Celebrating the partners driving Disrupt’s big ideas, connections, and community

October 2, 2025

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 wouldn’t be possible without the incredible support of our sponsors, who bring world-class expertise, bold innovation, and community energy to every corner of the conference.

Department of Energy cancels $7.5B of clean energy projects in Harris-voting states

October 2, 2025

The Trump administration canceled over 300 awards related to clean energy on October 1. The states with affected projects all voted for Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Ex-OpenAI researcher dissects one of ChatGPT’s delusional spirals

October 2, 2025

A former OpenAI researcher looked into how ChatGPT can mislead delusional users about their reality and its own capabilities

Perplexity’s Comet AI browser now free; Max users get new ‘background assistant’

October 2, 2025

AI search startup Perplexity is making its new Comet browser available to everyone in the world for free as it works to position the product against big browsers and search engines. For certain paid subscribers, the startup has also launched a new ‘background assistant’ to handle multiple tasks via Comet.

Amazon now lets Prime members add items to upcoming orders with one tap

October 2, 2025

Amazon’s new “Add to Delivery” button makes it easier for Prime members to buy more and tack on items to existing orders.

Rivian’s best-case guess for 2025 sales is a 16% drop from last year

October 2, 2025

The company will likely sell fewer EVs this year than in both 2024 and 2023, making next year’s launch of the R2 SUV even more important.

How to Navigate Online Cold Calling and Start Real Conversations

October 2, 2025

Cold outreach is still one of the most effective ways to build relationships, but success today comes down to personalization, brevity and leading with value rather than spam.

Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni share the playbook for scaling consumer AI and winning Gen Z at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

October 2, 2025

Phia co-founders Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni are redefining how Gen Z shops with AI. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, they’ll share how they’re scaling one of the year’s hottest startups into a lasting consumer brand. Register to join.

A new a16z report looks at which AI companies startups are actually paying for

October 2, 2025

a16z releases its first AI spending report that shows which AI-native application layer companies startups are actually spending money on .

Hackers are sending extortion emails to executives after claiming Oracle apps’ data breach

October 2, 2025

Google says hackers associated with the Clop ransomware gang are emailing executives at multiple organizations claiming to have stolen their personal information from a suite of Oracle E-Business apps.

The Download: aging clocks, and repairing the internet