Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories this afternoon

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October 20, 2026

 

TechCrunch Top 3

SpaceX alum's aviation startup, Reliable Robotics, lands $115M, topping $1B valuation

SpaceX alum's aviation startup, Reliable Robotics, lands $115M, topping $1B valuation: Reliable Robotics extended its Series D round with $115 million in equity and $25 million in debt. Read More

Google has joined Amazon in attacking Nvidia's stronghold with AI app developers: Google has joined Amazon in releasing a developer tool that makes it easy for PyTorch users to move their apps off Nvidia GPUs. Read More

Eric Schmidt reportedly owns about half as much of Anthropic as CEO Dario Amodei: The former Google CEO owns about 1% stake in the leading AI lab, Bloomberg reported. Read More

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Afternoon Must-Reads

SpaceX's AI business is beating expectations

SpaceX's AI business is beating expectations: SpaceX hit profitably in the third-quarter, with net income of $4.4 billion. AI was the engine. Read More

Spotify launches paid podcast memberships with perks beyond bonus content: Spotify's new paid memberships let podcasters offer fans exclusive perks, including ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content, while keeping 90% of the revenue. Read More

Oura adds new fitness metrics to show how workouts impact your body: While Oura has largely dominated the smart ring market for years, rivals like RingConn and Ultrahuman are emerging to dethrone it, putting pressure on the company to keep innovating. By launching more advanced workout metrics, Oura is looking to differentiate itself from competitors as the smart ring market gets more crowded. Read More

Anthropic’s cloud partnerships are getting messy: Anthropic is reportedly struggling to secure enough compute from cloud providers that increasingly view it as a competitor, even as its infrastructure spending balloons ahead of a planned November IPO. Read More

Meta's Muse hits 10M U.S. downloads in 40 days, a milestone reached by only 11 other apps: Meta's AI companion Muse has surpassed 10 million U.S. downloads in its first 40 days, joining an exclusive group of apps that includes Threads. New data also shows Muse is retaining users at higher rates than its AI rivals. Read More

 

Last but Not Least

Plants can speak using electricity, so this startup built an AI model to decipher their language

Plants can speak using electricity, so this startup built an AI model to decipher their language: Electric Plant has built an AI-powered translator to help humans listen to what plants are saying with the subtle electricity coursing through their stems. Read More

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