August 17, 2026

Stripe will reportedly acquire AI gateway startup OpenRouter for $7B+: OpenRouter's CEO recently described the startup as Stripe for AI. Read More

Uber adds Zipline drones to its Eats delivery network: Uber is also making investing in Zipline as part of the tie-up. Read More

Wispr raises $280M at $2B valuation as it looks beyond dictation: Wispr’s total funding is now over $361 million. Read More

Alumni Ventures is giving readers early access to high-potential startup opportunities across today’s most active sectors, co-invested alongside name-brand VC firms like Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Bessemer, & Y Combinator. You Get: Curated deal flow of high-potential startups, Investing alongside name-brand vc firms, No cost to see deals, No obligation to invest.

Anthropic CEO says AI backlash is ‘fundamentally a crisis of trust’: Dario Amodei is pushing back against the idea that he's been painting an overly pessimistic picture of AI. Read More

WordPress.com targets the next generation of web creators with a free student plan: WordPress.com Education lets teachers offer their students free domains, plugin support and professional website-building tools. Read More

Why people aren't buying Mark Zuckerberg’s AI future: On the latest episode of Equity podcast, we discuss why not everyone is buying Zuckerberg’s vision. Read More

TechCrunch Mobility: The shifting flight path of electric air taxis: Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. 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

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

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