As the evenings grow colder, I’ve been reaching for tea more frequently. If there’s one thing that can enhance a snug fall evening, it’s a hot beverage that remains warm. Introducing Ember’s latest Mug 3, the newest iteration of the brand’s temperature-regulated smart mug, crafted to maintain your drink at the perfect temperature for as long as you enjoy.

Ember unveiled its smart mug in 2016 to address a common dilemma faced by coffee and tea lovers: losing track of time and returning to a tepid drink. Now, the company has returned with its third-generation mug, which features several practical improvements.

The most significant update is that you don’t need to access the app to change your drink’s temperature. Instead, you can utilize the button at the base of the mug to toggle through five preset temperatures, beginning at 125 degrees Fahrenheit. Each press increases the temperature by five degrees, up to a maximum of 145 degrees, allowing you to incrementally warm your drink with each push.

Truthfully, this is the feature I utilized the most during my testing of the mug. At night, when I’m nestled in bed with a book and a cup of tea, my phone is typically across the room. The ability to modify my drink without having to get up to retrieve it is a minor convenience that I truly value.

This is also a beneficial modification for users who have encountered connectivity or pairing concerns with the Ember app. 

However, I have one critique: the button is situated on the bottom of the mug. This design choice is odd when managing a cup filled with hot liquid, and it’s not particularly user-friendly to press. I often found myself having to tilt the mug and press down firmly to elicit a response. While I appreciate the addition of on-mug controls, I wish Ember had designed the button to be more accessible.

For those who favor using their phones, the Ember app still provides ample customization options. Once the mug is paired with your phone via Bluetooth, you can select presets according to your beverage. Ember suggests 136 degrees Fahrenheit for black coffee, 132 degrees for green tea, and 142 degrees for lemon water. Additionally, you can set your own temperature presets, which is useful if you prefer your drinks slightly hotter or cooler than the suggested settings.

The Mug 3 also features several other enhancements, such as a sliding lid designed to help prevent spills. The mug can maintain your drink at its preferred temperature for up to three hours with a single charge. Additionally, it is the first mug in Ember’s collection that is safe for the top rack of the dishwasher, facilitating clean-up. (Just remember that it isn’t safe for the microwave.)

The Ember Mug 3 is available in two sizes: a 10-ounce variant priced at $129 and a 14-ounce version for $149.

The smaller mug comes in black, white, and stainless steel, while the larger model is offered in eight colors, including sage green, lavender, powder blue, salt blue, sandstone, white, black, and matcha green.

In addition to the new mug, Ember has also launched the Tumbler 2, which replaces both the Travel Mug 2 and the original Tumbler in its range. The 16-ounce tumbler showcases a slimmer, taller design meant to fit standard car cup holders. It is available in black for $179, while the Travel Mug 2 will continue to be sold until stock runs out.

These products can be purchased on Ember’s website, Target, and Amazon.

Mark Wahlberg has launched several of his own businesses and supported a multitude of others. However, he claims that the gym he plans to open in December has him more thrilled than anything he has accomplished throughout his career. It also targets a market segment where investment continues to pour in: high-cost, diagnostics-focused wellness.

In a conversation with us at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco on Thursday, the actor announced that the inaugural Municipal Gym will debut in December. This facility spans 32,000 square feet and is located near Las Vegas, offering blood tests, epigenetic assessments, recovery equipment, compression therapy, cold plunges, and a café serving protein muffins, among other amenities. He presents it as a more budget-friendly option compared to longevity clubs that demand tens of thousands of dollars annually for similar services.

This venture is part of a larger plan that, in some respects, originated seven years ago with a casual sportswear line.

The clothing brand Municipal was launched during the COVID pandemic, which Wahlberg openly admitted “was not a great idea,” considering that the apparel industry was struggling in 2020, with brands like J.Crew and Brooks Brothers going under.

This initiative emerged from his experiences as a celebrity fitness ambassador. He had collaborated with various brands and received numerous offers to be their brand spokesperson, but many seemed to have similar goals, he remarked. “Everyone essentially just wanted to sell T-shirts and sneakers. And I was like, well, I want to have a more significant impact on people’s overall lives.”

By this, he meant factors like nutrition, supplement usage, training methods, and recovery processes. “We thought, okay, let’s start with apparel, and then we’ll expand from there.” He asserts he only pursues “initiatives that I’m truly passionate about and things that are a direct expression of who I am.”

Even in the absence of a pandemic, the clothing industry can be incredibly tough, as we highlighted, referencing Lululemon’s recurring quality control issues. Nevertheless, Wahlberg appeared undeterred, instead focusing on why the gym aligns with his vision. He believed it “always could enhance the brand” partly because it provides customers a chance to “actually feel and examine the clothing” before making purchases. Additionally, he remarked, how individuals exercise is “another significant aspect of their lives.”

Most players in this space have been intensely focused on the premium segment. Fountain Life, the longevity firm co-founded by Tony Robbins, secured $18 million last year to expand its facilities targeting affluent clients, and a full membership costs $21,500 per year, as reported. The Estate, co-founded by Robbins and hospitality entrepreneur Sam Nazarian, is still developing plans to charge $35,000 for memberships to its wellness facilities. Equinox is also forming a waitlist for a $36,000 longevity enhancement set to complement a traditional gym membership.

Wahlberg claims Municipal is aiming at that same luxury market but at a fraction of the price. “We provide a more competitive price point than our rivals, and we’re going to deliver significantly better results,” he stated. For example, for $99, members will receive three rounds of blood work and an hour with a physician to identify potential predispositions. Supplements and hormone therapy are also “conveniently accessible.”

When we inquired if the gyms would also serve as retail spaces for his other products (he has a supplements line, for instance), he replied “kind of.” What he is truly creating, he explained, is a “health and wellness ecosystem” that includes “everything comprehensive.”

He did not specify how many gyms he envisions, but he described the growth strategy as “aggressive,” informing us that “landlords and developers who visited the Las Vegas site have proposed “AAA locations at highly favorable terms, with generous TI” (tenant improvement allowances that assist in financing the build-out).

Wahlberg’s previous significant investment in a gym franchise might have deterred others. We shared that we had recently watched “Wahl Street,” his reality program, where an early episode captures his deep involvement with the F45 fitness chain in 2019, and that we intended to caution him about future developments. “How did you know about the pandemic?” he quipped, eliciting laughter from the audience. He invested in the company, recognized for its 45-minute classes, at a valuation of $450 million. It went public in 2021 but was removed from the NYSE in 2023 after its stock tanked. Wahlberg mentioned that he learned a great deal from that encounter.

“I believe the most significant lesson was ensuring that I collaborate with people who share my same philosophy.” He also stated that he has always regarded big box as the superior model. F45’s classes cater to those pressed for time, but he hopes for members to stay at Municipal for extended periods. Many gyms operate on a “sign up but don’t show up” business model, he said, adding, “I find it hard to grasp that mindset.”

The name Municipal is quite deliberate and holds considerable meaning for Wahlberg, who faced poverty during his childhood in Boston, one of nine siblings, playing on public basketball courts and golf courses. “You learn a lot on the blacktop,” he stated. “You learn to win, lose, compete, and hopefully rise again.”

He has never concealed his difficult early years. (He was sentenced to two years for assaults as a teenager and served 45 days.)

Earlier that Thursday afternoon, surrounded by friends and business partners in a backstage lounge at Disrupt — this is the man who inspired the show “Entourage,” after all — he mentioned being transformed by two individuals, including Father Jim Flavin, a priest from the Boston area who has been part of Wahlberg’s life since he was 13.

He desires the gyms to embody that same essence. “It’s a place for work, but also to enjoy, support one another, create community, and genuinely encourage individuals to become the best versions of themselves,” he remarked. “I have come from almost nothing to achieving a remarkable position,” Wahlberg added. “I consistently remind myself that I can inspire others who grow up in similar conditions, mainly inner-city youth and at-risk kids, that it’s possible to better your situation if you’re willing to put in the effort.”

At 55, his ambitions have naturally evolved. While he used to focus on appearance, “I now just want to feel good when I wake in the morning,” he stated. “I want to tackle all the tasks I have planned for the day.”

He also mentioned that his schedule is incredibly packed at the moment, juggling the gym, a film role as Pete Rose, and his daughter’s equestrian pursuits. He’s so impatient for the gym’s opening that visiting the construction site feels like “literally watching paint dry.” Indeed, when asked if he was open to new projects, he shrugged. “I’m not actively seeking the next opportunity for sure.” However, he quickly added that he wouldn’t dismiss it. “If something exceptional were to arise, I certainly wouldn’t say no.”

Pictured above with Wahlberg, friend and business partner Bruce K. Lee.

For decades, the unwritten rule of venture capital was that a firm doesn’t back two companies that compete head-on. But speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt earlier this week, the partners of Benchmark readily acknowledged that the AI boom is straining that rule.

It’s been on the verge of snapping for some time. The towering AI labs OpenAI and Anthropic share dozens of the same investors at this point. Then, at the end of September, Factory, a startup that builds an AI agent to write software, said it was firing board observer and adviser Chris Degnan for “unethical conduct involving Cognition,” its direct rival and the maker of the Devin coding agent. Factory’s CEO alleged Degnan had discussed a job at Cognition while privy to Factory’s board-level discussions. Degnan said he had already resigned and denied sharing anything confidential. Soon after, he announced he was joining Cognition as chief revenue officer. Powerhouse investor Vinod Khosla sided with Degnan on X, blasting Factory’s CEO and calling the company “a struggling second tier competitor.” Khosla Ventures backs both companies.

Even Benchmark, a firm whose reputation rests on 10-to-15-year partnerships with founders at the earliest stage, said the old rule can no longer be counted on. Asked at Disrupt whether the pact against backing rivals still holds as portfolio companies expand into each other’s territory, its partners described the conflicts as a matter of necessity, not preference.

“The harsh reality of this world is every company is evolving very quickly,” said Eric Vishria. Companies pivot and change, he said, and “you are going to get conflicts, and that’s just the reality of the current dynamic.”

Vishria said Benchmark stays committed to each founder and keeps what it learns confidential, and he downplayed how much a VC could pass along anyway: “We are not product or technology experts.” Seemingly referring to the Factory-Cognition dispute, he said Benchmark has been fortunate not to land in “that type of insane direct conflict.” Exclusivity, he said, remains “really important” at the very early stage Benchmark favors. “But things are evolving. There’s no doubt about that.”

Chetan Puttagunta said AI is accelerating the problem. As the cost of building software “effectively goes to zero,” he said, founders are “incredibly ambitious.” Because they now see a “surface area” and want to claim all of it, he continued, “[i]t’s probably going to happen more, where you start to run into each other.”

He drew a line between a direct competitor at the outset, which he called “an easy answer,” and a portfolio company that expands into another’s turf over time. “That happens,” he said.

Peter Fenton called the issue “kryptonite” and the firm’s toughest problem. He described a spectrum of how investors relate to their companies. At one end is the co-founder, who would never work on a competing company. At the other is the public-market stock picker, who can own several rivals because he is merely allocating capital, not shaping any of them. Benchmark sits nearer the co-founder end, Fenton said, and treats transparency as a golden rule. “There shouldn’t be the surprise after the fact.” If a conflict does emerge, a founder should never feel shortchanged, he added.

Benchmark isn’t declaring the pact dead. At the same time, when a firm that built its name on loyalty says conflicts are coming, founders might rightly wonder who else will be this candid.

SK Hynix appears to be navigating choppy U.S.-China chipmaking waters. The company’s flash memory unit, Solidigm, is seeking U.S. approval to send American chipmaking equipment to its factory in Dalian, China, as a condition to continue building a semiconductor factory in the U.S., Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources.

Solidigm has been reportedly chalking up plans to build a NAND flash memory chip factory in the U.S. and is considering upstate New York as a potential location for the facility.

NAND flash chips are primarily used in solid-state storage drives, which are employed in everything from laptops and smartphones to AI data centers. But the global component shortage, thanks to skyrocketing demand for AI data centers, has driven up prices for everything that goes into data centers, including high-speed RAM chips and SSDs. Research firm TrendForce expects NAND prices to rise 15% to 20% in the fourth quarter.

Reuters cited its sources as saying that Solidigm wants to install more chipmaking equipment in spare space at SK Hynix’s Dalian factory in China to boost NAND chip production.

SK Hynix told TechCrunch it is not seeking to expand capacity at its Dalian Mod B facility, which was completed in 2023. The chip giant added that the equipment installation is being carried out in consultation with and under authorization from the U.S. government.

Washington first imposed sweeping restrictions on advanced chips and chipmaking equipment exports to China in October 2022, citing national security concerns, and further tightened the rules in 2023. Then in September 2025, the Trump administration revoked special export exemptions for certain SK Hynix, Samsung, and Intel facilities in China. The U.S. has since granted an annual license to Samsung and SK Hynix for sending chipmaking equipment to their plants in China.

The U.S. has also been pushing foreign chipmakers to build and expand their manufacturing facilities in America. In July, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said he wanted Samsung and SK Hynix to build chip plants in the country and that he was in talks with both companies.

Solidigm is said to be preparing for a 2027 U.S. IPO that could raise around $10 billion and value it at up to $100 billion.

Science Corporation CEO Max Hodak announced that the company has implanted its vision-restoring chip, PRIMA, into its first patient with Stargardt disease, an inherited eye disease that gradually destroys central vision. Hodak, the former president and co-founder of Neuralink, the brain implant company, explained on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt how the company’s work with PRIMA fits into its broader pursuit of a novel brain-computer interface (BCI).

“The retina is part of the central nervous system,” Hodak said on stage. “We consider cochlear implants, retinal prostheses, motor prostheses, these are all different types of BCIs.”

Hodak outlined a vision in which BCIs expand into a wide range of medical technology applications, rather than simply being a way to control computers.

While PRIMA is commercially available in Europe for patients who’ve lost their sight to geographic atrophy, an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration, the company believes its approach can be applied to multiple diseases, including Stargardt disease, which is currently considered incurable.

Stargardt disease affects the outer retina, causing the gradual death of the eye’s light-sensing cells while potentially sparing the inner retina, the part that passes visual signals onto the brain. It causes a central blind spot that gradually enlarges over time. Approximately 150,000 people worldwide have lost vision due to the disease.

“One of the nice things about this device approach, when I was saying the brain’s a computer, vision is electrical potential, like electrical activity down the optic nerve,” Hodak said. “That’s all vision is to the brain, and so if you can get the optic nerve to signal the the rest of the brain correctly, then you can provide vision to it.”

The company says its first patient with Stargardt disease received the PRIMA implant in May as part of its ongoing trial at the Sydney Eye Hospital in Australia. During the patient’s first rehabilitation session, he saw a letter, and during the second, he was able to read a word.

To use the device, patients undergo an hour-long procedure that plants a small chip in the back of their eye, where the photoreceptors have degenerated. Then they wear camera-equipped glasses that transmit a view of the world to the chip. The implant essentially works like artificial photoreceptors.

“The device that this patient has is a two millimeter by two millimeter implant placed under the in the back of the eye, and so it’s like looking through a straw,” Hodak said. “It is not a big field of view color vision. It’s a patch in their central vision where . . .it’s black and white, but it is sharp. It’s high-contrast sharp, and so they can see a couple letters at a time. The next step is to make the field of view bigger. So to make a bigger implant, you have to deal with the curvature of the eye, and we need to make the electrodes smaller so that we get closer to native levels of detail.”

He continued, “I think we have a clear path. There’s a there’s a next ‘next generation’ that’s being worked on that’ll be in humans in the next year, and over the next five years, I think we’ll be able to get pretty close to native acuity.”

When Hodak founded Science Corporation in 2021 after leaving Neuralink, the company outlined plans to develop advanced neural engineering and brain-computer interface technology. But first, the company wants to prove its methods work and develop a sustainable business, which is why it’s working to restore vision with the visually impaired.

As for Science Corporation’s brain-computer interface technology, it has previously said that its sensor will be implanted inside the skull and rest on top of the brain, unlike a Neuralink device, which is inserted directly into brain tissue.

The company has said it believes the device could help address neurological conditions, such as possibly monitoring neurological activity in patients with brain tumors.

“In the near term, we’re going to be applying our first clinical indication, which hasn’t been announced publicly, is a neurodegenerative disease that everybody’s heard of,” Hodak said. “We’re also looking at stroke. For example, if you’ve lost part of your brain because it’s been dead due to stroke, if you can get connections into the deep brain in two different areas, you can imagine adding new cortical areas, just like adding new brain areas entirely — something simply not possible with conventional electrodes. But, I’d say longer term, the long-term mission of the company is to understand how the brain creates the mind and to learn to build engineered brains.”

Hodak went on to note that Science Corporation’s belief is that many people will eventually use some kind of BCI. While the company isn’t designing for “healthy 40-year-olds,” he said, it believes people will eventually need some kind of BCI by the age of 60 or 70.

“We want to figure out how do we extend not just lifespan but health span,” Hodak said.

Twenty founders just earned their shot at Disrupt glory. They’re headed to the Disrupt Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt to compete for the $100,000 prize and the coveted Disrupt Cup.

Every year, thousands of founders from around the world pitch us on what they believe the future should look like. This year’s Top 20 are building it from organs to orbit and everywhere in between.

Across this cohort, one theme kept emerging: Making the previously invisible measurable.

These founders are finding ways to understand signals we couldn’t previously capture, model systems too complex to predict, and turn the physical world into data that machines can actually act on. They’re measuring the biological clocks inside our bodies and growing miniature human organs in labs. They’re teaching robots to take on increasingly complex physical work and modeling the real world closely enough to predict what might happen next — even the behavior of wild animals. They’re extracting intelligence from scam calls and finding new ways to use the computing power already orbiting above our heads.

And then, of course, there’s the company trying to launch cargo into space with a giant hydrogen-powered cannon.

Subtle, this group is not.

What connects these 20 companies isn’t a single technology or industry. It’s an ambition to understand more of the world around us — biological, physical, industrial, and digital — and use that understanding to make better decisions, automate what once required human intervention, and tackle problems that previously seemed too complex to solve.

Now they have six minutes on the Disrupt Stage to prove it.

Here are the 2026 Startup Battlefield Top 20.

Tuesday, October 13 

Startup Battlefield Semifinals Session 1 (10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.)

Space and Physical AI 

Longshot Space: Reinventing the economics of space by launching cargo to orbit at $50/kg using hydrogen-powered kinetic launchers.

Veritas: Protecting luxury brands with custom microchips that verify authenticity and enable connected post-purchase experiences.

Laplace Intelligence: Building agentic world models that help cities, ports, and airports roll out counterfactual futures of the real world before they act.

Flox Intelligence: Preventing deadly wildlife collisions at airports and railways with real-time AI that detects animal behavior and safely redirects them.

Satlyt: Helping satellite operators unlock and monetize idle compute by transforming their spacecraft into virtual AI data centers with a single line of code.

Battlefield Semifinal Session 2 (1:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.)

Energy and Manufacturing

LNK Energies: Delivering clean hydrogen power cheaper than diesel through breakthrough compact reactor technology compatible with existing diesel infrastructure.

Helix Carbon: Helping steelmakers cut emissions and fuel costs by electrochemically upcycling blast furnace waste gas into replacement fossil fuels on-site.

IndustrialNext: Automating high-precision, contact-rich assembly tasks by deploying AI-driven robotic systems that learn from production data and adapt to new products.

Niobia AI: Helping process and materials engineers compress weeks of root-cause analysis into minutes with domain-expert AI reasoning.

Licube: Producing ultra-high purity lithium and lithium isotopes (Li-6/Li-7), the critical inputs for nuclear fusion and advanced materials.

Wednesday, October 14 

Battlefield Semifinal Session 3 (10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.)

Health Tech and Life Sciences 

Mosqitter: Detecting and preventing mosquito-borne disease spread with real-time disease intelligence platforms that turn sensor networks into early warning systems for national health agencies.

Hiyd AI: Delivering proactive health insights by combining sleep, movement, and nutrition data through an ultra-slim, discreet wearable tracker and AI app.

TimeTeller GmbH: Measuring people’s biological clocks to determine optimal treatment timing through molecular diagnostics and AI, improving efficacy and reducing side effects.

NTangible: Helping coaches and front offices make smarter recruiting decisions by quantifying how athletes perform under pressure with a validated cognitive score.

Intero Biosystems: Accelerating drug development by producing miniature human organs that enable pharma companies to identify safer, more effective medications while reducing clinical trial costs.

Battlefield Semifinal Session 4 (1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.)

Enterprise and Security

Apate.ai: Dismantling scam operations by deploying conversational AI bots that engage scammers and turn their interactions into real-time intelligence for banks, telcos, and governments.

CedarDB: Delivering the data layer for the AI age — real-time transactions and analytics in one engine with guardrails inside the database system that AI agents can’t bypass.

Prismm: Helping banks retain deposits and relationships across generations by automating secure inheritance workflows and financial continuity infrastructure.

Floqer: Streamlining B2B sales by enriching customer data across 80+ sources and stitching every interaction into one millisecond-retrievable timeline for AI agents to act on.

GUDEA: Delivering immediate, actionable insights into audience behavior, engagement patterns, and how information spreads to give organizations a competitive edge in communication management.

And then there were five

After four semifinal sessions across two days, five companies will advance to the Startup Battlefield Finals on Thursday, October 15.

Before the finalists take the stage at 11:30 a.m., we’ll welcome Glīd, Nephrogen, and Molecule.one back to the Disrupt Stage for an alumni update on what’s happened since their time in Startup Battlefield.

Then, at 4:15 p.m., one company will be crowned the 2026 Startup Battlefield champion, taking home $100,000 and the Disrupt Cup.

Feeling the FOMO? It’s not too late. Grab a last-minute Disrupt ticket for 50% off and watch it all unfold live.

Startup Battlefield is proudly supported by Google for Startups and SAP.

Journalists, entrepreneurs, and even some public relations professionals will tell you that the PR process is broken (buy me a drink sometime, and I’ll give you my rant). But could AI actually make things better?

Honeyjar, which will be attending this week’s TechCrunch Disrupt as part of the Startup Battlefield 200, wants to use AI to make the expertise and judgment of the best PR pros available to everyone, including founders who have no idea where to start.

The startup’s founders, CEO Michelle Masek and Chief Communications Officer Nadia Jamshidi, certainly fit the bill when it comes to PR expertise. They’ve both spent decades in the field, doing in-house communications and working at agencies. Masek recently served as senior vice president of marketing and communications for Ev Williams’ venture firm, Obvious Ventures.

As Masek described the challenges involved in “helping with the why and when of comms and marketing for 110 portfolio companies” (the startups her firm had invested in), I flashed back to my own brief stint leading marketing at an early-stage VC firm, where founders were constantly asking for help getting into TechCrunch. So I wasn’t surprised that Masek found herself asking, “Is there a way to scale the senior-level expertise into AI [in a way] that actually helps users do the work of comms in the proactive and skilled way that we do?”

Honeyjar is her answer to that question. It automates processes like writing announcements, finding the best journalists to pitch, and identifying the most promising speaking opportunities. But Jamshidi told me in a follow-up email that Honeyjar’s vision goes beyond getting press coverage and beyond specific AI tools.

“Honeyjar can find reporters, build media lists, scan news and social, track coverage, and surface opportunities,” she said. “Those capabilities are important, but they’re just one piece of what we’re building. The bigger idea is bringing the whole communications workflow together: signals, context, strategy, judgment, timing, and execution.”

And it’s not just for founders. Masek said she’s come to realize there are “millions and millions of unassigned communicators responsible for the work of comms.”

“They don’t have the title of comms, but they’re marketers, investors, authors, creators, school superintendents, sports team leaders,” she added. “It’s incredibly horizontal, this need to nail strategic communications. It’s always passed around, but the problems are very often not solved.”

Nor is Honeyjar trying to replace PR professionals. Masek said she and Jamshidi built the tool they wanted to use themselves. She argued that Honeyjar can make PR firms and in-house comms teams more effective, while allowing individual PR practitioners to “take on that third client without any scaling cost.”

When Honeyjar opened its waitlist, it received 10,000 signups in the first 24 hours, said Masek. Beta testers include Nextdoor, tech startup Coco Robotics, investor Bloomberg Beta, and agencies Mission North and Full Picture.

That sounds promising for companies looking to get more attention, but it could be a nightmare for journalists. We receive more pitches than we can respond to, many of them already written by AI chatbots.

When I raised my fears about getting inundated with even more PR slop, Masek noted that while Honeyjar can draft a pitch email or a social media post in the customer’s voice, the customer actually has to hit send or publish.

“We never want a world where the human is removed from the loop,” she said.

And that’s also where judgment is key. Masek said she and Jamshidi tried to “infuse and encode Honeyjar with our wisdom.” Through a broader initiative called the Comms Lab, they’re now training the product on the judgment of other PR pros as well.

“For us, judgment is knowing what to do, what not to do, when to act, and how to adapt to the situation,” Jamshidi added. “That comes from understanding a company’s goals and priorities, what’s happening inside and outside the organization, and knowing what to say, to whom, where, and when.”

In some cases, Masek said Honeyjar might even tell a founder that they’re simply not ready for coverage.

“We hear from reporters all the time who want better pitches, who want to hear from experts directly,” she said. “We actually see a future where there are more credible pitches in your inbox from sources who you actually want to hear from.”

Microsoft President Brad Smith is calling for urgent regulation of AI, and his argument is that consumer products like milk and washing machines have more oversight than the companies building artificial intelligence.

On a recent BBC podcast, Smith called AI both a “weapon and a tool” that is putting the world’s cybersecurity at risk, and said the “moment has arrived” to institute global safety rules.

Smith also said the U.K., and not the U.S. or European Union, is best placed to lead on global safety rules. Britain’s AI Security Institute, launched in 2023, receives access to major models from U.S. frontier labs before they are deployed and has quickly become a leader in AI safety testing. 

That role has been under threat in recent weeks, with U.S. President Donald Trump warning against “globalist” organizations, which he claims are interfering with American companies. Last month, he reportedly asked Anthropic and OpenAI to withhold new models from British testers, but AISI confirmed on Monday that it is able to access and test the latest models. 

Despite the president’s pushback, however, Smith argued the U.K. can regulate AI in ways that the U.S. cannot. 

“In Washington, D.C., people don’t look at the U.K. and they don’t look at London the way they look at Brussels,” he told the BBC. “That’s a strength.”

His comments come amid rallying cries from tech leaders, including Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, to slow the pace of AI development in the wake of several incidents where AI agents went rogue.

Last month, Trump hosted tech leaders of companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, AMD, SpaceX, Meta and Google at the White House to discuss AI safety. They signed a “morally binding” document in which they agreed to work with “independent auditors” to assess the safety and capabilities of their AI models. 

Smith says the document is a “good step,” but it stops short of the type of regulation that is necessary. The problem with voluntary self-regulation, he said, is that the “good companies” will comply. 

“It’s the companies that are not as responsible that you need to worry about,” he said.

Smith outlined several AI safety rules he’d like to see put into place, like a legal obligation to alert an organization if its system was breached by rogue AI agents. He also appears to be in favor of AI labs getting the approval of outside evaluators before an AI product is released, and spoke positively about kill-switches to pause or slow down AI if humans lose control of it. 

“Let’s speak calmly, maybe even softly, but firmly, and start to bring people together,” Smith said. “I hope that’s the role we can play as a company. I hope that’s the role the U.K. can play as a country.”

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 is built around one question: How do you build an enduring company in the AI era? Our programming and speaker lineup reflect that, based on the feedback we’ve gotten from the community and the reality on the ground. And everything kicks off in just a few days, act now before your chance to save $100 on your pass comes to an end.

Last year at Disrupt, we spoke with founders about their experiences and discovered the results of their attendance firsthand. One founder saw a 3x oversubscription rate after their confirmation for Startup Battlefield and more than 100 investor inbounds helping fuel conversations about a future fundraising round. Another founder had nearly 30 back-to-back conversations with investors who flocked to them after a pitch onstage and followed them to their booth.

That’s not the exception at Disrupt — that’s the point. And those opportunities aren’t just available for Battlefield finalists. Every conversation in the Expo Hall or in a Side Event can create an opportunity for your startup. For years, whether it’s been held in New York, San Francisco, or elsewhere, Disrupt has brought together thousands of founders, investors, startup team members, and tech leaders.  

We’re keeping that mission alive at SF’s Moscone West, this October 13-15 with a packed lineup of speakers, more than 200 expert sessions, a wealth of organized and serendipitous networking opportunities, and most of all, the chance to be in the same room as the person who could change your nascent idea for a company or your current startup’s trajectory.

This guide is for the founders out there who are just learning about Disrupt, who need a refresher, or are skeptical of whether it’s worth it. TechCrunch has been around for more than 20 years; we can take it. And before you dive in, we have two discounts that run up until Disrupt begins you should be know about. Founders can bring a team member along for 50% off their ticket by following this link, or you can help laid off members of your network find their next opportunity at Disrupt with our steep discount of Expo+ passes.

The reality of what makes Disrupt, Disrupt 

If you’re asking Claude or ChatGPT if TechCrunch Disrupt is worth it, you’re not alone. The reality is that Disrupt is a unique event, and it’s happening at a unique time for the startup community.

This year’s Disrupt isn’t about predicting the future of AI; it’s about building companies in it. Across six editorially curated stages, founders will hear practical lessons from the CEOs, investors, engineers, and operators shaping the next decade of technology.  

Whether you’re raising your first round, scaling your team, or deciding how AI changes your product, every session is designed to answer one question: “What can I take back to my company on Monday morning?”

The founders Disrupt empowers 

Disrupt works a bit differently, depending on where you are in your founding journey, with different tracks you can follow to make the most of the three days:

Pre-seed and idea stages 

You’re here to pressure-test your thesis, meet your first angel or pre-seed investors, and figure out who else is building in your space. Prioritize the Builders Stage, the Startup Battlefield semifinalist pitches, and the Expo Hall, along with roundtables tied to your industry and conversations you’ll want to learn more from.

Early revenue or actively raising 

You’re here for capital and validation above all else, and your time is valuable. Prioritize our investor-matchmaking tools and the connections that come with your Founder Pass, including the networking tools in our app. You also get access to the Deal Flow Café, where we foster one-on-one conversations between founders and investors.  

And when your schedule isn’t packed with dealmaking, learn from VC perspectives and fundraising-focused sessions at the Builders Stage.

Scaling, hiring, in search of partnerships 

You’re here in search of talent, strategic partners, and market visibility. Those same networking tools and opportunities can help you meet potential hires and partners and deepen those connections or make new ones. Disrupt’s Side Events aren’t to be missed — there’s one for every industry, interest, or post-event vibe you could be looking to find.

Startup Battlefield: The most iconic pitch competition 

The Startup Battlefield winner’s reveal packs the Disrupt stage and is each year’s capstone event. But it’s the lead-up to that $100,000 check and the deluge of attention the winner receives that’s the most valuable for founders attending Disrupt.

The 200 startups chosen on August 20 to compete go through a rigorous prep process and get the opportunity to pitch onstage in front of top-tier VCs and the Disrupt crowds. You’ll also get to watch those pitches, take notes, learn from the peaks and valleys, and potentially meet the teams behind the ideas and innovations. It could be in a follow-up meeting or just walking through the halls of Moscone.  

And if that all leaves you inspired, here’s an insider tip: Most Battlefield participants, and several winners, have gone through the process multiple times. We’re no longer taking applications for 2026’s competition, but we’re expanding the program to more international markets, and the 2027 process will be similar to this year’s, so take note for the future!

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The founder-focused programming 

Disrupt 2026 spans several stages, each built around a different founder need:

• Disrupt Stage: The biggest conversations in technology, featuring the founders, CEOs, and industry leaders defining what’s next. These are the conversations you’ll be talking about long after Disrupt ends.
• Builders Stage: The tactical playbook for building a startup. From fundraising and hiring to GTM, product, and scaling, every session is designed to give founders practical advice they can put to work immediately.
• AI Stage: AI isn’t the future — it’s the present. Learn how the fastest-growing startups are building, deploying, and monetizing AI, with practical lessons on agents, models, infrastructure, and what it takes to win in the AI era.
• Real World AI Stage: AI is moving beyond the screen and into the physical world. Explore how robotics, autonomous systems, manufacturing, healthcare, and defense are turning AI breakthroughs into real-world products and businesses.
• Smart Money Stage: Follow the money. From fintech and stablecoins to payments, embedded finance, and AI-driven financial services, this stage explores how technology is reshaping the movement of capital.
• Smart Systems Stage: Every AI breakthrough depends on the infrastructure behind it. Discover the innovations in chips, compute, energy, networking, and data centers that will determine the next generation of technology companies.

Conversations you can only get at Disrupt 

• RJ Scaringe (Rivian): Building a generational company. 

• Panos Panay (Amazon): Designing products people love. 

• Paolo Ardoino (Tether): Money, AI, and infrastructure. 

• Toni Schneider and Rose Wang (Bluesky): Can social start over? 

• Amjad Masad (Replit): Every founder becomes technical. 

• Andrew Feldman (Cerebras): Winning the AI compute race. 

And that’s just the beginning — we’ll have more speakers to announce as we get closer to Disrupt. Check out the full lineup of speakers across all stages and events here.

How to get the most bang for your buck at Disrupt 

Disrupt’s prices increase as we get closer to the event, but we have a couple of promotions for Founders looking to save. You can save 50% on a second ticket by following the link here, and bring a coworker or co-founder along for the ride.  

If there are colleagues in your network who have been impacted by layoffs who you’d like to have join up, we have an option for them as well, with a special $75 Expo+ Pass available at a limited volume for those impacted by cutbacks this year.

Your time at Disrupt is valuable, too, so before you head there, check on our regularly updated schedule of speakers and Side Events, get ahead of competitors’ schedules by booking your networking opportunities in advance, and get your own elevator pitches in order to make the most of those magical Disrupt moments that can come at any point October 13-15!

Earlier this year, the streaming and entertainment industry witnessed one of its most high-stakes megadeals ever, stunning industry observers. Not only is it historic in its size, but it is also predicted to disrupt Hollywood and the media business as we know it. 

After years of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) struggling under the weight of billions of dollars in debt, compounded by declining cable viewership and fierce competition from streaming platforms, the company has been considering major strategic changes, including selling its entertainment assets to one of its rivals.

Several major players saw the potential in acquiring the media giant, and in December, Netflix announced it would acquire WBD’s studios and streaming for $82.7 billion.

But in a surprise eleventh-hour move in late February, the David Ellison-run Paramount became the winner of this bidding war, offering $111 billion to acquire all of WBD’s assets, including its studios, HBO, streaming platforms, games, and TV networks such as CNN and HGTV. Paramount was recently acquired by Ellison with significant support from his father, Larry Ellison — the Oracle chairman, world’s sixth-richest person, and major Trump donor.

Paramount’s offer was approved by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in June. A federal judge then paused the deal after a lawsuit was filed on July 13 by a coalition of 12 state attorneys general. However, a judge approved it in late September, with the acquisition finally official as of October 6.

Let’s break down exactly what happened and what could come next. 

What has happened so far?

​This all started back in October 2025 when Warner Bros. Discovery revealed it was exploring a potential sale after receiving unsolicited interest from several major players in the industry.

​The bidding process quickly became competitive, and Paramount and Comcast emerged as serious contenders, with Paramount initially viewed as the frontrunner. 

However, WBD’s board eventually determined that an offer from the streaming giant Netflix was the most attractive. Netflix offered $82.7 billion for just Warner’s film, television, and streaming assets.

Thus began the bidding war. Paramount believed its bid of approximately $108 billion for all of Warner’s assets was superior to Netflix’s offer that focused on just the studios and streaming. To sweeten its deal, Netflix amended its agreement in January to an all-cash offer at $27.75 per share of Warner Bros. Discovery, further reassuring investors and paving the way for the deal to proceed.

​Paramount persisted in its attempts to acquire WBD. Still, the Warner board repeatedly rejected its offers, citing concerns about Paramount’s heavy debt load and the increased risk associated with its proposal, including concern over the suite of investors bankrolling Paramount’s bid, which includes Saudi, Qatari, and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds. The board noted that Paramount’s offer would have left the combined company burdened with $87 billion in debt, a risk they were unwilling to take at the time.

In January, Paramount filed a lawsuit seeking more information about the Netflix deal. A month later, the company sought to sweeten its deal by announcing it would offer a $0.25 per share “ticking fee” to WBD shareholders for each quarter the deal fails to close by December 31, 2026. It also said it would pay the $2.8 billion breakup fee if Warner backs out of its deal with Netflix.

Then, in a final attempt to secure a deal, Paramount increased its offer to $31 per share in February. This prompted the WBD board to prolong discussions with Paramount regarding a potential agreement, considering it as a superior offer. Netflix declined to increase its bid and withdrew from the negotiations.

“The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval,” Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in a statement on February 26. “However, we’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid.”

In addition to the billions Paramount already holds in debt, the company is also set to assume the approximately $33 billion in debt Warner Bros. Discovery holds under the agreement. The deal will be backed by a $54 billion debt commitment from Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Citi, and Apollo Global Management, as well as $45.7 billion in equity from Larry Ellison.

Regulatory hurdles and other concerns

In addition to the assumption of substantial debt posing a significant financial burden, Paramount faced several other hurdles in its deal with WBD. 

For one, Ellison has warned about significant job reductions that are expected in the near future. There have already been widespread concerns among critics about potential job losses and lower wages.

Ellison is also a controversial figure in the industry, and his ownership of CBS News has been seen as sympathetic and supportive of the administration of Donald Trump, of whom his father, Larry Ellison, is a major donor. Under Ellison’s ownership of Paramount, reporting critical of the administration has been shelved or received increased scrutiny from Ellison or his appointed head of CBS News, the conservative provocateur Bari Weiss.

This has led to some concern among employees at Warner-owned CNN. Trump has personally sought concessions from news divisions critical of him, including a $16 million settlement from CBS, before his FCC would approve the Ellison takeover of Paramount. Before Netflix bowed out of the deal, Trump pressured the company to fire the former Biden White House official Susan Rice from its board. He has publicly stated his intentions to bring CNN to heel under new owners.

Regulatory scrutiny was another hurdle. Such a large-scale merger attracted attention from lawmakers.

For instance, California attorney general Rob Bonta said in a statement on February 26 that “these two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny — the California Department of Justice has an open investigation, and we intend to be vigorous in our review.”

A day before Netflix backed out, a coalition of 11 state attorneys general urged the U.S. Department of Justice to review the merger under concerns it will stifle competition and increase subscription prices. This comes months after U.S. senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Richard Blumenthal voiced their concerns to the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, warning that such a massive merger could have serious consequences for consumers and the industry at large. The senators argue that the merger could give the new media giant excessive market power, enabling it to raise prices for consumers and stifle competition.

Despite the DOJ approving the deal in June, a coalition of 12 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit on July 13 to block the merger. The suit argues it would lessen competition and harm movie theaters, cable distributors, and viewers. The coalition is led by Bonta, with Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington also joining. 

In response, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued a 14-day pause.

What now?

As of October 6, Paramount and Warner Bros. has officially been renamed Skydance, and the new combined corporation will have annual revenue of almost $70 billion.

In terms of its streaming services— Paramount+, HBO Max, and Discovery+,— those are all set to be combined eventually.