Google selects 15 AI startups in AuNZ

Google selected 15 AI and machine-learning startups for its 2026 Australia and New Zealand accelerator, a 10-week equity-free program for seed and Series A companies. Google’s cohort announcement names teams building design agents, lab operating systems, autonomous supply-chain software, and flexible energy systems. For founders, the intake is a useful signal of which operational AI categories Google expects to mature next, echoing the capital rotation tracked in the year’s physical-AI funding record.