On today’s episode of the Equity podcast, your hosts Kirsten Korosec, Max Zeff, and Anthony Ha try to understand why Labubu has become so popular and what it says about the collapsing divide between the internet and the real world. Are Labubus more than just the latest iteration of ‘90s Beanie Babies?

And listen to the full episode to hear more about:

• Google’s cringey, celebrity-filled Pixel event

• Self-driving startup Nuro’s $203 million Series A, with Nvidia joining as an investor

• OpenAI’s attempt to woo the media after a rocky launch for GPT-5

• A fresh $1 billion funding for AI startup Databricks

• Why VCs are excited about robotic startups like FieldAI

As always, Equity will be back for you next week, so don’t miss it!

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. 

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. We’d also like to thank TechCrunch’s audience development team. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.

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