Startups — Page 3
Companies to watch, momentum, milestones.
- Startup Spotlight: Atomarine launches gas-first floating data-center plan with nuclear later
The YC S26 company wants to ship 75-100 MW compute barges by 2028, then replace gas power vessels with marine reactors.
- MIT founders launch Atomarine to build gas-first nuclear data centers at sea
Dimitris Koutentakis and Emile Germonpre target a gas-powered pilot by 2028, with marine reactors planned as a later swap.
- Intel gives RosaicLabs Atom access and aims to ship RTL code
Reuters says Intel has begun providing Atom technology to Amarjit Gill's RosaicLabs and aims to give the newly incorporated chip developer RTL code.
- Depot says GitHub's pull request model cannot keep pace with coding agents
CEO Kyle Galbraith's critique follows Depot CI and Depot Code, extending Depot from build acceleration into the delivery stack.
- Orbital Operations wins SpaceWERX award for its satellite defense vehicle
The Long Beach startup enters a Space Force feasibility track that can lead to a Phase II prototype for contested-orbit missions.
- Runlayer sues Rippling, alleging source-code access preceded rival AI gateway
Runlayer says a yearlong trial gave Rippling its complete source code and grew to thousands of users before an insider warned of an almost "1 to 1 copy." Rippling denies the claims.
- CubePilot takes drone services offline after attacker hijacks DNS and TLS
CEO Philip Rowse warned users to change reused passwords and avoid firmware downloaded July 24th-25th while CubePilot verifies published images.
- Mitchell Hashimoto starts Superlogical to build durable sessions for software work
Superlogical reunites the HashiCorp co-founder with former colleagues around a terminal multiplexer funded by Notable Capital and Amplify Partners.
- Garry Tan backs seasoned AI founders as unicorn founder age reaches 40
The YC CEO's case draws support from unicorn research linking founder age and industry experience with stronger startup outcomes.
- Extropic publishes its thermodynamic computing case as AI power demand climbs
Guillaume Verdon's hardware startup is building probabilistic chips and new algorithms rather than accelerating transformer math.
- Creator Camp expands Camp Studios brand work to finance creator-led films
The Austin founders are courting clients and collaborators while a public deck says Camp Studios is raising a $3 million seed round.
- YC's Garry Tan tells founders to stop LARPing and build earnestly
The line followed an arena-sized Startup School and revives YC's oldest test: whether founders care about the work or the status.
- Startup Spotlight: Offsiter replaces retreat spreadsheets with packaged hotels and planning software
Hunter Block built the planning marketplace from a Tahoe cabin, manual venue pages and a 10% commission model.
- Abby Care reaches eight states by turning family caregivers into paid employees
Founder Havi Nguyen's Medicaid know-how has helped Abby Care reach eight states, $15 million in 2025 revenue and a reported $225 million valuation.
- Rise Reforming joins YC to turn wastewater biogas into chemicals on-site
The Chicago founders pivoted from plastic waste and are building a containerized pilot at a wastewater plant that is expected to go online in 2027.
- On Deck co-founder Julian Weisser launches $100,000 solo-founder program
On Deck co-founder Weisser is applying his fellowship experience to a three-month San Francisco cohort with mentorship and a $100,000 grant for each selected entrepreneur.
- Figure grants robots visitor passes, unlocking full door access across campus
Brett Adcock announced on X that Figure's autonomous robots now carry visitor badges that let them open any campus door.
- Soar AI launches MCP interface for no-fee flight booking
Soar AI says its Model Context Protocol interface gives AI agents access to market-rate flights, no-fee booking, and x402 payments.
- Wiseday says Apple rejected its update over paper-planner screenshots
Wiseday's developer says App Review applied an on-screen metadata rule to a product designed around a printed daily page.
- Obaid hacks YC's Paxel founder rankings, gets Startup School invite
After revealing a vulnerability that let anyone forge YC founder scores, partner Jared Friedman quickly fixed the flaw and extended a Summer 2026 Startup School invitation.
- Elon Musk says X will open‑source all code and undergo third‑party audit next month
In a July 24th, 2026 X post, Musk pledged total transparency for the platform by releasing its code and subjecting it to external review.
- Patreon cuts 93 jobs as Jack Conte flattens management
Jack Conte says Patreon's growth remains steady, but the creator platform is cutting 93 jobs to lower costs while preserving its discovery push.
- Figure reportedly manufactured its 1,000th humanoid robot in San Jose
The unconfirmed milestone would nearly triple Figure's official April count as Brett Adcock pushes humanoid robotics into factory-scale production.
- Willow launches voice dictation platform that targets zero edit rate
The startup says its AI combines speech recognition and context awareness to deliver text ready to send without corrections.