On Thursday, Cloudflare became part of an expanding group of tech firms — such as Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon — that have reported surging revenues alongside significant layoffs, linking both phenomena to their utilization of AI.

Cloudflare, which offers internet security and performance solutions to millions of websites across the globe, revealed it would be reducing its workforce by about 20%, which translates to 1,100 employees, as mentioned in its first quarter 2026 earnings announcement on Thursday.

“This is an unprecedented move in Cloudflare’s history,” stated co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince during the quarterly conference call, signifying the first substantial layoff in the company’s 16-year existence. The reductions will impact employees from all teams and regions except for those in sales roles with revenue targets, as CFO Thomas Seifert clarified during the call.

The announcement regarding job cuts coincided with the company disclosing quarterly revenues of $639.8 million, marking a 34% increase year-over-year and representing the highest quarter in the company’s history. Nonetheless, this was accompanied by a loss of $62.0 million, compared to a loss of $53.2 million in the same quarter last year.

This widening deficit, despite the revenue increase, underscores a well-known paradox in Cloudflare’s narrative: the company is scaling rapidly but has not managed to achieve consistent profitability. However, the loss represented a smaller percentage of revenue, and the quarter was accompanied by various other positive signs. For instance, Cloudflare reported over $2.5 billion in “remaining performance obligations,” reflecting a 34% year-over-year growth. RPO is currently a favored metric to indicate revenue that is contracted but not yet realized.

Thus, Prince emphasized that the 20% reductions were not aimed at cutting costs but were solely a result of its AI integration.

“Today’s steps are not aimed at cutting costs or evaluating individual performance; they are focused on Cloudflare determining how a top-tier, high-growth firm functions and adds value in the age of agentic AI,” Prince and Cloudflare co-founder and president, Michelle Zatlyn, explained in a related blog post regarding the layoffs.

Prince acknowledged during the call that even though Cloudflare has been marketing AI-infused products, it was initially hesitant to embrace AI internally.

“Internally, the pivotal moment was last November. At that stage, across our teams, we started witnessing immense productivity improvements, with team members becoming two, 10, or even 100 times more productive than before. It felt like transitioning from a manual to an electric screwdriver,” he described.

“Cloudflare’s utilization of AI has surged by over 600% in the past three months alone,” he added.

Prince emphasized the internal application of AI coding, stating that nearly the whole R&D team now utilizes the company’s own Workers platform — a resource enabling developers to create and run software directly on Cloudflare’s international network — including its vibe coding functionality. He also mentioned that 100% of the code generated this way and implemented for Cloudflare’s products is “now overseen by autonomous AI agents.”

However, it is not solely developers who are harnessing AI internally, he noted. “Staff throughout the organization, from engineering to HR to finance to marketing, engage in thousands of AI agent sessions daily to accomplish their tasks.”

Consequently, these highly efficient, AI-enhanced employees need less support personnel, he contended.

“A significant portion of the support staff assisting them will not be the roles that drive companies in the future,” Prince stated.

Interestingly, Prince remarked that Cloudflare “will persist in hiring new staff, and we will keep investing in them because those who are embracing these tools are proving to be far more productive than we’ve ever observed. I would anticipate that by 2027, we’ll have a larger workforce than at any previous point in 2026.”

Cloudflare noted it concluded its first quarter prior to layoffs with around 5,500 employees.

The trend Prince outlined — leveraging AI efficiencies as rationale for workforce cuts during a time of robust revenue growth — is quickly becoming a standard narrative in the tech sector. Whether this represents genuine structural change or serves as a convenient rationale for financial discipline is a question investors and staff will grapple with for some time.

When an analyst inquired during the call why the company needed to implement such significant cuts after a strong quarter, Prince replied, “Just because you’re fit doesn’t imply you can’t become fitter.”

Porsche is shutting down three of its subsidiaries as it deals with decreasing sales and profit margins, the German automotive company revealed on Friday.

Cellforce Group, Porsche’s battery subsidiary, is likely the most notable loss. The division had already undergone a “realignment” in August after Porsche abandoned plans to produce its own batteries, leading Cellforce to become a research and development entity. Now, Porsche states that it is adopting a “technology-open powertrain strategy”—corporate jargon suggesting the company will depend more on external partners for its battery needs.

Porsche eBike Performance, which created e-bike drive systems, alongside Cetitec, a networking software subsidiary serving both Porsche and the broader Volkswagen Group, will also be closed.

Over 500 employees working at the three subsidiaries will be displaced.

“We need to concentrate on our core business,” stated Porsche CEO and Executive Chair Michael Leiters. “This is the crucial basis for a successful strategic realignment. This compels us to implement difficult cuts — including our subsidiaries.”

Leiters, who took on the role of CEO earlier this year, first communicated this message in March when the company disclosed plans for business realignment. “We will comprehensively reposition Porsche, making the company leaner, faster, and the products even more appealing,” he noted at that time.

Since then, Porsche has disengaged from several ventures, including an agreement made in April to offload its equity shares in Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Group to a consortium led by the New York-based investment firm HOF Capital.

Porsche’s electrification initiatives began robustly with the Taycan in 2019, but the firm soon encountered challenges in creating subsequent EVs. The Macan Electric was postponed by nearly two years due to lagging software development within Volkswagen’s Cariad division.

The complete company has experienced falling sales in significant markets, such as North America, where sales dropped by 11%, and China, where deliveries fell by 21% in the first quarter of this year. European sales also declined by 18%, although they increased slightly in Germany.

Porsche has attributed its difficulties to EV adoption, but the company’s ongoing poor performance in China, where electric vehicles now represent more than half the market, indicates that consumer acceptance of EVs may not be the actual issue.

The closure of Cellforce signifies the shifting fortunes of Porsche’s EV initiative. The German automaker initially established the subsidiary to design and manufacture batteries that would set its EVs apart from competitors.

“The battery cell is the combustion chamber of the future,” stated Oliver Blume in 2022 when he led Porsche’s executive board.

After facing delays in EV development, Porsche has redirected many of its new vehicle initiatives toward revitalizing some of its internal combustion platforms, which were meant to represent a smaller portion of sales by 2030. Nonetheless, the company still plans to introduce new EVs, and will soon phase out the gasoline-powered version of the Porsche Macan. An all-electric variant of the Cayenne, along with several variations, is expected to be launched this year.

As families throughout the U.S. gear up to honor Mother’s Day this Sunday, Allison Stern is looking past just a single day of recognition.

Stern has recently secured $10 million in commitments for her first early-stage fund, Mother Ventures, which exclusively targets mothers as consumers.

“In the U.S., moms account for 85% of household expenditures and possess $2.4 trillion in purchasing power,” Stern (seen below) shared with TechCrunch. “The statistics reveal that moms drive purchasing decisions, and they truly are a distinctive economic force.”

As a mother of two, Stern is leveraging that financial influence by supporting startups that address the requirements of contemporary mothers. Since the inception of Mother Ventures two years ago, she has already invested $4 million into 13 startups. Her portfolio features Coral Care, which facilitates instant appointments with pediatric specialists for children experiencing developmental challenges, and Tin Can, a trendy Wi-Fi-enabled “landline” crafted in a retro style for children.

Prior to establishing her own fund, she co-founded Tubular Labs, a social video analytics company she helped scale to $25 million in annual recurring revenue before its acquisition by private equity in 2023, and served as an operating partner at The Chernin Group (TCG), a firm specializing in consumer-focused growth equity.

Part of TCG’s investment strategy involved supporting companies catering to “overlooked unique demographics with financial resources,” such as Barstool Sports, which initially focused on Boston sports enthusiasts, she mentioned.

Upon launching her own fund, Stern recognized mothers as a similarly underserved demographic with significant potential for high returns. “I felt that motherhood represents the ultimate niche that actually isn’t a niche,” she commented,

Stern persuaded Tony James, the former president and COO of Blackstone and current board chair of Costco, to support Mother Ventures as a key LP. Other contributors to the fund encompass Jessica Rolph, founder of the child development company Lovevery, alongside female leaders from Netflix, Rent the Runway, and Sesame Street, she indicated.

She contends that millennial and Gen Z mothers have different expectations for products, ranging from on-demand transport options like Zum, to meal delivery services from DoorDash, and fintech applications like Greenlight that enable parents to fund a child’s debit card instantly.

“We desire healthy options. We look for subscription services. We seek digital communities,” she stated.

Nevertheless, Stern aims for her fund not to be viewed solely as one that invests in parenting technology. “It’s a consumer fund, and concentrating on the mother as the consumer permits us to broaden our investments,” she explained.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched an inquiry into Avride, a robotaxi firm associated with Uber, following the detection of over a dozen accidents alongside one minor injury.

The regulator’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) stated that all 16 accidents identified relate to “the competence of” Avride’s autonomous driving system, which seems to have faced challenges in lane changes, responding to other vehicles in the same lane, and dealing with stationary objects.

Every incident occurred while Avride’s vehicles operated under the supervision of a safety monitor in the driver’s seat. When contacted for comments, Avride refrained from clarifying why the safety monitors did not intervene during these incidents. The firm noted that it reported the accidents to the NHTSA as mandated by the agency’s 2021 Standing General Order regarding automated driving.

“We have enacted focused technical and operational adjustments to tackle our findings from each incident reported between December 2025 and March 2026, and have further improved overall system capabilities,” the company stated. “Our overall operations have continued to expand, while the occurrence of incidents relative to our mileage has consistently decreased.”

Uber did not respond promptly to a request for comments.

Avride, primarily recognized for its sidewalk delivery robots, is a subsidiary of Nebius, previously Yandex NV, the Netherlands-based firm that divested its Russian operations in 2024. The company has dedicated years to the development and testing of self-driving vehicles, and formed a partnership with Uber in 2024. The next year, Uber and its parent company Nebius agreed to provide “strategic investments and other commitments” to Avride totaling up to $375 million.

This investigation follows shortly after Uber commenced offering rides in Avride robotaxis in Dallas, Texas, which has been identified as the location where “many of the reported crashes have occurred,” according to the ODI. Several incidents also took place in Austin, Texas. At least one reported collision involved a robotaxi carrying a passenger.

The investigation arrives amid increased testing, deployment, and scaling of autonomous vehicle technologies by various companies across the United States, drawing heightened scrutiny.

Waymo is under investigation by both NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board for unlawful behavior surrounding school buses, as well as for a crash in January where one of the Alphabet-owned company’s robotaxis collided with a child.

The ODI announced on Friday that it concluded a preliminary analysis of videos documenting each Avride crash. According to the office, these videos indicate “instances of the AVs changing lanes into the path of or directly into other vehicles driving in an adjacent lane and in close proximity to an AV; failing to decelerate or stop for slow-moving or stationary vehicles in the lane and path ahead; failing to reduce speed for or evade vehicles entering the lane and path ahead; and colliding with stationary objects partially blocking the lane and path ahead.”

The accident that caused a minor injury occurred in December 2025 in Dallas, based on data submitted to the NHTSA. It involved an Avride-equipped Hyundai Ioniq 5 that grazed the open driver’s side door of a parked pickup truck. One occupant of the truck sustained a minor injury that did not require hospitalization.

Another crash in December in Dallas involved an Avride robotaxi attempting to change lanes to avoid a parked pickup truck, as indicated by data filed with the NHTSA. The Avride vehicle collided with a van adjacent to it, causing damage to both vehicles.

Multiple incidents included other vehicles turning into the Avride robotaxis, although it remains unclear from the descriptions whether the robotaxis had a chance to evade those collisions. At least one crash involved an Avride vehicle crashing into a dumpster. Only one of the reported incidents details the safety monitor attempting to intervene.

Poland’s intelligence agency announced it has identified attacks on five water treatment facilities where cybercriminals could have taken control of industrial systems, potentially compromising the safety of the water supply.

This issue extends beyond Poland: U.S. water infrastructure has encountered similar risks in recent years. In 2021, a hacker briefly accessed a water treatment facility in Oldsmar, Florida, trying to elevate sodium hydroxide levels — a hazardous chemical — to perilous heights. The FBI and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have since alerted that water services remain vulnerable to foreign cyber threats.

On Friday, Poland’s Internal Security Agency, the leading intelligence organization in the country, released a report detailing the agency’s efforts and threats over the previous two years. The document indicated that Polish intelligence had prevented several sabotage attempts from Russian spies and hackers targeting military sites, critical infrastructure (including essential systems like power grids, water supplies, and transportation systems), as well as civilian locations. These assaults, as per the report, may have led to loss of life.  

“The most severe challenge persists in sabotage activities against Poland, driven and orchestrated by Russian intelligence agencies. This risk was (and continues to be) genuine and urgent. It necessitates complete mobilization,” the report stated.

The report did not clarify whether the hackers responsible for the assaults on the water treatment plants were Russian intelligence operatives. However, Poland has recently faced multiple attempts by Russian hackers to penetrate its infrastructure, including an unsuccessful effort to disable the country’s energy grid. That incident was subsequently attributed to inadequate security measures at the affected facilities.

Poland’s situation is emblematic of an expanding global trend of assaults on water and energy infrastructure. Just last month, a joint alert from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the FBI, the NSA, and various other federal institutions cautioned that Iranian-supported hackers are currently targeting programmable logic controllers — the industrial systems that operate water and energy facilities — at U.S. utilities. The same Iranian cyber group, CyberAv3ngers, had previously breached digital control systems at several U.S. water treatment facilities in Pennsylvania in 2023, in attacks that federal agencies connected to rising tensions in the Middle East.

In essence, the attacks against Poland are not isolated; they follow a tactic employed by the Russian government both in conflict areas like Ukraine and against Western nations perceived as enduring adversaries. According to Polish intelligence, the strategy aims to destabilize and diminish the West, with cyberattacks and cyberespionage serving as mere instruments in a broader toolkit for Putin’s regime.

Peter Williams, an experienced executive in cybersecurity who led the hacking and surveillance technology division at U.S. defense contractor L3Harris, has been mandated to pay $10 million to his prior employer. Williams was a key player in one of the most significant leaks of sophisticated hacking tools in the history of the United States and its closest allies.

On Wednesday, a court ruled that Williams must pay this restitution in addition to the $1.3 million he was previously required to pay to L3Harris. Williams, a 39-year-old Australian national with a background in one of Australia’s intelligence entities, served as the general manager of Trenchant until last year. Formed from the merger of two sister startups, Trenchant is L3Harris’ unit that creates cutting-edge spyware and hacking solutions and markets them to the U.S. government and its partners within the Five Eyes intelligence alliance—five English-speaking nations that exchange classified information. Alongside the U.S., the alliance comprises Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

Renowned cybersecurity journalist Kim Zetter initially reported the new restitution ruling in her newsletter. 

Williams’ legal representatives have not replied to a request for comment.

Last year, Williams was apprehended and accused of misappropriating seven unspecified trade secrets—most likely cyber exploits, which are codes designed to take advantage of software weaknesses, and surveillance technology—from Trenchant, subsequently selling them to Operation Zero. The Russian entity operates as a broker, facilitating the buying and selling of hacking tools and claims to exclusively collaborate with the Russian government and domestic enterprises.

Williams admitted guilt and received a sentence of over seven years in prison. 

Williams generated $1.3 million from the sale of the trade secrets, which he utilized to purchase luxury timepieces, a residence near Washington, D.C., and family vacations. Trenchant informed authorities that it faced losses up to $35 million due to Williams’ actions. 

U.S. prosecutors accused Williams of having “betrayed” the United States and its partners by supplying Operation Zero, which the U.S. government labels as “one of the world’s most nefarious exploit brokers,” with tools that could potentially hack “millions of computers and devices globally.” 

As previously mentioned by TechCrunch, Williams exploited his privileged “full access” to Trenchant’s internal network to extract the tools from the company’s premises. After selling the hacking tools to Operation Zero, some were reportedly used by Russian government agents in Ukraine and later by Chinese cybercriminals, as identified by former L3Harris employees who recognized the stolen code in cybersecurity findings published by Google following their investigation into the cyberattacks where these tools were utilized.

Additionally, Williams attempted to implicate one of his employees in the theft.

On Friday, the Trump administration unveiled a new website designed to host a compilation of “new, never-before-seen” documentation regarding UFOs, as stated by the Pentagon. (Indeed, it seems we’re comfortable once again using the term UFO, considering the URL of the new site is war.gov/ufo.)

In a public declaration by the Defense Department — which, during Trump’s administration, was rebranded as the Department of War — the initial set of documents available on the site will feature unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) videos, photographs, and original source papers from across the entire U.S. government. The materials have undergone security reviews, though many “have not yet been examined for anomaly resolution,” according to the Department’s statement.

The collection is also expected to expand progressively as more files are disseminated on a “rolling basis,” it noted.

The unveiling of these documents comes in the wake of the December 2017 reports by The New York Times, Politico, and others concerning a $22 million classified Pentagon initiative known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which had been exploring military encounters with unidentified objects.

Since then, public interest in UAPs, the contemporary term for UFOs, has surged, increasing worries about what might be in our skies, exemplified by the sightings of U.S. drones in 2024. Determining what is genuinely unexplained has been made more complex by the changing appearance of our skies, influenced by events like SpaceX launches and satellite activity. This makes a collection of military intelligence-backed documents particularly intriguing.

The news regarding government support for the Pentagon initiative has also permeated pop culture in recent times, as seen in films like 2023’s “Jules,” which portrays a man’s bond with an extraterrestrial that landed in his yard; “Bugonia,” which explores conspiracy theories about aliens living among us; and Steven Spielberg’s forthcoming film “Disclosure Day,” which alludes to governmental cover-ups surrounding the subject.

Years back, such a release of UFO documentation would have dominated headlines, but nowadays many Americans are more focused on immediate concerns, such as the Iran war’s effects on gas prices, rising living costs, job losses attributed to AI, healthcare issues, climate change, and other pressing matters.

As per the Pentagon, the release of the UFO documentation results from an interagency collaboration, the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE). This initiative encompasses the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Department of Energy (DOE), the DOD’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and segments of other U.S. intelligence organizations.

Prior to this, independent news outlet 404 Media discovered in March that the Executive Office of the President had registered the domain aliens.gov; however, that website is currently inactive.

The caller ID firm Truecaller, based in Sweden, announced it will reduce its workforce by 70 positions, which is about 15%, in the second quarter, coinciding with the release of its Q1 2026 financial results showcasing a drop in both revenue and profits. The company attributed this downturn to factors such as real-money gaming in India, modifications in advertising partner algorithms, and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

As reported by TechCrunch last month, Truecaller is currently encountering difficulties from the telecom-driven solutions in India, including the Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) identification service, alongside a 5% year-on-year decline in downloads recorded last year.

In its Q1 2026 results, Truecaller reported a 27% decrease in net sales, amounting to 362 million SEK ($39.34 million). In its primary market, India, net sales plummeted by 41% compared to last year. Additionally, advertising revenues saw a 44% decline.

“The year-on-year comparison appears particularly weak considering that Q1 and Q2 from the previous year benefitted significantly from the real money gaming sector in India during the IPL season, which occurs at this time. Furthermore, the conflict in the Middle East has also impacted our revenues from that area,” stated Truecaller CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala during the earnings call.

In August of last year, India prohibited real-money gaming applications like Dream 11 and MPL, which enabled users to wager money on fantasy sports. Industry associations have estimated the real-money gaming market to be worth $23 billion in India. The cessation of these apps has led to a loss of revenue for platforms where they were advertised.

Truecaller mentioned that the revenue drop in its advertising business also stemmed from a programmatic partner, identified as Google by an analyst earlier this year, altering its algorithms.

This quarter brought only a few highlights for the company. Firstly, it surpassed 500 million active users. Additionally, subscription revenues rose by 27%, accounting for 31% of net sales. The company has been enhancing its paid services by introducing features like AI Assistant and Family Protection to attract more subscribers.

Truecaller’s stock has decreased by more than 26% this year and by over 79% over the past year. However, it has experienced some recovery following the Q1 results.

If you’re considering a Series A round in the coming 12 to 24 months, the guidelines you believe you’re following might already be obsolete.

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