Lilian Weng said she stepped down from Thinking Machines because months of “consistent stress and workload” made it unsafe to keep up a startup pace, sharing it on X July 27, 2026. On July 29, OpenAI confirmed she’s returning to lead a top-level internal research team focused on cross-research for recursive self-improvement.
Google announced in July 2026 that it will expand its Play Age Signals API to Android developers globally by the end of the year, giving app makers a way to identify younger users and tailor…
Encore AI raised a $30M Series A in July 2026 led by Team8 to train AI voice agents using “interaction mining” across call recordings, emails, texts, and CRM data. Founded in 2022 as Insait IO, it serves 40+ enterprise customers, mostly financial institutions, and claims ARR grew 5x+ since its seed round less than 18 months ago.
Polar, founded by Kevin Jiang (ex-Perplexity Comet), raised a $5.7M seed in July 2026 led by Madrona to build an AI-first browser for knowledge work. It lets users schedule workflows, save prompts, and assign agent tasks from open tabs; the browser is free with limited daily AI credits, with paid plans starting at $20/month.
Hint, an AI-powered home management app co-founded by Martha Stewart, launched on July 29, 2026, offering homeowners a single platform to track maintenance schedules, manage home documents, monitor…
DoorDash won FAA Part 135 air carrier certification in July 2026, clearing the way for DoorDash Air—built by DoorDash Labs—to operate commercial drone deliveries in the U.S. DoorDash says there’s no timeline yet: it expects limited line-of-sight pilots before seeking BVLOS approval for longer autonomous flights, while continuing Wing and Flytrex partnerships and running Dot in Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler, and Fremont.
New York-based AI detection startup Pangram raised $9 million in July 2026 and launched two new detection models: Pangram 4, its next-generation AI text detector, and Pangram Image, an AI image…
Data security company Cyera announced Tuesday, July 29, 2026, that it has signed a letter of intent to acquire Oasis Security for approximately $1 billion. The deal will be paid mostly in cash, with…
AI infrastructure startup Runlayer filed a lawsuit against HR software company Rippling in 2026, alleging that Rippling used confidential information shared during a product trial to build a…
Spur Intelligence, a cybersecurity startup based in Lake Mary, Florida, has raised $200 million in a funding round led by Insight Partners, the companies announced in July 2026.
Founded in 2017 by…
Fish Audio raised $52M in a July 29, 2026 seed led by Coreline Ventures and Capital Today to expand its AI voice platform by ex-NVIDIA researcher Shijia Liao and CEO Rissa Cao. It reports 15,000+ NL controls, 8M users, $21M ARR, 31K GitHub stars, five models (including paid S2.1 Pro), and plans for 2026: audio understanding and speech-to-speech.
WhatsApp adds browser audio/video calling to WhatsApp Web (announced July 2026), with a new Calls tab for call history and favorites plus screen sharing and call reactions. New features include device call transfer, group-call waiting rooms (“Require approval to join”), background noise suppression, and HD video in the first few seconds.
