Tech

The 11 standout startups from YC's Demo Day, according to VCs

TechCrunch spoke to investors to find the hottest startups in the Spring 2026 YC batch. Some of them commanded valuations of over $175 million, VCs said.

A 201-year-old mutual bank just launched an AI Center of Excellence with a startup partner

Liberty Bank launched an AI Center of Excellence with Flare AI to deploy secure, compliant AI across personal, commercial, and digital banking operations.

AI pioneer Yann LeCun calls Elon Musk's xAI a 'failure'

Meta alum and AI pioneer Yann LeCun said that Elon Musk had trouble hiring top AI talent because of xAI's founding team's exits.

UPS is building a real-time digital twin of its entire logistics network, updated every 10 minutes

UPS detailed AI plans including a digital twin of its full network, agentic control towers, RFID tracking, and AI customs clearance hitting 97% first-day rates.

Almost half of U.S. singles feel negatively about AI in dating, Match says

About 47% of singles look negatively at the use of AI in dating -- but, many dating app users are open to AI helping with profile punch-ups and conversation starters.

General Intuition raising $300M for AI trained on gaming data

General Intuition, the AI lab that spun out of gaming clip platform Medal after rejecting a reported $500 million offer from OpenAI, is raising approximately $300 million at a valuation of just over $2 billion. Backers reportedly include Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt.

Amazon hopes to challenge Nvidia more directly by selling its AI chips

AWS is in talks to sell its chips to other data centers. CEO Andy Jassy has said this represents a $50 billion opportunity for the company.

Russia Wants AI Sovereignty. It Has a Chip Problem

In early April, on a stage in the southwestern outskirts of Moscow, a moderator at Russia’s annual Data Fusion conference wanted to know: what is the most important thing for Russia to get right in its quest to develop an AI ecosystem?

Rape convictions under review after UK detective allegedly used AI chatbot for paperwork

Derbyshire Police investigating whether officer used software to secure desired court outcome

This robotic self-driving toilet comes to you

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ChatGPT has 230 million people asking for health advice weekly. It wants more.

Researcher Karan Singhal drives OpenAI's goal to elevate ChatGPT's health advice, reaching millions of users weekly for wellness guidance.

Ford launches $2B battery storage unit for AI data centres

Ford has launched Ford Energy, a $2 billion subsidiary that will manufacture grid-scale battery storage systems for data centers and utilities using CATL-licensed LFP technology at a repurposed Kentucky plant. It has already signed a five-year deal with EDF Power Solutions for up to 20 GWh.