TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 adds a stage on AI's power demands

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, running October 13-15 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, will include a Smart Systems Stage built around the power and infrastructure constraints now shaping artificial intelligence. The stage will cover ground from commercial fusion power to the strain that AI’s compute demand is putting on electrical grids and the broader economy, reflecting how AI increasingly depends on energy and infrastructure as much as on code.

The stage’s first announced session, “Bringing Fusion to the Grid,” brings together Helion CEO David Kirtley and Commonwealth Fusion Systems Chief Science Officer Brandon Sorbom to discuss the breakthroughs driving commercial fusion forward, the challenges still ahead, and what it will take to get fusion power onto the grid at scale. A separate fireside chat, “How Twilio’s Founder Is Tackling the Power Problem,” features Inertia CEO Jeff Lawson, who previously founded Twilio, discussing his path from that company to leading one of the best-funded fusion-power startups in the world, and how scaling Twilio shapes his approach to talent, timelines, and engineering questions at Inertia.

Two further sessions round out the lineup so far. “Rewiring the Grid for the Electric Age” will look at what it takes to modernize a power system where electricity demand is growing faster than the infrastructure built to support it, and where investment is flowing to make the grid more resilient and flexible; confirmed speakers are Heron Power founder and CEO Drew Baglino and WeaveGrid CEO and co-founder Apoorv Bhargava, with more speakers still to be announced. “AI’s Power Problem” will examine how data center operators and energy companies are racing to secure power and expand infrastructure before it becomes the bottleneck slowing AI’s next wave, featuring Ambrosia Energy president and co-founder Sara Spangelo and Bloom Energy senior vice president and head of datacenter solutions Bill Thayer, also with additional speakers to be confirmed.

Why it matters

The lineup underscores that power and grid capacity, not just chip supply, have become central bottlenecks for AI’s growth, pulling fusion-power startups and grid-infrastructure companies into the same conversation as AI-infrastructure builders.