All posts tagged: TechCrunch

Disrupt 2026: Day 1 | TechCrunch

Disrupt 2026: Day 1 | TechCrunch

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Day 1 of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 is officially underway, bringing together 10,000+ startup founders, investors, and tech leaders under one roof at San Francisco’s Moscone West. Big ideas are colliding, connections are forming at every turn, and the startup ecosystem’s most influential voices are driving the conversation. From Startup Battlefield to six new industry stages focused on scaling, AI, fintech, climate tech, and more, Disrupt is packed with game-changing perspectives and opportunities. The next partnership, investment, or breakout company could emerge from any meeting, session, or coffee line conversation. Meet the 250+ speakers shaping the discussion. Grab your ticket now so you don’t miss a moment at Disrupt. There’s still a little time to grab your pass and be a part of this annual startup epicenter. Explore. Connect. Discover. Day 1 highlights Registration hours: 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Stop by the registration desk in the Level 1 lobby of Moscone West to register in person or pick up your scannable event badge. The badge features Klik technology, which makes it easy to exchange contact …

Kimi: Threat or menace?

Kimi: Threat or menace?

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Chinese company Moonshot AI released a new version of its Kimi model this week, generating another wave of discourse about China and open source AI. Moonshot said that although Kimi K3 “still trails the most powerful proprietary models, Claude Fable 5 and GPT 5.6 Sol,” the new open source model “demonstrated frontier-level performance across our evaluation suite, consistently outperforming other tested models.” Independent analyses from Arena.ai and Vals AI also suggested that Kimi is competitive with flagship frontier models. The announcement, which coincided with a speech from Chinese president Xi Jinping at the World AI Conference in Shanghai, seems to have spooked Wall Street, with the Nasdaq dropping about 1% on Friday as investors sold off stocks in chip companies like Nvidia. Many of the resulting posts from tech industry figures will sound familiar to those who remember the debate after another Chinese company, DeepSeek, released its open source R1 model in January 2025. Except now, everything seems heightened after the Trump administration’s tariff war with China, repeated fights over the national security threat supposedly …

The 12-month window | TechCrunch

The 12-month window | TechCrunch

Published by Miika Tikkanen

In a recent episode of “No Priors” — the excellent podcast co-hosted by AI investors Sarah Guo and Elad Gil — Gil made a point about exit timing that’s undoubtedly familiar to founders who’ve spent time with him but seems particularly useful in this moment of go-go dealmaking. For most companies, Gil said, there’s roughly a 12-month period where the business is at its peak value, “and then it crashes out.” The companies that capture generational returns are often the ones where someone spies that moment instead of assuming the good times will get even better. Lotus, AOL, and Mark Cuban’s Broadcast.com all sold at or near the top, and all are held up by Gil as outfits that foresaw what was coming and smartly pulled the ripcord. To catch that window, Gil offered a practical suggestion: pre-schedule a board meeting once or twice a year specifically to discuss exits. If it’s a standing calendar item, it drains the emotion out of the equation. This matters more now than it might have a few years …

AI layoffs or ‘AI-washing’?

AI layoffs or ‘AI-washing’?

Published by Miika Tikkanen

How many of the companies with recent layoffs are truly adapting their workforces to the efficiencies and challenges of artificial intelligence? And how many of them were just using AI as an excuse to cover other problems? That’s the question posed by a New York Times article on the trend of “AI-washing,” where companies will cite AI as the reason for layoffs that might actually be caused by other factors, like over-hiring during the pandemic. AI was the stated reason for more than 50,000 layoffs in 2025, with Amazon and Pinterest among the tech companies who blamed the technology for recent cuts. But a Forrester report published in January argued, “Many companies announcing A.I.-related layoffs do not have mature, vetted A.I. applications ready to fill those roles, highlighting a trend of ‘A.I.-washing’ — attributing financially motivated cuts to future A.I. implementation.” Molly Kinder, a senior research fellow at the Brookings Institute, noted that saying layoffs were caused by AI is a “very investor-friendly message,” especially when the alternative might mean admitting, “The business is ailing.” …