OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger has joined OpenAI to lead next-generation personal agents, marking a major step in the companyβs push toward autonomous AI systems. Sam Altman announced Sunday that Steinberger is coming aboard OpenAI to drive what he described as [β¦]
In December 2025, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory released a sobering estimate. Using a digital twin simulation of the U.S. workforce β modeling millions of workers across hundreds of occupations and tens [β¦]
As much of Silicon Valley chases mega-rounds and buzzy AI deals, Stacy Brown-Philpot is running Cherryrock Capital like a throwback to venture capital's earlier days
ByteDance is edging closer to a landmark deal that could redraw its gaming ambitions. The TikTok owner is in advanced talks to sell Shanghai Moonton Technology, the studio behind the hit mobile title Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, to Saudi Arabiaβs [β¦]
Waymoβs robotaxis drive without a human behind the wheel. They scan intersections, predict traffic, and ferry passengers across city streets independently. Then something very human happens. A rider steps out and forgets to shut the door. The car stays put. [β¦]
Itβs Thursday, February 12, 2026, and weβre back with todayβs top startup and tech funding news. Todayβs deals reflect surging investor demand for enterprise-grade AI, foundational security infrastructure, and intelligent automation across physical and digital systems. As AI scales from [β¦]
AI companies have been hemorrhagingΒ talentΒ the past few weeks. Half ofΒ xAIβsΒ founding teamΒ has left the company β some on their own, others through βrestructuringβ β while OpenAI is facing its own shakeups, from theΒ disbanding of itsΒ mission alignment teamΒ to the firing of a policy exec who opposed its βadult modeβ feature.Β Watch as TechCrunchβsΒ EquityΒ podcast hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony [β¦]
Two years ago, a controversial dating app was launched and quickly shuttered: for people with good-to-excellent credit. Now, the founder is relaunching it, open to anyone.
Helion's Polaris device hit 150 million degrees C recently, a milestone that nudges the company toward its commercial power plant that will sell electricity to Microsoft.
Anthropic has pulled off one of the largest funding rounds in startup history, raising $30 billion in a Series G that pushes its valuation to $380 billion. The deal comes just weeks after another massive raise, showing how quickly investor [β¦]
Crypto has no shortage of information. What it increasingly lacks is separation. A recent independent analysis conducted by Chainstory of nearly 3,000 crypto press releases highlights a structural issue that many readers, founders, and journalists have sensed for years but [β¦]
Nowhere is change more visible than in how business owners choose where to build their companies. Cross-regional, sometimes cross-continental, moves for private purposes or to gain better market access are on the rise. Cities once thought central for startup life [β¦]
On April 8, 2016, SpaceX became the first company in the world to land and recover an orbital-class rocket booster at sea, touching down a Falcon 9 first stage on an autonomous drone ship after a mission to the International [β¦]
OpenClaw didnβt ease its way into public view. It erupted.Β The project launched on January 25 as Claudebot. Two days later, an Anthropic trademark notice landed. Within hours, the name changed to Moltbot. Another rebrand followed days later, this time to [β¦]
For years, wine and liquor retailers have operated in a corner of retail that most software companies quietly ignored. Regulations change by city block. Inventory behaves differently from standard consumer goods. A single bottle can belong to multiple pricing tiers [β¦]
Poland-based B2B startup Demoboost is betting that product demos can do far more than help close a deal. The Warsaw-based company has raised β¬2.8 million to turn demos into a source of revenue intelligence, at a moment when B2B sales [β¦]
Hardtech startups are building the physical backbone of the modern economy. From energy systems and transport networks to data centers and industrial hardware, these companies need real assets long before they reach traditional scale. The problem is how those assets [β¦]
SoftBank made its boldest bet yet.Β The Japanese investment giant reported a $2.4 billion gain at its Vision Fund in the December quarter, driven by a sharp jump in the value of its stake in OpenAI, CNBC reports. The result marked [β¦]
Itβs Wednesday, February 11, 2026, and weβre back with todayβs top startup and tech funding news. Investors are deploying major capital into advanced robotics, industrial automation, AI infrastructure, and defense-grade software. From fusion-powered energy systems to real-time enterprise resilience, todayβs [β¦]
Didero functions as an agentic AI layer that sits on top of a companyβs existing ERP, acting as a coordinator that reads incoming communications and automatically executes the necessary updates and tasks.
Elon Musk moved quickly this week to reset xAIβs leadership, tightening control of the artificial intelligence startup just days after folding it into SpaceX and tying its future to one of the most ambitious IPO plans in tech history. The [β¦]
A model that says β0.90 confidentβ is making a promise. It is not saying βI feel sure.β It is saying, βIn situations like this, I will be right about 90% of the time.β Many teams treat that number like a [β¦]
If 2025 was the year AI proved it could work, early 2026 is the moment investors decided it must scale. Over the past several weeks, venture capital activity has shifted decisively away from lightweight experimentation and toward execution at industrial [β¦]
Enterprise AI is shifting fast from chatbots that answer questions to systems that actually do the work across an organization. But who will own the AI layer that powers all of it?Β Glean, which started as an enterprise search product, has evolved into what it calls an βAI work assistant,β aiming toΒ sit underneath other AI [β¦]
Nominations for the 2026 Joseph C. Belden Innovation Award are open, inviting SMBs with groundbreaking innovation a chance to win scaling opportunities. Last day to apply is February 13.
UpScrolled, a social network that surged in the wake of the U.S. TikTok deal, has seen an uptick in harmful content, including usernames and hashtags that contain racial slurs.
Get an unmatched ROI by exhibiting your startup in front of 10,000 tech leaders and investors at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, October 13-15 in San Francisco. Book your table now before it's gone.
The startup claims that it has developed a "hack-proof" chip that can't be bypassed by devices like Flipper Zero, a widely available hacking tool that can be used to tamper with wireless systems. These chips are linked with digital certificates to verify the authenticity of the products.
Vega Security raised $120 million, bringing its valuation to $700 million, in a round led by Accel. The company aims to rethink how enterprises detect cybersecurity threats.
Founded by former Google Japan leaders, InfiniMind is building enterprise AI to turn vast, unused video archives into searchable, actionable business intelligence.
The deal will see Uber paying $335 million at the outset to purchase Getir's food delivery business. Uber will also pay $100 million for a 15% stake in Getir's grocery, retail, and water delivery business.
Calling Pre-Series A founders: nominations for TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 are open. Compete in the worldβs most iconic pitch competition at Disrupt 2026 from October 13 - 15.
Gather AI has closed funding from former Salesforce CEO's firm Smith Point Capital. Its warehouse AI system doesn't just scan. It seeks out specific data.
Elon MuskΒ hasΒ mergedΒ SpaceX and xAI,Β creatingΒ what might be the blueprint for a new Silicon Valley power structure. With hisΒ $800 billionΒ net worth already rivaling historic conglomerate GEβs peak market cap,Β and Musk being vocal about his view that βtech victory is decided by velocity of innovation,β the questionΒ isnβtΒ whether aΒ personal conglomerateΒ can be built, but rather how far Musk himself is [β¦]
Todayβs issue dives into Level3AIβs unique approach to building customer support agents for enterprises and the shift in Vietnamβs IPO expectations.
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