Tech

Early Cerebras investor Adit Singh joins Mayfield as infrastructure partner

Published

1 minute ago

August 20, 2026

Adit Singh was a partner at Foundation Capital when he helped source and co-lead the first funding round into then-obscure chip startup Cerebras.

By the time Cerebras held its blockbuster IPO in May, Foundation Capital held a roughly 7% stake, making it the third-largest shareholder in the company, which now trades at a valuation of nearly $50 billion.

Singh now has a new VC firm to call home: On Thursday, he said he’s now joined the 57-year-old Mayfield as an infrastructure partner.

At Mayfield, Singh will invest in hardware, infrastructure software, cybersecurity, and physical AI. He says it was the firm’s strength in semiconductors that drew him to the role.

“If you look at Mayfield’s semiconductor portfolio, it’s probably the best in the market right now,” Singh told TechCrunch, pointing to Mayfield’s investments in Upscale AI, which was recently valued at $2 billion, and Lumilens, which just raised $700 million at a $5.5 billion valuation.

“I’m a chip designer by training,” Singh said. “My secret sauce is being able to look at any workload and see how it works from the application all the way down to the transistor.”

He credits his background in electrical engineering to helping him recognize the potential in Cerebras 10 years ago. However, Singh didn’t stick around as an investor at Foundation. In 2017, he co-founded Neotribe Ventures, and after spending four years leading the firm, he joined an early-stage firm, Cota Capital.

Singh says he decided to join Mayfield in large part because the size of seed infrastructure deals has ballooned in recent years. While smaller funds often get priced out of mega-seed deals, Mayfield’s $3 billion in assets under management allows it to write seed checks of up to $20 million.

Mayfield Managing Partner Navin Chaddha told TechCrunch that despite knowing Singh for 15 years and sitting on three startup boards together — including Upscale AI and unicorn AI startup Velaura AI — it still took some time to convince him to join the firm.

“We have been talking for a long time, and the time stars aligned,” Chaddha said.

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Tech

Ramp launches its own AI model router, called Router

Published

21 minutes ago

August 20, 2026

qasimgillani

Corporate expense management platform Ramp is hot on the heels of Stripe in setting up toll houses for AI inference.

Ramp on Wednesday evening launched its own AI model routing service, dubbed Router, that lets users and companies use and switch between various large language models through an API. The company says it has been using the router it built for its own AI usage needs over the past three years.

The service is only available in the United States. It’s free to use for the remainder of 2026 (users will still have to pay for AI model inference costs), and it comes with a $26 credit launch offer. The company did not say how much the service will cost next year.

In its function, Router is pretty similar to how OpenRouter operates, though the latter offers many more AI model options than Ramp’s current offerings.

Router offers access to models from OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, Moonshot, Minimax, Nvidia, xAI, and Z.ai. It also provides several “strategies” to help its customers route AI requests to models based on their preferences. For example, one lets users set a preference for model providers’ flex usage tiers, while another lets Router choose which model to route queries to based on up to three user-specified benchmarks. Users can also choose to route only difficult problems to expensive models or test models easily without having to switch.

Users get a dashboard, too, that lets them see token spend, cost, latency, fallback attempts, and other details.

Notably, Router has an opt-out data retention policy: it will record model inputs, outputs and tool calls for one year by default, though the company says it will remove “personally identifiable information before using that content to improve the product.”

For Ramp, entering the model routing business offers a two-pronged opportunity: it gets to tap the booming AI inference market, and also offer its existing clients a model routing service that fits in neatly with its existing products, which includes AI token usage monitoring and token spend management.

And, if Router proves as attractive of a model testing arena as OpenRouter has, Ramp may also be able to build long-standing relationships with AI labs and inference providers worldwide. That could help Ramp, which raised $750 million at a $44 billion valuation in June, gain new customers and a new point of entry for selling its expense management products.

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Tech

The 2026 Startup Battlefield 200 is here — see who made the cut

Published

41 minutes ago

August 20, 2026

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We’re thrilled to unveil the 2026 Startup Battlefield 200 — TechCrunch’s annual, handpicked list of the 200 most promising early-stage startups from around the world.

These founders rose to the top from thousands of applications spanning every industry and geography. Their reward? A coveted spot to exhibit at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, taking place October 13–15 in San Francisco’s Moscone West. This is the cohort to watch — and this fall, you’ll get to meet them in person.

From AI to climate, health to fintech, robotics to consumer — these are the companies shaping the future across every major category.

A special thank-you to Google for Startups and SAP, our premier sponsors, for helping early-stage startups build, scale, and succeed.

Only at Disrupt can you:

Watch live demos of never-before-seen tech.
See Battlefield companies pitch in front of top global VCs.
Cheer them on as they compete for $100,000, equity-free, and the iconic Disrupt Cup.

Are you a VC scouting the next breakout investment? A tech enthusiast looking to stay ahead of the curve? An early-stage founder who missed the Startup Battlefield 200 application deadline because you were too busy building a robot in your garage?

Step onto the battlefield. Join us at Disrupt 2026. Register for your ticket before prices go up in September.

Now, the moment you’ve been waiting for…

Presenting the 2026 Startup Battlefield 200

Every year, Startup Battlefield alumni go on to build category-defining companies — including Dropbox, Cloudflare, and Discord. With over $32 billion raised and 250 exits, the Startup Battlefield track record speaks for itself.

The top 20 finalists from this list will be revealed live on Day 1 of Disrupt on October 13, so be sure to follow along.

If you’ve applied for Startup Battlefield this year

If your startup made the list, keep an eye on your inbox — we’ll be in touch shortly with time-sensitive next steps. If you applied but don’t see your company here, you’ll also receive an official update from us soon. Due to the high volume of submissions, we’re unable to respond to individual application inquiries.

As for the rest of you …

Witness Startup Battlefield 200 live at Disrupt 2026

Get out of your inbox and get ahead of the game at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 on October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco.

Secure your spot at TechCrunch Disrupt. Prices will go up in September.

Startup Battlefield is proudly presented by Google for Startups and SAP, our premier sponsors.

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Tech

Senators demand answers from TikTok over experiment that disabled safeguards

Published

45 minutes ago

August 20, 2026

qasimgillani

Two senators have given TikTok a deadline to answer questions about an experiment that withheld a safety feature from 15 million U.S. users, including a teenager who later died by suicide.

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sent a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Chew and Adam Presser, CEO of the company’s U.S. business, calling the company’s decision to run the experiment “depraved.”

Bloomberg reported that TikTok intentionally disabled an algorithmic safeguard for 10% of U.S. users, creating a control group for the experiment. The safeguard was designed to prevent users from being overwhelmed by harmful content, but TikTok wanted to determine whether it made the app less engaging, so it decided to conduct the experiment.

One of the people in the control group was 16-year-old Chase Nasca, whose algorithm fed him thousands of videos about sadness, suicide, and loneliness up until he died by suicide.

The senators are demanding answers to 13 questions regarding the experiment, including names of every employee who knew about the experiment and why TikTok allowed minors to be part of the control group. They’re also looking for a list of every algorithmic experiment in the U.S. when the social network disabled or delayed a safety feature. The senators have given TikTok until September 1 to respond.

TikTok did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.