Latest news, developments and reporting on Companies.
Beats has teased a Pikachu-themed Pill speaker in a social media post, confirming a long-rumored Pokémon collaboration. No release date or pricing was announced.
The U.S. Air Force will buy atmospheric data from WindBorne Systems' fleet of autonomous weather balloons under a contract worth up to $49 million, the largest the Redwood City startup has held. The Air Force has ordered $1.7 million worth so far and pays only for the data it requests.
Agent37 launched sandboxes for AI agents at under 10% of most providers' cost, with average customer spending of $0.37 per sandbox per month, according to its Hacker News post.
Tor Project keeps Mullvad technical ties but pauses co-branding after a co-founder's political donation sparked backlash.
Amazon is reportedly in talks to acquire AI startup Decart for up to $7 billion. Decart's DOS software optimizes AI models for specific chips, potentially aiding AWS and its Trainium push.
Akuity has added Fleet Management to Kargo Enterprise, allowing teams to ship one change across hundreds of Kubernetes clusters as a single release, with wave-based rollouts, health checks and fleet-wide rollback. The capability is in private beta.
Phasis Inc. has developed a World API and reality layers to orient AI agents before they plan or act, co-founder and CEO Brandon Farley said in a SiliconANGLE interview, describing an /orient endpoint that returns evidence-backed domain frames.
OnePlus launched the OnePlus 16 on Oct 12, 2026, its annual flagship with the sixth-generation Snapdragon 8 Super Ultimate chip, a world-first 185Hz display, a 200MP LUMO camera system and a 9,000mAh battery. It goes on sale Oct 13 from 5,199 yuan after a national subsidy.
Smart and Citroën unveiled small EVs at the Paris Motor Show, as Engadget reviewed Rivian's 2027 R2 electric SUV.
Blueprints AI, a Santa Monica startup founded in 2025, says its second-generation AI software can turn a sketch or PDF into code-compliant, permit-ready architectural blueprints in minutes. The company is unveiling the product at TechCrunch Disrupt's 2026 Startup Battlefield 200.
Google has announced the Fitbit Edge, a fitness tracker positioned between the Pixel Watch 5 and Fitbit Air. It has a 1.34-inch OLED display, week-long battery life, and more health sensors than the Air, at about half the price of the Pixel Watch 5.
Honeyjar, founded by veteran PR executives, is offering AI tools to automate public relations and communications tasks. The startup, attending TechCrunch Disrupt, has drawn 10,000 waitlist signups and beta users including Nextdoor.
IDC: Q3 2026 PC shipments fell 20.1% to 62.7 million units, the worst third quarter on record, as AI-driven memory costs squeeze demand.
Cisco and Nvidia unveiled silicon, open rack designs and optical modules at OCP Summit to ease AI data-center scaling.
XGIMI has launched the Horizon 30 Pro, Max and Ultra Max, three Google TV projectors with RGB triple-laser light, 4K/120Hz support and higher brightness. US pre-orders start at $1,899.
Beats confirmed a Pokémon collaboration for its Beats Pill Bluetooth speaker with a teaser, after a Pikachu version appeared in Target social posts earlier this month.
A US custom PC maker says retail GPU prices are set to rise significantly, as reports point to higher AMD VRAM costs, rising component prices and Nvidia diverting GB202 chips away from the RTX 5090.
US-listed medtech Stryker is set to invest around $400m in UK robotic surgery company CMR Surgical, with an option to acquire it outright and exclusive US sales rights for its robot-assisted surgery system.
NordVPN has added Call and Message Protection to iOS and launched HangUp, a free standalone iPhone app for blocking spam calls. HangUp requires only a free Nord account, not a VPN subscription.
Apple reportedly raised iPhone Duo supply-chain orders by 30% ahead of Friday pre-orders, with 2026 supply nearing 10 million units.
Ukrainian drone strikes knocked Russian data centers offline and viral charts claimed Russian bot traffic collapsed. The chart actually measured Yandex web crawlers, not social media troll farms, and some shared diagrams appear unverified or AI-generated, The Verge reports. Yandex Pay remains offline.
Google has made the switch from the Fitbit app to Google Health mandatory, prompting a non-dismissable update notice and complaints from users who say key tracking features have disappeared.
Microsoft unveiled Maia 300, its third-generation AI chip, aiming to cut reliance on Nvidia for AI inference.
Surfshark's early Black Friday deal offers its One VPN plan at Starter pricing for 15- and 27-month subscriptions.