Disrupt 2025 Partner Sessions

AI is transforming countless industries, and space is no exception. The Aerospace Corporation is hosting a pitch-off at TechCrunch Disrupt to showcase startups working on innovative AI solutions to the hardest problems in space exploration, orbital intelligence, and infrastructure.

The aviation industry has long been slowed by legacy systems and lengthy certification processes — but Epic Aircraft is proving that change is possible. The Oregon-based disruptor earned FAA type certification for its E1000 AX in July 2025 and is now pioneering the use of artificial intelligence across design, testing, certification workflows, and customer support. By embracing smart automation, Epic is scaling faster and more efficiently than traditional manufacturers. In this session, attendees will get an inside look at how AI is reshaping the future of flight, what aerospace can learn from startup culture, and how innovation is accelerating speed, safety, and performance. Discover what happens when Silicon Valley thinking meets aviation’s next frontier.

Space is no longer just about rockets and satellites – it’s about what you do with the data in space. From on-orbit compute and autonomous decision-making to intelligent edge systems that turn raw feeds into actionable insight, AI is transforming how missions are managed and scaled. This session spotlights the innovators pushing intelligence to the edge and redefining the speed, efficiency, and resilience of operations in space.

Generative AI is changing how startups build and scale—it’s not just about a different platform; it’s a different playbook. Join Darren Mowry (VP, Global Startups, Google Cloud) and Tulsee Doshi (S Dir, Product, Google DeepMind) as they explore how the next wave of AI companies are building on Google. Discover how Google Cloud’s fully integrated AI stack—from cutting-edge models and developer-friendly tooling to global infrastructure, and powerful platform capabilities—gives startups a launchpad, not a puzzle. Learn how DeepMind’s groundbreaking research flows directly to developers through Google Cloud, turning foundational breakthroughs into production-ready capabilities. With Tulsee’s unique perspective as a product leader, you’ll gain practical insight into what it takes to scale an AI-native startup and how Google helps accelerate the journey from prototype to production. Whether you’re building your first model or your next unicorn, come hear why top AI startups are choosing Google Cloud — and how you can, too.

The judges’ deliberations are in, and we will announce the winners of the Space Challenge pitch-off competition.

We’ve seen revolutions with the internet and mobile, now AI is taking center stage, and it’s moving faster than ever. Greenfield Partners is curating the AI Disruptors 60, a list of early and growth-stage companies leading this AI revolution. In this panel, top investors like Shay Grinfeld of Greenfield Partners, and founders like Renen Hallak of VAST Data will break down how these startups are succeeding, from building the AI infrastructure of tomorrow, to solving real-world problems in critical sectors, as well as the GTM plays that scale revenue. They’ll discuss why they’ve chosen these strategies in a rapidly evolving market and what makes them stand out. Finally, they’ll share what’s coming next, offering a glimpse of the innovations and challenges shaping the future of AI.

AI is changing how we work and the tools we depend on. Join Yukhi (Chief Product Officer, Figma), Zach (Founder & CEO, Warp), and Andrew Reed (Partner, Sequoia) for a conversation on how product strategy is evolving in the AI era and what it takes to design great AI experiences.

Gone are the days when business-first CEOs dominated early-stage ventures — today’s breakout startups are often shaped by engineering founders who take a hands-on, product-focused approach to solving complex problems. This panel of leaders from Factory, Fireworks, and Runlayer will examine how technical skills are central to startup leadership, how to influence a company’s trajectory, and what capabilities founders should develop to position their startups — and themselves — for long-term success.

The reinforcement learning market has exploded, with enterprises seeking to use less of general-purpose models in favor of specialized ones going forward. As these specialized demands increase, the supporting infrastructure must also scale. This transition is driving a complete reimagining of the AI infra stack. Capital is flowing towards ecosystems that enable efficiency, differentiation, and defensibility, such as inference infra, fine-tuning platforms, and middleware orchestration. Join Scale Partner Eric Anderson and tktk as they discuss the history of RL, why its moment is now, and what startups should be thinking about as they build and adopt RL solutions.

Bright Data CEO Or Lenchner discusses how today’s web is the data infrastructure layer for tomorrow’s AI-powered dynamic web. Learn how to bridge the gap by future-proofing your tech stack so chatbots and agents can reason with live, structured web data, while overcoming challenges related to scale, speed, and regulations.

AI’s evolving role in software development has created a tension between rapid code generation and quality. In the real world, true disruption is more than just velocity; it’s about delivering intelligent, reliable software at scale. Join Kirill Skrygan, CEO of JetBrains, for an insightful session on how AI built for developers is reshaping the industry, and why elevating code quality, not just speed, will become the new measure of success.

AI at scale doesn’t look like a lab demo—it looks like factories, payments networks, and grocery supply chains running smarter and faster. On the AI Stage at Disrupt, global companies in financial services, retail, and manufacturing join Symphony AI CEO Sanjay Dhawan to share lessons from deploying AI globally: what makes scaling possible, how domain context drives outcomes, and why the next wave of enterprise AI is less about hype and more about durable impact. This is AI scaling in the wild—messy, practical, and already reshaping industries.

AI is transforming how we work. In influencer marketing — an industry built on communication and collaboration — AI is emerging as the new executor, and perhaps, redefining who we work with. Based on real brand collaborations, we’ll launch a live experiment on stage — “The $1M AI Trust Bet.” Your choice will represent more than a vote; it’s a stance on trust itself. Behind this, we’ll explore what happens when brands entrust real budgets to AI — how an AI agent Autonomously executes every steps in influencer marketing and delivers measurable growth. And as AI begins to truly work alongside us, one question remains how will the future of marketing roles and collaboration be redefined?

Agriculture is one of the most complex and unforgiving environments for AI: unpredictable weather, uneven terrain, and massive scale. Fahad Khan, Head of Product Management at Blue River Technology, speaks with Jeff Mills, President of iMerit, about engineering AI systems that perform under physical-world constraints. They’ll dive into what it takes to scale AI responsibly and sustainably, and how human-in-the-loop systems are making mission-critical AI both possible and practical.

As startups scale across borders, the biggest bottleneck isn’t finding talent, it’s paying them. Legacy payroll and banking rails weren’t built for a distributed, digital-first workforce, leaving founders stuck with slow, expensive, and fragmented systems. At the same time, skyrocketing H-1B visa fees and uncertainty in U.S. immigration policy are pushing startups to rethink their hiring strategies. For many, building global teams is no longer optional—it’s survival. A new wave of fintech innovation is unbundling payroll from banks leveraging digital wallets, stablecoins, and crypto rails to move money instantly, globally, and at lower cost. This session explores how founders and investors should think about payroll as the next frontier of financial infrastructure where payments meet compliance, and startups can turn global talent into a competitive advantage.