Social media may be shifting from closed platforms to open protocols, a transformation Bluesky intends to spearhead. CEO Toni Schneider and COO Rose Wang will take the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco this October to discuss how their architecture aims to challenge the dominance of AI-saturated incumbents.
Three months after ousting co-founder Toby Neugebauer, nuclear power firm Fermi has appointed Lee McIntire as its new CEO. The move comes as the company pivots toward the construction phase of its data center infrastructure, seeking to stabilize leadership following a turbulent spring shakeup of its top executive ranks.
A chorus of vocal users is pushing back against Anthropic’s decision to embed invisible code into Claude’s outputs, a move designed to satisfy the EU AI Act’s transparency requirements. While the policy aims to label machine-generated content, some fear it acts as a digital scarlet letter for students, writers, and professionals.
A Northrop Grumman Mission Extension Vehicle has detached from an Optus communications satellite, ending its multi-year docking run. This maneuver clears the path for a new generation of robotic craft designed not just to nudge aging satellites into place, but to actively upgrade them with modular propulsion systems.
Twitch will now utilize creator content to train Amazon’s generative AI models, automatically enrolling all streamers in the program. The decision has triggered immediate pushback from the platform’s community, which largely opposes the use of livestream data for machine learning without explicit, prior consent from those being recorded.
Over 640,000 Grubhub customers and workers are receiving a slice of a $23.8 million settlement, concluding federal allegations that the delivery giant misled drivers on potential pay and listed restaurants without authorization to artificially inflate its platform size.
Barely three months after securing a $2 billion valuation, the startup behind the AI coding agent Devin is reportedly courting investors for a massive funding jump. Cognition is aiming for a $40 billion valuation, betting that its aggressive revenue growth will justify the leap in an increasingly crowded market.
Conflict defines the current AI landscape, as three industry titans—Geoffrey Hinton, Fei-Fei Li, and Andrew Ng—debate whether to restrict model access or embrace open development. While they diverge on safety and strategy, their collective pushback against corporate gatekeeping signals a shift in the fight for the technology’s future.
Thrive Holdings has secured $2 billion in new funding, pushing the firm’s valuation to $12 billion. Backed by heavyweights including SoftBank and D1 Capital Partners, the New York-based investment firm aims to bypass standard software licensing by acquiring traditional businesses and forcing AI into their core operational workflows.
Mesh, the personal relationship manager acquired by Automattic last year, has officially arrived on Android. The app provides a private space for users to track professional and personal networks, offering tools to manage contact notes and set reminders for outreach, all while maintaining a subscription-based privacy model.
The Helix extortion gang claims to have compromised Uber Freight, asserting it exfiltrated sensitive dispatch documents and customer correspondence. While the logistics subsidiary maintains that its core operations remain unaffected by the incident, the breach adds the firm to a growing list of targets hit by the group this year.
A 45-minute drive southwest of Houston may soon become the epicenter of Tesla’s energy production ambitions. The company has filed documents outlining Project Crystal Sun, a proposed $10.1 billion solar panel factory that promises to create 9,700 full-time jobs while anchoring the firm’s domestic manufacturing footprint.
The AI-driven surge in electricity demand is fueling a massive capital injection into grid storage, as Form Energy confirmed a $750 million Series G round. The startup plans to scale its West Virginia manufacturing capacity to meet the growing need for 100-hour iron-air batteries capable of bridging renewable energy gaps.
With a fresh $400 million in the bank, Europe’s vibe-coding leader Lovable has officially doubled its valuation to $13.3 billion. The Series C round, spearheaded by Menlo Ventures and the Scaleup Europe Fund, arrives as the startup scales its infrastructure to support 900 million monthly visitors across 60 million active projects.
Meta has officially launched its standalone Creator Studio app for iOS users in the United States and Canada, integrating a personalized AI assistant designed to streamline audience growth. The tool marks a shift in how creators manage community engagement by automating routine analytics and drafting responses to follower comments.
When Minute Media announced the acquisition of Indian startup VideoVerse in September 2025, it was hailed as a landmark $250 million exit. Less than a year later, the deal has disintegrated, replaced by a web of lawsuits, allegations of forged signatures, and tens of millions of dollars in missing capital.
Ignoring previous legal warnings from Microsoft, a researcher known as Nightmare Eclipse has published details of a new zero-day vulnerability dubbed ShieldBreak. The flaw, which affects Windows Defender, grants attackers full system-wide access to machines running Windows 10, 11, and the latest Windows Server 2025 iterations.
The Road to Battlefield competition has hit a record growth spurt, drawing 726 startup applications from 39 countries. Organized by Silkroad Innovation Hub, the program serves as a direct pipeline for regional founders to secure a spot at the prestigious TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 in San Francisco this October.
With a price tag of $1,899, Google’s latest foldable retains its familiar exterior while pivoting toward internal refinement. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold swaps last year’s heft for a lighter, thinner chassis, betting that improved structural integrity and display performance will justify its premium cost in a competitive market.
At its Made by Google '26 event, the company debuted the Pixel Tag, a $29 tracking device designed to compete directly with Apple’s AirTag. Leveraging the global Android Find Hub network, the tracker allows users to locate personal items via their smartphones or directly through a connected Pixel Watch.
The Made by Google 2026 event brought a hardware refresh headlined by the Pixel 11 series, a new competitor to Apple’s AirTag, and significant AI upgrades. As Google pushes further into hardware integration, the company is betting on increased base storage, enhanced durability, and deeper Gemini functionality to justify higher entry prices.
Tapping two Android devices together will now trigger an instant, two-way exchange of photos, videos, and contact details. Announced alongside the Pixel 11 hardware lineup, this update brings Google’s file-sharing infrastructure closer to the functionality found in Apple’s NameDrop, prioritizing physical proximity for faster, more intuitive data transfers.
With minimal changes to physical design and internal hardware, Google is positioning the new Pixel 11 series as a dedicated vessel for agentic AI. The latest lineup shifts focus toward background task automation, leveraging Gemini to handle everything from booking rides to real-time sign language translation.
Priced at $399, the new Pixel Watch 5 integrates Gemini AI with sophisticated health-monitoring sensors. Unveiled at the Made by Google event, the wearable introduces capabilities to track blood pressure patterns and metabolic health, marking a shift toward proactive, data-driven personal wellness management for the tech giant’s hardware ecosystem.
A 10-fold valuation jump in less than a year has propelled AI testing startup Blacksmith to a $550 million price tag. The company, which helps developers verify code generated by AI tools, secured $45 million in a Series B round led by Peak XV Partners, signaling investor confidence in automated quality assurance.
Water heaters account for nearly a fifth of residential energy consumption, yet most remain archaic, inefficient appliances. Startup Reservoir aims to change that by introducing intelligent, heat-pump-based systems that not only lower utility bills for homeowners but also provide critical energy storage capacity to help stabilize the electrical grid.
As India’s quick-commerce sector pushes to slash delivery windows, Bengaluru-based Yulu has secured $93 million in fresh capital to scale its electric two-wheeler fleet. The startup aims to transform its infrastructure, positioning itself as the primary mobility provider for the gig workers powering the nation’s delivery ecosystem.
Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni were aware that their startup, Phia, engaged in deceptive affiliate marketing tactics months before the practice became public knowledge. Leaked internal communications reveal that the founders discussed the controversial technique, known as cookie stuffing, with their staff as early as last December.
Accel has secured $550 million for its latest India-focused fund, closing the oversubscribed vehicle in mere weeks as part of a broader $3.5 billion global fundraising push. The firm maintains significant capital from its prior fund, signaling a long-term commitment to the region despite current market volatility.
The autonomous delivery sector faced a jolt as Uber offloaded its complete equity stake in Serve Robotics. The move, disclosed in a recent regulatory filing, effectively severs the formal financial ties between the ride-hailing giant and the startup that originated within its own corporate ecosystem five years ago.
