DuckDuckGo installs are up 30% as users reject being ‘force-fed’ Google’s AI Search

Google overhauled Search at I/O 2026, replacing blue links with AI agents. The backlash has been swift. DuckDuckGo app installs spiked 30% as users seek a way out.

OpenRouter more than doubles valuation to $1.3B in a year

OpenRouter has raised a $113 million Series B led by CapitalG. Its 5x growth in usage over six months indicates the multi-AI-model future is here.

Dutch government blocks US company from acquisition, citing ‘risk to public interest’

The move to block the acquisition of the cloud company that hosts the Dutch digital ID service comes as Europe continues to reduce its reliance on U.S. technology.

Ghost hackers: the cybersecurity mystery that nobody has solved

A shadowy group that stole and dumped the NSA’s most powerful hacking tools still has implications for how companies think about digital risk today.

Iranian hackers blamed for breach of Los Angeles transit system that took weeks to recover

An Israeli cybersecurity firm said Iran’s government is behind Ababil of Minab, a fake hacktivist persona that has claimed a series of data breaches after the start of the war in Iran.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Early Bird ticket rates end May 29

Save up to $410 on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 pass before prices increase on May 29 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Register here to join the tech epicenter in San Francisco.

The pope’s AI encyclical isn’t really about AI

Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical uses AI as a lens to diagnose older problems: concentrated power, eroding democracy, and a tech elite that shapes the world to its own advantage.

The pitch trick that helped an eSports startup raise $20M when VCs only wanted AI

Earlier this year, Lucra Sports founder and CEO Dylan Robbins did something that no one else has ever done. And he shared several secrets on how he did it.

Amazon fulfillment competitor Stord raises $250M at $3B valuation

Stord was founded in 2015 by then-college students CEO Sean Henry and CTO Jacob Boudreau while they were still at Georgia Tech.

What ClickUp’s mass layoff tells us about the future of work

The nine-year-old startup is replacing hundreds of employees with thousands of AI agents.