Stories tagged “Startups.”
30 stories
China's AgiBot has surpassed Unitree Robotics to become the world's leading humanoid robot vendor in the first half of 2026, shipping approximately 8,400 units and capturing 44% of the global market.
Crunchbase reports 195 companies joined its Unicorn Board in H1 2026, already exceeding the 193 new unicorns minted across all of 2025, with AI, robotics and semiconductors leading the cohort.
Investors are focused on AI IPOs, but the real story begins after the IPO, when limited partners receive distributions and decide where to deploy that capital next. This can reshape venture fundraising and concentrate capital among the industry's largest firms.
OpenAI has disclosed its acquisition of AI presentation startup NextSlide, absorbing the team into ChatGPT's development division as it pushes deeper into workplace productivity tools.
Prime Agent: An Open-Source, Self-Improving Coding Harness
Prime Agent, an open-source coding agent, uses a self-improving harness with Recursive Language Models and Continual Harness abstractions. It achieved 95.5% on ARC-AGI-3, surpassing human baselines.
The crypto industry is undergoing a significant dot-com style shakeout in 2026, with over 100 projects folding due to altcoin price drops, $1.1 billion lost to exploits, and drying venture capital. This consolidation is weeding out unsustainable startups, favoring protoco…
Chinese AI chip developer Moore Threads plans to seek a listing in Hong Kong after reporting a 147% jump in first-half revenue, aiming to secure fresh capital and expand its international presence.
Five Indian companies are set to launch initial public offerings (IPOs) this week, aiming to collectively raise over Rs 7,400 crore from investors.
Chinese start-ups and researchers are accelerating efforts to develop minimally invasive brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that can be implanted in minutes, aiming to compete with global leaders like Neuralink.
AI founders like David Silver are pledging their vast fortunes from successful ventures to charity, aiming for maximum global impact. This growing trend in the tech industry, particularly within AI, raises questions about wealth redistribution and the effectiveness of tec…
Argos: The AI that acts as you, right in your browser
Argos is a new AI browser agent that automates tasks by directly interacting with web pages and user accounts, operating locally to ensure data privacy.
VoiceOS App Store Launches, Enabling Voice-Native App Creation and Sharing
VoiceOS has launched its App Store, allowing users to create custom voice-native applications by simply describing their desired functionality in natural language. These personalized apps can be shared via links and automatically updated, empowering users to build highly …
Saudi Arabia-led investors have completed the acquisition of Electronic Arts (EA) for $55 billion, making it one of the largest transactions ever recorded in gaming and corporate sectors.
OpenAI has acquired presentation startup NextSlide, with the team now working on ChatGPT. The startup's product aimed to turn prompts, notes, and documents into polished presentations.
Firebird, an emerging AI cloud provider, has launched the CIS region's largest AI factory in Armenia, powered by NVIDIA and Dell Technologies infrastructure. This facility aims to provide significant computing capacity for AI development locally and globally.
This week, several startups raised significant funding rounds, including Hadrian, Base Power, and Valar Atomics, which secured financings of $1 billion or more. Other companies in sectors such as AI, e-commerce, cybersecurity, biotech, and mining also announced sizable ne…
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 is taking place in San Francisco from October 13-15, but the best conversations often happen outside of the main stage. The official Disrupt Side Events program allows anyone to host their own event throughout the week of October 10-16, and the dea…
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 is a conference for founders, investors, and tech leaders. The event will take place at Moscone West in San Francisco on October 13-15, 2026. The conference will feature a packed lineup of speakers, over 200 expert sessions, and numerous networking…
Active startup investors kept up the pace in July, with familiar names leading the tallies for deal count and size. Khosla Ventures topped the ranks last month, while Y Combinator was by far the busiest backer by deal count.
A Hyderabad entrepreneur, Sravanth Gajula, hired a taxi driver with a Class 9 education and no English as his company's first employee a decade ago. Through investment in his growth, the former driver now leads procurement operations across India.
DeepSeek invested RMB141 million in Unitree Robotics' Shanghai STAR Market IPO, acquiring 933,900 shares with a 36-month lockup. Unitree seeks collaboration in large models, embodied intelligence, and robotics.
Unitree Robotics' IPO on Shanghai's Star Market, valued at US$9 billion, is a key test for China's AI robotics sector. Backed by DeepSeek and Tencent, the company aims to raise 6.1 billion yuan.
OpenAI is reportedly developing a "donut-shaped" AI smart speaker with "moving parts" in partnership with LoveFrom, expected to launch in 2027. It could cost $300-$400, significantly more than most current smart speakers.
Startups can showcase their products directly on the Expo Hall floor at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 by participating in the Exhibit Program. For $12,500, companies get a 6' x 30" table, 10 Disrupt passes, lead generation through the Disrupt 2026 mobile app, and access to the …
Hadrian secures $1.37B round, valuing company at $8B.
Naïve, a startup that offers infrastructure for AI agents to automate business setup and operation, has raised $28.5 million in a Series A funding round. The company has scaled annual run-rate revenue by 10x to the low double-digit millions over the past six months.
An AI-powered robotic make-up arm named Iron Bestie won top honors at Hong Kong's first physical AI hackathon, demonstrating its ability to apply make-up based on a user's schedule.
Omilia secures $67M Series B funding to expand its AI-driven customer support solutions.
Y Combinator has seen a growing number of repeat founders, who have already participated in the program at least once. Crunchbase News analyzed a dataset of repeat founders and found that most have gone through YC twice, with some returning as soon as two years later and …
OpenAI has asked a federal judge to dismiss Apple's lawsuit accusing it of stealing trade secrets, calling the allegations "meritless" and "rotten to its core."