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The upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 event in San Francisco will feature a series of 50-minute breakout sessions where industry leaders will address pressing questions about AI, physical AI, and startup growth strategies. Attendees can participate in Q&A segments designed to foster deeper understanding and practical insights, with limited room capacity and first-come, first-served access.
TechCrunch has outlined programming for its Disrupt 2026 conference focused on how AI startups choose between open-source models, proprietary APIs, and multi-model architectures. One confirmed session, featuring executives from CapitalG, Together AI, and Pathway, will examine why companies use multiple AI models rather than standardizing on one, and how they weigh cost, performance, and flexibility. The event is also promoting discounted ticket pricing, including a layoff-affected attendee rate.
TechCrunch announced the five judges who will select the winner of Startup Battlefield at Disrupt 2026, running October 13-15. The panel includes Stacy Brown-Philpot of Cherryrock Capital and Chi-Hua Chien of Goodwater Capital, among others, chosen from thousands of applicants narrowed to 200 startups and 20 finalist pitches. After judging concludes, the five will take part in a live audience Q&A on the Builders Stage.
TechCrunch has published the complete speaker roster for the Disrupt Stage at its Disrupt 2026 conference, running October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Confirmed speakers include Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman, Science Corporation founder Max Hodak, Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley, and all five partners of venture firm Benchmark appearing together.
Blackstone N1 global head Jas Khaira will speak at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 on a panel titled 'Building the Next Generation of AI Giants,' discussing how the firm evaluates AI startups and how founders should approach capital decisions. The announcement highlights recent Blackstone deals, including up to $600 million in equity for Indian AI infrastructure firm Neysa and a $1.5 billion joint venture backing Anthropic's Ode implementation unit.
Clay co-founder and CEO Kareem Amin will speak at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 about the emergence of the 'GTM engineer,' a role Clay says it coined in 2023 for people who build automated, AI-driven revenue workflows instead of manually performing sales and marketing tasks. Clay says roughly 100 such job listings now appear monthly, including at companies like Cursor and Lovable.
TechCrunch is closing exhibit table bookings for Disrupt 2026 at 11:59 p.m. PT on October 2, or sooner if tables sell out. The event runs October 13-15 at San Francisco's Moscone West and is expected to draw over 10,000 founders, investors, operators and tech leaders. Exhibit packages include five Exhibitor-Partner passes and five Expo+ passes, plus access to lead capture through the Disrupt mobile app.
Cerebras Systems co-founder and CEO Andrew Feldman is scheduled to appear at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 for a session titled 'Can AI Keep Scaling?', addressing rising demand for compute, energy and infrastructure. Cerebras builds wafer-scale AI chips as an alternative to conventional chip architectures, raised $5.5 billion in its May IPO, signed a multiyear deal with OpenAI for 750 megawatts of systems through 2026-2028, and launched its CS-4 hardware in August.
TechCrunch is closing exhibit bookings for Disrupt 2026 this Friday, October 2 at 11:59 p.m. PT. The conference runs October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco, and exhibitors get a $12,500 package including a table, 10 team passes, lead-generation tools, and sponsor branding.
Konrad Zieliński, who lost his voice to cancer and later completed a PhD on bionic systems for laryngectomees, founded Uhura Bionics in 2023. The startup makes two non-surgical wearable devices, including a premium model called Whitney, designed to let users speak with emotional inflection rather than a flat robotic tone. Uhura will present at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026's Battlefield 200 next month.
Anthropic's Cat de Jong will join Gamma's Grant Lee and a Clay representative on the AI Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 for a session on how enterprises deploy AI in practice. De Jong, who works directly with enterprise Claude deployments, will discuss where implementations succeed or stall after the initial rollout.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Helion, two companies racing to commercialize fusion energy, will have their leaders speak at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. CFS co-founder Brandon Sorbom and Helion CEO David Kirtley will discuss progress on their respective projects: CFS's SPARC demonstration machine leading to its ARC power plant, and Helion's Orion plant, which aims to deliver 50 megawatts of electricity to Microsoft starting in 2028. CFS has also applied to join the PJM Interconnection wholesale electricity market and raised $1 billion in July, bringing its total funding to $4 billion.