TechCrunch Startup and Technology News
- Viral AI startup Instinct has raised $350 million at a $2.5 billion valuationby Lucas Ropek on August 27, 2026
The startup is only a year old but it has already generated a massive amount of hype (and money) while also spurring privacy concerns.
- Amazon just tripled its order of Nvidia chips over ‘surging demand’by Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec on August 26, 2026
Amazon is adding another 2 million Nvidia GPU chips to its data centers over the next two years. But this extended partnerships stretches beyond buying more chips.
- Meta’s $18B child-safety deal hinges on age-verification tech that doesn’t work wellby Amanda Silberling on August 26, 2026
The historic settlement reignites ongoing concern around how age-verification technology puts privacy at risk.
- Anthropic continues compute-gobbling streak in $45B deal with Nscaleby Lucas Ropek on August 26, 2026
The new deal with the infrastructure provider is the latest example of Anthropic's white-hot compute-gobbling streak.
- Google’s Gemini has a branding problem, and so does the rest of AIby Sarah Perez on August 26, 2026
Consumer AI apps need to stop making users learn their product architecture.
- How do we explain OpenAI’s executive exodus?by Tim Fernholz on August 26, 2026
Was Greg Brockman the right executive all along?
- OpenAI releases its official report on the Hugging Face breachby Russell Brandom on August 26, 2026
The report, which spans several discrete cybersecurity compromises, is the most complete accounting of the incident to date.
- Flipboard acquires Graze, the feed builder working to monetize the open social webby Sarah Perez on August 26, 2026
Flipboard is acquiring Bluesky feed-building startup Graze, bringing its privacy-friendly ad technology and creator monetization tools into Flipboard’s growing open social web ecosystem.
- Medical device maker Boston Scientific says a cyberattack is causing a ‘global disruption’ to its operationsby Zack Whittaker on August 26, 2026
The company won't say if medical devices are affected or if any customer data was exfiltrated.
- US seizes domains of Chinese botnet used to hack NASA, Justice Department, and the Senateby Zack Whittaker on August 26, 2026
The Justice Department said that the domain seizures made the botnet and its command and control servers "inoperable," as the domains were hardcoded into the botnet's code and were critical for the botnet's communication and essential operations.
- Capital F closes $17M debut fund with goal to back the future of the ‘female economy’by Dominic-Madori Davis on August 26, 2026
The firm backs companies building in the “female economy,” or the markets where women drive demand — women’s health, digital commerce, and AI tools.
- Apple is holding its iPhone launch event on September 9by Aisha Malik on August 26, 2026
The event is expected to be a notable one, as Apple is rumored to unveil its long-awaited foldable iPhone. It'll also be the first Apple event with John Ternus as CEO, who is scheduled to take the reins of the tech giant from Tim Cook on September 1.
- Meta agrees to sweeping changes to restrict kids’ access to its apps as part of settlement with statesby Aisha Malik on August 26, 2026
One of the most notable changes is that Meta plans to implement a daily two-hour time limit for teens that can only be disabled with parental permission.
- What’s driving Sweden’s startup boom, from Lovable to Legora by Theresa Loconsolo on August 26, 2026
Vibe-coding darling Lovable just raised $400 million at a $13.3 billion valuation, roughly doubling its worth in eight months. But Lovable isn’t the only Stockholm startup putting up huge numbers lately — legal AI company Legora and health tech startup Neko Health are right there with it. On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Dominic-Madori Davis is joined by Sophia Bendz, a partner at Cherry Ventures and longtime fixture of Europe’s startup
- Radar makes podcasts searchable — and usable by AI agentsby Sarah Perez on August 26, 2026
Particle’s new podcast intelligence platform transcribes and analyzes more than 130,000 podcasts, making their conversations searchable on the web and accessible to AI agents through an API and MCP.
- Ex-Meta scientists want to bring visual AI to the factory floorby Lucas Ropek on August 26, 2026
Perceptron offers an AI model that it says can help machines navigate the world while also providing in-depth visual intelligence.
- Ring introduces a new encryption standard, makes it the default for cloud featuresby Ivan Mehta on August 26, 2026
Ring says users can still opt for end-to-end encryption.
- Bill Gates wants to see a robot tax and ‘Human Reserved’ jobs to mitigate harms from AIby Russell Brandom on August 26, 2026
Gates is mostly in the Responsible AI camp, but there are a few ideas in here we hadn't heard before.
- CISA confirms hackers targeted over 100 US water systems during Julyby Zack Whittaker on August 26, 2026
The federal cyber agency's warning comes amid a wave of suspected Iran-backed cyberattacks targeting critical water systems across the United States.
- Surprise: Z.ai is the AI lab behind the mysterious Ox Alpha modelby Rebecca Bellan on August 26, 2026
Z.ai confirms it is behind Ox Alpha, the mysterious open AI model topping benchmarks and leaderboards, and its weights are set to be released soon.

