The founder’s secret weapon: Work at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 and learn how the pros do it 

Volunteer at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 and get an insider’s view of how world-class tech events get built and more.

Etched’s valuation doubles to $21B in a month

Jane Street has installed Etched’s first shipped AI cluster system, and was so impressed, it led another massive round, the startup says.

Anthro Energy breaks ground on factory that could pave the road to solid-state batteries

Battery materials startup Anthro Energy has broken ground on a Louisville factory to make electrolytes, including those for solid-state batteries.

Perplexity’s free AI offer left it with millions more users in India

Perplexity’s India revenue rose about 60% after the Airtel offer ended for new users, even as downloads declined.

Daniel Ek’s body-scanning startup Neko Health opens first US office, in New York

The scanning and bloodwork health startup founded by Spotify’s founder will officially launch in New York in about a month.

Save up to $300 on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 pass until August 21 

If you’ve been circling around Disrupt, then now’s the best time to lock in your pass and start getting ready to join the rest of the startup community gathering in San Francisco from October 13-15 at Moscone West!  

Higgsfield raises $400M Series B, quadrupling its valuation in 8 months to $5.4B

Higgsfield, founded by former Snap exec Alex Mashrabov, lets users create AI images and videos.

Sound-powered fire protection startup gets $15M to snuff out fires before they turn catastrophic

Sonic Fire Tech raised its new funding to help get its sound-powered fire protection system into everything from commercial kitchens to apartment buildings.

Kog is going deeper to squeeze more inference out of GPUs

The idea that GPUs are poorly suited for agentic workflows may be a misconception, according to French startup Kog.

Meta’s ‘open’ AI, and a $250M deal gone very wrong 

Meta released Glimmer this week, an open-weight AI model anyone can download and run on their own hardware — a contrast to Muse Spark, the company’s more powerful model that stays locked behind its own APIs. The release landed alongside a letter from Mark Zuckerberg arguing AI should be “for everyone” rather than controlled by a handful of labs, but as Equity’s… Continua a leggere Meta’s ‘open’ AI, and a $250M deal gone very wrong