Venice AI becomes a unicorn with $65M Series A as its privacy-first AI platform takes off

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

View this email online in your browser  July 01, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 Venice AI becomes a unicorn with $65M Series A as its privacy-first AI platform takes off: Venice AI is already profitable, with annualized run-rate revenues of over $70 million, CEO Erik Voorhees said. Read More Sony to end physical PlayStation game disc production in 2028: Sony will stop producing physical discs for all new PlayStation games beginning in 2028, as the company embraces an all-digital future. Read More Wayve launches $85M employee tender offer at $8.5B valuation: Wayve’s offering is part of a growing trend of AI startups using employee tenders as a strategic tool to attract and retain talent. Read More A message from Ai4 Ai4 2026: America’s Largest AI Conference Returns to Las Vegas Join 12000+ founders, execs, & builders at Ai4 2026, America’s largest AI conference. Discover the strategic insights and use cases driving real business impact. Hear from industry pioneers like Geoffrey Hinton, Fei-Fei Li, and Andrew Ng, explore 400+ exhibits, & network with peers in Las Vegas, Aug 4-6. Register now to save $900+ before July 2nd. Register Now Morning Must-Reads Builders Stage agenda revealed: Practical strategies for scaling startups at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: The Builders Stage is returning to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, bringing together 10,000+ founders, startup operators, and investors for practical conversations. and Q&A on what it takes to build and scale successful companies. Register now to save up to $330. Read More Trump drops restrictions on Anthropic's Mythos and Fable models: The Trump administration's erratic approach to AI policymaking has left companies across the industry with little clarity about what will govern future model releases. Read More OpenClaw is finally available on Android and iOS: The free open source agentic program is finally invading your phone. Read More The 'Father of the Internet' is finally retiring: Vinton Cerf, one of the creators of the protocols underlying the internet, will step down as Google's chief internet evangelist next week. Read More Meta, like SpaceX, looks to turn excess AI compute into cash: Meta is developing plans for a cloud infrastructure business, selling access to AI compute power and models. The move would pit it against the big cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.  Read More Last but Not Least The DeepMind trio who built a poker AI are now making money for quant hedge funds: EquiLibre Technologies, a Prague-based AI lab founded by three ex-DeepMind researchers, is now valued at more than $500 million. 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

Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 5 as a cheaper way to run agents

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories this afternoon

View this email online in your browser  June 30, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 5 as a cheaper way to run agents: Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 5 brings stronger agentic capabilities, lower pricing, and improved safety, positioning the model as a cheaper alternative to Opus, GPT-5.5, and Gemini Pro. Read More Nvidia competitor Etched hits $5B valuation, $1B in sales for AI chip: Nvidia AI chip competitor Etched says it has already booked $1 billion under contract for the inference systems powered by its chip. Read More The DeepMind trio who built a poker AI, are now making money for quant hedge funds: EquiLibre Technologies, a Prague-based AI lab founded by three ex-DeepMind researchers, is now valued at more than $500 million. Read More A message from Schneider Electric Where data meets drive Energy tech is foundational to motorsport. It's behind every decision, from software-defined design to precision manufacturing and race-day telemetry. That's why McLaren Racing partners with Schneider Electric for solutions that help drive a competitive advantage. Learn More Afternoon Must-Reads Anthropic’s Claude Science bets on workflow, not a new model, to win over scientists: Anthropic's Claude Science is a workbench that gives scientists one environment to do computational research, saving them from the need to bounce between databases, pipelines, and tools. Read More Tesla starts testing Cybercab without pedals or a steering wheel in Austin: The company may finally be ready to try to deliver on Elon Musk's years-long promise of launching a robotaxi network of its own. Read More Amazon launches new $1 billion FDE org, following OpenAI and Anthropic: Engineers on the new team will embed within companies to deploy purpose-built agents, focusing on fast deployments and customer self-sufficiency. Read More Podcasting platform Riverside enters the newsletter publishing game: Users will be able use AI to create newsletters based on their recordings. Read More Realta Fusion generates electricity directly from a fusion reaction, an apparent first: “We can take power from a plasma,” Kieran Furlong, co-founder and CEO of Realta Fusion, told TechCrunch. The milestone shows “what’s possible,” he added. Read More Last but Not Least Clicks shows off its BlackBerry-inspired phone in a new hands-on video: A new video shows the final production version of the upcoming Clicks Communicator, a BlackBerry-like smartphone that runs modern apps. 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