Amazon’s chief sustainability officer, Kara Hurst, conceded Tuesday that the retail and cloud giant lacks a definitive roadmap to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. Speaking at an Axios event, Hurst acknowledged the difficulty of the target, stating the company does not yet possess all the solutions required for decarbonization.
With $5.75 billion in fresh capital, Bessemer Venture Partners is doubling down on its commitment to artificial intelligence. The firm split the new funding into two distinct tranches: $1.75 billion for early-stage ventures and $4 billion for growth-stage companies, aiming to capture the entire spectrum of the evolving AI stack.
A valuation of $2 billion marks a doubling in worth for Enveda, the biotech startup leveraging artificial intelligence to mine plants and microbes for therapeutic compounds. The company’s $311 million Series E funding round, led by Catalio Capital Management, signals growing investor confidence in AI-derived medicine moving toward clinical reality.
“China’s already flexed its muscles a couple times,” says Michael Van Steenburg, founder of Modal Motors. With Beijing restricting access to critical minerals, Van Steenburg is launching a startup focused on manufacturing electric motors in North America that bypass the need for rare-earth magnets entirely.
Users can now trigger complex workflows through voice commands on their mobile devices, as OpenAI rolls out agentic features previously reserved for desktop. The update allows subscribers to draft emails, summarize messages, and build presentations on the go, bridging the gap between conversational AI and functional task automation.
Subscribers to Disney+ and Hulu face another round of cost increases as the media conglomerate pushes to convert its streaming division into a consistent profit engine. The price adjustment, arriving just one year after the previous hike, reflects a broader industry shift toward maximizing revenue per user across all major platforms.
Zoox has suspended its autonomous vehicle testing in Atlanta after multiple safety drivers reported symptoms of toxic gas exposure, including vomiting and lightheadedness, while operating the company’s modified combustion-engine SUVs. The move follows an inquiry by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration regarding potential carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide leaks.
Seventy-four percent of Americans report feelings of unease regarding artificial intelligence, placing the United States at the forefront of global anxiety. Despite widespread daily adoption for tasks ranging from research to creative projects, the correlation between frequent usage and public enthusiasm remains fractured by deep-seated systemic concerns.
YouTube is transforming its comment section and membership model to bridge the engagement gap with competitors like TikTok. Unveiled at the Made on YouTube event, the platform is introducing GIF support, voice-enabled TV commenting, and a virtual currency system designed to turn casual viewers into paying community members.
YouTube is overhauling its music discovery engine by integrating conversational AI that allows users to query their massive library using natural language. Announced at the Made On YouTube event, the update introduces a semantic search tool and an automated audio guide designed to solve the chronic problem of listener fatigue.
A one-hour shoot can require ten hours of editing, a bottleneck YouTube intends to break with a new conversational tool. Unveiled at the Made On YouTube event, the feature allows creators to refine long-form and short-form footage through simple natural language prompts, shifting the role of software from static interface to collaborative partner.
Priced at $1,999, the new Pod 6 from Eight Sleep introduces solo configurations and a 50% smaller footprint designed to accommodate a wider variety of bed frames. The device promises 20% faster temperature adjustments and utilizes nine times more sensors to isolate user data from pets or children sharing the bed.
The surreal intersection of deadpan comedy and corporate scandal arrives this autumn as A24 prepares to release "You Can See Everything," a documentary exploring the psyche of disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes through the lens of filmmaker Nathan Fielder, set to hit theaters on October 16.
YouTube is transforming its experimental AI search tool, Ask YouTube, into a dedicated shopping assistant. Unveiled at the Made on YouTube event, the update leverages the platform's custom Gemini model to provide viewers with product comparisons and curated recommendations directly within the watch page interface.
YouTube is shifting control of its recommendation engine to the user, announcing a feature that generates custom feeds based on natural language prompts. By leveraging Google’s Gemini AI, viewers can now define specific interests, moods, or time-bound content preferences that appear as dedicated tabs on their home page.
As artificial intelligence and rapid scaling rewrite the venture capital playbook, investors are facing a fundamental shift in how capital is deployed and how companies reach the public markets. StrictlyVC is set to address these pressures at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, gathering industry leaders to dissect the evolving expectations for founders and backers.
YouTube is pivoting to episodic storytelling, unveiling a Shorts Series feature that allows creators to bundle vertical videos into seasons and episodes. Debuted at the Made On YouTube event, the tool aims to keep viewers engaged on the platform by offering a binge-friendly alternative to standalone clips.
YouTube is integrating a suite of AI-powered tools designed to help creators optimize performance through automated A/B testing and personalized feedback. The platform's new features, ranging from dynamic thumbnail selection to real-time live dubbing, aim to expand audience reach while streamlining the content management process for creators.
Creators managing channels on the go gain deeper AI integration as YouTube rolls out automated thumbnail generation, draft analysis, and enhanced A/B testing within its Studio app. These tools aim to move beyond raw metrics by offering actionable storytelling advice and predictive performance monitoring directly from mobile devices.
With the price hike looming on September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT, attendees have only three days remaining to secure a discount of up to $200 for TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. The event, scheduled for October 13–15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, is expected to draw over 10,000 participants.
For the first time, American Premium subscribers can directly intervene in the machine learning models that curate their audio landscape. Spotify is rolling out its Taste Profile feature, a tool that allows listeners to bypass automated rigidity by using natural language to reshape their personalized music, podcast, and audiobook recommendations.
Faking professional credibility has never been cheaper, prompting LinkedIn to roll out new features designed to curb identity manipulation. As AI-driven scams proliferate, the platform is shifting toward a model where verified experience serves as the primary currency for career advancement and corporate security.
A Canadian Kal Tire location is now testing a robotic system capable of swapping a full set of tires in under 15 minutes. Developed by San Francisco-based PitPro Automation, the technology aims to alleviate severe labor shortages and the physically demanding nature of tire maintenance in high-demand markets.
With a $77 million Series B funding round, Ema is positioning its autonomous AI agents to displace legacy enterprise software and IT service providers. The startup, which coordinates multi-step business workflows, is now valued at four times its 2024 level as it moves to capture corporate budgets previously locked into SaaS ecosystems.
Three people are dead and 11 injured following a series of collisions involving Comma.ai’s aftermarket driver-assistance technology. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched an investigation into the startup’s devices, citing repeated failures to detect stationary vehicles in the same lane, prompting a federal review of the company’s safety protocols.
Addressing a room of Silicon Valley investors, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis admitted that global leaders are struggling to keep pace with rapid technological shifts. While pitching Greece as a stable, growing hub for tech investment, he conceded that policymakers remain largely unprepared for the societal impact of artificial intelligence.
Starting Wednesday, Discord is rolling out automated age verification across its messaging platform. The move follows months of user pushback regarding privacy risks, forcing the company to pivot from mandatory ID scans toward a machine-learning model that predicts user age based on account history and platform activity patterns.
On November 4, the SoWa Power Station in Boston hosts the TechCrunch Founder Summit, a one-day intensive designed to bypass the trial-and-error phase of early-stage growth. The event pairs founders with seasoned investors and operators to dissect the mechanics of fundraising, AI implementation, and team building.
Snorkel AI has secured $350 million in Series E funding, pushing the startup’s valuation to $3.5 billion. The massive capital injection, led by Insight Partners and S32, reflects a nearly threefold increase in value over the past 17 months as the company pivots to providing AI-ready synthetic datasets.
At the annual Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and its Extreme counterpart, processors engineered to handle complex artificial intelligence tasks locally. By shifting AI operations away from the cloud, the company aims to enable real-time personalization and advanced voice-agent capabilities directly on mobile hardware.
