January 30, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

The iPhone just had its best quarter ever: Growth in regions like China and India are credited with pushing Apple's phone sales higher than ever. Read More

How Sequoia-backed Ethos reached the public market while rivals fell short: The profitable life-insurance platform was one of the first major tech companies to test the 2026 public markets. Read More

Guys, I don't think Tim Cook knows how to monetize AI: One intrepid Morgan Stanley analyst dared to ask how Apple will make money on its AI investments. The answer will not shock you. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

I built marshmallow castles in Google's new AI-world generator: Starting Thursday, Google AI Ultra subscribers in the U.S. can play around with Project Genie, which is powered by a combination of Google's latest world model Genie 3, its image generation model Nano Banana Pro, and Gemini. Read More

Elon Musk's SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI in talks to merge, according to reports: This merger would bring the Grok chatbot, Starlink satellites, and SpaceX rockets together under one corporation. Read More

Apple buys Israeli startup Q.ai as the AI race heats up: Q.ai is an Israeli startup specializing in imaging and machine learning, particularly technologies that enable devices to interpret whispered speech and enhance audio in noisy environments. Read More

Microsoft won't stop buying AI chips from Nvidia, AMD, even after launching its own, Nadella says : Microsoft says its own chip leapfrogs those made by other cloud providers like Amazon and Google. But it needs more. Read More

Amazon is reportedly in talks to invest $50B in OpenAI: If a deal materializes, it would mean Amazon is backing competing startups in the race for AI supremacy. Read More

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Disrupt 2026: +1 pass 50% off ends tonight

Save 50% on a +1 ticket — offer ends tonight or when the first 500 passes are gone! Lock in Disrupt tickets at Super Early Bird pricing now and join 10,000+ founders, investors, and operators Oct 13–15 in San Francisco for curated networking, 250+ speakers, 200+ sessions, and 300+ startup demos.

You missed these chats from Disrupt:

Kindred talks home-swapping platform for travelers, Chef Robotics introduces AI into commercial kitchens, and Character.AI addresses chatbot safety with teens.

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Last but Not Least

Satya Nadella insists people are using Microsoft's Copilot AI a lot : With Microsoft spending many billions on data centers, and rumors that no one is using its AI, CEO Satya Nadella shared some usage numbers. Read More