In May, the Initiative for New Manufacturing (INM) marked its first anniversary with MIT Manufacturing Week, four days of events that attracted more than 800 registrants including students, faculty, industry leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, and government officials to explore topics ranging from how companies are using AI on factory floors to the role of startups in introducing innovation to new workforce solutions to address the worker shortage. 'INM launched a year ago with the premise that strengthening the industrial base needed a coordinated response, and MIT has a responsibility to lead it,' says Paula T. Hammond, dean of MIT's School of Engineering and co-chair of INM's Steering Committee. 'The response and participation level has been huge. MIT Manufacturing Week proved that the appetite for change ' from students to chief executives ' is real and urgent.' The week opened with a cybersecurity workshop co-led by INM and Google Cloud for the initiative's industry members. It continued with the MIT MIMO (Machine Intelligence for Manufacturing Operations) symposium focused on deploying artificial intelligence on factory floors, alongside discussions on workforce development, emerging technologies, startups, and industrial transformation. The week closed with a regional research showcase and competition that drew more than 140 graduate students and postdocs from across New England....

SpaceX, fresh off its record-breaking IPO, formalized plans to purchase the startup behind the popular AI coding tool Cursor for $60 billion in an all-stock deal, marking one of the largest acquisitions of a venture-backed startup in recent years and the biggest so far in 2026. The acquisition represents an enormous return on investment for Cursor's backers. Since its founding just four years ago, parent company Anysphere raised $3.4 billion from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, repeat backer Thrive Capital, Accel and Coatue and was most recently valued at roughly $30 billion in November, per Crunchbase. The acquisition gives SpaceX, which raised $75 billion in its IPO last week, a foothold into the enterprise software development market, where AI-assisted coding has taken off and led large companies to significantly pare back their reliance on human engineers. Cursor said in November last year that it had crossed $1 billion in annualized revenue. Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX has in recent years expanded beyond space exploration to become something of an umbrella company for CEO Elon Musk's numerous other interests and ambitions, as the company acquired the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and the AI company xAI. SpaceX shares jumped around 16% on Tuesday following the Cursor announcement....

For decades, the SaaS playbook was clear: predictable revenue streams, very high gross margins, efficient customer acquisition and strong net revenue retention made a startup very attractive to investors. These metrics built unicorns and defined how investors valued SaaS investments. If you're a SaaS founder ' especially one raising capital ' this may lead to uncertainty and confusion. You may lose sleep because the whole market trajectory is uncertain. Investors themselves are trying to anticipate how the SaaS business model will change and, ultimately, what your company should be. To add further confusion, the model many VCs are championing (SaaS and services, anyone') doesn't look anything like traditional SaaS. So, what should a founder do' In a recent blog post, Sequoia Capital partner Julien Bek argued that the next trillion-dollar company will be a software business disguised as a services firm, one that sells both tools and outcomes. His logic is straightforward: For every dollar spent on software, six are spent on services. Meanwhile, LLMs are commoditizing many AI-native SaaS products before they even have a chance to scale. In this world, Bek argues, judgment ' not software ' is the scarce asset and customers will eventually pay for outcomes, not seats....

SpaceX has captured the attention of media, investors, and the public for years now ' interest propelled by the company's reusable rocket launches, the rise of its Starlink satellite network, and, of course, for its founder and CEO Elon Musk. But in its 24-year history, nothing quite compared to its initial public offering. Everyone seemed interested ' perhaps because of the sheer size of the IPO. The company priced its 555.6 million shares at $135 each to raise $75 billion, making it the largest IPO in history and turning Musk into the world's first trillionaire. TechCrunch has followed SpaceX's start, struggles, and successes from the early days. And we're here for what happens next too. Here is your go-to landing page for all the relevant SpaceX IPO news, including notable updates now that the company is public. SpaceX shares opened June 12 at $150 on the Nasdaq public exchange, an 11% pop for the most anticipated debut in history. And it has continued to rise. The shares kept rising too. In midday trading, SpaceX shares soared 30%. SpaceX shares closed at $160.95, up 19%....