June 20, 2026

The FBI built its own replica small town to simulate real-world cyberattacks: The aim is to teach investigators in a secure environment beyond the classroom by getting hands-on with some of the latest consumer and enterprise technologies, many of which are frequently targeted by malicious hackers. Read More

SpaceX to acquire Cursor for $60B in stock, days after blockbuster IPO: The deal is supposed to help SpaceX's struggling AI division. The company told IPO investors it sees a $26 trillion addressable market in AI. Read More

The AI layoff wave is becoming a powder keg: At the very moment that tens of thousands of workers are being shown the door, a small cohort of AI insiders is becoming wealthy on a scale that's hard to comprehend. Read More

TechCrunch Startup Battlefield is coming to Australia — and we're partnering with Stripe to find the country's most exciting early-stage startups. If you're a pre-seed to Series A Australian startup with a scalable, revenue-generating business model, this is your chance to get access to global investors, media and partners. The grand prize winner will get a spot at Disrupt SF Startup Battlefield 200 and take home $15,000 USD in Stripe fee credits.

NASA picks Eric Schmidt's rocket company for Mars mission, setting up a race with SpaceX: Relativity Space — a rocket maker acquired by former Google executive chair Eric Schmidt last year after stumbling on the path to orbit — might just beat SpaceX to Mars. Read More

The US says ASML's top chip tool may be in China, but how?: There's a commercial logic that cuts against the idea that ASML would risk its export license to arm a Chinese customer. Read More

Aura's impressive e-ink photo frame doesn't even look digital: What's the most cliche possible gift you can give a relative? A digital photo frame, displaying a rotating slideshow of family photos. Now Aura has completely refreshed this product space with its gorgeous Aura Ink frame, which uses e-ink to create a display that doesn't even look digital. Digital frames have always been so popular (yet mostly disappointing) because there's an undeniable allure to the idea of them -- it feels like magic to imagine hanging artwork on your wall that you can change depending on your mood. In practice, these devices usually look clunky. You need to plug them in and figure out how to hide a bulky cord, and does anyone even want another bright screen in their home anyway? This problem was already on the Aura founders' minds when they started the company 10 years ago, but color e-ink wasn't feasible until now to use in a digital frame. "E-ink is definitely next level," co-founder and CTO Eric Jensen told TechCrunch. "We have people tell us that they hung it up, had friends over, and their friends were like, ‘How did you print that picture so quickly?’" E-ink is the same technology that you see on e-readers, which lets you read a book without feeling the same strain that you get from staring at an LED screen for too long. But there aren't that many color e-ink devices on the market aside from the Kindle Colorsoft, because the company that manufactures e-ink displays can only currently produce Read More

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. Read More

The CEO of Allbirds' new AI biz has a plan, but no team: Call it a startup with a sole founder and a very large seed round, but what's next is less clear. Read More

Oct 13–15 at San Francisco's Moscone West, 10,000 founders, investors, and operators gather for high-signal insights, curated connections, and real momentum.

The US government's Anthropic models ban was never about an AI jailbreak: The Trump administration's decision that forced Anthropic to pull its latest cybersecurity models could be reactionary, retaliatory, or both, but the message is clear: The AI industry isn't immune from U.S. government interference. Read More