June 16, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

SpaceX to acquire Cursor for $60B in stock, days after blockbuster IPO: The deal is supposed to help SpaceX's struggling AI division. The company told IPO investors it sees a $26 trillion addressable market in AI. Read More

The US government's Anthropic models ban was never about an AI jailbreak: The Trump administration's decision that forced Anthropic to pull its latest cybersecurity models could be reactionary, retaliatory, or both, but the message is clear: The AI industry isn't immune from U.S. government interference. Read More

SpaceX passes Amazon as valuation balloons to $2.7T: SpaceX's valuation has increased by $1 trillion since its shares started trading on Friday. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

Meta's new ‘AI Mode’ on Facebook pulls from public info across its platforms: Meta announced Monday that it's rolling out a wave of new AI features on Facebook, the latest sign of the company's effort to catch up in the AI race and keep users more engaged on the platform. Read More

ChatGPT's market share slips below 50% for first time: The chatbot still remains the most popular AI assistant worldwide with over 1.1 billion monthly users, followed by Gemini with 662 million and Claude with 245 million. Read More

Malaysia's AI agent-powered messaging app Respond.io raises $62.5M, eyes acquisitions: Respond.io, one of Malaysia startups to watch, uses AI agents to handle high volumes of customer inquiries and charges per convo, not per seat. Read More

Sundar Pichai faces boos, walkout at Stanford graduation ceremony over Google's Israel, ICE ties: AI is once again at the heart of a college graduation protest — this time for the technology's use in Google's defense contracts. Read More

Cybersecurity vets protest 'dangerous' US government ban on Anthropic's most powerful models: A group made up of dozens of cybersecurity experts urged the White House to remove export-control restrictions on Anthropic’s Fable and Mythos models, arguing that the order is going to limit the ability of cybersecurity defenders to secure their software and products. Read More

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Last but Not Least

India orders temporary ban on Telegram over exam fraud concerns: The restrictions include a nationwide ban on Telegram until June 22 and a requirement to disable the app's message editing feature. Read More