April 09, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

Amazon CEO takes aim at Nvidia, Intel, Starlink, more in annual shareholder letter: Andy Jassy's annual shareholder letter reads something like a diss track to a wide range of competitors as he defends spending $200 billion in capex. Read More

This founder helped build SpaceX's most powerful rocket engine. Now he's building a 'fighter jet for orbit': The company's novel rocket engine could be a game changer for the U.S. military. Read More

A self-driving car in Texas hit and killed a mother duck, sparking neighborhood outrage: An Avride autonomous vehicle near Austin hit the duck, facing backlash from the community. "It didn't slow down or hesitate at all, just steamrolled right through," according to a witness. Read More

Disrupt 2026: Where deals and ideas ignite

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Morning Must-Reads

AWS boss explains why investing billions in both Anthropic and OpenAI is an OK conflict: AWS has an ingrained culture of handling competition, he explained, because the cloud giant also competes with its partners. Read More

Poke makes using AI agents as easy as sending a text: Poke brings AI agents to everyday users via text message by handling tasks and automations without complex setup, apps, or technical know-how. Read More

WireGuard VPN developer can't ship software updates after Microsoft locks account: The popular open source VPN maker is the second high-profile developer to say Microsoft locked his account without notifying him and is blocking their ability to send software updates to users. Read More

Collide Capital raises $95M fund to back fintech, future-of-work startups: Collide Capital, founded by Brian Hollins and Aaron Samuels, announced Thursday the close of a $95 million Fund II. Read More

Spotify now lets everyone turn off videos in its app: The controls can be used to choose an audio-first experience on the app or a video-enhanced one, Spotify says. Read More

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Last but Not Least

Ex-Tesla engineer’s startup taps Pronto to help automate a copper mine: Pronto's autonomous haulage trucks are about to start operating at Mariana Minerals's Utah copper mine -- the first such deal since Pronto got acquired by Travis Kalanick's Atoms Inc. Read More

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