TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: Ricursive Intelligence’s Anna Goldie and Azalia Mirhoseini on when AI starts designing its own hardware

AI needs increasingly powerful chips. But designing those chips is itself a slow, complex process. What happens when AI starts doing some of that work, too?

That’s the idea behind Ricursive Intelligence. The startup is developing AI that can design chips, learn from the process, and improve the next design — potentially accelerating development of the hardware that powers increasingly capable AI.

Today, designing a chip can take two to three years. Recursive wants to reduce that cycle to a matter of weeks.

At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 , Ricursive Intelligence co-founders Anna Goldie and Azalia Mirhoseini will take the Disrupt Stage for “When AI Starts Designing Its Own Hardware.” They’ll discuss closing the loop between AI and chip development, building self-improving systems, and tackling one of the biggest bottlenecks in the race toward more powerful intelligence.