TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 kicked off Day 1 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, with more than 10,000 startup founders, investors, and tech leaders in attendance. The conference floor includes six industry stages focused on scaling, AI, fintech, climate tech, and more, plus 250+ speakers and 300+ exhibiting startups in the Expo Hall. Registration runs from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Level 1 lobby, and badges use Klik technology to exchange contact information; contacts can be accessed later through the event app.

The Expo Hall is open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and features 300+ startups. The Pitch Showcase Stage at the back of the hall hosts rapid-fire, one-minute lightning pitches from promising startups representing their home countries and regions. The Startup Battlefield Built World category highlights early-stage startups tackling real estate, construction, architecture, smart cities, and infrastructure. The Sustainability category covers renewable energy, carbon capture, circular economy platforms, sustainable agriculture, and clean water solutions, with founders pitching in two minutes.

Startup Battlefield, TechCrunch’s pitch competition, selected the top 20 early-stage startups from thousands of applicants to pitch in front of experienced VCs, competing for a $100,000 equity-free prize and the Disrupt Cup. The Disrupt Stage features judges for the Space and Physical AI category, including Anu Bharadwaj (ICONIQ), Sara Deshpande (Maven Ventures), Benjamin Narasin (Tenacity Venture Capital), Aatish Nayak (Kleiner Perkins), and Michael Palank (MaC Venture Capital). Sessions include RJ Scaringe (Rivian) on building the impossible, Andrew Feldman (Cerebras Systems) on whether AI can keep scaling, and Max Hodak (Science Corporation) on beyond screens. Judges for Energy and Manufacturing include Caleb Appleton (Bison Ventures), Feyza Haskaraman (Felicis), Sho Sho Leigha Ho (General Catalyst), and Leah Solivan (Precedent.vc).

The Builders Stage includes a live recording of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, plus sessions on agentic AI for hardware founders, AI talent pay and retention, product-market fit red flags, scaling product decisions, and hiring when AI is a co-founder. The Smart Money industry stage covers AI and trust in financial services, the future of money movement in the agentic economy, and winning the modern financial consumer. The Smart Systems stage includes discussions on the AI infrastructure boom, vertical AI in energy, Twilio founder Jeff Lawson on the power problem, fusion startups Helion and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, and rewiring the grid for the electric age.

The Breakout Stage at the end of the Expo Hall hosts expert panels with attendee Q&A, including sessions on physical AI, data teams providing context to AI, the quantum revolution, Taiwan’s role in AI, building trustworthy AI, and the inference economy. Roundtables are small-group sessions requiring pre-registration through the event app, covering physical AI challenges, IPO-ready finance, legacy industry modernization, commerce AI, healthcare AI adoption, and trusted agentic AI for enterprise. Networking opportunities include the Networking Lounge powered by Signify Business Cash World Elite Mastercard by Wells Fargo, open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and the Deal Flow Cafe, exclusive to founders and investors for quiet deal-making over coffee.

Company-hosted side events are happening throughout San Francisco this week, including the Irish Shark Tank hosted by Enterprise Ireland, a SafetyWing happy hour, and a Born2Global founder networking night. Day 1 also includes 200+ sessions across the full agenda, interactive roundtables, Q&A breakouts, investor-founder meetings, and AI-powered matchmaking networking. Tickets remain available through the final day, with on-site registration still possible.