AI burnout, billion-dollar bets, and Silicon Valley's Epstein problem

AI companies have been hemorrhaging talent the past few weeks. Half of xAI’s founding team has left the company — some on their own, others through “restructuring” — while OpenAI is facing its own shakeups, from the disbanding of its mission alignment team (techcrunch.com/2026/02/11/openai-disbands-miss…) to the firing of a policy exec who opposed its “adult mode” feature.

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity (techcrunch.com/podcasts/equity) podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into the week's biggest deals and departures, from billion-dollar bets on fusion and robotics to the tech exodus reshaping AI companies.

Listen to the full episode to hear about:

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Why humanoid robot startups are raising nearly $1 billion (techcrunch.com/2026/02/11/humanoid-robot-start…) and partnering with Google DeepMind

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Whether fusion power startup Inertia Enterprises can actually deliver on its 2030 timeline, and why investors keep betting millions (techcrunch.com/2026/02/11/twilio-co-founders-f…)

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What the Epstein files reveal about Silicon Valley dealmaking (techcrunch.com/2026/02/10/vc-masha-bucher-epst…), particularly during the EV boom (techcrunch.com/2026/02/06/prince-andrew-adviso…)

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Why AI Super Bowl ads might not be landing (techcrunch.com/2026/02/08/super-bowl-60-ai-ads…) outside Silicon Valley

Chapters

00:00 Intro

02:46 AI Super Bowl ads ⁠aren’t quite landing⁠ outside of Silicon Valley

04:31 Apptronik raises $935M for humanoid robotics

09:05 Will automakers partner with humanoid robotics startups?

13:05 Inertia Enterprises raises $450M for fusion energy

18:44 What the Epstein files reveal about ⁠Silicon Valley dealmaking⁠

30:56 The exodus at xAI and OpenAI, and what it means for the AI race

37:22 Outro

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