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The BOGO offer is live. For a limited time, buy one pass to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 and get 50% off a second of the same ticket type. Offer ends this Friday, May 8. Save here.

Barocal can cool your food and drink by squeezing a hunk of plastic crystals

Barocal might have discovered a cheap, nonpolluting material that could dethrone today’s refrigeration technology.

Fusion power startup Zap Energy pulls a partial pivot, adding nuclear fission to the mix

Surprise! Fusion startup Zap Energy says it will be developing fission reactors alongside its fusion devices.

Earth AI is vertically integrating the search for critical minerals

When Earth AI started hitting months-long delays in its search for critical minerals, it decided to take matters into its own hands.

Data center demand drives 66% surge in natural gas power plant costs

Natural gas power plant costs have nearly doubled in two years and take 23% longer to build as data center electricity demand skyrockets.

The climate tech IPO window could finally be cracking open

Nuclear startup X-energy went public, geothermal startup Fervo is about to. Could this be the moment that climate tech investors have been waiting for?

Steve Ballmer blasts founder he backed who pleaded guilty to fraud: ‘I was duped and feel silly’

Steve Ballmer wrote a fiery letter in the sentencing of disgraced founder Joseph Sanberg documenting all the harm that’s befalling him as an investor.

X-energy stock pops 27% on first day of trading following upsized IPO

Investors flocked to nuclear power startup X-energy in its first day of public trading on the Nasdaq.

Nuclear startup X-energy raises $1B in data center-driven IPO

Amazon-backed X-energy was able to raise around 20% more money in its IPO as demand for nuclear power surges.

Fusion power may not be sci-fi. Just ask the people who sunk $5B into it.

Fusion energy has been “20 years away” for decades, but has the science finally caught up? Private investment in fusion companies surged from $10 billion to $15 billion in just months, and t…