Tonight marks your last chance to save up to $300 on a TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 pass

If you’ve been circling around Disrupt, then now’s the best time to lock in your pass and start getting ready to join the rest of the startup community gathering in San Francisco from October 13-15 at Moscone West!  

Higgsfield raises $400M Series B, quadrupling its valuation in 8 months to $5.4B

Higgsfield, founded by former Snap exec Alex Mashrabov, lets users create AI images and videos.

Sound-powered fire protection startup gets $15M to snuff out fires before they turn catastrophic

Sonic Fire Tech raised its new funding to help get its sound-powered fire protection system into everything from commercial kitchens to apartment buildings.

Terra Industries closes $52M seed round to build defense infrastructure for the Global South

African defense tech company Terra Industries announced an additional $18 million in funding, bringing its seed round to $52 million.

Stripe will reportedly acquire AI gateway startup OpenRouter for $7B+

OpenRouter’s CEO recently described the startup as Stripe for AI.

SpaceX officially closes its Cursor acquisition

AI coding startup Cursor is now officially a part of SpaceX.

Kog is going deeper to squeeze more inference out of GPUs

The idea that GPUs are poorly suited for agentic workflows may be a misconception, according to French startup Kog.

Investors sue Selena Gomez alleging fraud tied to her mental health startup

The plaintiffs say they invested nearly $1.2 million in the company, and are accusing Gomez of failing to build and market the startup.

Databricks wanted to raise $1B, investors wanted $15B. It settled on $5B at a $190B valuation.

AI is expensive, Ali Ghodsi tells TechCrunch. With so many investors wanting into his latest round, he said yes to more than planned.

AI coding startup Cognition reportedly already in talks to raise at $40B valuation

Cognition may be looking to raise another mega round just a few months after raising $1 billion at a $26 billion valuation.