The internet is having a very bad cybersecurity day

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories this afternoon

View this email online in your browser  October 21, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 The internet is having a very bad cybersecurity day: From AI-discovered PHP vulnerabilities to flaws in Node.js and popular AI tool LiteLLM, cybersecurity teams have plenty to worry about this week. Read More Tesla starts Optimus robot production in California as profit falls 43%: Tesla's revenue was flat and its expenses skyrocketed as it pressed the accelerator on its Optimus robots, AI, and autonomous driving. Read More While Amazon blocks AI agents, Walmart rolls out the welcome mat: As Amazon blocks AI agents from shopping on its site, Walmart is taking the opposite approach, introducing new technology that lets AI agents make purchases on customers' behalf, with controls over spending and transaction approvals. Read More A message from Fidelity Your equity data deserves a system you don’t have to second-guess. Does your equity management platform keep raising renewal costs and waving red flags around data practices? Switching to a new solution might seem overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. With Fidelity Private Shares, transitioning is simple and fast. Our expert team guides you through every step, helping to ensure your equity data is migrated seamlessly and securely. Learn More Go Beyond the Bay Area, Join Us at Founder Summit At TechCrunch Founder Summit on November 4 in Boston, you can deepen your expertise on hiring, product market fit, pitching, founder leadership, and much more in a dynamic, intimate environment. Get ahead of the competition and show the world what the East Coast can build with a 25% discount using the code Daily25. Register Now Afternoon Must-Reads Meta ordered to pay $25 billion in case related to Cambridge Analytica scandal: The payout is related to a recent trial involving the social media giant that revolved around its data privacy practices. Read More Meta says Muse has over 10M users, with shopping a top activity: Meta Muse users are adopting the app for shopping and personal productivity, the company said during Q3 earnings. The AI app now has over 10M users. Read More Automattic begins layoffs following board upheaval and executive departures: Automattic has begun laying off employees across multiple teams, including WordPress.com and its enterprise business, following a board shakeup and a series of executive departures. Sources say more cuts could follow as the company looks to improve its finances. Read More PHP armageddon: OpenAI, Google's Wiz find ancient holes, panicking the internet: This is the kind of security issue that was found and prevented by AI, but is also a high risk because of AI. Read More Heat pump tech is 170 years old — Pascal thinks it’s time for an update: Refrigerants startup Pascal has a new take on heat pump and cooling tech using a sponge-like material that promises to be 20% more efficient. Read More Last but Not Least Year-old AI lab Flapping Airplanes raises $1B at a $6B valuation: Just 9 months after raising an $180 million seed round, Flapping Airplanes has landed $1 billion Series A for its mission to build AI models "without ingesting half the internet." Read More Check out some of our other newsletters: StrictlyVC TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Want to adjust your daily newsletter schedule? You can do it right here Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Unsubscribe Member Center Privacy Policy Copyright © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC 501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107

Heat pump tech is 170 years old. Pascal thinks it’s time for an update.

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories to start your morning

View this email online in your browser  October 21, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 Heat pump tech is 170 years old. Pascal thinks it’s time for an update.: Refrigerants startup Pascal has a new take on heat pump and cooling tech using a sponge-like material that promises to be 20% more efficient. 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 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 A message from North.cloud North.cloud brings automation to cloud, data, and AI spend at scale.  North.cloud unifies spend intelligence and enables full automation across cloud, AI, and data providers. Finance and engineering can now understand, optimize, and automate infrastructure spend. Understand every dollar, manage AI usage, and forecast with confidence. We just raised a $60M Series B to help every team spend smarter. Start saving.  Learn more  Morning Must-Reads Eric Schmidt reportedly owns about half as much of Anthropic as CEO Dario Amodei: Eric Schmidt’s fortune is about to get even bigger. Read More AI promises productivity, but for managers, it's mostly a headache for now: More than 50% of managers say they're finding it harder to evaluate employees' work after adopting AI, according to a new survey. Read More Foursquare co-founder says equity holders saw no returns from the company's acquisition: Foursquare raised $411 million in funding according to PitchBook data, but its equity holders saw no returns from its final acquisition. Read More SpaceX's AI business is beating expectations: SpaceX hit profitability in the third quarter, with net income of $4.4 billion. AI was the engine. Read More Mach9 raises $34M after pivoting to AI CAD software: The startup initially set out to build better, faster, and cheaper surveying hardware in 2021. Read More Last but Not Least Hugging Face CEO warns that Netflix's OpenAI hack documentary isn't accurate: Before you share the Netflix documentary "AI Gone Rogue," take note. Clem Delangue, Hugging Face's co-founder who is featured in the film, says it went "full doomer mode" and isn't accurate. Read More Check out some of our other newsletters: StrictlyVC TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Want to adjust your daily newsletter schedule? You can do it right here Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Unsubscribe Member Center Privacy Policy Copyright © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC 501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107