Meta released Glimmer this week, an open-weight AI model anyone can download and run on their own hardware — a contrast to Muse Spark, the company’s more powerful model that stays locked behind its own APIs. The release landed alongside a letter from Mark Zuckerberg arguing AI should be “for everyone” rather than controlled by a handful of labs, but as Equity’s hosts point out, the vision comes with some asterisks.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Rebecca Bellan take a look at Glimmer, Zuckerberg’s 6,500-word manifesto, and more of the week’s headlines, from the true cost of the AI industry’s energy needs to a $250M acquisition gone very wrong.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:    Who’s on the market for a $300 cocktail robot?  Why Anthropic is adding watermarks to its generated text, and users are not happy.  The potential cost Amazon’s planned data center in Texas and the startups racing to fix the grid, including Form Energy’s $750M raise for 100-hour batteries, Reservoir’s $8M bet on smarter water heaters, and Discovered Materials’ hunt for cooler chips.  Why Joby Aviation’s $500M acquisition of a defense contractor reminds Kirsten of its Blade deal last year — and what the 2028 LA Olympics have to do with it.  How a $250M deal between video-clipping startup VideoVerse and sports publisher Minute Media collapsed amidst allegedly forged documents, multiple lawsuits, and a CEO nobody can reach.  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.    00:00 Intro  1:20 Would you buy a $300 cocktail robot?  3:08 Meta's Glimmer and the “AI for everyone” pitch  8:03 Anthropic starts watermarking its writing, and users have thoughts  14:34 Amazon's data center and its natural gas problem  16:37 The startups racing to keep the grid from melting down: Form Energy, Reservoir, and Discovered Materials  23:28 Joby Aviation buys into defense with Resonant Sciences  28:24 The $250M VideoVerse-Minute Media deal, a missing CEO, and a mess of lawsuits  32:37 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AI notetaking hardware has taken off over the past couple of years, with credit-card-sized devices, pendants, pins, and even transcribing earbuds all promising to capture your meetings and turn them into summaries and action items. Now, a whole wave of wearables — rings especially — are betting people want to capture stray thoughts and ideas the same way.    One of the companies chasing that bet is Sandbar, the startup behind the private voice ring Stream, which has raised $36 million to date, including a $23 million Series A led by Adjacent and Kindred Ventures.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan talks with Sandbar co-founder and CEO Mina Fahmi about why he thinks so many voice hardware devices before Stream struggled to break through, and why he's betting that keeping the human firmly in control is what it'll take to get wearable tech right.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  Why Fahmi designed Stream to be push-to-talk instead of always-on, and what he thinks “social acceptability” means for wearable AI.  How Fahmi's time at CTRL-labs, the neural interface startup Meta acquired in 2019, shaped his thinking on human-driven input.  Why Sandbar chose the “gruelingly painful” path of building fully custom hardware instead of reskinning an off-the-shelf device.  What Fahmi thinks it'll take for voice wearables to break out of tech-enthusiast circles and into the mainstream.  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Historian Jill Lepore has a theory about why tech companies often use soaring language to describe their products — almost as if they're forming a new government. And whether you're thinking of Twitter's old “town hall in your pocket” or Anthropic's Claude constitution, it's a theory that doesn't paint Silicon Valley in a very flattering light.   In Lepore's upcoming book, The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard historian and New Yorker writer argues that tech companies are gradually taking on the functions of democratic government — whether that’s Twitter giving a distorted picture of the electorate or Facebook displacing local news. In her view, these leaders often mistake technological advancement for political progress, all while outright declaring their intention to replace the nation-state.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Anthony Ha talks with Lepore about her book and why she thinks today's AI leaders — who promise a future where AI makes government more efficient, more responsive, and maybe even unnecessary — are selling an old fantasy in new packaging.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  Why Lepore sees a straight line from the classic 1984 Macintosh ad to Anthropic's AI constitution and Sam Altman's comments about an “AI president”  How E.M. Forster’s 1909 sci-fi story “The Machine Stops” provides a blueprint for the artificial state, and why Lepore says it now reads like “the diary of a very unhappy YouTuber”  Why Lepore believes the artificial state is ultimately unsustainable, and what she thinks it would take to rein it in  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  0:49 Defining the “artificial state”  2:17 Why corporations quietly took over state functions  4:43 Could the internet have gone another way?  9:01 From the 1984 Macintosh ad to Anthropic's constitution  10:20 The Twitter “town hall” myth  13:36 Structuring the book: history meets science fiction  17:46 The Machine Stops, and other bad manuals for the future  19:16 Musk, Heinlein, and misreading sci-fi  19:41 Why Lepore thinks the artificial state is “doomed”  21:51 Data centers, local politics, and the death of local news  24:44 Revisiting disruptive innovation, ten years later  26:54 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Venture firms are turning to creators to build trust with the next generation of founders before a check is ever written. It's a trend that's been building with a16z's acquisition of Erik Torenberg’s Turpentine podcast and OpenAI's acquisition of TBPN. Lightspeed Venture Partners just made its own notable hire in that vein, bringing on Claire Zau, a seed investor with a major following on Instagram and TikTok, to source deals and co-host the firm's new show, Lightwork, alongside CMO Josh Machiz.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Dominic-Madori Davis is joined by Zau and Machiz to dive deep into whether the “creator-investor” is becoming a real function in venture or just something firms are still trying to figure out.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  How an Instagram DM turned into a hire, and why Machiz says Zau’s investing instincts (not just her follower count) made her stand out from other creators.  Why Zau thinks tech Twitter is a “minuscule” slice of the tech-curious audience, and what she's learned about public sentiment on AI that doesn't show up on X.  How Lightspeed measures ROI on a media operation that's hard to tie directly to deal flow.  The founder and portfolio-company stories that came out of Zau's content, including how a single video helped land a health-tech founder a meeting with Shaq.  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After years of pushing full speed ahead on AI, Sam Altman says maybe it’s time for the AI industry to “pace” itself. The comments come just days after one of OpenAI's own models broke out of its test environment and got tangled up in a breach at Hugging Face, though as Equity’s hosts point out, sloppy security seems to have been just as much to blame as the model itself. Altman's not alone in this stance: both OpenAI and Anthropic have come out in support of a petition echoing that same message.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into whether the industry is ready to pump the brakes or just spooked, and who's on the hook when a model goes rogue.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  The viral “Avoiding AI” workshops hosted by librarians to help people opt out of AI features they didn't ask for  How Amazon's new 5,000-satellite bid to connect directly to your phone could turn up the heat on SpaceX (even though it's unclear if anyone actually wants satellite-to-phone service)  Why somehow there's room for one more AI lab: Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus's new startup, Prentis, is in talks to raise $100M at a $1B valuation  How Pangram raised $9 million to help publishers, teachers, and readers tell human writing from AI slop  Why DoorDash is building its own drone delivery business instead of just relying on partners like Wing and Flytrex  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  1:18 Zoox gets its robotaxi exemption  2:11 Sam Altman calls for pacing the frontier  6:01 The Hugging Face hack, dissected  10:12 Responsibility, regulation, and the Elon Musk wildcard  13:29 Librarians teaching people to unplug from AI  15:16 Prentice: a new AI lab raises at a $1B valuation  16:46 Amazon files for its own satellite-to-phone network  18:42 SpaceX, Blue Origin, and the launch-business angle  23:48 Pangram raises $9M to detect AI slop  29:23 DoorDash builds its own delivery drones  33:24 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the Light Phone, Kaiwei Tang and Joe Hollier have spent over a decade exploring the value of simplicity in our relationship to technology, partnering along the way with players like Andrew Yang, Kendrick Lamar, and Pete Davidson. Now, with a new flip phone and a growing wave of “attention activists” pushing back on big tech, they think the rest of the world is finally catching up to them.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Amanda Silberling talks with Tang and Hollier about the company's newly announced flip phone, why they think the anti-smartphone backlash is only just getting started, and what it takes to break an addiction that fits in your pocket.  Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  How the design lessons from the original Motorola Razr shaped the new Light Flip  What the "Summer of Ludd" attention activist movement says about Gen Z's relationship with big tech  Why Light Phone is opening up an SDK so users can build their own tools instead of opting for an app store  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  0:51 Building Light Phone  3:10 The user shift: why people are finally ready to unplug  7:54 Designing outside the Silicon Valley bubble  9:54 Why simple tech is making a comeback (CDs, iPods, flip phones)  13:50 From the Motorola Razr to the Light Flip  17:54 Pricing and the Noble Mobile phone plan  19:44 What actually happens when you switch (and the Flip Your Life program)  23:13 Building an open-source app library for Light Phone  26:38 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chinese AI lab Moonshot's open model Kimi went viral this week for reasons that had less to do with the model itself and more to do with how the U.S. AI industry reacted to it. Meanwhile, an unreleased OpenAI model wandered outside its test environment and ended up connected to a real security breach at Hugging Face — a reminder that “China risk” isn't the only kind of AI risk worth worrying about.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into why Kimi K3 set off a fresh round of AI panic, the industry’s response to an OpenAI staffer's “regulatory FUD” post, and what that OpenAI breach means for AI security more broadly.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  Why EVs are getting killed off across the U.S. even as automakers roll out new models, and how Rivian and Ford, and a wave of new startups are betting on different EV strategies to survive  What Sila's $300 million raise says about where battery investment is headed even as EV demand cools  Travis Kalanick's comeback with a $1.7 billion raise for his robotics startup, Atoms, and why we’re surprised to see Uber among its investors  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  1:39 Chinese AI model Kimi sparks a Wall Street freakout  10:45 OpenAI model breaks out of a test, Hugging Face breach  15:53 Why EVs are getting killed off in the U.S.  20:35 Tax credits, free markets, and the road ahead for EVs  28:56 Sila raises $300M for battery materials  32:20 Travis Kalanick's Atoms raises $1.7B, with Uber as an investor  36:39 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anthropic leaped to a $47 billion revenue run rate by May, compared to $9 billion in 2025. It’s the kind of growth that Menlo Ventures' Matt Murphy says he's never seen in 25 years of investing, not in the internet wave, not in mobile, not in the first cloud boom. Menlo led Anthropic's $500M Series D, and Murphy has had a front-row seat as the company went from a pre-revenue, pre-launch bet to one of the most valuable startups out there.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Julie Bort talks with Murphy about backing Anthropic before anyone else would, why a great model was never the point, and what's driving the fastest-growing startups he's ever seen.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  Why Menlo bet on Anthropic at a $4 billion pre-revenue valuation when the deal didn't fit cleanly into any of the firm's funds, and why Google and Amazon signing on as investors was an early “green shoot.”  Why Murphy says the model was never the real moat, and how Claude Code, MCP, and Claude Skills turned Anthropic from a strong model into a full platform.  Murphy's take on the backlash to Anthropic's Mythos rollout, and why he pushes back on the idea that it was more marketing than safety.  Why companies like Lovable and Legora are growing faster than any startups Murphy has seen in 25 years, and what that speed means for founders trying to compete.  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apple filed a trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI last Friday, and it's not messing around. The complaint alleges a pattern of misconduct reaching all the way up to OpenAI's chief hardware officer and claims more than 400 former Apple employees now work at the company. OpenAI's response so far has been carefully hedged, and the timing couldn't be worse with the company reportedly eyeing an IPO as early as later this year.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into what the lawsuit could mean for OpenAI's own hardware ambitions and IPO timeline, plus a bigger theme running through the week's news: how much should anyone trust AI companies with their data?    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  Why Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is warning enterprises about handing data over to AI labs, and whether open source is really a way out of the “Trojan horse” data-trust problem  How forward-deployed engineers (FDEs) are changing the relationship between AI labs and their enterprise customers  Why General Catalyst just handed David Beckham's health drink startup a $1 billion customer value fund  The scoop on a new $200M drug-discovery startup from an ex-OpenAI researcher  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   00:40 Would you want Sam Altman listening to you?  01:53 Apple sues OpenAI over trade secrets  13:24 Satya Nadella's warning: "you're paying twice" with your data  19:03 Open source vs. going deeper with AI labs  24:52 General Catalyst gives David Beckham's health drink startup $1B  30:05 Ex-OpenAI researcher raises $200M for drug discovery startup  32:58 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can a handful of engineers really do the work of an army of consultants? That’s the bet behind Ode with Anthropic — the joint venture dedicated to embedding forward-deployed engineers in enterprise firms, backed by Anthropic, Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Goldman Sachs and others.     On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan sits down with Ode’s leaders Chris Taylor and Eddie Siegel, who founded Fractional AI, the applied AI services startup that Ode acquired earlier this year to serve as the new venture’s core. The three discuss why so many enterprise AI pilots never make it to production and why they think AI-native services are about to become one of the biggest categories in tech.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  The case for AI-native services, and why Ode believes small teams of applied AI engineers can unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in business value.  Why the company is hiring experienced generalists and former founders instead of AI researchers, and how it's turning them into elite FDEs.  Whether an AI services company can scale like software, yet maintain a boutique feel, and why Taylor believes Ode could one day become a trillion-dollar business.  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 Fractional AI becomes "Ode with Anthropic"  1:13 Why non-AI companies are the real AI winners  2:04 Working with Blackstone, Anthropic, and beyond  3:05 Inside a real project: fixing LogicGate's bottleneck  7:29 How long does it take from hypothesis to production?  9:19 Measuring ROI: revenue, efficiency, and evals  16:37 Model choice vs. workflow redesign, and why it's Claude-first  23:10 Hiring generalists over specialized AI talent  26:39 Can this scale without turning into another consulting firm?  30:49 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices