Etched's valuation doubles to $21B in a month

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories this afternoon

View this email online in your browser  August 18, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 Etched's valuation doubles to $21B in a month: Jane Street has installed Etched's first shipped AI cluster system, and was so impressed, it led another massive round, the startup says. Read More Comcast adds motion sensing to millions of its newer routers, with a privacy catch: A new feature added to Comcast's newest routers can detect if there is motion inside your home without needing traditional motion sensors. Read More Why Apple's camera-equipped AirPods may not be the 'pervert pods' consumers fear: Apple’s leaked camera-equipped AirPods might avoid the privacy pitfalls of other AI wearables by preventing users from recording photos and videos. Read More Afternoon Must-Reads Peacock is raising prices across all of its streaming plans: "These price changes allow Peacock to continue to create the best experience for its viewers, remain competitive in the marketplace, and deliver unique content across all genres," the company wrote on a support page. Read More Apple's new macOS update reportedly contains a video of AirPods with a camera: A video in a macOS Tahoe release candidate version shows a user wearing AirPods, looking at a book, and talking to Siri. Read More DOJ's probe into Andreessen Horowitz over board seats baffles VCs: Since portfolio companies often pivot and expand into competing markets, investors view occasional conflicts of interest as unavoidable for large VC firms. Read More Daniel Ek's body-scanning startup Neko Health opens first US office, in New York: The scanning and bloodwork health startup founded by Spotify's founder will officially launch in New York in about a month. Read More Warp's new system is an out-of-the-box software factory for AI development: On Tuesday, Warp introduced Warp Factories, a new infrastructure system designed to make building AI software factories as easy as possible. Read More Last but Not Least Bluesky says its recent outage was caused by another DDoS attack: This is the latest large-scale DDoS attack to hit the social networking site this year. 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