July 20, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

Hugging Face confirms breach affected internal datasets and credentials, urges users to take action: Hugging Face is urging users to rotate any access tokens stored on the platform and review account activity. Read More

AI's most important protocol is getting a little bit easier to use: The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is one of the basic building blocks of AI interoperability, giving AI models a secure way to access external data sources and services. It's the plumbing that lets a chatbot reach into your calendar, your database, or your internal tools, instead of engineers building custom pipes for every connection. Next week, that protocol is getting a significant update, and while it might not be noticeable to end users, it could make a big difference in how the ecosystem develops. The official spec for the new version has been public since May, but we got an unusually clear explanation of the changes Monday morning from the folks at Arcade — a two-year-old startup that's built its entire business around the work of getting AI agents to actually function inside real companies, letting them securely connect to and act on tools like Gmail, Slack, and Salesforce. Arcade raised $60 million in June on the idea that most AI agents don't fail because the underlying models are weak but because the infrastructure around them isn't ready yet, and that's what this update is trying to address. Essentially, MCP is changing the way it handles session IDs — the little tokens that servers use to remember "ah, this is the same conversation as five seconds ago" — so servers can operate more easily at a larger scale. As Arcade founder Nate Barbettini puts it: [Under the current system] The first time an MCP client like Claude connects to a Read More

Natural raises $30M to reinvent payments for AI agents — and take on Stripe: The one-year-old startup aims to reinvent financial architecture for autonomous AI transactions. Read More

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Afternoon Must-Reads

OpenAI is scared of open-weight models. Should the US be?: Talk of banning Chinese-made open-weight LLMs reveals the challenge of turning AI into a business. Read More

Hackers are exploiting recently patched WordPress bugs, putting millions of websites at risk: Two critical security flaws in WordPress’ software have given hackers the chance to remotely take over tens of millions of websites, according to an estimate by a cybersecurity researcher. Read More

Hackers stole 'significant' amount of data from tech firm relied on by thousands of US hospitals and pharmacies: Edinburgh-based tech firm Craneware said customer data was stolen during a cyberattack. The company makes software that thousands of U.S. hospitals, pharmacies, and clinics rely on for billing patients, potentially exposing health data. Read More

Google is working on a new AI chip designed to make Gemini more efficient: Alphabet, Google's parent company, is reportedly working on a new chip designed to make its Gemini models run much more efficiently. Read More

X relaunches a rebuilt Android app after year-long effort: X says the rebuilt version of its Android app is now available globally. Read More

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Last but Not Least

Inference startup Infinity raises $15M from Touring Capital, OpenAI and Anthropic researchers: AI infrastructure company Infinity announced Monday a $15 million raise at a $100 million valuation from investors including Touring Capital, Principal VC, and researchers from companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Read More

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