June 19, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

Every fusion startup that has raised over $100M: Fusion startups have raised $7.1 billion to date, with the majority of it going to a handful of companies. Read More

Billionaire Ambani wants AI in every call, app, and home: Reliance is weaving AI into telecom services used by more than 500 million people. Read More

The CEO of Allbirds' new AI biz has a plan, but no employees: Call it a startup with a sole founder and a very large seed round, but what's next is less clear. Read More

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Afternoon Must-Reads

The US says ASML's top chip tool may be in China. ASML says it isn't.: There's a commercial logic that cuts against the idea that ASML would risk its export license to arm a Chinese customer. Read More

The 11 standout startups from YC's Demo Day, according to VCs: TechCrunch spoke to investors to find the hottest startups in the Spring 2026 YC batch. Some of them commanded valuations of over $175 million, VCs said. Read More

OpenAI is bringing on some big guns in the lead-up to its IPO : OpenAI is bulking up before its IPO, landing Transformer co-inventor Noam Shazeer from Google DeepMind and former Trump AI policy official Dean Ball in the same week. Read More

Aura's impressive e-ink photo frame doesn't even look digital: What's the most cliche possible gift you can give a relative? A digital photo frame, displaying a rotating slideshow of family photos. Now Aura has completely refreshed this product space with its gorgeous Aura Ink frame, which uses e-ink to create a display that doesn't even look digital. Digital frames have always been so popular (yet mostly disappointing) because there's an undeniable allure to the idea of them -- it feels like magic to imagine hanging artwork on your wall that you can change depending on your mood. In practice, these devices usually look clunky. You need to plug them in and figure out how to hide a bulky cord, and does anyone even want another bright screen in their home anyway? This problem was already on the Aura founders' minds when they started the company 10 years ago, but color e-ink wasn't feasible until now to use in a digital frame. "E-ink is definitely next level," co-founder and CTO Eric Jensen told TechCrunch. "We have people tell us that they hung it up, had friends over, and their friends were like, ‘How did you print that picture so quickly?’" E-ink is the same technology that you see on e-readers, which lets you read a book without feeling the same strain that you get from staring at an LED screen for too long. But there aren't that many color e-ink devices on the market aside from the Kindle Colorsoft, because the company that manufactures e-ink displays can only currently produce Read More

Rivian owners file lawsuit alleging false promises on self-driving features: Plaintiffs in the class -action complaint allege Rivian falsely promised for years it would bring hands-free driving to its first-generation R1 vehicles. Read More

Last but Not Least

Snap spins off AI video team into new company, Dotmo, due to costs: The Snapchat maker is spinning off yet another internal unit. Dotmo will be composed of current Snap staff who are leaving the social media company to focus on AI video development. Read More

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