TechCrunch Top 3

Uzbekistan's Uzum valuation leaps over 50% in seven months to $2.3B: Uzum now reaches 20 million users and processes $11B in payments as it expands its e-commerce and fintech ecosystem across Uzbekistan. Read More

Yann LeCun's AMI Labs raises $1.03 billion to build world models: AMI Labs, the new venture cofounded by Turing Prize winner Yann LeCun after he left Meta, has raised $1.03 billion at a $3.5 billion pre-money valuation. Read More

Electric air taxi maker Archer hits back at Joby in countersuit alleging concealed Chinese ties: Archer's countersuit comes four months after Joby sued its rival for alleged 'corporate espionage.' Read More

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.

A message from UK Office for Investment

UK Quantum – Accelerating healthcare prevention

The UK's National Health Service is already placing quantum at the centre of its preventative healthcare strategy. By 2030, the UK aspires to use quantum sensing to improve early diagnosis and treatment, from cancer screening to enhanced MRI scanning.

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Morning Must-Reads

Meta acquired Moltbook, the AI agent social network that went viral because of fake posts: Meta says that Moltbook's approach to "connecting agents through an always-on-directory" is novel. Read More

Google rolls out new Gemini capabilities to Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive: The idea behind the new features is to make the apps more personal and capable to help users get things done faster, right within the platforms themselves. Read More

An iPhone-hacking toolkit used by Russian spies likely came from U.S military contractor: Google found a series of hacking tools they said were used by a Russian espionage group and a cybercriminal group in China. Sources from a U.S. government defense contractor said some of those hacking tools were theirs. Read More

Adobe is debuting an AI assistant for Photoshop: Adobe is also adding new AI-powered image editing features to Firefly. Read More

Zoom introduces an AI-powered office suite, says AI avatars for meetings arrive this month: Zoom is also introducing a real-time deepfake detection tech for meetings Read More

A message from Stripe

Complimentary pass to Sessions with code s26techcrunch100

Join Stripe at Sessions 2026—the internet economy conference—happening April 29–30 in San Francisco. Join fellow business leaders, founders, and developers to explore the latest in financial technology, global commerce, and strategies for growth. Register with code s26techcrunch100 for a complimentary pass.

Last but Not Least

Sandbar secures $23M Series A for its AI note-taking ring: Sandbar aims to ship the Stream, which can be used to take notes, chat with an AI assistant, and for media playback, this summer. Read More