The battle begins: 2026 Startup Battlefield 200 nominations are open 

Calling Pre-Series A founders: nominations for TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 are open. Compete in the world’s most iconic pitch competition at Disrupt 2026 from October 13 – 15.

Gather AI, maker of ‘curious’ warehouse drones, lands $40M led by Keith Block’s firm 

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.

Benchmark raises $225M in special funds to double down on Cerebras

Benchmark Capital has been an investor in the Nvidia rival since 2016.

Prince Andrew advisor pitched Jeffrey Epstein on investing in EV startups like Lucid Motors

The mysterious businessman pitched Jeffrey Epstein on numerous mobility startups in an era when the sector was white hot, according to TechCrunch’s review of hundreds of documents released by the Department of Justice.

A16z VC wants founders to stop stressing over insane ARR numbers 

A16z VC Jennifer Li⁠, who oversees some of the firm’s fastest growing AI companies, warns founders not to believe every ARR claim made on X.

Elon Musk is getting serious about orbital data centers

We’re starting to see the idea of Musk-owned orbital AI data clusters cohere into an actual plan.

Anthropic releases Opus 4.6 with new ‘agent teams’

The newest version of Anthropic’s model is designed to broaden its appeal.

Fundamental raises $255 million Series A with a new take on big data analysis

Fundamental has built a new foundation model to solve an old problem: how to draw insights from the huge quantities of structured data produced by enterprises.