August 16, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

SpaceX officially closes its Cursor acquisition: AI coding startup Cursor is now officially a part of SpaceX. Read More

Anthropic shares more details about how Claude’s new watermarks will work: How will the watermarking actually work? Can it be hidden with editing? And how does this affect code? Read More

Woman claims her stepfather used Grok to transform childhood photo into explicit imagery: The woman claimed that AI tools are "taking everyday life and turning it into child sexual abuse." Read More

Sunday Must-Reads

7 desk gadgets that can make your workday better: The right desk gadgets can help you reduce clutter, stay focused, and add a little extra convenience to your day. Read More

Google will now allow users to remove visible watermark from its AI generations: Turning off this setting won't affect invisible benchmarks used to identify an AI generated file. Read More

Talks to sell PayPal to Stripe and Advent are heating up: PayPal is still reportedly negotiating a potential sale to Stripe and private equity firm Advent, as the fintech firm's new CEO attempts to turn the company around. Read More

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

Self-driving trucks are officially testing on California highways: Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI, two companies developing self-driving trucks, have received permits from the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Read More

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

Thrive's Joshua Kushner chides Silicon Valley VCs over AI euphoria: The AI opportunity is huge, but "it would also be a grave error in our minds to let excitement weaken our investment discipline," Kushner warns in his first-ever investment letter. Read More

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