September 10, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence: Mullenweg said in a company Slack message that it was against his will. Read More

ID verification giant IDScan confirms data breach with more than 150 million driver's licenses stolen: The ID checking company said the data breach included people's full names and driver's licenses and other government-issued identity documents. Read More

Defense tech Mach Industries doubles valuation to $3.7B in 3 months: The buzzy startup raised $600 million in its Series C round. Read More

Join OpenAI, Anthropic and More at Disrupt

AI has made it faster than ever to bring an idea from concept to launch.

But it hasn't made it easier to build something durable.

Disrupt 2026's programming is built around that challenge, delivering practical sessions on what actually holds up and how to build it with leaders from OpenAI, Anthropic, Replit, Amazon, and more.

Morning Must-Reads

Everything Apple announced at its fall iPhone event, from the foldable iPhone Duo to an always-listening Apple Watch: The main event was the tech giant's highly anticipated first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo. Read More

Apple’s new CEO is reviving a Steve Jobs strategy from 25 years ago: John Ternus made the case in his first keynote as Apple CEO that the iPhone isn't going anywhere. Read More

AI research startup Listen Labs scrubbed a $1.5B funding round for Salesforce talks: Listen Labs walked away from a signed Series C term sheet from Menlo Ventures, sources say. Read More

Google signs its biggest rice-methane carbon credit deal with Indian startup Mitti Labs: The four-year agreement will cover rice farms across three Indian states, reaching about 100,000 hectares at peak delivery. Read More

Apple Watch's new AI features are normalizing the idea that technology is always listening: Apple says its new watches won’t save raw audio, but features that can transcribe recent speech and summarize ambient conversations raise new questions about consent, privacy, and how people behave when they know they could always be recorded. Read More

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