TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 opens in San Francisco with 10,000 attendees

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 opens at 8 a.m. PT on October 13 at San Francisco's Moscone West and runs through October 15, drawing more than 10,000 founders, investors and tech operators for three days of sessions, exhibitions and startup pitches. Ticket prices rise at the door on October 13, and savings of up to $100 end when doors open.techcrunch.com

The event arrives as AI coding tools shift from autocomplete to agents that plan, write, test, review and debug code on their own, making developer tooling a central thread of the programme. Attendees will hear how AI agents and generative AI are changing software engineering, enterprise software and information security, alongside how companies build and deploy AI systems across finance, healthcare and manufacturing.

What the three days include

The Expo Hall hosts more than 300 exhibiting emerging startups where founders present products and make connections, and where the 200 hand-picked Startup Battlefield competitors can be met. The programme spans 200+ sessions across six stages, interactive roundtables and Q&A breakouts, with AI-powered matchmaking in the event app to pair founders, investors and department heads seeking solutions.

Speakers include RJ Scaringe of Rivian, Mark Wahlberg, Alexa von Tobel of Inspired Capital, Andrew Feldman of Cerebras Systems, Cat de Jong of Anthropic and Les Karpas of NVIDIA, with conversations spanning AI, robotics, infrastructure, investment, startup growth, fintech and climate. The lineup also draws technology leaders from Amazon, Anthropic, Atlassian, Databricks, Flock, Glean, Google, NVIDIA, Okta, OpenAI, Replit, Runware and Together AI.

The conference programme is built around one question TechCrunch poses for 2026: how to build an enduring company in the AI era. Six editorially curated stages carry sessions aimed at founders raising a first round, scaling a team or deciding how AI changes their product, with each session framed around what an attendee can take back to their company on Monday morning.techcrunch.com

Where the programming focus sits

Anthropic technical staff members Steve Androulakis and Sachin Malhotra will present on how Anthropic, the company behind Claude Code, uses fleets of coding agents in its own software engineering work, covering patterns for delegating agents, reviewing their output and recovering when they go wrong. The session sits within a broader track on how AI agents reshape developer tools and cloud infrastructure.

Startup Battlefield remains the capstone: 200 startups chosen on August 20 go through a preparation process and pitch live on the Disrupt Stage, with 20 finalists competing for a $100,000 prize.

Ticket pricing runs to the door: savings of up to $100 end when doors open on October 13 at 8 a.m. PT, a second pass of the same ticket type costs 50% off, and groups of four or more unlock community pass discounts. Laid-off attendees can buy an Expo+ Pass for $75, and a promo code INFOWORLD25 offers 25% off Attendee, Founder and Investor passes.

What happens after doors open

Disrupt has run for years in New York, San Francisco and elsewhere, gathering thousands of founders, investors, startup team members and tech leaders, and TechCrunch notes it has been around for more than 20 years. The 2026 edition keeps that mission at Moscone West, with side events for every industry and interest running alongside the main stages across the three days.techcrunch.com

Doors open on October 13 at 8 a.m. PT at Moscone West, and the programme runs through October 15, with the Startup Battlefield winner's reveal packing the Disrupt stage as the closing capstone event. Attendees building their own agenda across the three days can move between the Expo Hall, six stages, roundtables and side events.