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Cerebras CEO pushes back on AI doomsday warnings

Cerebras SystemsCEO and co-founderAndrew Feldmanthinks the AI doomer narrative isn’t doing the industry any favors. AtTechCrunch Disrupt 2026, the AI chipmaker exec quipped that “some of the leaders in the AI world maybe shouldn’t be allowed to talk in public.” He’s referencing the negativity now spreading around the dangers of AI, from models breaking containment to AI insiders debating thepercentage chancethat AI may kill all of humanity by the end of the decade. The argument has become so mainstream that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wasrecently parodied in a skit on “Saturday Night Live,”where the fictional character summed up the discourse, saying, “We do not condone what we are doing.” Feldman, however, thinks the promise and potential that go hand in hand with AI developments are getting overlooked. He thinks AI leaders should spend more time telling people that AI could lead to a world where your grandkids will “never meet anybody who dies of cancer,” for instance, even if they have concerns about AI risks. Clearly, Feldman has a vested interest in AI being successful, as the company’s customers include big names working with the technology, like OpenAI, Block, Figma, pharmaceutical giant GSK, and Lovable. However, he’s pragmatic about weighing the trade-offs between risk and reward. “I don’t think there are powerful technologies that don’t come with the challenge of ‘what happens when powerful technologies are in the hands of bad people?’ I think you can’t make one and not have the other,” Feldman said during his interview at Disrupt. “I think what we have to say is that this technology is powerful,” he added. “We have to be thoughtful about it. We have to regulate it reasonably,” he added. The chipmaker CEO also suggested that some of the negativity around AI has to do with how the data center industry has approached the new buildouts created by AI demand. “As an industry, we weren’t super good for the past few years at working with local communities, particularly in the U.S. We — the industry — didn’t do what others have done in the power industry in oil and gas. They didn’t work with the community. They didn’t engage the community as they should have, and that was a problem,” Feldman said. He compared the NIMBY-ism — “not in my backyard!” — of what’s going on in the U.S. with other countries, naming Brazil, Canada, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Mexico, and Sweden as markets where they’re encouraging companies to build data centers. Feldman also wasn’t concerned that efficiency improvements would create less demand for his chips, or those from other companies competing with Nvidia, as Cerebras is. “We can do our job as hardware vendors to make our compute more efficient, and then the model makers can do improved work in making their models more efficient to achieve the same goals. All of this has to come together to make meaningful strides forward,” he noted.

21 days ago

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Industrial Next wants factory robots to switch tasks in minutes, not weeks

In most factories, automation is fixed: robots and machines are programmed for one specific task and product. Changing a line means reprogramming and physical retooling, or swapping out equipment, which can take weeks or months. San Francisco-basedIndustrial Nextsays it’s changing that. The startup, which presented today on the Startup Battlefield stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, builds AI-driven, self-contained robotic stations powered by proprietary foundation models that connect vision, task context and motion. The company says this lets a production line be retooled in minutes rather than weeks without traditional programming. The goal is to let manufacturers automate complex and delicate tasks that traditionally require human labor. The company announced on stage that it’s partnering with BMW Group Technology Office to evaluate Industrial Next’s AI-powered dexterous manipulation for manufacturing. Industrial Next was founded in 2021 by Lukas Pankau and Allen Pan, both of whom previously worked at Tesla. Pankau served as a lead electrical architect at Tesla before moving on to Waymo. Pan led Tesla’s autonomous factory efforts and later became a chief architect at autonomous driving company Neolix. The pair came up with the idea for Industrial Next while working together at Tesla. Pankau’s first encounter with Pan was literally tripping over him as Pan was asleep on a factory catwalk after pulling an all-nighter. Although the two didn’t get along at first, they soon realized they shared an obsession with getting things done and had complementary skills. After years of watching cutting-edge vehicle and self-driving technology get held back by decades-old factory equipment, the founders realized that manufacturing needed to be rebuilt. “We had all these fancy things that we could do on cars. I could run machine learning algorithms to design a car for me. But I couldn’t figure out how to program a robot, and this was pretty common for engineers at Tesla,” Pankau said. “You had this massive divide, right? You had people who are really good at what they’re doing–designing cars and designing self-driving systems–and then you had them effectively stumped at the factory looking at this equipment from the 1980s. And so we started rethinking what this should look like using the technology that we have today and using everything that we know today.” The two kept thinking about their frustrations with industrial equipment even after moving on to their next jobs. They stayed in touch, often reminiscing about the machines that never functioned the way they wanted, and eventually decided they could do better. “I was at Waymo at the time, kind of bored out of my mind because I was missing that pace of Tesla,” Pankau said. Pan, he added, was in a similar position at Momenta, a developer of self-driving systems in China. Pan recalled their conclusion: “We’re like, we’re not getting any younger, and we’re still obviously passionate about it. We still keep complaining about industrial technology. Like, this is three years later, we should start the company.” Pankau notes that traditional industrial robots are typically programmed to perform highly specific, repeatable tasks. As a result, even a small change in the process or product can cause the robot to fail or trigger costly downtime, which forces manufacturers to simplify their products for repeatability. Making robots truly flexible presents a different challenge. They need enormous amounts of training data and, unlike AI models trained on the internet, robotics lacks the vast datasets needed to teach machines how to perform complex physical tasks. “We can make robots do all these cool things like dance around, because there’s data for that, but we can’t make them assemble high-precision things,” Pankau explained. “This is where we’ve made a lot of progress on using simulated environments to do these high-precision and high-dexterity tasks. The secret sauce for the robots that we have is that we have given them an understanding of the process in general, but we build that understanding using an extremely high-fidelity simulation engine that is close to the real dynamics to where we can let the robot do these kinds of high precision tasks almost without seeing the parts at all.” In other words, the robots practice in a highly detailed virtual world that closely mimics real-world physics. Industrial Next’s robotic stations can be reconfigured, combined, and redeployed across product lines. New tasks are taught through simulation and demonstration, rather than hard-coded scripts. Pankau explained that some of the startup’s workstations are already used in making one of the world’s most popular smartphones. They handle tasks that manufacturers had tried and failed to automate for years, such as threading a delicate flex cable and snapping a tiny connector cap into place. (He wasn’t at liberty to disclose the customer.) He also described a “film peeling” station, where their AI-powered robots strip protective film off camera modules and buttons at or above human speed with 100% accuracy, even when moved to a new phone model and production line they have never seen. “We started this company because that is the kind of performance that we wish we had at Tesla, where we were bypassing robot stations because we couldn’t program them effectively enough using traditional technologies,” Pankau said. “Now we want to take this to more complicated tasks than just building a phone. We ultimately want to take this to building a full car end-to-end without any human touching ever.” To check out more of the Startup Battlefield — along with a slate of established founders and VCs whose takes on the industry you won’t want to miss —join us at Disrupt, happening this week in downtown San Francisco.

Cerebras CEO says we’re nearing a future where everyone has a personal AI assistant at home

Cerebras Systems CEO and co-founder Andrew Feldman believes we’re nearing a future where everyone will have an AI appliance in their own home. Speaking on stage atTechCrunch Disrupt 2026on Tuesday, the chipmaker executive answered a question about what would need to happen for AI to become a home appliance, saying, “Actually, I don’t think that’s very far away.” He pointed to the advances in consumer AI agents, like Meta’s Muse and Instinct, the startup now valued at $10 billion, as examples of how AI is finding its footing with everyday users. As for home AI? He predicts that we’ll have personal AI assistants that run locally. “Just like your cell phone, they’ll do some work on device and some work going back to the cloud,” Feldman explained. “But I think they will get to know you very well, and you will have a security perimeter around them. And they will certainly have access to credit cards and be able to buy things for you,” he continued. “I think they will make a meaningful impact in making our lives better.” Of course, for an AI chipmaker, the vision of a home AI appliance, or at least widespread consumer adoption of agentic technology, is certainly appealing. But Feldman isn’t just working on the hardware infrastructure; he’s a personal AI user himself, saying that he now uses “a collection of agents” to sweep his calendar, pull up information about the people he’s going to have a call with, and more. While AI is already doing many of the things we used to do manually, Feldman is most excited about the new possibilities — things that weren’t possible before. He’s leaving it up to other founders to figure out what those might be, though. “One of the reasons I love being in infrastructure is because I don’t need the consumer-facing idea … I like building the platforms that other people’s ideas take flight on,” he said.

21 days ago

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Science Corporation implants its vision-restoring chip in its first Stargardt disease patient

Science CorporationCEO Max Hodak announced that the company has implanted itsvision-restoring chip, PRIMA, into its first patient with Stargardt disease, an inherited eye disease that gradually destroys central vision. Hodak, the former president and co-founder of Neuralink, the brain implant company, explained on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt how the company’s work with PRIMA fits into its broader pursuit of a novel brain-computer interface (BCI). “The retina is part of the central nervous system,” Hodak said on stage. “We consider cochlear implants, retinal prostheses, motor prostheses, these are all different types of BCIs.” Hodak outlined a vision in which BCIs expand into a wide range of medical technology applications, rather than simply being a way to control computers. While PRIMA is commercially available in Europe for patients who’ve lost their sight to geographic atrophy, an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration, the company believes its approach can be applied to multiple diseases, including Stargardt disease, which is currently considered incurable. Stargardt disease affects the outer retina, causing the gradual death of the eye’s light-sensing cells while potentially sparing the inner retina, the part that passes visual signals onto the brain. It causes a central blind spot that gradually enlarges over time. Approximately 150,000 people worldwide have lost vision due to the disease. “One of the nice things about this device approach, when I was saying the brain’s a computer, vision is electrical potential, like electrical activity down the optic nerve,” Hodak said. “That’s all vision is to the brain, and so if you can get the optic nerve to signal the the rest of the brain correctly, then you can provide vision to it.” The company says its first patient with Stargardt disease received the PRIMA implant in May as part of its ongoing trial at the Sydney Eye Hospital in Australia. During the patient’s first rehabilitation session, he saw a letter, and during the second, he was able to read a word. To use the device, patients undergo an hour-long procedure that plants a small chip in the back of their eye, where the photoreceptors have degenerated. Then they wear camera-equipped glasses that transmit a view of the world to the chip. The implant essentially works like artificial photoreceptors. “The device that this patient has is a two millimeter by two millimeter implant placed under the in the back of the eye, and so it’s like looking through a straw,” Hodak said. “It is not a big field of view color vision. It’s a patch in their central vision where . . .it’s black and white, but it is sharp. It’s high-contrast sharp, and so they can see a couple letters at a time. The next step is to make the field of view bigger. So to make a bigger implant, you have to deal with the curvature of the eye, and we need to make the electrodes smaller so that we get closer to native levels of detail.” He continued, “I think we have a clear path. There’s a there’s a next ‘next generation’ that’s being worked on that’ll be in humans in the next year, and over the next five years, I think we’ll be able to get pretty close to native acuity.” When Hodak founded Science Corporation in 2021 after leaving Neuralink, the company outlined plans to develop advanced neural engineering and brain-computer interface technology. But first, the company wants to prove its methods work and develop a sustainable business, which is why it’s working to restore vision with the visually impaired. As for Science Corporation’s brain-computer interface technology, it haspreviously saidthat its sensor will be implanted inside the skull and rest on top of the brain, unlike a Neuralink device, which is inserted directly into brain tissue. The company has said it believes the device could help address neurological conditions, such as possibly monitoring neurological activity in patients with brain tumors. “In the near term, we’re going to be applying our first clinical indication, which hasn’t been announced publicly, is a neurodegenerative disease that everybody’s heard of,” Hodak said. “We’re also looking at stroke. For example, if you’ve lost part of your brain because it’s been dead due to stroke, if you can get connections into the deep brain in two different areas, you can imagine adding new cortical areas, just like adding new brain areas entirely — something simply not possible with conventional electrodes. But, I’d say longer term, the long-term mission of the company is to understand how the brain creates the mind and to learn to build engineered brains.” Hodak went on to note that Science Corporation’s belief is that many people will eventually use some kind of BCI. While the company isn’t designing for “healthy 40-year-olds,” he said, it believes people will eventually need some kind of BCI by the age of 60 or 70. “We want to figure out how do we extend not just lifespan but health span,” Hodak said.

Facebook is giving users more control over their algorithm

Facebook is the latest social media platform to give usersgreater control over the algorithmthat determines what appears in their feeds. Metaannouncedthe launch of its new AI-powered feature, “Your Algorithm,” on Tuesday, a feature it first launched on Instagram. The new tool allows Facebook users to influence the content they see in Feed and Reels by describing their preferences in their own words using natural language. Rather than relying entirely on automated recommendations, users can now communicate directly with the platform about the topics and content they want to see more or less frequently. According to Meta, the feature is designed to make content recommendations more relevant. Users can adjust their preferences and interact with the algorithms responsible for ranking and recommending posts, with changes reflected in their recommendations in real time. The company has also updated Facebook’s three-dot menu, making it easier for users to manage their content preferences directly from individual posts. By opening the menu, users can access “Your Algorithm” or select the “Interested” and “Not interested” options to indicate whether particular content aligns with their preferences. Meta says the platform may ask follow-up questions to better understand what users liked or disliked, allowing them to provide more detailed feedback. Users can explain what they want to see more or less of, helping Facebook refine its recommendations based on their responses. The introduction of “Your Algorithm” reflects Meta’s broader effort to give people more influence over their social media experiences as AI increasingly shapes content discovery. The move signals a shift away from the traditional recommendation systems that have shaped social media experiences for years, bringing the platform closer to streaming services that allow users to personalize recommendations based on their interests and preferences. The launch also builds on Meta’s existing personalization efforts across its other platforms.Instagramintroduced Your Algorithm in June, extending customization options across Feed and Explore after first launching the feature for Reels in December 2025. Threadsalso introduced its own related feature, called “Dear Algo,” which allows users to influence the content recommended to them.

22 days ago

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Flox Intelligence is building AI to keep wildlife away from trains, airports, and roads

When I was eight, I remember our train to Mumbai ground to a halt with a great noise. When we started moving again, a good eight hours later, someone pointed out a mangled tail, of all things, hanging from a branch close to the tracks. The train, you see, had apparently hit a wild bison at full speed, and the impact damaged the engine so badly that it had to be towed away for repairs. For a long time, I thought such things only happened in places like rural India, but I learned a few years ago that wildlife and infrastructure do not mix anywhere on the planet. The FAAestimatesthat wildlife strikes have cost U.S. civil aviation about $272 million a year on average between 1990 and 2025. In France, the rail operator SNCFsayswandering animals affect more than 8,000 trains across the country each year and are among its five leading causes of delays. In Brittany, 120 trains hit animals in 2023 alone, disrupting 660 services and causing more than 15,000 minutes of delays. Reading about all that damage, to both infrastructure and animals, inspired Sara Nozkova (pictured above on the left) to develop a wildlife-deterrent system that works differently from the sirens, lights, fences, falcons, and culling traditionally used to keep animals away from roads, train tracks, airports, and other infrastructure. “I was convinced the answer was not a louder deterrent,” she told TechCrunch. After spending 13 years working in transportation and autonomous vehicles, Nozkova had learned how quickly the systems we build to navigate roads and other controlled environments fail once nature enters the equation. “We have taught machines to be brilliant, but only inside the environments we engineered for them,” she said. “Cities, factory lines, warehouses. Fixed geometry, known objects. Stepping outside into nature, I saw firsthand how the same machines quickly go blind. Because nature is complex and always alive.” So instead she joined the AI lab at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and started working on a system that could change its deterrent responses based on what an animal nearby is doing, and even what kind of animal it is. That work turned intoFlox Intelligence, which spun out of KTH in 2020 and is one of the finalists at this year’s Startup Battlefield 200 pitch competition atTechCrunch Disrupt, taking place this year at Moscone West in San Francisco October 13-15. Flox makes edge devices that process data on-site rather than in the cloud. Like autonomous vehicles, they use perception systems to sense their surroundings, but theirs are trained on wildlife behavior. A motion sensor wakes the device when it detects movement, triggering a camera that uses on-device models to identify nearby animals. The device then emits a species-appropriate sound to scare them away. Nozkova says the system learns from experience, too, and varies its responses so animals don’t get habituated to repeated signals. The company currently sells battery-operated devices that can be mounted on poles, trees, and other structures. It also offers a software platform that shows clients where the devices are deployed and what’s happening on the ground. The platform can also generate reports for regulatory compliance and for uses like biodiversity monitoring. The longer-term goal is to make the software portable enough to run on machines that work outside, including trains, cars, and drones. Nozkova says about 150 Flox devices are live in North America, Europe, and Australia at airfields and airport perimeters, road and rail corridors (especially fence ends and crossings along wildlife corridors), national parks, agricultural land, urban areas, mining sites, and critical infrastructure such as electrical substations. The company sells edge units up front, then charges an annual software and AI subscription after the first year. Flox also has OEM partnerships with companies that pay an annual fee to deploy its software on vehicles, like trains. Train manufacturer Alstom is one such partner. The company expects to end 2026 with revenue of about $1.5 million, Nozkova said. As unique as Flox’s product and approach are, the startup is not without competition. Robin Radar’sScarecrowalso uses species-specific distress calls to disperse birds and it records the activity, whileiCHASEsells a system that detects birds with computer vision and targets them with a moving laser, adjusting its response as needed. Nozkova says her moat is the breadth of the system and the data Flox has collected in the field, which she calls “ground truth on what actually makes a moose or a grizzly bear move safely.” “Physical AI is walking out of the factory and into the messy, alive outdoors,” Nozkova says. “Every machine that operates outside — trains, trucks, drones, tractors, robots — will need to understand nature, and nature intelligence is the next layer of the perception stack. Almost nobody is building it.” The company has raised about $5 million across pre-seed and seed rounds so far, with the seed round led by Unconventional Ventures and Tilia Impact Ventures. Co-investors across the rounds include GENIUS NY, Norrsken, Satgana, and angel investors, Nozkova said. The company is now opening a $10 million Series A, which would mostly go toward growing from about 150 devices to several thousand deployed units and extending the underlying system beyond its current wildlife use cases.

Judge orders OpenAI to turn over hiring records in Apple trade secrets case

A judge has ruled that Apple will gain expedited access to OpenAI’s hiring materials in the trade secrets-focusedlawsuit the iPhone maker filedagainst OpenAI in July. Specifically, the court will allow Apple to view documents associated with OpenAI’s interviews with former Apple employees who applied for roles within its consumer hardware and robotics groups ahead of the rumored launch of OpenAI’s first hardware device. These documents could include interview checklists, guides, instructions, manuals, and scripts, as well as technical presentations and records showing that interview discussions had included references to Apple technology or components. The court gave OpenAI five days to turn over materials it has already collected and 14 days for any other materials related to this request, agreeing with Apple that these documents should be expedited. The case comes as OpenAI develops a consumer hardware device that could one day potentially rival the iPhone — or smartphones more generally — if the AI device becomes a central part of consumers’ lives and how they engage with software and services. In its lawsuit, AppleaccusedOpenAI of a pattern of theft, which includes direct complaints about former employees using Apple laptops to download confidential material and files that contained information about unannounced technologies, features, and products, including technical specifications, engineering presentations, and proprietary project data. Apple also said that former Apple employees at OpenAI coached others considering leaving Apple for OpenAI on what information to bring to their interviews, among other allegations. U.S. District Judge Edward Davila didn’t greenlight all of Apple’s requests for expedited access to OpenAI documents and messages relevant to the case. Buthe did rulethat Apple could access the interview materials, alongside private LINE messages (from a messaging app) between individuals named in the case, including OpenAI employees Chang Liu and Alyssa Peng. The judge also approved depositions for Liu and Peng, along with a third individual, OpenAI’s chief hardware officer, Tang Yew Tan. All three are former Apple employees. However, the judge denied Apple’s request to expedite its access to OpenAI’s research and development in specific areas, like metal finishes and power management. He also denied several of Apple’s broader discovery requests, like access to OpenAI’s hardware research or information about what its former employees created while working at OpenAI. That denial isn’t final, though; the judge left the door open for Apple to narrow its requests and try again.

Google Gemini 4 Argon Launched Globally for Developers and Enterprises

Google announced the rollout of Gemini 4 Argon to developers and enterprises globally on Tuesday. The latest artificial intelligence (AI) model is designed to handle coding, research, writing and other complex tasks across domains. Google claims that Gemini 4 Argon outperforms other frontier AI models on benchmarks. It secured the top spot on Vals Index, which evaluates model performance across economically significant sectors. The new AI model is made available through the Gemini application programming interface (API). Google AI subscribers can also access it.

22 days ago

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Google Gemini 4 Argon Launched Globally for Developers and Enterprises

22 days ago

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SpaceXSI bundles X Premium, Grok, and Cursor into one subscription

In a bid to attract more subscribers, the company now known as SpaceX Super Intelligence isbundlingall its subscriptions, including X Premium, Grok, and Cursor, into oneplancalled simply “The X Subscription.” The idea is that the combined offering could potentially attract more subscribers than any single subscription, given the competitive paid AI subscription market, where SpaceXSI faces rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic, and others. With The X Subscription, users can gain access to Grok for AI-powered chat, with support for voice, images, video, and the API. Grok’s agentic AI Bot is also available, as is Cursor for AI coding and the paid features that come with an X Premium subscription, like the blue verified checkmark, creator tools, and fewer ads. There are five plans available on the new subscription: free, Plus ($8/month), Premium ($30/month), Super ($100/month), and Ultra ($200/month), with AI usage caps increasing as you move up through the tiers. The free plan will only offer limited chat and agent usage, and Premium or higher is required to access the latest Grok models. There’s another draw for existing X Premium+ subscribers: The comparable plan on the new X subscription costs the same or less, the company noted. Existing users can either switch from their subscription settings on X to upgrade to the new bundle, or maintain their current plan. The option to upgrade will roll out gradually, so interested customers will need to keep an eye on their billing settings for the offer to upgrade.

22 days ago

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TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: Day 1

Day 1 ofTechCrunch Disrupt 2026is officially underway, bringing together 10,000+ startup founders, investors, and tech leaders under one roof at San Francisco’s Moscone West. Big ideas are colliding, connections are forming at every turn, and the startup ecosystem’s most influential voices are driving the conversation. FromStartup Battlefieldto six new industry stages focused on scaling, AI, fintech, climate tech, and more, Disrupt is packed with game-changing perspectives and opportunities. The next partnership, investment, or breakout company could emerge from any meeting, session, or coffee line conversation.Meet the 250+ speakersshaping the discussion. Grab your ticket nowso you don’t miss a moment at Disrupt. There’s still a little time to grab your pass and be at this annual startup event. Registration hours:7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Stop by the registration desk in the Level 1 lobby of Moscone West to register in person or pick up your scannable event badge. The badge features Klik technology, which makes it easy to exchange contact information with people you scan your badge with. Using the event app, you can access and keep those contacts even after the event ends. Explore 300+ exhibiting startups showcasing cutting-edge technologies across industries. This is the center of Disrupt, where 10,000+ attendees converge to discover new breakthroughs and spark new connections. Haven’t registered yet? You still can — but don’t wait, or you will miss out.Grab your ticket nowand walk straight into the action: six industry stages, interactive roundtables, Q&A breakouts, hundreds of exhibiting startups, investor-founder meetings, AI-powered matchmaking networking, and Side Events lighting up the Bay Area tech scene all week long. Make your way to the Pitch Showcase Stage at the back of the Expo Hall to experience one of the most electrifying formats on the conference floor: rapid-fire, one-minute lightning pitches from some of the most promising startups representing their home countries and regions. The Startup Battlefield 200 Built World category showcases the most innovative early-stage startups tackling major challenges in real estate, construction, architecture, smart cities, and infrastructure. Discover the technologies transforming the physical spaces where we live, work, and play. Stop by to catch their lightning pitches and meet the bold entrepreneurs building what’s next. The spotlight also shines on Startup Battlefield, TechCrunch’s renowned “World Series of pitch competitions.” After vetting thousands of applicants, TechCrunch selected the top 20 early-stage startups to pitch in front of some of the world’s most seasoned VCs. They’ll compete for a $100,000 equity-free prize and the coveted Disrupt Cup. The Startup Battlefield 200 Sustainability category highlights the most groundbreaking early-stage companies tackling the world’s most urgent environmental and climate challenges, from renewable energy and carbon capture to circular economy platforms, sustainable agriculture, clean water solutions, and beyond. These are the founders turning bold climate commitments into real-world technology, building businesses that prove profitability and planetary impact are not mutually exclusive — and they’re making their case in just two minutes. Stop by, catch their lightning pitches, and meet the startups that are determined to leave the world better than they found it. From physical AI and the future of intelligent systems to fundraising, hiring, and scaling breakout companies, today’s speakers are tackling the opportunities and challenges shaping the next generation of startups. Here’s a look at what’s happening across the stages today.Check out the full agenda, which includes 200+ sessions. The Startup Battlefield — Space and Physical AI:Judges include Anu Bharadwaj (Iconiq), Sara Deshpande (Maven Ventures), Benjamin Narasin (Tenacity Venture Capital), Aatish Nayak (Kleiner Perkins), Michael Palank (MaC Venture Capital). Building the Impossible:RJ Scaringe (Rivian). The Startup Battlefield — Energy and Manufacturing:Caleb Appleton (Bison Ventures), Feyza Haskaraman (Felicis), Sho Sho Leigha Ho (General Catalyst), Leah Solivan (Precedent.vc). Can AI Keep Scaling?:Andrew Feldman (Cerebras Systems). Beyond Screens:Max Hodak (Science Corporation). Equity Live: The Startup Stories Shaping 2026:TechCrunch’s Equity podcast takes the Builders Stage for a live recording from Disrupt. Join the Equity team as they break down the biggest startup, venture, and technology stories of the moment and what they mean for founders and investors heading into 2027. What Happens When OpenAI Ships Your Roadmap:Rob Toews (Radical Ventures), Linda Tong (Webflow), Michel Tricot (Airbyte). The Rise of Agentic AI: Lessons for Hardware Founders:Ziad Asghar (Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.), Florence Ion (PCMag). Competing for AI Talent: Pay, Equity, and Retention:Matt Birnbaum (Wylder.co), Ioana Hreninciuc (Runware), Atli Thorkelsson (Redpoint Ventures). The Builder’s Playbook: What Founders Need to Win the Agentic Era:Stephan Bitton (Google Cloud). PMF Red Flags: How to Tell If You Really Have It:Anu Bharadwaj (Iconiq), Rajeev Dham (Sapphire Ventures), Rahul Vohra (Superhuman). From MVP to Billions of Users: How Product Decisions Must Change at Scale:Robby Stein (Google). When Machines Clock In (Hosted by NYSE Wired):Brian Baumann (New York Stock Exchange), Dr. Adam Campbell (Gatik), Samir Menon (Dexterity AI), Sankaet Pathak (Foundation Future Industries, Inc.). Hiring When AI Is a Co-founder:Michelle Johnson (Insight Partners), John Koelliker (Leland), Josh Reeves (Gusto). The Future of Money Movement in the Agentic Economy:Nikhil Chandhok (Circle), Rodney Robinson (TabaPay, Inc.), Carlotta (Lotti) Siniscalco (Emergence Capital). AI, Trust & Verification in Financial Services:Hannah Bozian (American Express), Pedro Sanzovo (Plaid), Victoria Zuo (QED Investors). Winning the Modern Financial Consumer:Abhishek Fatehpuria (Robinhood). Where the AI Infrastructure Boom Is Creating Winners:Ben Longmier (Ambrosia Energy), Bill Thayer (Bloom Energy). When the Energy Gets Smart: What Vertical AI Actually Delivers at Scale:Deepak Garg (SEW.AI), Paul Lau (SMUD). How Twilio’s Founder Is Tackling the Power Problem:Jeff Lawson (Twilio). Bringing Fusion to the Grid:David Kirtley (Helion), Brandon Sorbom (Commonwealth Fusion Systems). Rewiring the Grid for the Electric Age:Apoorv Bhargava (Weave Grid, Inc.), Kristin Eberhard (Rewiring America), Tim Heidel (VEIR). Located at the end of the Expo Hall, breakout sessions include a panel of experts on the presented topic, with room at the end for attendees to ask direct questions. See the full three-day lineup in theDisrupt agenda. What Is Physical AI, Anyway?:Susan Schofer (SOSV HAX), Parikshit Sharma (SOSV SF), Duncan Turner (SOSV HAX), Pae Wu (SOSV SF). The New Job of the Data Team Is Providing Context to AI:George Fraser (Fivetran + dbt Labs). The Quantum Revolution: What Investors and Builders Need to Know:Andrew Dzurak (Diraq). Taiwan Powering the Next AI Revolution: Connect, Invest & Scale:Michelle Chan (Phison Electronics USA), BoGaun Chen (ITRI International), Erica Lin (ITRI International), Mingche Wang (ITRI International). How to Build AI We Can Trust:Robbie Goldfarb (Forum AI). The Inference Economy: Why AI’s Next Trillion Dollars Won’t Look Like Its First:Hagay Lupesko (Cerebras Systems), Ali Mahmoud (Glasswing Ventures). These small-group sessions give founders and investors the chance to tackle real-world challenges up close. Remember: Pre-registration on the event app is required for entry.Visit the Disrupt agendato see all the roundtable sessions for the next three days. Arm Wrestling Your Data: The Physical AI Challenge:Radha Basu (iMerit). Can AI Take You Public? The New Playbook for IPO-Ready Finance:Eléonore Crespo (Pigment), Sofia Fatakhova (Chime). AI’s Next Frontier: Modernizing Legacy Industries:Rob Biederman (Asymmetric Capital Partners). Atoms vs. Bits: Physical AI for the Physical World:Jackson Feder (MetaProp). Beyond Inventory: The Commerce AI Playbook for the Intent Era:Srishti Chaudhary (Walmart eCommerce). Healthcare Took 40 Years to Adopt EHRs, Then Adopted Generative AI in Three. What Comes Next?:Brian Butler (Questa Capital). From Pilot to Production at Scale: Provable, Trusted Agentic AI for the Enterprise:Dr. Maha Achour (Kodamai), Pankaj Kedia (2468 Ventures), Yasser Shaaban (Humain). Specialty Post-Training Data: Powering the Next Wave of AI:Dani London (Base10 Partners). The Science of Powerful Introductions: How to Be Remembered in an AI World:Cal Amir (Introduction Lab). Beyond the Demo: Building Physical AI That Actually Works:Logan Farrell (Rugged Robotics), Austin Yount (Brick & Mortar Ventures). Labs or Factory Floors: Who Will Win Physical AI?:Matt Burns (Insight Media Group), Roman Hölzl (RobCo). Beyond the Term Sheet: How to Architect a Great Fundraise:Weston Moyer (MVP Ventures). Brutal Truth: 12 Critical Mistakes That Nearly Derailed My CISO Career:Stephen Ward (Brightmind Partners). Networking Lounge powered by Signify Business Cash World Elite Mastercard® by Wells Fargo:Open 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Find your next co-founder, investor, or mentor through meetings you schedule via the event app or spontaneous meetups. Deal Flow Café:Opens at 9:00 a.m. Exclusive to founders and investors, providing a quiet space to make deals over coffee. Company-hostedSide Eventsare happening throughout San Francisco this week, extending the Disrupt energy well beyond Moscone West. Here are a few events happening tonight — panels, parties, and meetups designed to connect founders, investors, and innovators across every corner of tech. Make sure to RSVP for your spot at any of these. Explore thefull lineup of Side Eventsand fill your schedule with more time for connections and insights. The Irish Shark Tank: Hosted by Enterprise Ireland SafetyWing Happy Hour at Harrington’s: Hosted by SafetyWing Born2Global Founder Networking Night: Hosted by WayFounder There’s still some time left to register for your pass and explore all these activations.Get your ticket now. There’s still so much more to experience at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 — including more Startup Battlefield pitches, game-changing sessions, and unforgettable connections. Tickets are available through the final day. Secure yours now and be part of the future of tech. Do not wait.

Satlyt, founded by a former Google and SpaceX product manager, raises $8M to run AI on satellites

The way Rama Afullo tells it, he saw orbital data centers coming. The Kenyan American engineer previously worked in Google’s cloud computing business before a brief stint at SpaceX’s Starlink communications network in 2024. His experiences convinced him that there was untapped potential for computers in space. “When I was at SpaceX, I tried to pitch this internally. They said no. When I was at Google, I tried to pitch this internally. They said no,” he tells TechCrunch. So he left SpaceX and co-foundedSatlyt, a new company with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, and Nairobi, to build software for satellites that he hopes will let many satellites share the work of large computing jobs in space. The company has raised an $8 million seed round, Afullo exclusively told TechCrunch. The timing looks good for him. SpaceX has since gone all-in on orbital data centers, and Satlyt’s software is set to launch Thursday on a SpaceX rocket alongside the first prototype for Google’s space data center effort, Project Suncatcher. Unlike SpaceX, Google, or startups like Starcloud and Cowboy Space Company, Satlyt isn’t planning to build its own spacecraft. Afullo’s team is building the software to operate AI models on satellites, comparing his approach to VMware and Snowflake — companies whose platforms let users run complex software without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. “The folks like SpaceX who are doing orbital data centers — if they are the iPhone, we’ll build Android as a horizontally integrated, open ecosystem,” he said. In other words, Satlyt wants to offer software that works across many companies’ satellites. Satlyt has already flown its software on two demonstration missions. The initial focus is finding operational efficiencies for spacecraft, which typically depend on flight controllers on the ground to solve any problems that arise. Sending data back to Earth, known as downlink, is expensive and often slow, so using AI to make decisions on the spacecraft can mean real savings, either when resolving anomalies or by processing sensor readings on the spacecraft instead of on the ground. Earlier this year, SatlytdeployedGoogle DeepMind’s Gemma AI model onboard a spacecraft operated by Momentus. The model cut the size of a transmission about onboard software errors by more than 60%, the kind of efficiency that Afullo says can save hundreds of thousands of dollars per satellite each year. This week’s launch will put Satlyt’s software to work onboard a spacecraft built by TakeMe2Space, an Indian startup that builds computing hardware for satellites. The mission involves three customers: NASA, which is paying the company to test protocols for cloud computing in space; Stellerian, a startup focused on space surveillance (tracking objects in orbit) that wants to test image processing workloads; and TakeMe2Space itself, to show the satellite can host other companies’ software. Right now, few high-powered GPUs are in orbit. For now, the most likely opportunity lies in the kinds of workloads Satlyt is working on. But the company’s next project is to show that it can create a shared computing system — a cloud — spanning two different satellites, which it expects to attempt next year. If successful, it will allow the company to build a true compute cloud in orbit as a third-party provider to spacecraft builders. The way to think about it is that we turn your satellite into a revenue-generating managed service,” Afullo said. Satlyt’s seed round was led by Houston-based Non Sibi Ventures, where partner Bernard Harris, who served as a NASA astronaut for more than 20 years, helped ground the firm’s conviction in a novel, space-based business. One reason the firm invested was that Satlyt doesn’t depend on a highest-octane vision of space data centers, which faces uncertain economics and a launch bottleneck. “We don’t need data centers in space for Rama to be wildly successful, right?” Non Sibi partner Kent Lucas told TechCrunch. “It can just be driven by the number of satellites going up.” Afullo’s hope is to be live on 20% of satellites by the end of the decade, when he expects virtually every spacecraft builder to be putting GPUs and similar advanced processors in their satellites. “If you’re putting up a satellite without putting up a GPU on it, at the very least, you’re doing yourself a disservice, right?” he says. Satlyt is among dozens of other startups vetted by TechCrunch and appearing at Disrupt as part of our broader Battlefield competition happening this week in downtown San Francisco. It all kicks off on Tuesday.Learn more here.

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TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: Day 1

Satlyt, founded by a former Google and SpaceX product manager, raises $8M to run AI on satellites