TechCrunch Disrupt starts tomorrow in San Francisco, and we’ll be there for all three days, along with a few thousand founders, investors and operators who we're excited to see, because they are excited to be there and because we always learn *so much* at these these things. We also have a great batch of startups in Startup Battlefield (the contest kicks off in late morning). If you’ve been on the fence, you can still get 30% off as an SVC reader. Here’s a link with that code pre-populated. Come say hi.:)

Today’s newsletter is a shortie given the Columbus Day holiday here in the States. More to come tomorrow!

Meta has released Muse Wonder and Wonder Full, its first frontier AI models since Alexandr Wang restructured the company’s AI efforts, claiming performance comparable to Fable 5.1 and GPT-6 Astra while emphasizing better long-term memory for its Muse agent. TechCrunch has more here.

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The U.S. Air Force will buy data collected by WindBorne Systems‘ fleet of autonomous weather balloons under a new contract that could be worth nearly $50 million to the startup.

WindBorne currently has about 700 weather balloons flying around the globe, collecting atmospheric sensor readings that the company sells to customers and also feeds into its own AI weather forecasting model. WindBorne, founded in 2015 and based in Redwood City, California, is one of the first organizations to directly feed empirical data into a deep-learning weather model.

The company has worked closely with the U.S. government, particularly the National Weather Service and the U.S. Air Force and Navy, but this is the single-largest contract the company has participated in. The contract is worth up to $49 million, but the Air Force pays only as it needs data. It can place orders for specific regions at specific times. So far, it has ordered $1.7 million worth, and executives expect more orders to follow.

“This is largely a vehicle through which continued growth of the constellation can be supported, as well as some work on research and development to continue to improve the hardware and performance of the balloons,” WindBorne co-founder and CTO Andrey Sushko told TechCrunch. He added that the contract, which was awarded without competitive bidding, is “a determination by the government that for this capability of collecting global data, we were the only company able to provide it in the way that met their needs for these operations.”

WindBorne CEO John Dean told TechCrunch in August that the company had raised a $37 million Series B round to continue scaling its business.

Scarlet, a five-year-old UK startup that reviews and certifies software and AI medical devices for regulatory approval, raised a $50 million Series B round led by Headline, with additional participation from Notion Capital as well as previous investors Atomico, Creandum, Kindred Capital, and Entrepreneurs First. Tech Funding News has more here.

Winverse AI, a Chinese startup founded this year that is building AI models for robots, is reportedly raising tens of millions of dollars in a seed round led by DeepSeek at about a $400 million post-money valuation. Long-Z Investments has also committed to the financing, which has not yet been finalized. Bloomberg has more here.

Ambi, a San Francisco startup founded this year that offers an AI assistant that listens throughout the day to surface context and begin tasks across devices, raised $26 million across multiple rounds co-led by Luminous Ventures and Huaqin. TechCrunch has more here.

HyLight, a four-year-old startup based in Brétigny-sur-Orge, France, that builds and operates hydrogen-powered autonomous airships for inspecting power lines, pipelines, and railways, raised a $14.5 million round. Investors included Rubio Impact Ventures, DRW, Teampact Ventures, Y Combinator, and Ring Capital. The company has raised a total of approximately $18.6 million. Tech Funding News has more here.

Kapta Space, a three-year-old Seattle startup that develops steerable satellite radar payloads for tracking moving targets and producing high-resolution imagery for defense and intelligence customers, raised a $24 million Series A round co-led by Washington Harbour Partners and Bison Ventures, with Fitz Gate Ventures as well as previous investors MetaVC, MYDA Capital, Entrada Ventures, and Aurelia Foundry also chiming in. The company has raised a total of $30 million. GeekWire has more here.

Sava Technologies, a seven-year-old London startup that makes wearable microsensors for continuous glucose and other biomarker monitoring, raised a $36 million Series B round led by Ascensia, with Norrsken VC, Simplyhealth Ventures, and JamJar Investments as well as previous investors Balderton Capital and Pentland Ventures also engaging. The company has raised a total of $68 million. EU-Startups has more here.

Stenon, an eight-year-old startup based in Potsdam, Germany, that makes portable soil sensors and software that turn field measurements into fertilizer recommendations, raised additional Series B funding from Yara Growth Ventures in a second close following a $20.5 million first close led by Pymwymic earlier this year. AgFunderNews has more here.

Autentic AI, a one-year-old Barcelona startup that conducts AI-led interviews with verified consumers and experts to speed market research, raised a $1.7 million pre-seed round. Investors included Baobab Ventures, Lanai Ventures, Acurio Ventures, and Masia VC. Tech.eu has more here.

Klarent, a three-year-old Zurich startup that builds AI agents to write and maintain deterministic software tests, raised an $8 million seed round led by Mosaic Ventures, with Moonfire Ventures, Jürgen Galler, Harris Barton, and AngelInvest Ventures also anteing up. EU-Startups has more here.

Loops, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that develops AI tools for online retailers to manage product search, shopping assistance, catalog data, and virtual try-ons, raised a $3.5 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with NTT Docomo, Connecticut Innovations, Alumni Ventures, and Monday Capital also chipping in. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Monopulse, a five-year-old Danish-Lithuanian startup that builds flying reconnaissance drones and water-based surveillance systems designed to operate in electronic-warfare environments, raised a $2.2+ million round. Investors included Coinvest Capital, Plug and Play, and NGL Ventures. Tech.eu has more here.

OllyGarden, a one-year-old Berlin startup that helps companies identify and fix unreliable software telemetry before it reaches observability systems, raised a $4 million round. Investors included Next Frontier Capital, Grand Ventures, ACTAI Ventures, Datadog, Grafana Labs, and Dash0, as well as previous investor DIG Ventures. Tech.eu has more here.

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Monte Carlo Capital, a 17-year-old Monaco VC firm that backs seed-stage deep tech, AI, space tech, and enterprise software startups, has raised €13 million in a first close for its second fund, which is targeting €26 million and has already made five investments. EU-Startups has more here.

IonQ has agreed to acquire Elisity, a seven-year-old cybersecurity company based in San Jose, Calif., that helps stop attacks and ransomware from spreading across organizations, in an all-stock deal worth up to $1.3 billion, including $150 million in performance-based earn-outs. The company has raised a total of $70+ million from investors such as Two Bear Capital, AllegisCyber Capital, Atlantic Bridge, Insight Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures, and Chevron Technology Ventures. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Freshworks has agreed to acquire Torii, a nine-year-old Israeli startup that helps companies track software usage, manage licenses, and monitor AI spending, for undisclosed terms. Torii had raised $65 million, including a $50 million Series B led by Tiger Global in 2022. Calcalist has more here.

Amazon is reportedly in talks to acquire Decart, a three-year-old San Francisco AI startup that helps developers run workloads across different chips, for about $7 billion, just weeks after Anthropic walked away from a roughly $6 billion deal following due diligence. Tech Funding News has more here.

CrowdStrike is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Orion Security, a two-year-old Israeli cybersecurity startup that uses AI agents to prevent corporate data leaks, for about $500 million. Orion has raised $38 million to date, including a $32 million Series A in February. CTech has more here.

OPay, the eight-year-old Lagos fintech backed by SoftBank, is preparing for a New York IPO at a reported valuation of about $4 billion after first-half revenue jumped 137% to $467 million and lending overtook payments as its biggest business. Semafor has more here.

Moonshot AI, a three-year-old Beijing AI startup behind the Kimi K3 model, has confidentially filed for a Hong Kong IPO that could raise $3 billion to $5 billion at a valuation of up to $50 billion. However, a $700 million shareholder dispute could complicate the listing. Forbes has more here.

Elon Musk has quietly poured more than $276 million into Republican groups and his America PAC since July, making him by far the largest known midterm donor, including $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund and more than $76 million to his voter-turnout operation. The New York Times has more here.

Microsoft president Brad Smith told the BBC’s Big Boss Interview that AI is less regulated than milk or washing machines and called for global safety rules, including “kill switches,” mandatory disclosure when rogue agents breach systems, and independent evaluation of powerful new models before release. TechCrunch has more here.

Broadcom CEO Hock Tan told an event in Singapore that many AI investors “have no clue what they are investing in” and are effectively gambling in a casino, warning that the sector is still losing money and that capital constraints could become its next major bottleneck. The New York Post has more here.

Christian leaders from Baptist pulpits to the Vatican are increasingly weighing in on AI, with Pope Leo XIV warning of dehumanization and one South Carolina pastor declaring that “AI wants to be God,” creating a new political challenge for companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

AI’s promised productivity gains are being eroded by a “verification tax”: nearly 90% of executives in one survey reported no productivity impact from AI, while another found workers spend 37% of the time AI saves them correcting, clarifying, or rewriting its output. The New York Times has more here.

HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette are quietly using AI for publicity copy, agent emails, marketing materials, and even cover art, often without author consent or disclosure, prompting employee pushback and fears that automation could ultimately replace publishing jobs. Wired has more here.

“Wellness darties” - college day parties built around runs, Pilates, saunas, and cold plunges - are becoming a Gen Z business, with startups such as Peak Pulse and Sweat and Soak charging Greek organizations and attracting sponsors including Lululemon, Red Bull, and Celsius.

“Chronoworking” - structuring work around an employee’s natural circadian rhythm rather than a fixed 9-to-5 - is gaining traction, with advocates arguing that even shifting schedules by an hour or two can improve performance while preserving shared hours for meetings and collaboration.

Not-A-Salami, a San Francisco-made Sicilian confection, baffles, then delights, with a sliceable cocoa interior studded with biscotti, chocolate chips and sugar crystals.

Nine desk gadgets to make workdays more pleasant and productive, including an Anker charging station with retractable cables, Logitech’s vertical mouse, a tiny desktop vacuum, Ember’s temperature-controlled mug, and Speks magnetic fidget toys.

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