And it’s an add-on you don’t have to get if you only want the main black-and-white display.

The Esports World Cup 2026 has just begun in Paris and is expected to see thousands of players compete over the coming weeks. The tournament will continue until August 23 at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. The event has seen the participation of over 2,000 professional players and over 200 esports teams from over 100 nations. With a record $75 million prize pool on the line, the event promises weeks of intense competition across some of the world’s most popular games like PUBG Mobile. Here’s everything you need to know.

Players had to compete through the biggest qualification program in Esports World Cup history. More than 1.5 million players joined the qualification process. Organizers hosted around 330 qualifying tournaments, publisher leagues, and international circuits worldwide. Only the best-performing players and teams reached the final stage in Paris.

Club Championship Returns with Massive Rewards

The Club Championship remains one of the major highlights of the Esports World Cup 2026. Points can be scored by different teams playing many games over seven weeks. The championship will not be about winning a particular title but rather about the clubs’ performance. As much as $30 million in total will be awarded across different positions, with the winner receiving $7 million. Team Falcons will aim for another successful campaign after winning previous editions.

The Esports World Cup 2026 has retained Cristiano Ronaldo and Magnus Carlsen as Global Ambassadors. Both icons represent excellence in their respective fields. The involvement of these individuals enables the link between the worlds of esports, football, and chess.

Games Included in Esports World Cup 2026

The Esports World Cup 2026 comprises 25 tournaments across 24 esports titles. Some of the best-known games on PC, console, and mobile platforms will be represented in this list.

The 2026 Esports World Cup will be widely available on TV and online platforms. Viewers from more than 160 countries can follow the tournament on television and the Internet. Coverage will be available in more than 40 languages worldwide, and over 100 broadcasting partners will air the tournament. There will be over 7,000 hours of live coverage and 5,000 official co-streamers.

The three-match 2026 England v India ODI series, from July 14 to 19, sees Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah return to the Indian team after prolonged absences.

Kohli will play his first game for the national side since January. Bumrah has not played a ODI since the 2023 ODI World Cup final. India have named an experienced squad with Rohit Sharma also back alongside captain Shubman Gill.

Apple said that it reached out to OpenAI in February to share its concerns, but didn’t receive a response.

Apple, in a new lawsuit, has accused OpenAI of stealing trade secrets, as Big Tech races to develop next-generation consumer gadgets powered by AI.

In its suit filed last Friday (10 July), Apple levelled accusations of a “coordinated pattern of misconduct at an institutional level” against OpenAI, including at Io – the hardware start-up that the AI giant acquired last year.

Bloomberg reported that tensions between the two companies worsened after OpenAI enlisted Apple design visionary and Io co-founder Jony Ive to help with its product line. The company already owned around 23pc of Io prior to the acquisition.

Apple, according to the filing, said that it reached out to OpenAI in February to share its concerns regarding confidential information belonging to it, but didn’t receive a response. OpenAI, meanwhile, said that it has “no interest in other companies’ trade secrets”.

The lawsuit accused a number of former Apple employees who moved to OpenAI of a “pattern of theft” and alleged that OpenAI instructed potential job candidates from Apple to bring design artefacts and prototypes to their interviews. More than 400 former Apple workers are now employed at OpenAI.

Apple accused Chang Liu, its former senior system electrical engineer for iPhone, of leaving for OpenAI earlier this year without returning his devices or complying with exit procedures.

According to the filing, Liu allegedly told a former colleague that he still had access to an Apple-issued computer which he planned to access for sensitive information.

The lawsuit accused Liu of accessing his former colleague’s work computer without the company’s authorisation, and said that he exploited a previously unknown authentication bug without notifying Apple.

“He celebrated his improper access, exclaiming in a message left on his colleague’s Apple-issued work laptop, ‘LOL’, and that it was ‘so funny’”, the lawsuit read. It also accused Liu of accessing and downloading “dozens of Apple’s confidential hardware-related files” while developing hardware products for OpenAI.

The lawsuit further accused Liu of coaching a former Apple colleague on how to copy confidential information from Apple. “Knowing that OpenAI interviews would involve discussing Apple technology, Mr Liu advised her on which confidential Apple material about unannounced Apple products she should study before her interview,” the lawsuit read.

Another defendant, Tang Yew Tan, who currently works as OpenAI’s chief hardware officer, has been accused of “methodically using Apple’s confidential information to benefit OpenAI”.

Tan left Apple to co-found Io – alongside Jony Ive, Scott Cannon and Evans Hankey in 2024 – where he led the line as its chief hardware officer.

In his 20-plus-year stint at Apple, Tan also worked as the company’s VP of product design for iPhone and Apple Watches. Ive, Cannon and Hankey weren’t named in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleged that Tan, in the months before leaving for OpenAI, met with the company or its collaborators to discuss details of private meetings with an Apple supplier.

Tan allegedly used unauthorised access to seek information on an unannounced Apple product, the company said. He has also been accused of directing job candidates still working at Apple to bring confidential physical parts from products under development for ‘show and tell’ sessions at OpenAI.

“Other former Apple employees who had gone to work for OpenAI emailed themselves Apple’s confidential information to personal accounts on their way out the door,” Apple said.

“And others were improperly using their knowledge of Apple’s confidential and trade secret information to assist OpenAI in developing hardware.”

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When humans mess with the sun in science fiction, it’s usually when a supervillain covers it up and imposes permanent darkness. A space tech company called Reflect Orbital wants to do the opposite: bring sunlight to the dark side of Earth with satellites equipped with giant mirrors. The FCC approved a single satellite as a test demonstration on Thursday, and some scientists are already unhappy about it. 

The approval green-lights Reflect Orbital to send its Eärendil-1 satellite into orbit. It’s a relatively small spacecraft, weighing 142 kilograms (313 pounds). 

Housed in its body is a thin-film square mirror measuring 18 meters by 18 meters (about 60 feet by 60 feet). The satellite is scheduled to launch into space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 later in 2026. 

Eärendil-1 promises to reflect sunlight onto Earth in a 3-mile circle that can be aimed basically anywhere that doesn’t have sunlight. The company has a web tool that shows you what this would look like, and it’s wide enough to light up entire neighborhoods, making it appear like daytime when it’s actually night. 

Ostensibly, this would be used to power solar panels at night, thus bypassing the one big drawback of solar panels: They can collect power only during the day. According to Reflect Orbital, electricity demand spikes right around sunset, which means power companies have to make the most power when the sun isn’t around to help. That increases fossil fuel usage, which is a contributing factor to climate change.

Reflect Orbital says that it wants to deploy 50,000 of these satellites in the event that the tech demonstration proves successful. That would put 16.2 million square meters of mirrors in Low Earth Orbit to light up large portions of the Earth on demand. For now, only the single Eärendil-1 satellite is approved for launch.

Scientists say this could be a disaster

Academics have been opposing the launch of Eärendil-1 since long before its FCC approval. Over 1,800 comments were made during the proposal stage, and most of them were negative. 

Researchers tend to agree that having 50,000 satellites beaming sunlight back to the Earth might be just as bad as a supervillain blocking out the sunlight entirely.

Multiple organizations filed complaints, including the American Astronomical Society and DarkSky, among others, citing potential problems with directing 16 million square miles’ worth of sunlight back onto Earth in the middle of the night.

“The concept of illuminating Earth from orbit represents a new category of artificial light at night with global ecological, cultural and regulatory consequences,” DarkSky said in an open letter to Reflect Orbital. “Based on the current scientific evidence, we do not see a viable pathway for this technology to align with responsible lighting principles or with our mission to protect natural darkness.”

Astronomers are also high on the list of people who oppose a big mirror brightening up the night, noting that even a single mirror flying in front of a telescope can easily overwhelm sensitive equipment in observatories on Earth. And since most astronomy research has to be done at specific times, thanks to the movement of the greater universe, missing an opportunity to observe something thanks to an army of mirrors may cause unrecoverable data loss. 

Scientists from other parts of the world are also unhappy with the notion that a single company in one country could ruin the sky for the rest of the world. 

“An individual RO satellite like Eärendil-1 is expected to have an optical brightness of at least 2 to 4 times that of the full moon,” the American Astronomical Society said in a complaint to the FCC. The AAS also notes that it’s not just the mirrors; because light scatters when it hits Earth’s atmosphere, the mirrors would also make the sky around them too bright to view, causing even more disruption in research. 

“For example, immediately adjacent to the sharp edge of the full moon, the sky is 10,000 times brighter than a dark sky with no moon,” the AAS said. “We expect a similar level of brightness surrounding Eärendil-1.”

Reflect Orbital admits that this is a regulatory blind spot, stating that there is “no established regulatory framework for space-based energy and lighting services.” The company says it’s open to regulation and working alongside scientists, while also stating that it intends to learn as much as it can from its test satellite before sending 50,000 more into space.

On Friday, Apple dropped the bombshell news it was suing OpenAI over the alleged theft of trade secrets, claiming that OpenAI stole Apple’s confidential data and engaged in efforts to learn proprietary information while recruiting former Apple employees.

In accusing OpenAI of stealing secrets about Apple’s unreleased products, Apple revealed that a former employee allegedly siphoned reams of sensitive files from the company’s shared network folders, weeks after leaving Apple for a job at OpenAI.

In its complaint, Apple says the former employee, a system electrical engineer named Chang Liu, allegedly “exploited a rare, previously unknown authentication bug” that allowed access to the company’s network. The bug is classified as a zero-day vulnerability, meaning that Apple had no time to fix it before it was allegedly exploited.

Apple has since fixed the bug and said it terminated the employee’s access once it learned of this “security breach.” In its complaint, Apple said the bug could have allowed a “few other” people to access data on its network, but alleged that only Liu exploited the bug to steal Apple’s confidential information while no longer an employee, citing a check of its server logs. 

The disclosure, while light in detail, highlights the challenges that organizations face with protecting sensitive corporate data after employees no longer work there. Companies often move to immediately cut off departing staff from further access to protect any sensitive information from leaving, including inadvertently. Companies that fail to fully decommission their employees’ accounts can face future security lapses, data breaches, or malicious actions by disgruntled staff.

Apple spokespeople did not respond to an email from TechCrunch with questions about the security vulnerability, how it was exploited, and when the company decommissioned the employee’s credentials.

“LOL… so funny.”

In the complaint, Apple alleged that Liu took “dozens of Apple’s confidential hardware-related files” over the course of several weeks while as a new OpenAI employee. 

Apple said the files contained “detailed information about unreleased products, engineering presentations, technical specifications, and proprietary project data.” 

The company claims Liu failed to return the Apple-issued work laptop he had previously used to access Apple’s network, suggesting it was once able to send and receive files from Apple’s internal systems. The complaint said that Liu allegedly claimed to have “another computer.” While he was at OpenAI, Liu also allegedly misused the access of an acquaintance, Yu-Ting Peng, a then-Apple employee who later went to work for OpenAI. Liu allegedly used Peng’s Apple-issued work laptop “while she was still employed at Apple and he was not.”

Apple said that during February 2026, Liu “tried to access Apple’s network storage — a cloud-based file repository containing Apple’s confidential engineering files, project documentation, and other proprietary information.”

Liu had allegedly discovered that he “still could access Apple’s network repository after leaving Apple, the result of a then-unknown authentication vulnerability.”

Apple did not describe the authentication “bug” that Liu allegedly used to access Apple’s network. However, authentication bugs generally refer to flaws in the login process that allow improper access to systems or data, either because of a weakness in how the login mechanism works or due to a misconfiguration, such as overbroad permissions or not decommissioning the login credentials of a former employee. 

Apple wrote in its complaint that when Liu learned he had unauthorized access to Apple’s systems, he did not report the bug to Apple under his employment agreement obligations, nor did he return his Apple-issued work laptop. 

The complaint added that Liu also failed to “delete the program that allowed the access” to Apple’s network. The company did not say what program or app that Liu allegedly used to access Apple’s systems. It’s not uncommon for employees to have tools, such as a work-approved VPN or remote-viewing app, that allow them to access sensitive data from outside of the company’s offices using their credentials.

Given that Liu was previously granted credentials to Apple’s network as an employee, TechCrunch asked Apple when the company decommissioned Liu’s access, but we did not hear back.

Once Liu allegedly gained access to the network share, he wrote to Peng: “LOL, I found out I can access the [network storage], so funny.”

Apple filed its suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose, and has demanded a jury trial. OpenAI previously said it has “no interest in other companies’ trade secrets.”

The case, if it proceeds, could begin this year.

Meta’s acquisition of Manus drew widespread criticism in China for what was perceived as the handing over of critical technology to a geopolitical rival.

Chinese multinational technology company Tencent is in talks to become the largest external shareholder at AI start-up Manus in a deal that would further unwind Meta from a similar deal made previously, according to a report from Reuters, which cited two sources close to the matter. 

It was previously reported that US tech giant Meta would acquire Manus for roughly $2bn as the organisation aimed to further advance its work in the AI space. However, in April of this year, it was announced that Manus – which is based in Singapore, but originated in China – and Meta had begun dismantling the deal as a result of the Chinese government blocking it on the grounds of national security. 

When the deal was initially announced, it drew widespread criticism in China for what was perceived as the handing over of critical technology to a geopolitical rival.

An investigation commenced soon after, leading to the eventual dissolution of the agreement after the Chinese government blocked the deal.

Other investors reported to be involved in the new deal – which was first reported by the Financial Times – alongside Tencent are ZhenFund and HSG, both of whom were original investors in Manus. 

Investing in Manus is, for Tencent, an opportunity to further develop a reputation in the booming global artificial intelligence sector. In June, the organisation began testing a new AI assistant on its own app, WeChat, in an attempt to keep pace with its competitors in the space. 

WeChat users can interact with Xiaowei, Tencent’s AI agent, via text or voice prompts and the AI uses WeChat’s own large language model WeLM, while also tapping into DeepSeek to process additional queries.

Tencent has recently backed other innovators working in the AI space, such as DeepSeek, according to reports. In mid-June it was reported that Tencent was involved in a round in which the DeepSeek raised more than $7.4bn at a $50bn-plus post-money valuation. Tencent was also reported to have proposed taking a 20pc stake in DeepSeek. 

Updated, 2.43pm, 13 July 2026: This article was amended to clarify facts related to China’s investigation of the Meta-Manus acquisition, to clarify that ZhenFund and HSG were original investors in Manus before the Meta acquisition, and to clarify that Reuters and the Financial Times published the original reports.

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Inconvo had offered configurable AI assistants connected to user-facing data, with the aim of allowing customers to analyse their data through a ChatGPT-like interface.

Attio, a London-based developer of AI-powered customer relationship management (CRM) software, has acquired Irish-founded AI analytics platform Inconvo for an undisclosed sum.

In a blogpost, Attio said that Inconvo’s founders, Eoghan and Liam Mulcahy, would be joining its engineering team in order to “expand Attio’s ecosystem of agents and integrations” and help to “make natural language interfaces ubiquitous in all of the tools” offered by Attio.

Inconvo’s independent platform has been shut down following the acquisition, according to a blogpost from Eoghan Mulcahy, who wrote that the founders’ goal in creating the platform two years ago was to get answers from data “by just asking, in plain language”.

He added: “Natural language access to data isn’t a nice add-on. It’s infrastructure, and it belongs right at the centre of the tools teams use every day.”

Inconvo had offered configurable AI assistants connected to user-facing data, with the aim of allowing customers to analyse their data through a ChatGPT-like interface.

“Eoghan and Liam are builders at heart and perfectly encapsulate the philosophy of our team and product,” said Nicolas Sharp, CEO and co-founder of Attio.

Inconvo was part of Y Combinator‘s summer 2023 batch and launched in 2024. Attio, founded in 2019, said that integrating Inconvo’s founding team would help it to build architecture that “lets teams move at a speed, scale and quality previously out of reach, with first-class agentic access wherever they operate”.

“Their vision to make natural language interfaces ubiquitous in all of the tools we use is one piece of the larger shift we’re driving at Attio – a CRM that transforms how revenue work gets done,” the UK company said.

Attio lists companies such as Modal, Snackpass and Union Square Ventures as users of its CRM platform.

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