Niobia takes the guesswork out of some of tech’s most expensive mistakes; Giraffe Bio aims its bespoke biomolecules at the looming copper shortage

[upbeat music] This is TechCrunch. [upbeat music] This episode is brought to you by Framer. You know what's absolutely terrifying? A bad website. Or worse, one that doesn't work. Avoid that nightmare and use Framer. Framer is the AI website builder that helps creators, teams, and businesses ship production-ready sites faster than ever while getting every detail right. Prompt, inspect, edit, and publish in one place at a whole new pace. So I was new to this whole website building thing, but Framer helped me get set up and running incredibly fast. You know, for instance, I wanted to add a blog to my website. It was super easy. Starting with a basic blog page template, I added some breakpoints and then jumped into customizing my layout, adding my own special touches with Framer's intuitive tools. And bam, I was ready to start letting my thoughts flow. See why thousands are trusting Framer to help build their websites. Learn how you can get more out of your site from a Framer specialist or get started building for free today at framer.com/tcstartups for 30% off a Framer Pro annual plan. That's framer.com/tcstartups. Rules and restrictions may apply. San Francisco-based startup Niobia is betting big on a critical but often overlooked part of battery and chip making, helping engineers understand how and why things go wrong. Its AI software flags production defects and lets engineers ask a chatbot what caused them, aiming to deliver answers in minutes rather than days. How it works, broadly speaking, uh, the company's customers place AI agents on their product lines to look for defects, then loop in human engineers to work out what might cause a product to fail. The agents run on self-contained GPUs mounted directly on manufacturing equipment, much like a sensor. They can spot pinhole-sized flaws, such as scratches. Niobia's AI also gathers all the data in one place, so engineers can ask a chatbot what went wrong and dig deeper into the cause. Speed is so critical because chips and batteries are some of the world's most important products, while also increasingly in short supply. As manufacturers continue to develop and improve their technologies, things inevitably go awry during research and development. Engineers then spend days or longer figuring out a fix before they can restart production. Each flaw or mistake can prove costly, sometimes running into the millions of dollars, and set back manufacturing timelines. Niobia co-founders Gaurav Jha and Harveen Kaur both have PhDs in chemistry and have worked at chip makers and battery manufacturers, giving them first-hand experience with the challenges within the industry. In a call ahead of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where the company is a battlefield finalist, Jha explained that while what Niobia does is specialized, it serves a multi-billion dollar market that includes some of the biggest battery and semiconductor makers today. "It's extremely niche," he said. "Maybe people will never know about it, but it's like behind the scenes, this is powering everything. We just don't see it in the regular world. Every product around you, like glasses or shoes, slippers, wallets, and headphones, these