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  Everyone is looking for a side hustle. Meta is planning to sell its excess AI computing power and AI models to boost cash flow, Bloomberg reported yesterday. The plan to get into the cloud business comes as Meta has made hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of investments in AI that it hasn’t yet shown will pay off. It’s hard to know whether Meta’s AI plans are panning out : Meta doesn’t separate its AI revenues from broader earnings, and the company hasn’t released many noteworthy features compared to other AI companies. But it has committed to spending $182.9 billion on AI infrastructure, including the construction of giant data centers, over the next few years. Plus, it’s offered eye-watering salaries to win over top AI talent—like a $14 billion pay package to woo Alexandr Wang from Scale AI—even as it has conducted mass layoffs . We do know that it’s got computing power to spare, which other AI companies are willing to pay a premium for. That’s handy as Meta seeks new bus...

  Oracle is acting like your defiant roommate who said he won’t pay rent until the toilet is fixed. The company warned the developer of a massive New Mexico AI data center that it’ll delay contract payments if the project doesn’t come online as planned by 2028, Bloomberg reported yesterday. The development, dubbed Project Jupiter, faces delays as permits for a natural gas pipeline to fuel the data center are in limbo amid local opposition. Oracle, which is the data center’s main tenant, invoked a force majeure contract clause that protects it from liability if certain events it can’t control occur—though it said it’s still committed to the project. Oracle sees a murky future The news adds uncertainty to the gargantuan enterprise, which hinges largely on Oracle paying up: The $18 billion of debt tied to the project is already trading at 90 cents on the dollar amid concerns that Oracle is too debt-burdened, per a recent Financial Times report. Oracle’s stock was down nearly 3.5% ye...

  Will Hunting’s employer unseated the institution where Albert Einstein worked as America’s top college. MIT rose to first, while Princeton—which had held the No. 1 spot since 2012— dropped to second place in the 2027 ranking of national universities by US News & World Report. Since 1983, US News has put out the list that your mom inevitably texts you about every year by combining various criteria to rank colleges: This year, MIT got top marks on faculty research, the newly added category of earnings after graduation, and standardized test scores. Princeton’s score was roughly unchanged, but its lead over rivals narrowed after US News added faculty research metrics in 2023, the publication told the New York Times. Meanwhile, Harvard and Yale maintained third and fourth place, respectively. UC Berkeley and UCLA were the highest-ranked public universities on the list, tying for 20th place with Notre Dame overall. Does anyone care about what US News thinks? Colleges have criticiz...

  With the fervor of a 20-slide Notes app callout, Bob Chapek wants you to know who’s at fault for his short tenure as CEO of Disney: the other Bob. In excerpts from his new memoir, Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth, which Simon & Schuster is releasing next week, Chapek claims that former CEO Bob Iger (who had the role before and after him) launched a “relentless three-year campaign to push me out.” ICYMI: In February 2020, Iger abruptly stepped down as CEO of Disney, but stayed on as executive chair of the board. Chapek was his successor, but he was unceremoniously ousted on a Sunday after a three-year stint at the top that involved Covid turbulence, an unpopular take on Florida’s so-called “Don’t say gay” bill, and a compensation fight with Scarlett Johansson. Then Iger took the reins once more. In his new tell-all: Chapek says he spent years being teased with the CEO role, but only found out he got it weeks before his 2020 appointment...

  There are only two days left to save up to $200 on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 pass, and we’re on reason 4 of 5 why you should attend. While most tech events can give you plenty to think about, the useful ones also give you something to do differently when you get back to work. Before we dive into the next reason, secure your pass before these savings disappear after September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Bring a second guest at 50% off. Reason No. 4: Practical answers Across three days at Disrupt, happening October 13-15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, some of the biggest questions facing founders, investors, and technology leaders are being turned into working conversations. How do you build defensibility when an AI platform can ship into your category? What does it actually take to land a first institutional check? How should startups compete for AI talent? How do you price AI products sustainably? When should M&A become part of your strategy? What separates a company that inv...

  AI needs increasingly powerful chips. But designing those chips is itself a slow, complex process. What happens when AI starts doing some of that work, too? That’s the idea behind Ricursive Intelligence. The startup is developing AI that can design chips, learn from the process, and improve the next design — potentially accelerating development of the hardware that powers increasingly capable AI. Today, designing a chip can take two to three years. Recursive wants to reduce that cycle to a matter of weeks. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 , Ricursive Intelligence co-founders Anna Goldie and Azalia Mirhoseini will take the Disrupt Stage for “ When AI Starts Designing Its Own Hardware .” They’ll discuss closing the loop between AI and chip development, building self-improving systems, and tackling one of the biggest bottlenecks in the race toward more powerful intelligence. Want to hear from the researchers working to change how AI hardware gets built? Today is the last day to save up to...