Google’s senior vice president of advertising and commerce Sridhar Ramaswamy
Krisztian Bocsi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A top former Google executive wants to make searching the blockchain easier with his new startup.
Sridhar Ramaswamy, who led the internet giant’s ad business from 2013 to 2018, has started a new company called nxyz. The venture is officially launching Wednesday after attracting investment from several top investors, he told CNBC exclusively.
Armed with a rolodex of eminent Silicon Valley connections, Ramaswamy secured $40 million in funding in May to establish nxyz as a separate entity to Neeva, a privacy-focused search engine he also owns. The round was led by Paradigm, a prolific crypto and “Web3” dealmaker, while Coinbase, Sequoia and Greylock — where Ramaswamy is a partner — also invested. Ramaswamy will remain as Neeva’s CEO while he also leads nxyz.
Nxyz was conceived earlier this year by a team of engineers at Neeva, a search engine that doesn’t include any ads and blocks online tracking tools. Ramaswamy built Neeva in 2019 after leaving his role as senior vice president of Google’s $150 billion ad business a year earlier, which he says was over disillusionment with its relentless focus on maintaining growth at the expense of users.
In a March blogpost on Neeva’s website, nxyz is described as “an experiment bringing the same user-first ethos of Neeva search to web3.” Web3 loosely refers the idea of a more decentralized version of the internet powered by cryptocurrencies, nonfungible tokens and other technologies. It encourages placing ownership of data in the hands of users instead of Big Tech platforms, which use people’s personal information to target them with ads.
“To me, the big advancement with a blockchain is that it introduces this idea of decentralized computation, where you’re uploading a piece of code to a blockchain and the code is running there,” Ramaswamy said in a CNBC interview. “No one is in charge. It is decentralized storage that is owned by a collective. Plus, they also have utility in the form of a native token currency that has been designed to give incentive for the system.”
Nxyz trawls blockchains and associated applications for sought-after data on things like how much someone holds in their crypto wallet, or what NFTs they’re buying. It then streams this data to developers in real-time using tools called APIs. The platform currently supports the Ethereum, Polygon and Binance networks, and Ramaswamy says it’s looking to include more over time.
Unlike Neeva and Google — the “Web2” behemoth Neeva wants to disrupt — nxyz’s Web3 search software isn’t targeted at consumers. Rather, it wants to offer clean blockchain data to large crypto firms, kind of like how Bloomberg sells Wall Street institutions access to financial data and news with its terminals business. Ramaswamy named crypto custody firm BitGo as an early client it has partnered with.
Parsing data from the blockchain is a messy process, he explained. Smart contracts — programs that power crypto applications — can be assigned designated tasks. But once they’re out in the wild, knowing what functions they carry out in practice can be difficult. As an example, bugs in key smart contracts known as blockchain bridges have opened the industry up to mega hacks, with bridges from Binance and Axie Infinity maker Sky Mavis suffering nine-figure breaches. More insight into the performance of those tools could improve security.
“It’s one thing to write smart contracts that can do things. But you need to have a record of, what did they do? And how do I surface that?” Ramaswamy said. “It’s everything from, ‘What does your wallet contain?’ to, ‘If you’ve swapped a USDC token with ethereum, what was the exchange and when did that happen?'”
Nxyz’s launch comes as crypto investors reel from a deep pullback in token prices, with bitcoin, the world’s largest digital currency, down 70% from its all-time high. Among the main factors driving the current so-called “crypto winter” are higher interest rates from the Federal Reserve and an industry-wide liquidity crunch.
That has led to a tougher environment for crypto and blockchain-focused startups seeking to attract capital, with Pitchbook data showing VC investment in such firms dropped 37% to $4.4 billion in the third quarter from $7.6 billion the quarter prior. Of those that have successfully raised, several are seeing their valuations remain flat or fall. Nxyz declined to disclose its valuation.
Ramaswamy said the firm was lucky to raise funding when it did. Talks with investors began in mid-April and concluded by mid-May, around the same time so-called stablecoin terraUSD and its sister token luna started crashing. Asked about souring investor sentiment toward crypto, the entrepreneur said his firm was “well-funded to sit out the crypto winter,” adding it only needs around 20 employees. “I think it’ll be a very different trajectory” to Web3 and crypto companies that have run into financial troubles, he said. “We want to be very mindful of the current climate, build carefully, and make sure that we are also bringing in revenue early on.”
Nxyz’s team is currently split across Mountain View, Austin and New York.
While stock prices of crypto trading platforms like Coinbase have come down quite a bit, the infrastructure that powers “Web3” remains a hot target. Firms like ConsenSys, MoonPay and Ramp have raised sizable amounts of cash this year. “Web3 developers today lack fast, flexible, and reliable infrastructure to support their applications, which holds the industry back from widespread adoption,” said Matt Huang, co-founder and managing partner at Paradigm. “Nxyz has a truly superlative team that has built the best data indexing infrastructure for Web3, and we at Paradigm are thrilled to support them.”
Still, Web3 has been a punching bag for some leaders in Silicon Valley, like Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. A “general uneasiness” people have when it comes to Web3 is there’s no “common term and definition,” according to John Lee, blockchain lead at e-commerce firm Shopify.
“Every time somebody in the general public has a conversation with somebody in the industry, they get a different definition, they get a different explanation,” Lee said. “It’s confusing to people.”
Meanwhile, the space is rife with scams, including infamous “rug pulls” where fraudsters flee a bogus token project once they’ve pocketed enough cash. Ramaswamy concedes “there have been a lot of scams” in Web3. But he hopes more practical use cases like video games, concert tickets and remittances will eventually catch on.
As for whether Web3 can crack the dominance of digital giants like Google and Meta, Ramaswamy said “the dice is loaded against” upstarts like his. However, staff at Big Tech firms are increasingly quitting to join roles at crypto businesses. That includes Ramaswamy’s eldest son who, according to his father, recently joined a Web3 company.
Asked for a take on his former employer, Ramaswamy said he thinks the company became a victim of its own success. “I think Google is an incredibly successful company,” he said. “But its growth mindset, combined with a monopoly position, produces a bad outcome.”
“Let’s say there was only one toothpaste manufacturer for all of the U.K. They’d be like, yeah £1 is not enough. We’re going to chalk it up to £1.20,” he added. “Google’s sort of like that, where it goes, ‘Everybody uses us for searching, you can keep jacking up the price and it’s fine.’ I don’t think it’s people being evil” — a reference to “Don’t be evil,” Google’s corporate code of conduct — “I think it’s a system that demands growth at all costs.”
Google was not immediately available for comment by the time of publication. The company previously told The Telegraph newspaper that its ads “help business of all sizes grow and connect with new customers.”
Sanjay Beri, chief executive officer and founder of Netskope Inc., listens during a Bloomberg West television interview in San Francisco, California.
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Netskope is targeting a $7.3 billion valuation in its upcoming initial public offering, after lifting its planned price range.
The cybersecurity company said it plans to sell 47.8 million shares at between $17 and $19 apiece. The deal would raise as much as $908 million at the top end.
That’s up from a previous range of $15 to $17 a share the company revealed in a filing last week, at a $6.5 billion valuation.
The cloud security company revealed plans to go public on the Nasdaq in a filing last month. Its planned debut comes amid an influx of big cybersecurity deals and during a resurgence in IPO activity after soaring inflation and interest rates squashed appetite for tech deals.
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Cybersecurity deals have topped the list of this year’s biggest tech acquisitions.
The frenzy was highlighted by Google’s $32 billion acquisition of Israeli cloud security startup Wiz in March. Palo Alto announced this summer that it’s buying identity security company CyberArk for $25 billion. Thoma Bravo-backed SailPoint went public in February.
As tariff headwinds eased, companies increasingly looked to the public markets.
Design platform Figma and Circle more than doubled in their recent market debuts. CoreWeave has more than tripled since its IPO.
After putting the brakes on IPO plans earlier this year with President Donald Trump’s tariff plans roiling global markets, Klarnajumped 15% in its NYSE debut last week. Ticket reseller StubHub is also planning a debut this month.
Netskope will debut under the ticker symbol “NTSK.” The company reported a net loss of $170 million during the first half of the year in its prospectus filing.
The California-based company, founded in 2012, operates in the cloud access security space, helping firms protect against cyber threats. Netskope named Palo Alto Networks, Cisco and Broadcom among its competitors in its IPO filing.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman walks on the day of a meeting of the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Education in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 4, 2025.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
OpenAI on Tuesday announced it will launch a dedicated ChatGPT experience with parental controls for users under 18 years old as the artificial intelligence company works to enhance safety protections for teenagers.
When OpenAI identifies that a user is a minor, they will automatically be directed to an age-appropriate ChatGPT experience that blocks graphic and sexual content and can involve law enforcement in rare cases of acute distress, the company said.
OpenAI is also developing a technology to better predict a user’s age, but ChatGPT will default to the under-18 experience if there is uncertainty or incomplete information.
The startup’s safety updates come after the Federal Trade Commission recently launched an inquiry into several tech companies, including OpenAI, over how AI chatbots like ChatGPT potentially negatively affect children and teenagers.
The agency said it wants to understand what steps these companies have taken to “evaluate the safety of these chatbots when acting as companions,” according to a release.
OpenAI also shared how ChatGPT will handle “sensitive situations” last month after a lawsuit from a family blamed the chatbot for their teenage son’s death by suicide.
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“We prioritize safety ahead of privacy and freedom for teens; this is a new and powerful technology, and we believe minors need significant protection,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.
In August, OpenAI said it would release parental controls to help them understand and shape how their teens are using ChatGPT. OpenAI shared more details about those parental controls on Tuesday, and it said they will be available at the end of the month.
The company’s upcoming controls will allow parents to link their ChatGPT account with their teen’s via email, set blackout hours for when their teen can’t use the chatbot, manage which features to disable, guide how the chatbot responds and receive notifications if the teen is in acute distress.
ChatGPT is intended for users who are ages 13 and up, OpenAI said.
“These are difficult decisions, but after talking with experts, this is what we think is best and want to be transparent in our intentions,” Altman wrote.
If you are having suicidal thoughts or are in distress, contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for support and assistance from a trained counselor
A Youtube podcast microphone is seen at the Variety Podcasting Brunch Presented By YouTube at Austin Proper Hotel in Austin, Texas, on March 8, 2025.
Mat Hayward | Variety | Getty Images
YouTube said on Tuesday it has paid out over $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies since 2021.
The surge has been fueled in part by growing viewership on connected TVs. The number of channels making more than $100,000 from TV screens jumped 45% year over year, the company said.
YouTube Chief Product Officer Johanna Voolich praised the power of creators to “shape culture and entertainment in ways we never thought possible” in a release announcing the benchmark and a series of other new features.
The milestone comes as the Google-owned platform marks its 20th year and pushes to cement itself as one of the world’s most lucrative media businesses.
YouTube unveiled the updated payout figure and a slate of new creator tools at its annual Made on YouTube event in New York City.
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The company announced new artificial intelligence tools for YouTube Shorts, its short-form vertical video product. Creators will be able to turn raw footage into edited clips with AI and can add music, transitions and voiceover.
New features also include the ability to turn dialogue from eligible videos into a song to be used in the Short.
Google’s latest AI video generator, Veo 3, will also be integrated into Shorts, YouTube said.
Google uses a subset of YouTube videos to train Veo 3, to the surprise of many YouTube creators, CNBC reported in June.
YouTube turned 20 years old in April and announced it hosted over 20 billion videos on the platform, including music, Shorts, podcasts and more.
Last year, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said the company had paid $70 billion to creators between 2021 and 2024.