This Week at YC: New General Partners, Alternative Compute, and Major Portfolio Rounds

This Week at YC: New General Partners, Alternative Compute, and Major Portfolio Rounds Y Combinator announced the appointment of two full-time General Partners, highlighted discussions on the future of AI hardware and robotics, previewed an upcoming Startup School in Taipei, and rounded up major funding rounds across its alumni network. Vivian Midha Shen and Raphael Schaad have joined Y Combinator as full-time General Partners. YC's content highlights explored alternatives to GPU-based computing and the rise of general-purpose robot-use agents. A free, curated Startup School event is scheduled for founders and builders in Taipei. YC portfolio companies announced major capital raises, including Hubble Network ($200M), Supabase ($150M), Numeral ($100M), and Firecrawl ($75M). Leadership and Events Vivian Midha Shen and Raphael Schaad have transitioned from Visiting Partners to full-time General Partners at Y Combinator to support founders. YC also announced that Startup School is coming to Taipei for a free, selective one-day event featuring talks from YC partners and alumni founders across greater Asia. AI Hardware and Robotics Insights YC's Paper Club examined alternatives to traditional GPUs as compute efficiency plateaus, reviewing optical systems, neuromorphic architectures, and biological computing. Additionally, an essay by MIT professor Philip Isola highlighted the potential of 'robot-use agents'—general-purpose models that apply coding agent generalization to control diverse physical robots with minimal specialized training. Portfolio Highlights and Acquisitions Several YC alumni secured major funding rounds: Hubble Network raised $200M at a $1.6B valuation while opening satellite coverage to Bluetooth devices; database platform Supabase raised $150M and acquired Turso; Numeral secured a $100M Series C for AI-driven sales tax compliance; and Firecrawl closed a $75M Series B alongside introducing Alexandria.

YC周报：Vivian Midha Shen与Raphael Schaad晋升管理合伙人，多项技术探讨及社区大额融资公布 Y Combinator公布最新周报，宣布两位访问合伙人正式升任全职管理合伙人，介绍了关于GPU替代算力与通用机器人智能体的研讨内容，同时发布台北Startup School活动安排及Hubble、Supabase等多家公司的最新融资进展。 Vivian Midha Shen与Raphael Schaad正式成为YC新任全职管理合伙人（General Partners）。 Paper Club探讨摆脱GPU的新型算力形态，包括光学计算、神经形态架构与活体脑细胞实验。 YC宣布将在台北举办免费的线下Startup School，由大亚洲地区校友创始人与YC合伙人登台演讲。 校友企业动态方面，Hubble Network以16亿美元估值完成2亿美元融资，Supabase获1.5亿美元融资并收购Turso，Numeral与Firecrawl亦公布大额融资。 YC内部任命与线下活动 Vivian Midha Shen与Raphael Schaad曾打造拥有数百万用户的产品，此前曾作为访问合伙人重返YC协助创业者，现已正式转为全职管理合伙人。此外，YC将在台北举办Startup School，汇聚该地区创业者与工程师，由大亚洲地区的YC校友创始人和YC合伙人分享实战经验，该活动完全免费且名额经严格筛选。 前沿技术与研究研讨 本周Paper Club关注替代计算方式，探讨当传统计算效率见顶后，通过光系统计算、脑启发神经形态架构以及训练活体脑细胞运行《DOOM》等新型AI算力形态。另一项讨论则聚焦MIT教授Philip Isola关于通用智能体控制机器人的观点，分析代码智能体向物理世界泛化的潜力。 YC社区与校友企业融资动向 多家YC企业宣布重大业务与融资进展：Hubble Network向所有蓝牙设备开放卫星覆盖，并以16亿美元估值完成2亿美元融资；数据库初创公司Supabase融资1.5亿美元并收购Turso；Numeral完成1亿美元C轮融资用于AI销售税合规；Firecrawl推出Alexandria并宣布完成7500万美元B轮融资。

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | This Week at YC **October 4th, 2026** | | | | ✨ **The Latest** | | | | | | | | [Vivian Midha Shen and Raphael Schaad Join YC as General Partners](https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/welcome-vivian-and-raphael) We’re thrilled to announce that Vivian Midha Shen and Raphael Schaad are joining Y Combinator as our newest General Partners. They've built products used by millions of people, then returned to YC as Visiting Partners to help other founders. Now they're doing it full-time. | | | | | | | | [What If We Stopped Using GPUs?](https://youtu.be/xc2FTBGRSJo) This week’s Paper Club is all about alternative compute. Modern AI has been shaped by a tight coupling between transformers, backpropagation, and GPUs. But as compute efficiency starts to plateau, there may be very different ways to build the machines that come next. We explore what AI compute could look like beyond conventional digital hardware through optical systems that use light to perform computation, neuromorphic architectures inspired by the brain, and experiments teaching living brain cells to play Doom. | | | | | | | | [Robot-Use Agents: Why General-Purpose Models May Win in Robotics](https://youtu.be/Jv5B5CEaPJI) One of the biggest surprises in AI over the last few years has been how well coding agents generalize beyond software. In a recent essay, MIT professor Philip Isola argued that we may be entering the era of robot-use agents: general-purpose models that can control different robots, write policies, and learn new physical tasks with little or no robot-specific training. | | | | | | | | [Startup School is Coming to Taipei!](https://events.ycombinator.com/startup-school-taipei) We're bringing together the region's most ambitious founders, engineers, and builders for a day of talks from people who have built real companies. Speakers are YC alumni founders from across greater Asia, along with YC partners. This is a 100% free event, but space is limited and every attendee is hand-picked. | | | | | | 🌎 YC Community Highlights/news from YC and YC companies | | | | | | | | [**Hubble Network Opens Satellite Coverage to All Bluetooth Devices, Raises $200M at $1.6B Valuation**](https://hubble.com/news/hubble-network-opens-satellite-coverage-to-all-bluetooth-devices-raises-200-million-series-c-at-1.6-billion-valuation) Hubble | | | | | | | | [**Database startup Supabase raises $150M, acquires Turso**](https://siliconangle.com/2026/10/02/database-startup-supabase-raises-150m-acquires-turso/) siliconAngle | | | | | | | | [**The Voice AI Platform Powering a Billion Calls a Year**](https://youtu.be/2otGNwNOEUM) Root Access | | | | | | | | [**Numeral raises $100m Series C for AI sales tax compliance**](https://thenextweb.com/news/numeral-100m-series-c-insight-partners-ai-sales-tax) TNW | | | | | | | | [**Introducing Alexandria and our $75M Series B**](https://www.firecrawl.dev/blog/introducing-alexandria-series-b) Firecrawl | | | | | | | | [**The Training Ground for AI Knowledge Workers**](https://youtu.be/0-g2-PRrOdw) Root Access | | | | | | [🚀 **The Launchpad**](http://ycombinator.com/launches) [Some of the most recent launches from YC companies](http://ycombinator.com/launches) | | | | | | | | [Find more YC companies and discover new products](https://www.ycombinator.com/launches) | | | | | | [🔥 **Hacker News**](https://news.ycombinator.com) [Top posts from this week](https://news.ycombinator.com) | | | | | | | | [Read more on Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com) | | | | | | **More YC resources:** [Apply to YC](https://www.ycombinator.com/apply) \| [YC Library](https://www.ycombinator.com/library) | | | | *Copyright © 2026 Y Combinator, All rights reserved.* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences](https://ycombinator.us7.list-manage.com/profile?u=6507bf4e4c2df3fdbae6ef738&id=547725049b&e=[UNIQID]&c=bc5a032ec5) or [unsubscribe from this list](https://ycombinator.us7.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=6507bf4e4c2df3fdbae6ef738&id=547725049b&t=b&e=[UNIQID]&c=bc5a032ec5). |