News Digest — 2026-09-25

Top Stories

Lightspeed targets $250M for new India fund, focusing on early-stage AI

TechCrunch AI · 2026-09-25

Lightspeed is targeting $250 million for a new India-focused early-stage fund, Lightspeed India Partners V, specifically designed to invest in artificial intelligence startups. This new fund is half the size of its $500 million predecessor and has already secured 80% of its target, with plans to begin investing within two months over a two-and-a-half-year period. The strategic shift reflects Lightspeed's belief that AI will drive significant value creation in India, aligning its regional investment cycle with global funds and allowing for a more focused approach on individual deals.

ElevenLabs’ CEO on margins, IPO timing, and telling customers they’re talking to a bot

TechCrunch AI · 2026-09-24

ElevenLabs, a four-year-old company specializing in text-to-speech AI, is now reportedly valued at $22 billion by its investors. The company is pacing at $600 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), with over 55% generated from enterprise clients like Klarna and Deutsche Telekom, and the remainder from small businesses and creators. This significant valuation underscores strong investor confidence in its market position and growth trajectory, even as its CEO indicates a willingness to accept further margin compression to expand market share and pursue the goal of passing the Turing test for conversational AI.

Meta’s Muse Charm looks like a Tamagotchi, but it’s tapping into a much newer trend

TechCrunch AI · 2026-09-24

Meta's Muse Charm, a newly announced AI hardware gadget, is designed to tap into the growing Gen Z trend of decorative bag charms. The device's customizable avatar form factor, reminiscent of Tamagotchis, aligns with a broader kitschy, retro-inspired shift in fashion and technology, exemplified by the popularity of items like the Labubu charm and Hailey Bieber's Rhode lip case. This strategy aims to make AI more approachable by integrating it into a popular fashion accessory, allowing users to express their personality and potentially avoiding the fate of previous AI hardware flops.

Oracle sends force majeure notice on its New Mexico Stargate data center

TechCrunch AI · 2026-09-24

Oracle has issued a force majeure notice to the developer of its Stargate data center campus in New Mexico, Project Jupiter. This contractual action allows Oracle to delay payments if the facility misses its 2028 operational target, stemming from significant energy supply challenges, including a delayed gas pipeline and pending air-quality permits. The notice underscores growing national scrutiny on AI data center construction and highlights the complex hurdles and potential for project delays faced by large-scale infrastructure initiatives, despite Oracle's stated commitment to the project.

TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026: Everything you need to know

TechCrunch AI · 2026-09-24

TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 is a full-day gathering in Boston on November 4, designed for founders to connect with top VCs and experienced entrepreneurs. The event focuses on tactical insights for building and scaling companies, with an agenda covering fundraising, AI-native building, and leadership, featuring speakers from firms like Underscore and Sequoia. This summit aims to equip founders with practical knowledge and strategies to navigate the complex mechanics of company growth and get a head start on their future plans.

Business

Bring your co-founder, partner, or colleague and get 50% off a second TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 pass

TechCrunch AI · 2026-09-24

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 is offering a 50% discount on a second pass when purchasing one full-price ticket for the upcoming conference. This buy-one-get-one-half-off promotion applies to all ticket types and is available until October 13 at 8 a.m. PT, when the event begins in San Francisco. The initiative aims to encourage attendees to bring a colleague or partner, enabling them to cover more ground, compare insights, and maximize networking opportunities at the three-day event.

Technology

Google Photos ‘Clueless’-inspired virtual closet is now available on Android and iOS

TechCrunch AI · 2026-09-24

Google Photos has launched an AI-powered virtual closet feature, inspired by the movie "Clueless," now available to all users in the U.S., Brazil, and India on both iOS and Android devices. This technology uses artificial intelligence to scan users' outfit photos, creating a digital copy of their wardrobe that can be filtered by category and mixed to create new outfits. The feature aims to help users organize their clothing, with Google assuring that data on how users dress is not shared with third parties like retailers.

PrismML brings its tiny LLMs to Qualcomm-powered smart glasses

TechCrunch AI · 2026-09-24

PrismML, an AI Lab, has developed a version of its compact language models for smart glasses powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips. The 1-bit Bonsai LLM, a 2-billion-parameter model, shrinks larger models by four times while retaining performance, enabling local processing on devices like the Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 Platform. This innovation allows smart glasses wearers to ask about what they are seeing in real-time, offering a privacy-focused alternative to cloud-dependent AI by utilizing on-device computing power.