April 10, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

Peter Thiel's big bet on solar-powered cow collars: Why did Founders Fund invest $220 million in cattle management startup Halter? 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

After data breach, $10B-valued startup Mercor is having a month: After falling victim to a hacker, Mercor is facing lawsuits and reportedly losing big-name customers. Read More

A message from Fidelity

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Must-Reads

Anthropic says Claude Code subscribers will need to pay extra for OpenClaw usage: It’s about to become more expensive for Claude Code subscribers to use Anthropic’s coding assistant with OpenClaw and other third-party tools. Read More

Databricks co-founder wins prestigious ACM award, says 'AGI is here already': Matei Zaharia has won the top honor from the Association for Computing Machinery. Now he's working on AI for research and says AGI is simply misunderstood. Read More

AI startup Rocket offers vibe McKinsey-style reports at a fraction of the cost: Rocket's new AI platform combines strategy, product building, and competitive intelligence, aiming to move beyond code generation. Read More

Sierra's Bret Taylor says the era of clicking buttons is over: Last month, Sierra launched Ghostwriter, an agent designed to build other agents. With this “agent as a service” tool, the startup intends to replace traditional click-based web applications with natural language. Users simply describe what they need, prompting Ghostwriter to autonomously create and deploy a specialized agent to execute the task. 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

A message from TechCrunch Events

Limited tickets available: StrictlyVC San Francisco

StrictlyVC kicks off the series in SF on April 30. Be in the room for unfiltered fireside chats on fundraising and AI accuracy with industry leaders like Forum AI founder Campbell Brown, Replit co-founder Amjad Masad, and more. Make high-value connections that actually move the needle. Tickets are limited.

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

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

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