TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Sets Final Stage Lineup and Startup Battlefield Judges

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe will discuss turning an ambitious idea into a company that can design, manufacture and scale complex physical products. Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman will address whether AI can keep scaling as models require more compute, energy and capital. Science Corporation founder Max Hodak will look at technology that interacts directly with the human body, and Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley will discuss AI, surveillance and public safety. All five Benchmark partners, Jack Altman, Peter Fenton, Chetan Puttagunta, Everett Randle and Eric Vishria, will appear together.

Also on the Disrupt Stage, Ricursive Intelligence co-founders Anna Goldie and Azalia Mirhoseini will explore AI systems that can design the hardware they run on. Amazon's Panos Panay will ask what comes after the smartphone and bring new technology with him. Bluesky CEO Toni Schneider and COO Rose Wang will examine whether social media can start over, and Replit CEO Amjad Masad will discuss what happens to software and its builders when AI makes creation accessible to almost anyone. Mark Wahlberg will appear with Keebeck's Bruce K. Lee to discuss his transition into investing.

TechCrunch said founders are choosing what to build on at a time when open models are improving, frontier APIs keep advancing and products can use multiple models rather than committing to one. Four Disrupt sessions will address those decisions. In the session The Real Tokenmaxxing: How the Best AI Companies Navigate a Multi-Model World, CapitalG partner Mo Jomaa, Together AI co-founder and CEO Vipul Ved Prakash and Pathway CEO and co-founder Zuzanna Stamirowska will discuss balancing cost, performance and flexibility. Oumi CEO and co-founder Manos Koukoumidis will present a framework for whether companies should rent, customize or build AI. Nvidia's Nader Khalil, director of developer tech, and Sydney Sykes, global head of VC partnerships, will examine open-weight models and frontier APIs. Goldie and Mirhoseini will also discuss how AI is optimizing chips and hardware.

Startup Battlefield will run across all three days. The five finalist judges are Stacy Brown-Philpot, founder and managing partner of Cherryrock Capital; Chi-Hua Chien, co-founder and managing partner of Goodwater Capital; Dayna Grayson, co-founder and general partner of Construct Capital; Carter Reum, co-founder and managing partner of M13; and Alexa Von Tobel, founder and managing partner of Inspired Capital. Each founded or co-founded the investment firm they now lead, TechCrunch said. They will also reunite on the Builders Stage for a live AMA. The winner will receive $100,000 in equity-free funding and the Disrupt cup.

Before the 2026 finalists pitch, Cellino co-founder and CEO Nabiha Saklayen, who won Startup Battlefield in 2021, will return to unveil a new product. Three other alumni, Molecule.one's Piotr Byrski, Nephrogen's Demetri Maxim and Glīd's Kevin Damoa, will discuss what happens after the pitch, including bets that paid off and plans that changed.

TechCrunch said Disrupt 2026 is expected to draw more than 10,000 founders, venture capitalists, operators and tech enthusiasts. The program includes more than 200 sessions from more than 250 tech leaders across six industry stages and more than 300 exhibiting startups. Passes are available, with a second pass at 50% off and an Expo+ Pass for $75 for people affected by layoffs, according to TechCrunch.