Equity

Election week is already reshaping the AI data center debate. This week on Equity, we dig into the fallout, plus Canva’s layoffs, a $115B chip deal, and microdramas.

Hugging Face's Irene Solaiman joins Equity to explain what startups need to know when building on open AI models, and how to evaluate the tools around them and keep the open ecosystem secure.

Anthropic’s S-1 is here, and Equity is breaking down what the numbers reveal about the business behind the AI boom, why some tech leaders are struggling to understand everyday users, and more deals of the week.

The PHP scare may have faded from your feed, but the cleanup is far from over. Last week, two critical bugs in the open source language behind roughly 70% of websites left organizations scrambling to fix their systems, with some taking sites offline until the vulnerabilities could be patched. According to researchers who found the bugs, this is only the beginning, as AI changes how quickly novel vulnerabilities can be uncovered and exploited. On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan talks with Tomer Schwartz, CTO of Exposure Management & AppSec at Google-owned Wiz, who was part of the scramble --- alongside OpenAI, research group Calif, and the PHP team --- to fix the bugs. On the show, Schwartz and Bellan get into what the race looked like from the inside, how early-stage startups can build with security in mind, and why patching by hand won’t scale. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: Why Tomer says Wiz couldn’t have found these bugs without AI, and how custom tooling tested dozens of ideas over a weekend. How a bug was able to sit in plain sight for more than a decade, and what changed to make it exploitable. Why leaks are almost baked into coordinated disclosure, and how Wiz planned for it. Who’s still unpatched and whether small business owners running WordPress sites need to worry. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, and all the casts. You can also follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The internet is having an off week, to say the least. Security researchers at OpenAI and Google-owned Wiz used AI to uncover critical flaws in PHP, the open source language behind roughly 70% of websites, including those built on WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento. The holes date back more than a decade, and now that a fix is out, companies are scrambling to patch their systems as attackers try to exploit the them. On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and Anthony Ha dig into why AI-powered bug hunting could make this the first of many internet-wide scares, what Elon Musk’s careful choreography says about where a Tesla-SpaceX merger is headed, and more of the week’s headlines. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: Elon Musk’s pledge to give every kid in America a SpaceX share, announced just hours after Anthropic unveiled its public benefit fund Character.AI’s bankruptcy, Disney’s deal to hire most of its staff, and Anthony’s case for rethinking what “acquihire” means OpenAI’s acquisition of Orchestra Bio and what it says about the company’s “no side quests” strategy Otter’s surprise $320 million raise from General Catalyst’s growth fund Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You can also follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Chapters: 0:00 – Intro: PHP security crisis, Tesla and SpaceX, and Otter.ai's $320M raise 0:55 – TechCrunch Disrupt recap and the Elizabeth Holmes documentary 2:50 – Critical PHP vulnerabilities threaten millions of websites 8:01 – AI's role in discovering and exploiting cybersecurity flaws 13:09 – The future of AI-powered cybersecurity 17:07 – Are Tesla and SpaceX finally merging? 19:10 – Elon Musk's influence over both companies' boards 22:50 – Why a Tesla-SpaceX merger could make financial sense 25:27 – Musk's plan to give American children SpaceX shares 27:08 – Character.AI's bankruptcy and Disney's involvement 30:21 – OpenAI acquires biotech startup Orchestra Bio 33:00 – Otter.ai raises $320 million from General Catalyst 35:30 – Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices