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Mecka AI, a startup that collects and analyzes human motion data to train humanoid robots and other robotics, is nearing a new round led by Sequoia Capital at a valuation of about $500 million, according to two people with knowledge of the deal. The new financing comes just three months after Mecka announced that it raised $60 million in a round led by Framework Ventures that included participation from Menlo Ventures, SV Angel, and Kindred Ventures. TechCrunch has not learned the precise size of the new round. The terms of the deal are not final and could still change. Mecka…

As Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s original opening narration puts it, it is the Slayer’s destiny to stand alone against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness — but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. Sure, Buffy Summers is more than capable of staking a freshly sired vamp that’s just crawled out of its grave, but not all vampires are reborn equal. Some vampires in the Buffyverse massively outclass the usual stake-fodder and pose a huge challenge to Buffy and the Scooby Gang. Increased physical strength is certainly intimidating, but a vampire might also be considered stronger than the…

When it comes to Chinese AI labs using distillation techniques to extract knowledge from frontier model makers, Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan is hoping regulators stay out of it. In fact, he thinks U.S. AI labs should perhaps play the same game. “I would do nothing,” he told CNBC in an interview earlier this week. “We could argue that there should be an American distillation regime.” He elaborated to TechCrunch that this means he wants smaller, American open-weight AI labs to use the same kind of training techniques on American frontier AI labs, giving the U.S. a more robust set…

Twenty-five leading mathematicians signed an open letter arguing that AI labs are threatening their intellectual work as they seek to one-up each other with solutions to famous math problems. Each signatory has been awarded the Fields Medal, considered the most prestigious prize in mathematics. This week, NYU professor Tristan Buckmaster accused OpenAI of pressuring him not to credit a collaborator who works for Anthropic for solving an important math problem, and wondered if the company had used their work with Codex to produce its own groundbreaking proof over a marathon weekend of inference. On Thursday, OpenAI withdrew its sponsorship of…

Book your exhibit table at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 by September 18 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Tables are limited and can sell out before the deadline. If you’re coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 to find customers, meet investors, build partnerships, or put your product in front of the people who can move your business forward, don’t leave your presence to chance. The exhibitor program gives your team a dedicated 6′ × 30″ table in the Expo Hall for all three days — a place to demo what you’re building, answer questions in real time, and turn passing traffic into meaningful conversations.…

The absolute last chance to apply to host an official Side Event during TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 is tonight, September 11, at 11:59 p.m. PT. No more extensions. No more chances. Don’t just bring people together. Create value. If you’re bringing your community to Disrupt, don’t just give them another place to gather. Give them a reason to show up — and give your organization a reason to host. Image Credits:TechCrunch A Side Event can help you: Turn connections into opportunities Put your team directly in front of founders, investors, customers, partners, and other decision-makers who can unlock your next deal,…

One of China’s most prominent AI labs, Moonshot AI, believes it can turn its popular open-weight model into serious sales growth. On Friday, Bloomberg reported that the lab is targeting $2 billion in annualized revenue by the end of the year, double the company’s reported revenue run rate for August. It’s an aggressive goal that reflects the success of the company’s K3 model since its release this summer. While K3’s usage figures have declined slightly in recent months, OpenRouter data currently shows as many as 300 billion tokens being generated each day by K3 models on the system. Moonshot’s projected…

Crypto Banter founder Ran Neuner said regulation poses the biggest risk to Hyperliquid, warning that decentralized exchanges could eventually face greater government scrutiny.Speaking on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction podcast, Neuner said regulators have begun establishing rules for centralized crypto exchanges and predicted decentralized platforms would be next.“The biggest issue is that we don’t know how regulators are going to treat the decentralized exchanges,” Neuner said. He added:The governments have just started to regulate centralized exchanges. There’s MiCA licensing, et cetera, et cetera. And I think that when that’s done, they come in for the decentralized exchanges.Hyperliquid is a layer-1 blockchain best…

Image via Team17 Published Sep 11, 2026, 1:03 PM EDT Adrian has been writing, critiquing, and thinking about games since he first picked up an N64 controller many years ago. These days he writes reviews, news, and features for Game Rant and believes games should be held to the same artistic standards as books, movies, and television shows. When he’s not writing for Game Rant, Adrian writes even more reviews for Sirus Gaming and likes to get nerdy about tech and retro games at HackerNoon. Outside the gaming world, he spends plenty of time enjoying movies or listening to every genre…

Check out the companies making the biggest moves midday: Dell Technologies — Shares rallied more than 10% as part of a broader upswing in tech. The gain would be the stock’s sixth in seven sessions. Dell also got a boost after RBC initiated coverage with an outperform rating. “We believe DELL is well positioned as a primary beneficiary of the global IT spending environment, as enterprise, sovereigns and cloud providers aggressively direct capital towards AI infrastructure,” RBC said. Vicor — The power components maker rose about 11%, on pace for its best day since July 30, after the company said…