Tech
Why Rivian is holding the $45,000 base model R2 until ‘late 2027’
Rivian revealed the specs and pricing details for its pivotal R2 SUV on Thursday, and the company also finally answered a long-burning question: When will customers be able to buy the promised $45,000 base model?
That answer is “late 2027,” according to the company’s press materials. And there’s a catch. The language Rivian uses now is that the base model R2 will be “starting around $45,000.” That’s a notable change from how the company was recently promoting that the R2 would be “starting at $45,000″ on its website. (Emphasis mine.)
This is not exactly surprising. As TechCrunch first reported last week, Rivian removed the “starting at $45,000” language from its website in February.
Also, a lot has changed since Rivian first revealed the R2 in March 2024. The $7,500 federal EV tax credit is gone. Legacy automakers have stopped buying regulatory credits from companies like Rivian, effectively ending a stream of what was ostensibly free money pouring into its coffers. President Trump’s chaotic tariffs have increased the cost of components and materials Rivian uses to make its EVs.
In some ways, Rivian has bigger challenges to deal with.
Sales of its R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV declined in 2025. Rivian is about to start constructing a giant factory in Georgia where it expects to build hundreds of thousands of R2 SUVs (and, eventually, R3 hatchbacks).
The company is also trying to architect what would be one of the fastest electric vehicle launches in U.S. history with its more premium R2 models this year. Rivian is projecting sales of between 20,000 and 25,000 R2s by the end of 2026. If it succeeds, only Tesla’s Model Y would have reached 20,000 in sales faster.
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Rivian told TechCrunch it wanted to start with the pricier performance R2 models “so owners can experience the absolute peak of the new platform first.”
“Debuting with a high-spec trim is common industry practice and sets the stage for the entire lineup by showcasing the exceptional capability and acceleration that make a Rivian unmistakable, all while we scale production into our Premium and Standard configurations after,” the company said.
Rivian will offer a “Standard” R2 in the first half of 2027 that starts at $48,490, with a range of up to 345 miles. The true base model will only reach about 275 miles. That could be a sign of how Rivian is reaching the base model price — fewer batteries usually tracks with lower cost. The base model’s more meager range could also serve a dual purpose by encouraging customers to pay up to a few thousand dollars more for clearly superior range.
Rivian told TechCrunch the two Standard models share the same rear-wheel-drive propulsion but declined to say whether there are other differences beyond the battery capacity that could explain the price difference. It also declined to comment on its upselling strategies.
“We have made significant internal engineering, development and business efforts to reach our target price. We engineered out complexity by moving to a zonal electrical architecture, reducing the number of electronic control units, and utilizing our in-house drive units,” the company said in a statement. Rivian said it also applied lessons from how it reduced the cost of its second-generation R1 vehicles, and leveraged better supplier relationships.
This all comes just a few months after Rivian agreed to pay $250 million to settle a class action shareholder lawsuit centered around how the company suddenly hiked prices on its R1 vehicles in 2021.
It also has some light echoes of the controversy Tesla waded into a few years ago. Elon Musk and his company had spent years promising the Model 3 would cost $35,000. But Tesla only briefly made a $35,000 Model 3 available “off-menu,” and even that plan didn’t last long. Many of the customers who tried to buy it were pressured into buying higher-trim versions of the sedan, all while Musk publicly complained about how hard it was to fulfill the promise he had made.
Another Tesla vehicle was once announced with an attractive price that never materialized: the Cybertruck. Tesla first pitched the steel-clad pickup in 2019 as starting at just $40,000. But it ultimately launched at much higher prices that, when mixed with its broadly off-putting design, resulted in very meager sales.
It seems unlikely that the R2 would break as bad as the Cybertruck did for Tesla. After all, it’s a far more approachable vehicle that is also starting at a much lower price — all without the political cost of having Elon Musk as the CEO. But only the next few years will tell whether the R2’s base model winds up with a life that’s more like the $35,000 Model 3, or the Cybertruck, or something completely different.
Tech
ElevenLabs lists BlackRock, Jamie Foxx, and Eva Longoria as new investors
Voice AI company ElevenLabs revealed new investors that are part of its $500 million Series D fundraise, which was first announced in February. The additions include institutions such as BlackRock, Wellington, D.E. Shaw, and Schroders; enterprises like Nvidia, Salesforce Ventures, Santander, KPN, and Deutsche Telekom; and individual investors such as Jamie Foxx, Eva Longoria, and Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk.
The startup also noted that it surpassed $500 million in ARR (annual recurring revenue), after ending last year with nearly $350 million in ARR. The company’s co-founder and CEO, Mati Staniszewski, said last month that ElevenLabs added $100 million in net new ARR in Q1 2026, ending the quarter at roughly $450 million in ARR.
The company has also accelerated its valuation rapidly, growing from $6.6 billion last September to $11 billion this February.
“Voice is the highest-stakes channel for any customer interaction, and the bar for quality, latency, and security is extremely high. ElevenLabs is not just a category leader – it is becoming a foundational enabler of Deutsche Telekom’s broader Industrial AI vision. From voice-as-a-service to multilingual automation and in-network AI agents, we believe the company is uniquely positioned to reshape how businesses interact with customers across all channels,” Karine Peters, managing director at Deutsche Telekom’s venture arm T.Capital, said in a statement.
In the past quarter, the voice AI company has signed enterprise contracts with the likes of Deutsche Telekom, Revolut, and Klarna.
ElevenLabs said that, besides the fundraising, it also closed a $100 million tender, a second in roughly six months after the company issued one last September. Staniszewski said in a blog post that the company will give an opportunity to retail investors to invest in ElevenLabs through Robinhood Ventures, but didn’t provide details about the program.
Staniszewski noted that consumers won’t trust systems that sound robotic or “interact strangely” and emphasized the importance of building “human-level AI voice models.” Last month, the company acquired the team from Polish voice AI startup Papla to bolster its research team.
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Tech
Kaspersky suspects Chinese hackers planted a backdoor into Daemon Tools in ‘widespread’ attack
Security researchers at Kaspersky say they have identified a malicious backdoor planted in the popular and long-running Windows disc imaging software, Daemon Tools.
The Russian cybersecurity company said on Tuesday that data collected from computers around the world running the Kaspersky antivirus software shows a “widespread” attack is under way, targeting thousands of Windows computers running Daemon Tools.
The hackers, whom Kaspersky has linked to a Chinese-language speaking group based on an analysis of the malware, used the backdoor in Daemon Tools to plant additional malware on a dozen computers across the retail, scientific and manufacturing sectors, as well as government systems. Kaspersky said the hacking of these specific computers implied a “targeted” effort.
The company said the targeted organizations are located in Russia, Belarus, and Thailand.
Kaspersky said the backdoor was first detected on April 8.
Kaspersky said it had contacted Disc Soft, the company that maintains Daemon Tools, but did not say if the developer responded or took action. Kaspersky said the supply chain attack is “still active,” suggesting that the hackers can still plant malware on thousands of computers running the disc imaging software.
This is the latest in a string of so-called “supply chain” attacks that have targeted developers of popular software in recent months. Hackers are increasingly taking aim at the accounts of developers who work on widely used code and software, and abusing that access to push malicious code to anyone who relies on the software. This approach lets the hackers break into a large number of computers at once when their malicious code is delivered as a software update.
Earlier this year, hackers associated with the Chinese government hijacked the popular text editing software Notepad++ to deliver malware to a number of organizations with interests in East Asia. Security researchers also warned of another attack last month targeting users who visited the website of CPUID, which makes the popular HWMonitor and CPU-Z tools.
TechCrunch downloaded the Windows installer from Daemon Tools’ website, and the file appeared to contain the backdoor when we checked it with the online malware scanner service VirusTotal.
It’s not known if the macOS version of Daemon Tools was compromised, or if other apps made by Disc Soft are affected.
When contacted for comment, a Disc Soft representative said they are “aware of the report and are currently investigating the situation.”
“Our team is treating this matter with the highest priority and is actively working to assess and address the issue. At this stage, we are not in a position to confirm specific details referenced in the report. However, we are taking all necessary steps to remediate any potential risks and to ensure the security of our users,” the representative said.
Do you know more about the cyberattack targeting Daemon Tools users? Did you receive an antivirus alert saying you were affected? We want to hear from you. To contact this reporter securely, reach out via Signal username zackwhittaker.1337.
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Tech
Etsy launches its app within ChatGPT as it continues its AI push
Etsy announced Tuesday the launch of its native app within ChatGPT, opening up a new way for shoppers to explore its catalog of over 100 million listings.
The new experience is designed to move beyond the limitations of traditional keyword queries. Instead of typing something like “wooden coffee table,” then scrolling and adjusting filters, users can now express what they’re looking for in natural language. For instance, “Help me find a Mother’s Day gift under $100 for my mom who loves gardening.”
Now live in beta, the feature allows users to tag @Etsy directly within a prompt. From there, the Etsy app in ChatGPT surfaces relevant product listings that users can browse, compare, and click through to Etsy for additional details or purchase.
This isn’t Etsy’s first experiment inside ChatGPT. Back in September, Etsy became an early partner in ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout integration, which let users buy products directly inside the chat interface. However, the initiative ended in March, suggesting it didn’t perform as OpenAI had hoped. It was reported that Etsy didn’t see a large volume of sales from the integration, leading Etsy to start building a native app within ChatGPT instead.
Alongside this launch, Etsy also revealed it’s testing a beta conversational search experience within its platform, specifically geared toward helping users find gifts. The gift assistant acts as a personal shopper, offering a guided, conversational way to discover ideas, narrow down preferences, and surface relevant products.
This builds on Etsy’s broader AI push, which includes an AI-powered discovery experience featuring curated collections and a suite of seller tools, including a tool that helps generate product titles and descriptions, as well as a writing assistant to help draft messages to buyers. In 2024, Etsy introduced a new “Designed” label to identify AI content, part of an effort to increase transparency as AI-generated artwork becomes more prevalent on the platform.
The news of a ChatGPT integration comes a week after Etsy reported its Q1 2026 earnings, surpassing revenue expectations with $631 million, and marketplace gross merchandise sales were up 6% year over year. Notably, active buyers increased for the first time in two years to 86.6 million. Etsy also touted 5.6 million active sellers on the platform.
In February, the company announced it was selling Depop to eBay for $1.2 billion in cash, a move aimed at doubling down on its core marketplace.
Etsy joins a growing list of companies building native apps within ChatGPT, including Angi, SeatGeek, Tubi, and Wix. Developers have been able to build apps within the chatbot since October.
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