CNBC Disruptors

Welcome to #Disruptor50 in the age of AI — upending the classical definition of disruptive innovation with the era of “better, cheaper, faster” innovation on the way out. Instead, achieving disruptive innovation with AI requires massive piles of capital investment, inevitably leading to close partnership with the incumbent giants. A whopping 34 of the 50 companies on our 12th annual CNBC Disruptor 50 list claim that artificial intelligence is “critical” to their businesses. These include companies in industries ranging from cybersecurity to agriculture. Thirteen of the 2024 Disruptors call themselves “generative AI companies,” including five of the top ten on this year’s list.

The boss of travel and expense management platform Navan told CNBC's Ryan Browne he’s preparing the #Disruptor50 company to get its business into shape for an eventual initial public offering this year, in another sign leaders of privately-held startups are getting more optimistic about their prospects in the public markets. Asked about when Navan would choose to go public, the firm’s CEO and co-founder Ariel Cohen said the company is close to reaching that milestone. “We can see the signals,” he said, adding that Navan has been adjusting its leadership structure and making changes to its board in a signal of maturity.

Keeping food cold is a very large business, but the refrigeration technology behind it hasn’t experienced much change. Based in North Carolina’s Research Triangle, solid-state cooling company Phononic Inc pioneered semiconductor devices that cool and freeze products from frozen seafood to processed meat, snacks, and ice cream, covering a global cold chain supply and transport system, and large supermarket freezers — the company ranked No. 35 on the 12th annual CNBC #Disruptor50 list. As part of our coverage of this year's innovators, CEO Tony Atti, Ph.D. joined CNBC's Julia Boorstin to discuss how the company is using AI in its cooling chip technology.

It’s a tumultuous time for pharmacies, which continue to struggle with labor and supply shortages. Last year, overburdened pharmacists walked out on their jobs at CVS and Walgreens to protest inadequate staffing and rising work requirements. Meanwhile, online pharmacies — run by online giants like Amazon — create competition. Alto Pharmacy, a full-service pharmacy backed by a digital platform, is among those looking to transform the sector — the company ranked No. 29 on the 12th annual CNBC #Disruptor50 list. As part of our coverage of this year's innovators, CEO Alicia Boler Davis joined CNBC's Kelly Evans to discuss how the company is innovating the digital pharmacy experience, how customers can save money with Alto and more.

Congratulations Cityblock Health — ranked No. 50 on this year's #Disruptor50 list!

The night life of school buses is about to get more interesting. Zūm, which provides student transportation including #EV buses to 4,000 schools across the country, is partnering with the Oakland Unified School District to start selling power stored in EV batteries back to the California utility grid. The company ranked No. 31 on this year's CNBC #Disruptor50 list, which dropped yesterday. Oakland is the first school district in the U.S. to go fully electric with its buses and will now be the first to test the concept of V2G (vehicle to grid) bidirectional charging. In effect, instead of the one-way charge into the vehicle, the school buses will be able to send their battery power back to the grid through Zum charging infrastructure.

Congratulations Dedrone — ranked No. 33 on this year's #Disruptor50 list!

The 2024 CNBC Disruptors 50 list was unveiled today, with OpenAI topping the list. Coming in at number two was AI-powered defense tech startup Anduril Industries at a valuation of $10 billion dollars. Anduril Industries CEO and Co-founder Brian Schimpf joined CNBC Overtime from their headquarters to discuss what sets them apart from their peers in the defense-tech space. “From our perspective, what has made us successful is we first and foremost focus on understanding our customers' problems… they don’t often understand what is possible to solve with technology today,” said Schimpf.

Congratulations Kapital — ranked No. 27 on this year's #Disruptor50 list!

Africa is home to the fastest-growing population in the world, and on a continent that lacks much traditional infrastructure, younger people are relying on technology for everything from banking to transportation and entertainment. Flutterwave is among a wave of startups using technology to fill in the gaps. After ranking No. 14 on this year's CNBC #Disruptor50 list, Founder & CEO Olugbenga Agboola joins CNBC's Julia Boorstin to break down the business of payments.