, complete with secret billionaire romances, disapproving werewolf mothers-in-law, and cliffhangers engineered to keep users tapping. The leading app, ReelShort, made $1.2 billion in consumer spending last year alone.  

On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan and TechCrunch senior reporter Amanda Silberling sit down with Henry Soong, founder of Watch Club, who thinks the micro drama industry is still "in its MySpace era." He has a vision for what the Facebook moment could look like. 
 
Listen to the full episode to hear: 

Why micro dramas took off in China while Quibi burned through $2 billion and failed in the U.S., and what that gap reveals about content, product, and business model. 

How Watch Club is targeting a completely different audience than ReelShort and Drama Box. 

The tension between building an intentional social experience and optimizing for engagement the way TikTok does. 

Whether AI is coming for the werewolf billionaire romance script. Amanda has thoughts.  

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 

Chapters: 

00:00 Intro 

01:11 Why micro dramas, and why now? 

04:25 What makes Watch Club different 

07:29 The monetization model problem 

18:52 Optimizing for intentionality, not engagement 

24:23 Why Quibby failed (content, product & business model) 

28:22 Defensibility: tech company or studio? 

31:36 AI, the WGA, and the future of storytelling 

33:44 Outro 

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Jensen Huang took the stage at Nvidia's GTC conference this week in his signature leather jacket to deliver a two-and-a-half-hour keynote, projecting $1 trillion in AI chip sales through 2027, declaring that every company needs an “OpenClaw strategy,” and closing with a rambling Olaf robot that had to get its mic cut. The message was hard to miss: Nvidia wants to be foundational to everything, from AI training to autonomous vehicles to Disney parks. 

On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane break down what Nvidia's growing web of AI infrastructure partnerships actually means for startups, and more of the week's headlines. 

Listen to the full episode to hear about: 

Travis Kalanick’s return building a "wheelbase for robots" with his new startup Atoms, and the crew has questions about Kalanick’s acquisitions along the way 

Rivian’s partnership with Uber to build robotaxi versions of its R2 in a deal worth up to $1.25 billion, while pushing back its EBITDA target to do it 

Frore landing a $1.64 billion valuation for its AI chip cooling systems 

xAI rebooting, again, with only two of its original eleven co-founders still standing 

Garry Tan's Claude Code setup went viral at SXSW (Spoiler: the crew is not impressed). 

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 

Chapters: 

00:00 Intro 

00:20 Garry Tan's Claude Code setup goes viral at SXSW 

03:37 Travis Kalanick is back with a new startup 

12:51 Uber and Rivian's $1.25B RoboTaxi deal 

20:54 Chip cooling startup Frore becomes a unicorn 

22:56 Nvidia GTC recap: $1 trillion in sales projections 

31:42 Elon Musk is rebooting xAI...again 

36:37 Outro 

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Artificial intelligence models are multiplying fast, and competition is stiff. With so many players crowding the space, which one will be the best — and who decides that? Arena, formerly LM Arena, has emerged as the de facto public leaderboard for frontier LLMs, influencing funding, launches, and PR cycles. In just seven months, the startup went from a UC Berkeley PhD research project to being valued at $1.7 billion. 

On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan catches up with Arena co-founders Anastasios Angelopoulos and Wei-Lin Chiang to determine how a team like theirs can build a neutral benchmark when the companies they’re ranking are also their backers. 

Listen to the full episode to hear: 

How Arena actually works, and why its founders say you can't game it the way you mighta static benchmark. 

What "structural neutrality" actually means, and whether taking money from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic is a conflict of interest. 

How Arena is moving beyond chat to benchmark agents, coding, and real-world tasks with a new enterprise product. 

Why Claude is currently winning the expert leaderboard for legal and medical use cases. 

Arena's bet on what comes after LLMs, and why agents are next on the leaderboard. 

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 

Chapters: 

00:00 Intro 

03:00 How Arena's leaderboard works, and why it's different from static benchmarks 

07:00 Reproducibility concerns and how to scale 

08:45 Can Arena stay independent while taking money from the labs it ranks? 

11:15 Diversity, fraud prevention, and abuse mitigation 

18:15 Arena's "data moat" 

19:20 Agent benchmarking and expert leaderboards 

21:40 Open sourcing data 

22:45 How do Arena's rankings shape AI development? 

24:15 Outro 

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According to Index Ventures Partner Shardul Shah, cybersecurity startup Wiz sits “at the center of three tailwinds: AI, cloud, and security spend.” Those tailwinds powered what just became the largest venture-backed acquisition in history — Google's $32 billion deal, finalized after a declined 2024 offer, antitrust review on both sides of the Atlantic, and an extra $9 billion to sweeten the pot. 

On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Anthony Ha, Rebecca Bellan, and Sean O'Kane sit down with Shah to dig into what made Wiz worth that price tag, and also cover more of the week's headlines. 

Listen to the full episode to hear about: 

Why a DOGE employee allegedly walked out of the Social Security Administration with a thumb drive full of personal data, and the questions it raises about access to sensitive systems 

Taya and Sandbar, the latest startups betting voice is the next big AI interface — but do normal consumers agree? 

Palmer Luckey raising for a retro gaming startup at a $1 billion valuation 

Meta’s acquisition of Moltbook, the viral AI agent social network 

The latest in the Anthropic vs. DoD saga, including tech workers at OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft signing their names on a legal brief in support of Anthropic 

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 

Chapters: 

00:00 Intro 

00:16 Did a DOGE employee steal your SSN? 

02:53 AI note-taking wearables are back: Taya & Sandbar 

09:18 Palmer Lucky's retro gaming startup ModRetro 

13:39 Meta acquires AI agent social network Moltbot 

18:54 Inside Google's $32B Wiz acquisition with Shardul Shah 

28:41 Anthropic's lawsuit against the DoD 

38:40 Outro 

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For years, venture capitalists have been skeptical of beverage startups, citing thin margins and brutal distribution as reasons most brands never break out. But a new wave of “functional soda” companies has been challenging that assumption, including Poppi, the prebiotic soda brand that grew from a kitchen experiment into a $1.95 billion acquisition by PepsiCo. 

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan is joined by Poppi co-founder Allison Ellsworth to talk about building a beverage startup in a venture world dominated by SaaS and AI. From pitching on Shark Tank while nine months pregnant to scaling a digital-first brand during COVID, and now returning as a Shark herself, Ellsworth shares how social media, fast marketing bets, and customer feedback helped turn a niche drink into a category-defining company. 

Listen to the full episode to hear about: 

Ellsworth’s Shark Tank return, and how she evaluates founders on the other side of the pitch. 

How Ellsworth turned a personal health issue into Poppi and built early traction at farmers' markets. 

Why TikTok and community-driven marketing helped the brand rack up billions of views and loyal fans. 

The risky decision to buy a last-minute Super Bowl ad, and how the team executed it in days. 

What it’s like selling a startup to PepsiCo while trying to preserve the brand’s identity. 

Why beverage startups almost inevitably need acquisition-level distribution to scale. 

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 

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The Pentagon has officially designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk after the two failed to agree on how much control the military should have over its AI models, including its use in autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. As Anthropic’s $200 million contract fell apart, the DoD turned to OpenAI instead, which accepted and then watched ChatGPT uninstalls surge 295%. As the stakes keep rising, the question remains: how much unrestricted access should the military have to an AI model? 

On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into what startups should think about when chasing federal contracts, especially when nobody seems to know what to do with AI in Washington, and more of the week's headlines. 

Listen to the full episode to hear more about: 

Paramount’s massive deal with Warner Bros, and the Equity crew’s ideas for what the new HBO Max-Paramount+ hybrid should be called 

MyFitnessPal's acquisition of Cal AI, the calorie-tracking app built by teenagers 

Who dropped $1 billion on Pinterest’s AI mission and how the company spent it on share buybacks. (Spoiler: Kirsten has thoughts.) 

Anduril is raising again at a reported $60 billion valuation 

Whether companies should brace themselves for the SaaSpocalypse, or if it’s just another chapter of the AI hype cycle  

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 

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Does a consumer hardware company need to get on the VC treadmill to succeed? Eleven years and 290 million products sold across 115 countries later, PopSockets has proven that the bootstrapped, low-dilution path more viable than the industry gives it credit for. The global consumer hardware brand was built on less than $500k, no institutional capital, and a philosophy professor's determination. 

On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Dominic-Madori Davis caught up with founder and former CEO of PopSockets David Barnett to talk about how he scaled from a Boulder garage, stood up to Amazon at a $10–20 million cost, and eventually handed off the CEO role to someone who'd grown up inside the company. 

Listen to the full episode to hear: 

How a house fire and some insurance money became the unlikely seed funding for a global brand 

What nearly sinking the company in manufacturing defects actually taught him about building one that lasts 

How ignoring his investors' advice turned out to be the right call 

What he looked for in a successor CEO (and why culture was non-negotiable) 

What he'd do completely differently if he launched PopSockets today 

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 

Chapters: 

00:00 Intro 

01:15 From philosophy professor to phone grip inventor 

05:17 How a house fire funded PopSockets 

07:33 Manufacturing nightmares nearly killed the business 

10:08 The local toy store that proved it could work 

13:14 The $20M Amazon standoff 

16:09 Growing too fast? 

18:20 Beating counterfeits in China through brand building 

19:11 Why David never wanted to be CEO 

23:07 The worst advice received, and what to do instead 

26:35 Outro 

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