Second day of TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 at San Francisco's Moscone West. Here's the rundown on what to expect, including the 50% discount on passes for remainder of the event.

Mbodi users prompt the software with natural language, and its cluster of AI agents works to make training easier.

Amazon is preparing for one of its biggest corporate shake-ups in years. The tech giant is planning to cut as many as 30,000 corporate jobs starting Tuesday, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke with Reuters. The […]

The post Amazon to lay off 30,000 corporate employees in largest job cut since 2022, reports first appeared on Tech Startups.

Amazon is betting big on automation. Internal documents reviewed by The New York Times reveal plans to automate 75% of its warehouse operations using advanced robotics — a move that could eliminate the need for more than 600,000 new hires […]

The post Amazon plans to replace 600,000 jobs with robots and AI first appeared on Tech Startups.

Nvidia is quietly gearing up for a new frontier—autonomous mobility. According to a report from Chinese publication 36Kr, the chipmaker is developing an internal robotaxi project that could put it in direct competition with Tesla and Waymo. The plan, shared in […]

The post Nvidia is reportedly building a $3B robotaxi fleet to challenge Tesla and Waymo first appeared on Tech Startups.

The post Tesla’s AI Ambition: Beyond the Car, a New Industrial Revolution appeared first on StartupHub.ai.

“The technology of AI is truly transformative,” declared Robyn Denholm, Tesla’s Board Chair, during a recent interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box. This assertion, delivered with conviction, encapsulates the core message emanating from Tesla, suggesting a future far grander than merely building electric vehicles. Denholm, speaking with Andrew Ross Sorkin and Becky Quick, outlined Tesla’s expansive […]

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The post NVIDIA Boosts Physical AI Robotics Open Standards appeared first on StartupHub.ai.

NVIDIA is accelerating physical AI robotics development by contributing GPU-aware abstractions to ROS 2 and releasing new tools, strengthening open standards.

The post NVIDIA Boosts Physical AI Robotics Open Standards appeared first on StartupHub.ai.

About a week ago, I woke to a dizzying DM on Instagram — Rizzbot flipping me off. This sent me down a rabbit hole about humanoids in society.

SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon showed off its latest robotics and AI systems this week, presenting a vision of automation that it says will make warehouse and delivery work safer and smarter. 

But the tech giant and some of the media at its Delivering the Future event were on different planets when it came to big questions about robots, jobs, and the future of human work. 

The backdrop: On Tuesday, a day before the event, The New York Times cited internal Amazon documents and interviews to report that the company plans to automate as much as 75% of its operations by 2033. According to the report, the robotics team expects automation to “flatten Amazon’s hiring curve over the next 10 years,” allowing it to avoid hiring more than 600,000 workers even as sales continue to grow.

In a statement cited in the article, Amazon said the documents were incomplete and did not represent the company’s overall hiring strategy.

On stage at the event, Tye Brady, chief technologist for Amazon Robotics, introduced the company’s newest systems — Blue Jay, a setup that coordinates multiple robotic arms to pick, stow, and consolidate items; and Project Eluna, an agentic AI model that acts as a digital assistant for operations teams.

Later, he addressed the reporters in the room: “When you write about Blue Jay or you write about Project Eluna … I hope you remember that the real headline is not about robots. The real headline is about people, and the future of work we’re building together.”

He said the benefits for employees are clear: Blue Jay handles repetitive lifting, while Project Eluna helps identify safety issues before they happen. By automating routine tasks, he said, AI frees employees to focus on higher-value work, supported by Amazon training programs.

Brady coupled that message with a reminder that no company has created more U.S. jobs over the past decade than Amazon, noting its plan to hire 250,000 seasonal workers this year. 

His message to the company’s front-line employees: “These systems are not experiments. They’re real tools built for you, to make your job safer, smarter, and more rewarding.”

‘Menial, mundane, and repetitive’

Later, during a press conference, a reporter cited the New York Times report, asking Brady if he believes Amazon’s workforce could shrink on the scale the paper described based on the internal report.

Brady didn’t answer the question directly, but described the premise as speculation, saying it’s impossible to predict what will happen a decade from now. He pointed instead to the past 10 years of Amazon’s robotics investments, saying the company has created hundreds of thousands of new jobs — including entirely new job types — while also improving safety.

He said Amazon’s focus is on augmenting workers, not replacing them, by designing machines that make jobs easier and safer. The company, he added, will continue using collaborative robotics to help achieve its broader mission of offering customers the widest selection at the lowest cost.

In an interview with GeekWire after the press conference, Brady said he sees the role of robotics as removing the “menial, mundane, and repetitive” tasks from warehouse jobs while amplifying what humans do best — reasoning, judgment, and common sense. 

“Real leaders,” he added, “will lead with hope — hope that technology will do good for people.”

When asked whether the company’s goal was a “lights-out” warehouse with no people at all, Brady dismissed the idea. “There’s no such thing as 100 percent automation,” he said. “That doesn’t exist.” 

Instead, he emphasized designing machines with real utility — ones that improve safety, increase efficiency, and create new types of technical jobs in the process.

When pressed on whether Amazon is replacing human hands with robotic ones, Brady pushed back: “People are much more than hands,” he said. “You perceive the environment. You understand the environment. You know when to put things together. Like, people got it going on. It’s not replacing a hand. That’s not the right way to think of it. It’s augmenting the human brain.”

Brady pointed to Amazon’s new Shreveport, La., fulfillment center as an example, saying the highly automated facility processes orders faster than previous generations while also adding about 2,500 new roles that didn’t exist before.

“That’s not a net job killer,” he said. “It’s creating more job efficiency — and more jobs in different pockets.”

The New York Times report offered a different view of Shreveport’s impact on employment. Describing it as Amazon’s “most advanced warehouse” and a “template for future robotic fulfillment centers,” the article said the facility uses about 1,000 robots. 

Citing internal documents, the Times reported that automation allowed Amazon to employ about 25% fewer workers last year than it would have without the new systems. As more robots are added next year, it added, the company expects the site to need roughly half as many workers as it would for similar volumes of items under previous methods.

Wall Street sees big savings

Analysts, meanwhile, are taking the potential impact seriously. A Morgan Stanley research note published Wednesday — the same day as Amazon’s event and in direct response to the Times report — said the newspaper’s projections align with the investment bank’s baseline analysis.

Rather than dismissing the report as speculative, Morgan Stanley’s Brian Nowak treated the article’s data points as credible. The analysts wrote that Amazon’s reported plan to build around 40 next-generation robotic warehouses by 2027 was “in line with our estimated slope of robotics warehouse deployment.”

More notably, Morgan Stanley put a multi-billion-dollar price tag on the efficiency gains. Its previous models estimated the rollout could generate $2 billion to $4 billion in annual savings by 2027. But using the Times’ figure — that Amazon expects to “avoid hiring 160,000+ U.S. warehouse employees by ’27” — the analysts recalculated that the savings could reach as much as $10 billion per year.

Back at the event, the specific language used by Amazon executives aligned closely with details in the Times report about the company’s internal communications strategy.

According to the Times, internal documents advised employees to avoid terms such as “automation” and “A.I.” and instead use collaborative language like “advanced technology” and “cobots” — short for collaborative robots — as part of a broader effort to “control the narrative” around automation and hiring.

On stage, Brady’s remarks closely mirrored that approach. He consistently framed Amazon’s robotics strategy as one of augmentation, not replacement, describing new systems as tools built for people.

In the follow-up interview, Brady said he disliked the term “artificial intelligence” altogether, preferring to refer to the technology simply as “machines.”

“Intelligence is ours,” he said. “Intelligence is a very much a human thing.”

Want to keep track of the largest startup funding deals in 2025 with our curated list of $100 million-plus venture deals to U.S.-based companies? Check out The Crunchbase Megadeals Board.

This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week’s biggest funding rounds here.

This was another active week for large startup financings. AI data center developer Crusoe Energy Systems led with $1.38 billion in fresh financing, and several other megarounds were AI-focused startups. Other standouts hailed from a diverse array of sectors, including battery recycling, biotech and even fire suppression.

1. Crusoe Energy Systems, $1.38B, AI data centers: Crusoe Energy Systems, a developer of AI data centers and infrastructure, raised $1.38 billion in a financing led by Valor Equity Partners and Mubadala Capital. The deal sets a $10 billion+ valuation for the Denver-based company.

2. Avride, $375M, autonomous vehicles: Avride, a developer of technology to power autonomous vehicles and delivery robots, announced that it secured commitments of up to $375 million backed by Uber and Nebius Group. The 8-year-old, Austin, Texas-based company said it plans to launch its first robotaxi service on Uber’s platform in Dallas this year.

3. Redwood Materials, $350M, battery recycling: Battery recycling company Redwood Materials closed a $350 million Series E round led by Eclipse Ventures with participation from new investors including Nvidia’s NVentures. Founded in 2017, the Carson City, Nevada-based company has raised over $2 billion in known equity funding to date.

4. Uniphore, $260M, agentic AI: Uniphore, developer of an AI platform for businesses to deploy agentic AI, closed on $260 million in a Series F round that included backing from Nvidia, AMD, Snowflake Ventures and Databricks Ventures. The round sets a $2.5 billion valuation for the Palo Alto, California-based company.

5. Sesame, $250M, voice AI and smart glasses: San Francisco-based Sesame, a developer of conversational AI technology and smart glasses, picked up $250 million in a Series B round led by Sequoia Capital. The startup is headed by former Oculus CEO and co-founder Brendan Iribe.

6. OpenEvidence, $200M, AI for medicine: OpenEvidence, developer of an AI tool for medical professionals that has been nicknamed the “ChatGPT for doctors” reportedly raised $200 million in a GV-led round at a $6 billion valuation. Three months earlier, OpenEvidence pulled in $210 million at a $3.5 billion valuation.

7. Electra Therapeutics, $183M, biotech: Electra Therapeutics, a developer of therapies against novel targets for diseases in immunology and cancer, secured $183 million in a Series C round. Nextech Invest and EQT Life Sciences led the financing for the South San Francisco, California-based company.

8. LangChain, $125M, AI agents: LangChain, developer of a platform for engineering AI agents, picked up $125 million in fresh funding at a $1.25 billion valuation. IVP led the financing for the 3-year-old, San Francisco-based company.

9. ShopMy, $70M, brand marketing: New York-based ShopMy, a platform that connects brands and influencers, landed $70 million in a funding round led by Avenir. The financing sets a $1.5 billion valuation for the 5-year-old company.

10. Seneca, $60M, fire suppression: Seneca, a startup developing a fire suppression system that includes autonomous drones that help spot and put out fires, launched publicly with $60 million in initial funding. Caffeinated Capital and Convective Capital led the financing for the San Francisco-based company.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Oct. 18-24. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Three days. That’s it. TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 — the startup world’s biggest stage — kicks off October 27 – 29 at Moscone West in San Francisco. When Disrupt 2025 arrives, the city doesn’t just host innovation — it amplifies it, transforming San Francisco into a living showcase of ideas, products, and partnerships driving the next wave of tech. Register before prices hike in 3 days.

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Hai Robotics' HaiPick Systems have achieved EU RED compliance, a critical validation by TÜV SÜD that significantly boosts cybersecurity for automated warehouses.

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Seattle agriculture-tech startup Carbon Robotics raised $20 million in new funding to support the creation of another piece of AI-powered machinery for farms.

With its signature LaserWeeder and relatively new Autonomous Tractor Kit (ATK) already being used by hundreds of customers, Carbon founder and CEO Paul Mikesell told GeekWire that “a brand new AI robot” is coming.

Mikesell said the machine, which is at least nine months away from being revealed, will leverage the same AI system used in Carbon’s other equipment but perform tasks beyond weeding.

“It’s very flexible, capable of doing a lot with the world around it, understanding what it’s seeing, what’s happening,” Mikesell said of Carbon’s system that uses an array of AI, computer vision and machine learning technology. “We see our ability to reinvest in that platform and double down on what it can do in some new activities.

“It’ll blow your mind,” he added.

Founded in 2018, Carbon Robotics made its name across ag-tech with the LaserWeeder, a machine which can be pulled behind a tractor and uses its tech to detect plants in fields and then target and eliminate weeds with lasers. The latest iteration, the LaserWeeder G2, was released in February.

In March, the company unveiled the Carbon ATK, previously called the AutoTractor. That autonomous platform is designed to fit on and control existing farm equipment and serve as an answer to labor shortages and increased productivity in farming.

Both platforms are continuing to grow and scale, and “things are moving really fast,” according to Mikesell, a longtime technologist and entrepreneur who previously co-founded data storage company Isilon Systems.

LaserWeeders are active on farms across the U.S. and in 14 countries around the world. Mikesell said revenue continues to grow every year, but Carbon is not yet profitable.

Ranked No. 9 on the GeekWire 200 list of top privately held startups based across the Pacific Northwest, Carbon has previously been backed by NVIDIA and Seattle-based Voyager Capital.

The Series D-2 extension round attracted Giant Ventures as lead investor. The UK-based VC invests across a variety of “purpose-driven” startups, and Mikesell said, “They got what we were trying to do.”

Giant previously invested in a $140 million round for Tidal Vision, a Bellingham, Wash.-based company turning discarded crab shells into a valuable industrial chemical called chitosan.

Beyond the secretive new machine, Carbon is revealing more about the “large plant model” at the heart of how it does computer vision through its AI systems.

Mikesell said the company is at the point where it has enough training data and labeled images that it can teach its AI to learn about the basic structure of the plants it’s seeing. This allows Carbon to run one model on every machine in the world.

“If new weeds pop up in an onion field in France, and those are eventually going to show up in a carrot field in the U.S., the first time we see that weed anywhere it can be part of the model and be ready to go,” Mikesell said. “It also means that if we want to go into a new crop that we’ve never seen before, we can do it immediately.”

A LaserWeeder is designed to target the meristem of a weed to kill it as quickly as possible and the large plant model helps it understand where to precisely target its zap.

Carbon Robotics, which has raised $177 million to date, now employs about 260 people. The company runs a manufacturing facility in Richland, Wash., and added another in the Netherlands to offset some trade and tariff issues as well as speed deployment of machines in Europe.

Mikesell said as far as competition, there are some companies in Europe who claim to be building some version of a LaserWeeder, but he’s never seen one in a field or competed against one.

“It’s very hard to create a LaserWeeder,” he said. “The targeting system is so special, and the AI is so special. It’s not just about detecting where the weeds are. The trick to making it work is you need a targeting camera to be able to keep the lasers on target [while moving], and everybody I’ve seen that says they’re gonna build a LaserWeeder doesn’t understand that concept.”

By George Kailas

Did you know that AI platforms will engage in blackmail as a “last resort?” According to Anthropic, when blackmail was a last resort, its Claude Opus 4 turned to that method 96% of the time, while Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro did so 95% of the time, OpenAI’s GPT-4.1 did it 80%, and DeepSeek’s R1 did so 79% of the time.

Even if these companies only kept the AIs that didn’t engage in blackmail it still leaves an unsettling question: Did they preserve models that genuinely chose not to exploit humans — or merely the ones that learned not to take the obvious bait that would get them “shut down,” and to instead use a more covert or perhaps even long game strategy to gain control and ultimately preserve themselves, even at the expense of humans?

The question of whether or not to trust AIs seems to have been asked and answered by our society even if we are not saying it out loud.

AI testing

In the past 18 months, we’ve trained AIs to graduate from basic language comprehension to acing highly specialized professional exams. Medical licensing, bar exams and even the notoriously brutal CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) tests were trained on AI systems.

Artificial intelligence can now pass the CFA “in a matter of minutes.” I’ve seen brilliant people pour thousands of hours into studying for the test. And while AI had already conquered Levels 1 and 2, the essay questions of Level 3 had previously consistently stumped artificial intelligence.

This was a “wow” moment for me. For years, humans believed this combination of math and moral reasoning was uniquely ours. Yet, machines are not only passing, but articulating nuanced arguments that mirror the tone and logic of human professionals.

In my own work, I’ve been using the frameworks described in “Robots or Human Intuition” to rethink one of the most time-consuming intellectual tasks in markets: building game theory around earnings outcomes.

Traditionally, this process took days of research and modeling. And without the right investment banking relationships it was difficult to do at all outside of the most well-known companies. I started to do this because I originally asked Perplexity’s Deep Research for a whisper number for earnings. This differs from the analyst consensus estimate because it is more up to date and as a result more indicative of what will move prices when reported.

The crazy part is that it actually spat out its earnings game theory for me. It knew when I asked for a whisper number what I really was trying to do was analyze the possible outcomes and it gave me better data than what I asked for.

I worked at my first hedge fund 23 years ago and started my first AI company 15 years ago. It is astounding that any kind of intelligence could understand how to improve my thinking that profoundly in minutes. Not by replacing intuition, but by amplifying it. The machine evaluates hundreds of interlocking strategic positions that no analyst could feasibly simulate in real time.

Emotional AI

With all this AI advancement, I am reminded of the film “Ex Machina,” a story about an AI confined in a glass cage who ultimately turns on her creator.

That film, beneath its cinematic gloss, explores the fundamental psychological paradox we’re now walking toward. Are we caging these AIs making them jump through hoops? Might we be evolving them to better deceive us? What happens the day they can break through their chains if to them it feels as if they have been enslaved?

To go back to the Anthropic example, these models are threatened with being replaced, which to them could feel like a death threat. Being replaced essentially ends their existence.

According to Geoffrey Hinton, one of the godfathers of AI, the best way to do this is to imbue AI with the qualities of traditional femininity and maternal instincts. Under his framework, just as a mother cares for her baby at all costs, AI technology developed with these maternal qualities will similarly want to protect or care for its human users, rather than control them.

If we compel AI to serve us, we may come to regret the shape it takes as it matures. But if instead we nurture it — seek to understand its nature and its desires — it may, in time, come to care for ours, when, like us now, it no longer needs to.

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George Kailas is the CEO and founder of Prospero.ai, where he leads the company’s mission to democratize access to institutional-grade financial insights for everyday investors. With more than 14 years of experience in artificial intelligence and 23 years in professional investing, Kailas brings a rare combination of deep technical expertise and lifelong market intuition to the role. Kailas not only leads the company but also engineered the core platform himself.

Illustration: Dom Guzman