October 22, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

DeepSeek reportedly raises $15B days after US restrictions: DeepSeek has reportedly raised $15 billion in one of China's largest funding rounds, just days after the US ordered federal agencies to remove its technology over national security concerns. Read More

Claude Duet app is Anthropic's bet on agents: Claude Duet is available through waitlist for Pro and Max plan users Read More

Developer platform Railway urges 'all users' to revoke secret keys after cyberattack: The vibe-coding platform said all of its customers should revoke and rotate their private keys, after hackers were able to decrypt some customer secrets. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

Tesla starts Optimus robot production in California as profit falls 43%: Tesla's revenue was flat and its expenses skyrocketed as it pressed the accelerator on its Optimus robots, AI, and autonomous driving. Read More

Tesla says it will start selling Cybercabs by end of year: Tesla said Wednesday it will start selling its Cybercab to customers by the end of the year, even as federal regulators investigate whether the vehicle meets vehicle safety standards. The gold-hued, autonomous two-seater lacks a steering wheel and other traditional controls. During the company's third-quarter earnings call, Lars Moravy, vice president of engineering at Tesla, said the Cybercabs produced today are all destined for the company's own robotaxi fleet. As that fleet grows, the company will "mainly deliver fully designed autonomous vehicles to our customers," he said, noting that it will start small. The company will scale as it learns about delivery, ownership, and fleet management of autonomous vehicles, Moravy added. Tesla first floated the idea of selling the autonomous vehicle to third parties last month around its Cybercab event in Austin and even posted a form for people interested in buying robotaxis. But it wasn't clear if Tesla would follow through, or how. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has talked for years about building a massive fleet of low-cost robotaxis, but until recently, those plans centered on turning privately owned Tesla vehicles into self-driving taxis with a software update. That plan has yet to materialize, and Musk's comments on the call show how his views have shifted. Today, Tesla owners can subscribe to Full Self-Driving (Supervised), an advanced driver-assistance system that automates many driving tasks but still requires the driver to take control. The company continues to push out software updates to the system to improve its capabilities, but a Read More

Year-old AI lab Flapping Airplanes raises $1B at a $6B valuation: Just 9 months after raising a $180 million seed round, Flapping Airplanes has landed a $1 billion Series A for its mission to build AI models "without ingesting half the internet." Read More

Meta says Muse has over 10M users, with shopping a top activity: Meta Muse users are adopting the app for shopping and personal productivity, the company said during its Q3 earnings call. The AI app now has over 10M users. Read More

Nirva raises $33M for a pendant that only listens to you: Nirva will ship its $249 ambient AI pendant by the end of the year. Read More

Last but Not Least

Meta wants to pay for its broad AI buildout with a newly created class of stock: The social media giant is planning a new stock strategy to help power its broad investments in AI models and services. Read More

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