AI is moving into its next high-stakes phase, and the biggest questions are no longer limited to what models can do. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, investors, infrastructure builders, and enterprise AI leaders will tackle the harder challenge: turning powerful systems into lasting companies and working products.
Blackstone’s Jas Khaira will take the Builders Stage for “Building the Next Generation of AI Giants,” while Cerebras CEO and co-founder Andrew Feldman will bring the scaling debate to the Disrupt Stage with “Can AI Keep Scaling?” Their sessions will sit alongside a conversation about what happens after enterprises deploy Claude, giving Disrupt 2026 a sharp focus on money, machines, and real-world adoption.
Capital Meets the AI Infrastructure Race
Khaira, the global head of Blackstone N1, will share what Blackstone looks for when backing category-defining companies. He will also explain how founders should think about capital as they scale and what distinguishes lasting businesses from early traction.
That discussion arrives as Blackstone and co-investors agreed to invest up to $600 million in primary equity in Neysa, an Indian AI infrastructure company. Neysa planned to raise an additional $600 million in debt financing, creating a capital plan built around both equity and borrowing.
Blackstone is also connected to Ode, an AI implementation company launched by Anthropic through a $1.5 billion joint venture with Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Goldman Sachs, and others. Together, these developments put investment structure beside the practical work of building and deploying AI infrastructure.
The message for founders is direct: early traction is only one part of the story. The larger test is whether a company can use capital to build a business that lasts.
Cerebras Pushes Compute Beyond the Chip
Andrew Feldman will explore the growing demand for compute, energy, and infrastructure, along with how Cerebras is approaching those constraints differently. He will also discuss what happens if today’s AI hardware reaches its limits.
Cerebras developed a processor built on the wafer itself, designed specifically for demanding AI workloads. The company raised $5.5 billion in its May IPO, then signed a multiyear agreement with OpenAI to deploy 750 megawatts of Cerebras systems from 2026 through 2028.
Its expansion plans stretch across hardware, manufacturing, and geography. Cerebras introduced CS-4, the latest generation of its wafer-scale AI infrastructure, in August, and reported more than 600 megawatts of data center capacity live or under contract for delivery by the end of 2027.
- Cerebras plans to increase manufacturing capacity more than tenfold during 2026.
- The company plans to bring its first European data center capacity online in 2026.
- European capacity is planned to reach 200 megawatts by the end of 2027.
- OpenAI is set to receive 750 megawatts of Cerebras systems from 2026 through 2028.
Feldman brings a long history in computing infrastructure to that conversation. He co-founded Cerebras in 2015, co-founded and led the energy-efficient microserver startup SeaMicro, which AMD acquired in 2012, and held leadership roles at Force10 Networks and Riverstone Networks.
Enterprise AI Faces Its Real-World Test
Infrastructure only matters when people use what it powers. That is the focus of “What Anthropic Sees When Enterprises Actually Deploy Claude,” a session featuring Anthropic, Gamma, and Clay.
Cat de Jong, Head of Applied AI at Anthropic, works directly with enterprises putting Claude into critical workflows. Grant Lee, Co-Founder and CEO of Gamma, represents a company that has grown its AI-powered platform to approaching 100 million users as of March.
Kareem Amin, Co-Founder and CEO of Clay, brings another piece of the deployment puzzle. Clay provides infrastructure to pull in data, run agentic workflows, and launch GTM plays, and it was one of the launch apps integrated into Claude when Anthropic introduced interactive workplace tools inside the Claude interface.
The session will explore what happens after AI deployment, how companies get people to use AI products, and what changes when AI becomes part of workflows. Those questions shift the spotlight from model launches to adoption, integration, and the daily systems that keep businesses moving.
Disrupt 2026 will take place October 13–15 at Moscone West in San Francisco, with more than 10,000 founders, investors, operators, and tech leaders expected to attend. The event is set to feature more than 250 speakers, 300+ exhibiting startups, and 200+ sessions.
The listed dates also include September 28 for the Anthropic, Gamma, and Clay session, September 30 for Andrew Feldman’s session, and October 2 as the last day to exhibit at Disrupt. With capital commitments reaching hundreds of millions, infrastructure plans measured in megawatts, and enterprise platforms approaching 100 million users, the event is positioned around one defining question: how far can AI scale when investment, hardware, and human adoption must advance together?
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