AI coding startup Cognition raises $1B at $25B pre-money valuation
TechCrunch AI18 days agoBusinessTechCrunch reports that AI coding startup Cognition raised $1 billion at a $25 billion pre-money valuation. The company says its annualized revenue run rate has reached 492, though the provided excerpt does not specify the unit. Cognition also says its valuation has more than doubled in eight months, underscoring investor appetite for AI coding startups.
Robinhood Will Let Your AI Agent Trade Stocks and Make or Lose Money
The Verge AI18 days agoBusinessRobinhood says traders can create a separate account for an AI agent and fund it with a chosen amount of money. The agent will then be able to buy and sell stocks across the market. The move pushes AI agents beyond advice or research into direct financial action, with real gains and losses possible.
ElevenLabs’s new music generation model can switch genres mid-track
TechCrunch AI18 days agoNew ToolElevenLabs has introduced a new music generation model focused on finer-grained song editing. According to TechCrunch, users will be able to regenerate a section of a track without affecting the rest of the song. The headline also highlights genre switching mid-track, suggesting the model is aimed at more flexible AI music creation workflows.
This smart bird feeder captures more of my backyard drama
The Verge AI18 days agoHardwareCoolfly Aura is a smart bird feeder designed to record backyard bird visits, interactions, and species sightings. Its modular camera placement can capture more angles, while the app adds AI identification, albums, bird info, and sharing features. The review finds the concept engaging but uneven, with AI limitations in some orientations, app annoyances, subscription limits, and feeder design issues.
SOND exits stealth with $7M for AI-powered sleep earbuds
TechCrunch AI18 days agoHardwareSOND is a sleep tech startup led by Bose’s former head of sleep products. The company has emerged from stealth with $7 million in funding. Its announced product focus is AI-powered sleep earbuds, though the source does not provide details on features, pricing, launch timing, or validation data.
ClickHouse triples annualized revenue to $250M, charting a path toward an IPO
TechCrunch AI18 days agoBusinessClickHouse has grown annualized revenue to $250 million, according to TechCrunch. The database provider is now charting a path toward a possible IPO within the next few years. The report signals continued demand for data infrastructure, analytics databases, and cloud software, though it does not provide details on profitability, valuation, customer mix, or a firm listing timeline.
Business Owners, Do You Really Know How to Use AI?
INSIDE 硬塞 AI18 days agoOpinionThe article argues that many companies use AI mainly to improve efficiency, without creating meaningful revenue or strategic advantage. It proposes distributed AI, placing intelligence closer to where data is generated to reduce latency and support faster decisions. The key message is that firms should balance centralized and distributed architectures to strengthen competitiveness while preserving greater control over data and digital sovereignty.
Jensen Huang Attends Groundbreaking for NVIDIA’s New Taiwan HQ in Beitou-Shilin
INSIDE 硬塞 AI18 days agoBusinessNVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang appeared at the site of the company’s planned new Taiwan headquarters in Beitou-Shilin. The building centers on a “transparent” design concept, using an all-glass curtain wall to symbolize trustworthiness. According to the report, construction is planned to begin by the end of 2026, with completion and opening expected in 2030.
BenQ and MetaAge Adopt AWS Generative AI for Agentic Coding Productivity Gains
INSIDE 硬塞 AI19 days agoBusinessBenQ is expanding AI across its education and business display ecosystem, including software products such as SummarAI and Meeting Room System. The article says BenQ partnered with MetaAge to adopt Amazon Web Services generative AI. Its main claim is a 20x productivity improvement through Agentic Coding, though the provided excerpt does not include implementation details or measurement methodology.
This startup is betting India’s gig economy can train the world’s robots
TechCrunch AI19 days agoBusinessHuman Archive, founded by Berkeley and Stanford researchers, is using India’s gig economy to gather physical-world AI data. Workers are paid to wear camera-equipped caps and sensor devices while moving through real environments. The company is targeting the growing demand from AI and robotics labs for real-world training data needed to develop physical AI systems.
Some ideas for what comes next, May 2026
Interconnects (Nathan L.)19 days agoCommentaryNathan Lambert argues that 2026 AI progress is becoming higher-stakes, with model capabilities, work patterns, economics, and real-world risks all escalating. He says open models still lack a true Claude Code and Opus 4.5-style agent moment, and Gemini has no clear competitor to Claude Code or Codex yet. The essay also tracks Mythos, American open-model momentum, frontier-lab competition, and mounting intervention from governments and other power structures.
Quoting Paul Graham
Simon Willison's Weblog19 days agoOpinionSimon Willison quotes Paul Graham criticizing the growing number of founder emails that appear to be written by AI in a hard-hitting journalistic style. Graham says that once he recognizes an email as AI-written, it becomes difficult not to ignore it. His objection centers on authenticity: a human-signed message written by AI feels deceptive and lowers his opinion of the sender.
Launch HN: Minicor (YC P26) - Windows desktop automations at scale
Hacker News (AI keywords)19 days agoNew ToolMinicor appeared on Hacker News as a Launch HN post focused on Windows desktop automation at scale. Based on the title alone, it seems positioned beyond simple personal scripting, aiming at repeatable automation across Windows desktop workflows. No source text is available, so details such as AI usage, architecture, supported apps, pricing, security controls, and customer traction cannot be confirmed.
Universal Music Group and TikTok renew agreement to combat unauthorized AI music
TechCrunch AI19 days agoBusinessUniversal Music Group and TikTok have renewed their agreement, with a focus on combating unauthorized AI music. The article notes that UMG has spent years pushing platforms, streaming services, and AI companies to adopt stricter content moderation policies. The move reflects growing pressure on major platforms to address AI-generated music, rights protection, and unauthorized use of music-related content.
Digital Infinite to Showcase AI-Stack and ixCSP at COMPUTEX 2026
INSIDE 硬塞 AI19 days agoBusinessDigital Infinite will exhibit AI-Stack and ixCSP at COMPUTEX 2026. AI-Stack focuses on managing heterogeneous AI compute resources, while ixCSP turns compute capacity into operable and billable cloud services. The article frames the company’s direction as moving from AI infrastructure toward cloud-based compute commercialization, though it does not provide benchmark data, pricing, customer deployments, or model-specific details.
What ClickUp’s Mass Layoff Tells Us About the Future of Work★ 85
TechCrunch AI20 days agoBusinessProductivity startup ClickUp is undergoing a massive restructuring, laying off hundreds of human workers to deploy thousands of AI agents in their place. This move by the nine-year-old company highlights a pivotal and controversial shift in how tech firms scale operations. It serves as a stark real-world example of AI-driven labor displacement and the evolving nature of knowledge work.
Ferrari Partners with IBM to Turn F1 Telemetry into Fan Content, Boosting App Engagement by 62%
INSIDE 硬塞 AI21 days agoRelease- Ferrari has partnered with IBM to leverage AI in translating complex, real-time F1 race telemetry data into engaging, fan-friendly content. - By converting highly technical engineering data into interactive assets, Ferrari successfully bridges the gap between hardcore racing science and casual fans. - This AI-driven personalization has resulted in a massive 62% increase in user engagement within Ferrari's official mobile application.
I Tried Amazon’s Bee Wearable and Am Both Intrigued and Slightly Creeped Out
TechCrunch AI21 days agoHardwareTechCrunch reviewed Amazon's new "Bee" AI wearable, highlighting its potential for seamless ambient computing. While the device offers impressive convenience by constantly listening and assisting, it also triggers significant privacy concerns. Like previous AI pins and pendants, Bee forces users to balance the benefits of an always-on assistant against the anxiety of constant surveillance.
Show HN: Agent.email – sign up via curl, claim with a human OTP
Hacker News (AI keywords)24 days agoNew ToolThis Show HN post introduces Agent.email, apparently a tool for programmatic email or account signup. Based on the title, its main idea is signing up through curl, then letting a human claim the resource via OTP. No article body is available, so product details, security model, pricing, and actual use cases cannot be verified.
Launch HN: Runtime (YC P26) – Sandboxed coding agents for every team
Hacker News (AI keywords)24 days agoNew ToolRuntime is a YC P26 launch focused on making coding agents usable across an organization, not only by engineers. It provides sandboxed environments with company context, integrations, secrets, policies, observability, and cost controls. The product page says it works with tools including Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Devin, and OpenCode, while fitting into Slack, Linear, GitHub, and related workflows.