June 27, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

HaloBraid raises $7M from Seven Seven Six to end the six-hour hair salon appointment: HaloBraid aims to help salons speed up braiding with its first device, slated to launch later this year, that acts as a braiding assistant for professional stylists. Read More

OpenAI unveils its first custom chip, built by Broadcom: Named Jalapeño, the new processor was designed specifically for the unique needs of OpenAI's inference systems. Read More

WhatsApp gets new chief as Meta taps India's CRED founder Kunal Shah and invests $900M in startup: WhatsApp gets a new boss, as Will Cathcart moves to a new role at Meta, while Shah steps down as CEO of Indian fintech giant CRED to replace Cathcart. Read More

This Week's Must-Reads

Asian AI startups launch Mythos-like models as Anthropic's export ban drags on: New models are launching in Asia that promise Mythos-like capabilities without fear of an export ban. U.S. AI labs may never recover this enormous market. Read More

The fittest founder in the room got cancer. Here's how he used AI to fight back.: When confronted with cancer, Connor Christou fed everything tied tied to his regime — blood results, scan data, wearable output, journal entries — into Claude. Read More

Corgi, the buzzy Y Combinator-backed insurance tech startup, says it didn't steal an open source product: Corgi became embroiled in controversy when Papermark accused it of stealing its software. Corgi says it did not, raising new questions about vibe coding. Read More

Former Infosys chief has a new startup that wants to challenge the IT services world: Backed by Mayfield and Aramco Ventures, Vishal Sikka’s new venture brings together veterans from SAP, Infosys, and VianAI. Read More

Trump administration proposes axing brake-pedal requirement for AVs in a boost for Tesla: The Department of Transportation wants to remove the brake-pedal requirement for vehicles "designed to be driven exclusively by automated driving systems." Read More

A message from TechCrunch Startup Battlefield Australia

Startup Battlefield Australia is Calling Now

TechCrunch Startup Battlefield is coming to Australia — and we're partnering with Stripe to find the country's most exciting early-stage startups. If you're a pre-seed to Series A Australian startup with a scalable, revenue-generating business model, this is your chance to get access to global investors, media and partners. The grand prize winner will get a spot at Disrupt SF Startup Battlefield 200 and take home $15,000 USD in Stripe fee credits.

Apply Now

Disrupt 2026: Where deals and ideas ignite

Oct 13–15 at San Francisco's Moscone West, 10,000 founders, investors, and operators gather for high-signal insights, curated connections, and real momentum.

Last but Not Least

OpenAI limits GPT-5.6 rollout after government request, says restrictions shouldn’t be the norm: “We don’t believe this kind of government access process should become the long-term default,” says OpenAI. “It keeps the best tools from users, developers, enterprises, cyber defenders, and global partners who need them.” Read More

Check out some of our other newsletters:

StrictlyVC

TechCrunch Events

TechCrunch Mobility

Got a tip?
Get in touch securely.

Want to advertise on TechCrunch?

Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter.

Unsubscribe

Member Center

501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107