July 17, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

Remarkable's new Paper Pure is good. That's why I wrote this review on it.: Remarkable's Paper Pure replaces Remarkable 2, and it is quite good. Read More

Google Vids now lets you star in your own AI videos: Google is adding personalized AI avatars to Vids that let users create videos starring a digital version of themselves, alongside Gemini Omni-powered tools for generating and editing videos from prompts and reference images. Read More

Coca-Cola suspended production at its Fairlife dairy after a ransomware attack: Coca Cola said dairy production at its Fairlife unit will "remain suspended" in the United States following a hack. Read More

A message from General Compute

General Compute is making a $300m bet against GPUs

General Compute raised $15m to build the worlds first ASIC cloud. By removing the GPU bottleneck, it runs frontier LLMs up to 16x faster than standard GPU clouds. ASIC silicon is also far more energy efficient, so it deploys in air-cooled data centers, making growth and expansion dramatically easier.

Learn more here

Morning Must-Reads

SpaceX suddenly aborts second Starship V3 launch after ignition: The company didn't immediately say what went wrong. SpaceX's stock plunged more than 4% in after-hours trading before paring losses. Read More

Why the first GPU financiers are turning to inference chips in a $400 million deal: A $400 million chip-backed loan points to the next wave of AI infrastructure deals. Read More

San Francisco mayor pushes for tougher rules after the Waymo traffic fiasco: In the wake of a massive hours-long gridlock event, San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie has told state regulators it's time to put more requirements on robotaxi operators like Waymo. Read More

Zoox issues software recall after a robotaxi got confused by heavy smoke: The recall comes as the top automotive safety regulator in the U.S. has warned AV companies about their vehicles interfering with first responders. Read More

No product? No problem. This Disrupt 2026 session shows how to get pre-seed funding with conviction, storytelling : It’s not just you: AI startups are taking in a huge amount of seed funding, and in the process making things harder for anyone looking for funding even at a pre-seed stage. We’ve covered the trend in detail, and at this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt event, we want to help pre-seed founders now being held to seed-stage expectations. With AI making the development of a minimum viable product swifter than ever, is there even hope for a founder who has a compelling idea, but nothing concrete to show for it? That’s what our “Winning Pre-Seed Without a Product” panel will seek to answer. And it's just one of the many sessions you can look forward to at our popular Builders Stage at Disrupt 2026. That’s where our most pointed conversations and workshops take place, tackling everything from getting your hands dirty with operational decisions, fundraising, go-to-market strategies, and other vital subjects. And you can be a part of it all by getting your ticket to attend Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco at Moscone West, October 13-15, at the best prices you’ll find for the remainder of the year. As for this specific session, we’ve gathered a great trio of speakers to provide their expertise on this nuanced and pivotal topic. Sandhya Venkatachalam: Founder, managing partner, Axiom Partners Venkatachalam both knows a thing or two about having a successful exit, and what investors are looking for when taking the plunge with companies that eventually succeed through an acquisition of their own. Her current role is overseeing the newly launched Axiom Partners, which is an early-stage, $52 million venture fund that’s focused on connecting founders to top-class AI practitioners to help fuel AI that leads to real-world improvements. Previously, she worked as a GP at Khosla Ventures Read More

Last but Not Least

Uber's $14.8B Delivery Hero deal would nearly double its global footprint: Uber has agreed to acquire Delivery Hero in a $14.8 billion all-stock deal that would nearly double the company’s global footprint and create one of the world’s largest food-delivery platforms outside China. Read More