Last checked October 6, 2026 · News roundup
Today in brief: Schneider Electric confirmed it will buy PTC for $22.6 billion in cash, the largest deal in its history. Crunchbase data shows startups raised $159 billion in the third quarter, with AI companies taking $102 billion of it, and chipmaker Etched is reportedly fielding offers at a $40 billion-plus valuation. Microsoft and Meta are reportedly using less of Anthropic's Claude, TikTok added an AI shopping assistant in the US, and AI companies faced tough questions at a New York City Council hearing.
Here is the SaaS news today for October 6, 2026: what happened on October 5, what it costs, and who should pay attention.
Is Schneider Electric buying PTC? Yes, for $205 a share in cash
The deal we flagged as likely in yesterday's SaaS roundup is now signed. On October 5, Schneider Electric agreed to buy PTC, the Boston company behind industrial design and product lifecycle software such as Creo, Windchill and Onshape, for $205 per share in cash. That is a 42.3% premium to PTC's Friday close and values the equity at $22.6 billion, or $23.7 billion including debt.
Schneider plans to fund it with up to €17 billion in debt and up to €6 billion in new shares, and investors didn't love that: its stock fell 9.65% on the day, according to Yahoo Finance. Axios says it is Schneider's largest deal ever, bigger than its roughly $11 billion Aveva buyout. PTC has more than 7,000 employees and more than 30,000 customers. Closing is expected in the third quarter of 2027. For PTC customers: nothing changes before then, but if you are negotiating a multiyear renewal, ask for price protection through 2028.
How much did startups raise in Q3 2026? $159 billion, 64% of it for AI
Global venture funding reached $159 billion in the third quarter of 2026, Crunchbase reported on October 5. That is down from $212 billion in the second quarter but well above the $104 billion raised in Q3 2025, and Crunchbase calls it the lowest quarter of 2026 so far. AI companies took $102 billion, or 64% of the total.
| Billion-dollar rounds | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 | Q3 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Companies raising $1B+ | 14 | 16 | 27 (record) |
Money is concentrating in fewer, bigger checks. A record 27 companies raised rounds of $1 billion or more, about a third of all Q3 capital, led by $5 billion each for Databricks and Safe Superintelligence. US companies raised $91 billion, or 57% of the global total. For SaaS buyers, that much capital in AI means aggressive pricing from well-funded vendors now, and consolidation risk later.
Etched valuation: offers at $40 billion or more, sources say
AI chip startup Etched is getting investment offers at a $40 billion to $50 billion valuation, TechCrunch reported on October 5, citing sources. That would be roughly double the $21 billion valuation from its $700 million round in September, which itself came two months after a $300 million round at $10.3 billion in July.
Etched designs chips specialized for running transformer AI models, a bet that dedicated inference hardware can beat general GPUs on cost. It has about 400 employees, roughly 15% of them from Nvidia, TechCrunch says. Terms may change, so treat the number as a signal of investor appetite for cheaper inference, not a done deal. Cheaper inference is ultimately what would bring down the per-seat price of AI features in the tools you pay for.
Are Microsoft and Meta cutting back on Claude? Reports say yes
Two of Anthropic's biggest corporate customers are scaling back, The Information reported, as summarized by AI Weekly on October 5. At Meta, the number of employees using Claude Code fell to about 30,000 from about 60,000 earlier this year, while Meta's in-house coding tool, MetaCode, passed 30,000 users. Microsoft cut its 2026 spending projection for Anthropic models, previously at least $1 billion, by more than a third.
The partnerships themselves stay in place. Microsoft's investment of up to $5 billion in Anthropic and Anthropic's $30 billion Azure compute commitment are unaffected, and Meta still projects spending up to $10 billion a year on Anthropic models, according to the same report.
Why it matters to smaller teams: big companies are moving routine coding work to cheaper internal tools and keeping frontier models for harder tasks. That mixed approach is worth copying. Check which of your AI seats get daily use before your next renewal.
TikTok AI shopping assistant and one-click checkout launch in the US
TikTok rolled out a conversational AI shopping assistant and one-click checkout in the US on October 5, TechCrunch reported. The assistant answers questions about product details, shipping, sizing and stock, remembers your preferences, and lets you buy straight from the For You feed without leaving the app. TikTok built it with Salesforce, Shopify, Shoplazza and Stripe.
The stakes are big for online sellers. TikTok Shop's US sales were an estimated $15.8 billion in 2025, about 18% of US social commerce, according to figures cited by TechCrunch. What sellers should do: the assistant can only answer from the data you give it, so fill in sizing charts, shipping times and stock levels on every listing. Gaps there now cost you sales inside the chat, not just on the product page.
NYC Council AI hearing: what OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta said
Policy staff from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta testified before the New York City Council on October 5, alongside three former industry researchers. amNY reported that OpenAI's Morgan Dwyer, asked about the odds of a catastrophe, said: "I don't know. I also don't think it matters whether it's a 1%, 10% or a 20% chance." Council Speaker Julie Menin called that answer "flippant at best."
Former OpenAI and Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon told the council, "We don't fully control it," according to amNY. Google's Alice Friend called for a comprehensive federal framework, Quartz reported. SpaceX's AI unit did not appear despite a subpoena, and Menin said legal action would follow.
Next, the council will send the companies written questions, and the Mamdani administration will give its position on proposed city rules. For businesses: New York is building its own AI rules on top of the state's RAISE Act. If you sell or deploy AI tools in the city, watch this package.
HackerRank Chakra: an AI interviewer is now generally available
HackerRank has opened Chakra, an AI agent that runs technical job interviews, to all customers after about six months in beta, TechCrunch reported on October 5. Candidates work on real coding tasks in a workspace with a built-in AI assistant, and Chakra scores their reasoning, judgment and "AI fluency," meaning how well they steer the AI toward a solution. HackerRank says one Chakra session replaces what used to take three interview rounds.
More than 500,000 interviews ran during the beta, with Snowflake, Snorkel and Capgemini among early users. HackerRank says suspicious-activity flags dropped 70–80% compared with traditional assessments. Pricing was not disclosed. Chakra recommends a score, and a human makes the hiring decision. For hiring teams in New York City: automated hiring tools there need a bias audit under the city's rules, which HackerRank acknowledges, so ask for the audit before you switch it on.
What readers are asking about today's business news
Is PTC being acquired?
Yes. Schneider Electric agreed on October 5, 2026 to buy PTC for $205 per share in cash, about $22.6 billion in equity value. The deal needs PTC shareholder and regulatory approval and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2027. PTC products such as Creo and Windchill keep running as usual until then.
How much money did AI startups raise in Q3 2026?
About $102 billion, according to Crunchbase, which is 64% of the $159 billion invested globally in the quarter. A record 27 companies raised rounds of $1 billion or more, with Databricks and Safe Superintelligence each taking $5 billion. Total funding was below Q2's $212 billion.
Is Microsoft dropping Anthropic?
No. The Information reports Microsoft cut its 2026 spending projection for Anthropic models by more than a third, but its investment of up to $5 billion and Anthropic's $30 billion Azure commitment are unchanged. Meta has also reduced internal Claude Code use, to about 30,000 employees from about 60,000.
Sources: Axios on Schneider–PTC (Oct 5, 2026) · Yahoo Finance on Schneider shares (Oct 5, 2026) · Crunchbase News Q3 2026 funding data (Oct 5, 2026) · TechCrunch on Etched (Oct 5, 2026) · AI Weekly summarizing The Information (Oct 5, 2026) · TechCrunch on TikTok's shopping assistant (Oct 5, 2026) · amNY on the NYC Council hearing (Oct 5, 2026) · Quartz on the hearing (Oct 5, 2026) · TechCrunch on HackerRank Chakra (Oct 5, 2026)
