TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Day 2 in San Francisco Focuses on AI and Robotics
Day 2 of TechCrunch's Disrupt startup conference at San Francisco's Moscone West centres on artificial intelligence, robotics and venture investment. Speakers include Benchmark's full partnership and representatives of Nvidia, Waabi, Flock Safety and Ricursive Intelligence.
The second day of Disrupt 2026, a startup and technology conference organised by tech outlet TechCrunch, is under way at the Moscone West convention centre in San Francisco. The event brings together more than 10,000 founders, investors, startup teams and technology leaders. Day 2 is centred on artificial intelligence, with sessions also covering robotics, AI hardware, public safety and venture investment.
Expo and pitches
The Expo Hall on Level 2 is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and hosts more than 300 startups, along with technology partners and solution providers. On the Pitch Showcase Stage, founders deliver short enterprise pitches presenting their products. In Startup Battlefield 200, the competition continues with healthtech and life sciences companies, followed by enterprise and security firms. The contenders are vying for a place in the final and $100,000 in equity-free funding.
Main stages
On the Disrupt Stage, Garrett Langley of public-safety technology company Flock Safety discusses AI and surveillance. Benchmark, a venture capital firm, brings its full partnership: Jack Altman, Peter Fenton, Chetan Puttagunta, Everett Randle and Eric Vishria. Anna Goldie and Azalia Mirhoseini of Ricursive Intelligence speak about what happens when AI begins designing its own hardware.
The Real World AI Stage looks at AI moving into physical products and environments. The programme includes live robot demonstrations: a representative of Agility Robotics appears with the humanoid robot Digit, and Hello Robot's Aaron Edsinger presents the robot Stretch. Les Karpas of Nvidia addresses the obstacles to general-purpose robots.
Other sessions
The Builders Stage covers how startups are funded and grown, including the Series A funding round in 2027. The AI Stage features sessions on AI agent security, changes to the software-as-a-service business model and new job categories in tech, with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic and Databricks. A StrictlyVC session for investor pass holders only covers IPOs, family offices and limited partner priorities.
