Today’s show:

Cerebras just jacked its IPO range to $150–$160 a share, OpenAI bought a consulting firm to seed its $4 billion private-equity joint venture, and a startup in Oakland is electrolyzing magnesium out of seawater for one-third the going price. Alex Wilhelm and Jason Calacanis go deep with AI21 co-CEO Ori Goshen on why model orchestration, not bigger LLMs, will decide who wins enterprise AI.

The crew also covered the decline of OpenClaw, TikTok's new £3.99 ad-free tier, more entries in the live-show sidebar bounty, and had time for a little Off Duty before signing off.

Guest Links:

Ori Goshen on LinkedIn

AI21

Alex Grant on LinkedIn

Magrathea Metals

Timestamps:

0:00 Ori Goshen, CEO of AI21 joins the show

1:20 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

5:14 Why enterprises care about token cost optimization

6:01 Jamba as open-weight; Maestro as proprietary orchestration

10:08 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist

12:56 AI21 customer roster: FNAC, US tech giants, Israeli companies

19:01 Alex Grant, CEO of Magrathea Metals joins to discuss pulling magnesium from seawater

20:03 Live video of the Oakland pilot electrolyzer

20:10 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more.

22:01 Magnesium as a "gateway metal" for aluminum, defense, aerospace

23:20 TETRA joint venture & the Evergreen Project in Arkansas

23:38 Series A close, JV economics: $3,000/ton vs. $7,000/ton market

29:10 Sidebar bounty update: Glass Sidebar (Oliver Choy) demo

30:47 Netsuite - Get the free business guide Demystifying AI at https://netsuite.com/twist

31:47 Sidebar bounty update: Sidecast (Patrick Hughes) demo

36:09 Reducing scope to "real-time fact checker only" for final round

37:24 Ro.co: Ro's insurance checker will let you know if your coverage includes GLP-1s for FREE. Go to https://Ro.co/Twist for your free insurance check.

39:07 Cerebras IPO: $115–$125 → $150–$160 per share

44:19 Will OpenAI's compute commitments to Cerebras actually get funded?

49:19 Fervo Energy IPO — venture-backed geothermal company going public

49:40 OpenAI Deployment Company + Tomoro acquisition explained

53:51 Anthropic's parallel $1.5B PE joint venture with Blackstone & Goldman

56:05 Why Jason thinks these PE spinouts are convoluted financial engineering

56:40 OpenClaw's decline + competition from Cowork, Perplexity, Grok

1:04:22 TikTok's £3.99 ad-free subscription launches in the UK

1:09:09 Knicks sweep 76ers — Jason's playoff predictions

1:11:24 Off-duty: "There Is No Antimemetics Division" by qntm

1:13:25 Off-duty: Fall of Civilizations podcast by Paul Cooper

1:16:37 States' rights, federalism, housing supply & closing thoughts

Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com

Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com

Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis

Follow TWiST:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

IM8 Health - https://IM8health.com/TWIST

Every - Every.io

Sentry - https://Sentry.io/TWIST

Banks don’t want to hand over their data to AI labs. So David Moscatelli built a $250,000 box that runs AI on-prem. He already has 1,600 pre-orders. On today’s episode of TWiST, Jason and Alex sit down with the Go Abacus founder and Yanez's Jose Caldera to unpack how regulated industries are getting AI without the cloud, why Bittensor subnet 54 is incentivizing miners to attack identity systems, and why Cloudflare just laid off 20% of its workforce in the same week it raised guidance. The show closes with Jason explaining what it means to build an AI-first startup, and how workers can derisk their future employment!

Guest Links:

Go Abacus

Go1 direct link

David Moscatelli on LinkedIn

Yanez

Bittensor Subnet 54 on TAOstats

Jose Caldera on LinkedIn

LAUNCH Links:

Founder University

Founder University Japan application portal

News Links:

Cloudflare lays off 20% of its staff

Coinbase cuts 14% of its staff

Block post on how it is rebuilding its company

Block’s earnings, including its raised guidance

Anthropic’s massive upcoming funding round

WHOOP’s new on-demand clinicians

Stripe Atlas’s growth

Timestamps:

0:00 Introduction: Jason in Brooklyn, Knicks playoffs

2:30 Go Abacus joins: AI infrastructure for regulated industries

3:25 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

4:00 The Go1: 2,000-user on-prem AI appliance

7:04 Pricing the Go1: How far does $250,000 go?

7:24 1,600 orders and the hardware delivery challenge

10:14 Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST

20:23 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io

27:22 Chicago tech scene and in-office culture

30:09 IM8 Health: Start feeling like your best self every day. Go to https://IM8health.com/twist and use the code TWiST to get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order.

35:11 Yanez joins: How to prove personhood and uniqueness

38:32 How biometric capture and bio-keys work

40:05 Agent delegation: proving humans authorized AI agents

44:19 Bittensor Subnet 54 and incentivizing adversarial miners

47:11 Founder University Japan Cohort 2 applications open

49:15 Tech layoffs: Cloudflare cuts 20%, Coinbase cuts 14%, Block raises guidance

1:02:14 Anthropic's $50B round at $900B pre-money

1:04:22 WHOOP adds on-demand clinicians

1:06:42 Federalism, state-level regulation, and AI policy

Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com

Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com

Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis

Follow TWiST:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

Grasshopper Bank - https://grasshopper.bank/twist

PaperOS - https://paperos.com/twist

LinkedIn Jobs - https://linkedIn.com/twistPlaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist

The top 5 U.S. venture firms captured 73% of all LP commits in Q1, and three veteran VCs say the math may have officially broken. Aleph's Michael Eisenberg argues we may be witnessing the end of a 60-year run for venture capital as a craft business. Maniv's Mike Granoff and Oxcart's Larry Covert push back, arguing it's merely splitting into two asset classes: "Consensus VC" and traditional VC. Either way, the implications for founders, LPs, and the next decade of innovation are enormous.

TWiST is back on the beat with a venture round table discussing investment concentration, the IPO drought, "bullshit ARR" in the AI era, AI gross margins, the U.S.-China chip war, the Iran conflict's impact on defense tech, the death of NATO and the rise of allied supply chains, why Tel Aviv's stock exchange could become the next NASDAQ, and a lightning round on each VC's favorite portfolio company. Let’s go!

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro + sponsor reads (Grasshopper Bank, PaperOS, LinkedIn Jobs)

0:58 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

2:13 Introductions: Eisenberg (Aleph), Granoff (Maniv), Covert (Oxcart)

3:57 The impact of rising venture capital concentration

6:43 "We may be witnessing the end of venture capital"

9:17 Consensus VC vs. Traditional VC

10:01 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist

11:48 Why mid-size firms beat the behemoths on founder access

19:35 Coining "Consensus Colossal Collaborative Capital" (CCCC)

20:03 AngelList's USVC retail VC fund — does it help mid-size funds?

20:18 PaperOS - Whether you're raising a round, launching a fund, or managing a venture portfolio, PaperOS can unlock simplicity and scale across your empire of capital, contracts, and companies. Claim your $10,000 credit at https://paperos.com/twist

23:27 Are there more breakout startups today than 5 years ago?

28:36 The "bullshit ARR" problem and AI gross margins

30:03 Grasshopper Bank - Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account.

32:08 Cursor's negative gross margins and the hyperscaler funding flywheel

33:06 Are we all electron constrained?

35:35 Are we headed for surge pricing on compute?

40:22 Will anything replace NVIDIA? NextSilicon, Hailo & Israel's chip stack

43:33 Distillation, small models, and Apple's edge advantage

46:38 Public trust in AI: should government mandate Waymo & FSD?

1:02:58 Defense tech: Saronic, Anduril & the coming defense M&A wave

1:06:35 The Iran war timeline & supply chain impact

1:18:52 Lightning round: Jiga, Divergent, Volaback, Firehawk, Harbinger

Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com

Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com

Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis

Follow TWiST:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

Render - render.com/twist

Vanta - vanta.com/twist

Northwest Registered Agent - northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

Have you wanted to invest in venture capital alongside your 401k contributions, but struggled to find a way to place a bet? Search no more, for the AngelList team has created USVC, a new fund that will accept investments of as little as $500 from folks who lack accreditation. USVC’s Ankur Napgal swung by the show to chat about investment strategies, access, fees, and just how illiquid the venture-like vehicle will prove to be.

Jason and Alex were then joined by Jon Durbin, core contributor at Chutes, and Yash Goenka, co-founder and CEO of Humwork. Chutes is the most valuable Bittensor subnet, focused on aggregating GPUs to offer trustless AI compute. Humwork wants to help bring a human into your agentic workflow to unstick your agent when it runs into a hitch. The show closes with a news lightning round — enjoy!

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro + Plaud AI sponsor read (Jason demos the NotePin S)

2:06 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

3:50 Episode overview: USVC, Chutes, Humwork

7:41 USVC structure: $500 min, no accreditation, quarterly redemptions

10:28 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

11:39 Fee structure breakdown: 1% mgmt fee, ~2.5% net expense ratio

15:41 USVC portfolio: xAI, Anthropic, OpenAI, Crusoe, Vercel

16:17 Strategy: 1/3 emerging managers, 1/3 growth, 1/3 secondaries

19:00 $1B cap and path to expanding the fund

20:33 Vanta - Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal-breaker for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC 2 reports fast. Get $1,000 off for a limited time at https://www.vanta.com/twist

28:00 What is sovereign compute? Permissionless GPU networks explained

30:10 Render - Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers.

44:53 Usage history: 160B tokens/day peak, free-to-paid transition

46:41 GPU pricing: from $0.77/hr to $3.50/hr as shortage bites

49:13 DeepSeek censorship demo: Taiwan test on DeepSeek chat

57:27 Permissionless supply curves: Uber/Airbnb analogy for induced demand

59:20 Yash Goenka, co-founder of Humwork (YC S26)

1:00:49 Lightning Round: Ryan Cohen wants to buy eBay — Jason's hot take

1:12:36 Lightning Round: Cerebras IPO update ($27–36B valuation range)

1:14:05 Lightning Round: Spirit Airlines / JetBlue / M&A regulation debate

1:19:10 OFF-DUTY: Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord

1:32:57 Alex's OFF-DUTY: Captain of Industry

Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com

Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com

Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis

Follow TWiST:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

Pilot - https://pilot.com/twist

Shopify - https://shopify.com/twist

Grasshopper Bank - https://grasshopper.bank/twist

Today’s show:

An AI agent named Valerie is running a real vending machine in San Francisco — setting prices, ordering inventory, managing a bank account, and posting to Instagram. And it's not just a stunt. We’re getting an early look at the future of one-agent companies. There’s still work to do to help agents ease into the economy, potentially opening up new startup opportunities.

Jason Calacanis and Alex Wilhelm cover a stacked docket: Christian van der Henst demos the Valerie AI vending machine powered by OpenClaw; Robert Myers, CEO of Manifold Labs, breaks down Targon, a confidential GPU compute marketplace running on Bittensor Subnet 4; Jason calls Bitcoin "played out;" Alex is impressed by Anthropic's stunning $900 billion upcoming valuation; and the guys discuss Big Tech's accelerating CapEx spend, Chinese AI models in Congress crosshairs, and the NBA Playoffs.

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro & sponsor reads (Pilot, Shopify, Grasshopper Bank)

1:06 Christian van der Henst: Valerie the AI vending machine demo

4:28 Legal structure: Giving an AI agent business ownership via trust

7:23 Where agents can and can't operate today

10:10 Grasshopper Bank: Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account.

11:48 AI café in Stockholm running on agents

18:21 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

19:05 Robert Myers, Manifold Labs: Targon & Bittensor Subnet 4 interview

20:21 What is Bittensor? An "incubator with 128 subnets"

21:08 Shopify: Turn those What If's into sales with the ecommerce platform powering millions of businesses. Sign up for your $1-per-month trial today at https://shopify.com/twist

25:21 Pricing, utilization caps, and why GPUs are sold out

26:38 Who's using Targon? Customers, use cases, and the mom-and-pop data center argument

30:06 Pilot: Focus on your product, let Pilot handle your bookkeeping. Pilot provides the most reliable accounting, CFO, and tax services for startups and small businesses. Head to https://pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first year.

35:07 Jason explains the annotated.com vision — 15 years in the making

39:11 Polymarket: Will Anthropic flip Bitcoin by Dec 31?

40:29 Jason's Bitcoin bear case: "It's played out. No incremental buyers."

46:05 MicroStrategy / Strategy updates

52:37 AI compute demand vs. the fiber overbuild analogy

55:55 Congress pressuring startups over Chinese AI models (DeepSeek, Moonshot)

57:11 A16z on the geopolitical risk of Chinese AI models

1:00:08 Reflection AI — America's open source AI champion (or lack thereof)

1:01:26 Off Duty: Knicks blow out Atlanta Hawks 140–89, Jason goes road-tripping

Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com

Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com

Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis

Follow TWiST:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

The TWiST AI Basics series is made possible by Google Cloud!Check out Google Cloud’s new report, “Future of AI: Perspectives on generative media for startups,” Featuring thoughts from today’s guest, Joaquín Cuenca AbelaVisit: goo.gle/futureofgenmedia to check it out!Today’s show:In today’s edition of TWiST AI Basics, J-Cal is joined by Joaquin Cuenca Abela, co-founder and CEO of Magnific (formerly known as Freepik). We’re discussing how generative AI is transforming the creative landscape for startups.In watching today’s show you’ll have-consider your expectations of what AI video can actually do for you and your business. What used to take a high end production team months and tens of thousands of dollars now takes 24 hours and one person with patience to learn the right tools. This conversation explores how founders can use these tools to scale their creative output better, cheaper, and faster.Timestamps:0:00 Google Cloud - Check out Google Cloud's new report, "Future of AI: Perspectives on generative media for startups," Featuring thoughts from today's guest, Joaquín Cuenca Abela at https://goo.gle/futureofgenmedia1:10 Welcome to AI Basics, presented by Google Cloud!2:11 Meet Joaquín Cuenca Abela, CEO of Magnific (formerly Freepik)3:12 Building a post-apocalyptic SF ad for TWiST in 24 hours4:25 Storyboarding characters, blending images, and text-prompting scenes6:39 The finished product: post-apocalyptic Jason!7:56 How much cheaper is this than traditional advertising?9:34 The tech stack: Magnific's upscaler and 3rd party frontier models11:02 Which Hollywood productions are actually using AI?13:14 Hollywood's 180 from "F these tools" to enthusiastic adoption14:38 One director's 600-person AI-enabled production15:23 Why Magnific built in Málaga, Spain and how they recruit AI talent16:40 Can AI ever match human creative vision?18:43 The future: 100 versions of the same ad, hyper-localized by city21:35 Where to find Magnific + Google Cloud's Future of AI reportConnect with Joaquín and Magnific!Magnific (formerly Freepik) — Joaquín's AI creative platform, 150M+ MAU, $230M ARR → https://magnific.comJoaquín Cuenca Abela on X → https://x.com/cuencaJoaquín Cuenca Abela on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/joaquin-cuenca-abela-905717a/Magnific on X → https://x.com/magnificPanoramio — Joaquín's prior startup, acquired by Google in 2007 → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PanoramioFortune feature on Magnific's $230M ARR rebrand (April 2026) → https://fortune.com/2026/04/28/freepik-magnific-joaquin-cuenca-abela-230-million-arr-video-generation-ai-pivot/Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisThank you to our partner!Google Cloud - Check out Google Cloud’s new report, “Future of AI: Perspectives on generative media for startups,” Featuring thoughts from today’s guest, Joaquín Cuenca Abela at goo.gle/futureofgenmediaCheck out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

Render - https://Render.com/TWIST

Northwest Registered Agent - https://NorthwestRegisteredAgent.com/TWIST

LinkedIn Jobs - https://LinkedIn.com/TWIST

Today’s show:

A beanie that reads your thoughts and turns them into text — no surgery required? Jason grills the Sabi co-founders on their noninvasive brain-computer interface, backed by Vinod Khosla, and calls a cap on the whole thing (until he doesn't).

This episode of This Week in Startups covers a lot of ground: Jason's tactical tip of the day on making everyone the CEO of their domain, a deep dive into Sabi's thought-to-text beanie, a live demo of AI-powered podcast sidebars built by the TWiST audience, the announcement of a new $5K bounty for an annotation tool, and Jason's big five wellness framework.

Guests:

Sabi: Website, Wired article

Co-founder and CEO Rahul Chhabra: LinkedIn, X

Companies and people discussed:

Matt Coffin, founder of LowerMyBills.com

Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures

Neuralink, a leading BCI company

ElevenLabs, a leading voice AI startup

Calm, the popular meditation app

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro & tactical tip: Make everyone the CEO of their domain

1:49 Matt Coffin's "CEO of X" management philosophy

3:04 Community ownership: Deputizing Ricky, Lawn, Bianca, Maddie, Kabir

4:02 Building the Noti Gang: X group chats and community flywheels

5:08 Founder takeaways: Activate your top 1%, make someone the CEO of it

6:18 The streamer trick, parasocial dynamics, and creator ethics

7:59 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

9:34 Guest intro: Rahul Chhabra of Sabi

10:01 What is Sabi? Noninvasive BCI in a beanie with 100,000 sensors

10:13 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/TWIST

11:02 How it works: From fMRI to EEG, from hospital to hat

13:46 The brain foundation model and thought-to-text decoding

15:55 Vetting the founders: BITS Pilani, Stanford, athlete fatigue AI

17:22 Vinod Khosla's investment thesis: BCI must be noninvasive

19:30 Jason's challenge: Say "Calacanis," or it doesn't count

20:11 Northwest Registered Agent: Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

21:30 Sabi.com: Reserve your device, release by end of 2026

22:26 Privacy concerns: Does the beanie read everything?

25:41 Bounty #1: AI live sidebar contest — demos from the TWiST audience

27:04 Oliver's breakdown: What's easy vs. hard about live AI commentary

28:40 Demo #1: Armchair (by Mark Colebrook) — fact-checker + troll personas, live

30:59 Render: Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers.

35:30 Live political violence test: The sidebar in real time on the WHCD shooting

38:45 Demo #2: Pod Commentators / SideCast — browser-based, Gemini-powered

40:35 Jason's revised Bounty #1 spec: Fact-checker + cynic, public stream or Zoom

42:41 Timeline: check-ins May 1, May 8; final winner May 15

44:51 Demo #3: BMD Pat (by Patrick Hughes) — instant URL, all-snarky personas

46:52 Bounty #2 announced: Annotated.com — a fair-use multimedia annotation tool

49:31 Annotated: the delicious.com of media commentary

51:11 Contest rules: Jason owns the domain, winner gets $5K + potential ongoing work

53:13 Wrap-up: Bounty 1 = AI sidebar, Bounty 2 = Annotated

Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

IM8 Health - IM8health.com/twist

Sentry - Sentry.io/twist

Deel - Deel.com/twistPlaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist

What’s the technology story of the year? No, it’s not Anthropic’s Mythos model, nor any other AI model. Upcoming IPOs? Wrong again. Jason thinks it’s China’s government’s decision to block Meta's acquisition of Manus. The multi-billion-dollar deal was heralded as evidence that AI companies founded in China could sidestep onerous government meddling by moving their operations to Singapore. That loophole now appears closed.

Jason and Lon then dug into the newly-reforged OpenAI-Microsoft partnership. The two companies have had a mutually beneficial, if fractious, operating relationship to date; that they had to rework their agreement is not a shock.

Then, your hosts watched and digested a video from China purportedly showing a self-driving car hitting a child at speed. What would happen in the United States if such a tragedy struck? And is that fait accompli?

Closing the show, Jason and Lon reacted to the latest Russell Brand implosion, discussed Lon’s new favorite show ‘Criminal Record,’ and shared recommended foot pedals (for AI dictation) and headphones for the road warriors tuning in.

Key Links: OpenAI and Microsoft

OpenAI’s announcement of its new Microsoft deal

Microsoft’s announcement of its new OpenAI deal

OpenAI announces its deal with AWS

News that Microsoft was considering legal action against OpenAI

Microsoft-OpenAI negotiations late 2025 edition, and terms announced in early 2026

Amazon announces that OpenAI models are coming to AWS

Timestamps:

0:00 Show starts

1:24 OpenAI and Microsoft have a new deal

3:22 Why would Microsoft cede exclusive access to OpenAI models?

5:36 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

8:09 Why Jason thinks Microsoft and Apple should work together on AI

9:45 China will block the Meta-Manus deal

12:12 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more.

12:23 Golden Shares and what they provide

14:57 How do you unravel a multi-billion-dollar deal?

22:08 Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST

24:42 The Huawei ADC crash

29:49 What happens when something similar happens in the United States?

31:55 IM8 Health: Start feeling like your best self every day. Go to https://IM8health.com/twist and use the code TWiST to get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order.

36:15 Russell Brand's public humiliation

41:22 Don't trust palm reading!

43:59 Lon's Off Duty streaming pick: Criminal Record

46:25 Jason's Pick: Which foot pedal for AI dictation is right for you?

48:43 Jason's Pick: In the market for new headphones?

Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com

Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com

Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis

Follow TWiST:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

LinkedIn Jobs - https://LinkedIn.com/twist

Today’s show:

It’s a News and Off-Duty weekend roundup!

AngelList’s USVC fund is open to anyone with $500, but it’s getting pushback on social media. Do the critics have a point?

A Special Forces soldier made $409K betting on the military’s capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Is the world just a big casino now?

And a NYT podcast defends shoplifting and explores “social murder.” Find out why Jason says they crossed the line.

Plus: Why you should teach your kids about investment and more, Off-Duty streaming and book recommendations.

Related Links

USVC: https://usvc.com/

AngelList: https://www.angellist.com/

Naval Ravikant on X: https://x.com/naval

“Don’t Listen to the Peanut Gallery; USVC is a Watershed Moment” by Hari Raghavan: https://x.com/haridigresses/status/2047503944839016681

@Covered_Call USVC tweet: https://x.com/covered_call/status/2047020060900733306

Forge Global: https://forgeglobal.com/

Calm: https://www.calm.com/

Full DOJ indictment of Gannon Ken Van Dyke: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-soldier-charged-using-classified-information-profit-prediction-market-bets

NYT “The Opinions” podcast: “The Rich Don’t Play by the Rules. So Why Should I?” https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000010849055/the-rich-dont-play-by-the-rules-so-why-should-i.html

Hasn Piker on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/hasanabi

New Yorker: Jia Tolentino: https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/jia-tolentino

NYT: Nadja Spiegelman: https://www.nytimes.com/by/nadja-spiegelman

Jia Tolentino on X: https://x.com/jiatolentino

Garry Kasparov on X: https://x.com/kasparov63

Prof G Media: https://www.profgmedia.com/

Kids Investment Club: https://www.kidsinvestmentclub.com/

Time stamps:0:00 Intro

1:18 Naval's $500 VC Fund Explained

5:54 Should You Trust Critics With 2K Followers?

7:21 Learn By Betting — Jason's Philosophy

10:10 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

12:30 The Maduro Polymarket Scandal

13:28 Should the Military Bet on Missions?

19:55 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist

29:32 NYT Defends Theft & "Social Murder"

30:28 There Is No Moral Equivalence

33:41 The Nepo Baby Behind the Article

35:42 Prof G's "Resist & Unsubscribe" Movement

37:54 Walk The Walk — Hasan, Bernie & Performative Outrage

44:49 Teaching Kids About Money

48:21 The Rich Get Richer & The Poor Stay Poor

Off Duty Recommendations

“The Complete Maus” by Art Spiegelman: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Maus-Art-Spiegelman/dp/0679406417

“Thinking in Bets” by Annie Duke: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Bets-Making-Smarter-Decisions/dp/0735216355

“Queen of Chess” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pmJgtLKBXg

Greenlight app: https://greenlight.com/

Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com

Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com

Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

v

Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis

Follow TWiST:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

Render - https://render.com/twist

Agree - https://agree.com

Ro - https://Ro.co/Twist

Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist

Today’s show:

The US military is running low on missiles, but now, Firehawk Aerospace is using 3D-printed solid rocket propellant to cut production costs in half and 5x U.S. output.

Plus: PhD researcher Maruchi Kim just built camera-equipped earbuds that perform on par with Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and could be the next wearable AI platform hiding in plain sight.

Guests

Will Edwards: https://x.com/williewockets

Firehawk Aerospace: https://firehawkdefense.com/

Maruchi Kim: https://x.com/maruchikim

VueBuds project: https://vuebuds.cs.washington.edu/

Related Links

This Week in AI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

“Ghost Murmur: The Heartbeat-Tracking Tech That Has Experts Questioning the Laws of Physics”: https://www.military.com/feature/2026/04/18/ghost-murmur-heartbeat-tracking-tech-has-experts-questioning-laws-of-physics.html

Neurometric: https://www.neurometric.ai/

Meta Ray-Bans: https://www.meta.com/ai-glasses/

Hanwha Defense USA: https://www.hanwhadefenseusa.com/

Raytheon: https://www.rtx.com/

Pilatus PC-24 corporate jet: https://www.pilatus-aircraft.com/en/pc-24

PlaneSense: https://www.planesense.com/

Slopes app: https://slopesapp.com/

Speechify: https://speechify.com/

Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://www.eff.org/

Timestamps:

0:00 Are all these layoffs really AI's fault?

8:51 Why laid off people should start their own companies

9:27 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

13:18 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

15:25 Will Edwards of Firehawk joins the show

15:46 What are Solid Rocket Motors (SRMs)?

20:06 Render: Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers.

23:10 Who are Firehawk's customers?

24:25 Reimagining and reinventing the US military

28:35 How do missiles fit into the military's operations?

29:34 Agree - Stop chasing invoices at https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life!

31:01 What's next on the roadmap for Firehawk?

31:49 How to make propellant (with easy to find ingredients)

33:13 A cheaper way to fly private

38:03 Ro.co: Ro's insurance checker will let you know if your coverage includes GLP-1s for FREE. Go to https://Ro.co/Twist for your free insurance check.

40:48 Maruchi Kim of Vuebuds joins the show!

44:35 Why are VueBuds better than meta glasses?

46:23 The biggest VueBud use cases

48:09 Jason wants to use VueBuds on the slopes

55:38 Jason's advice for angel investors: never underestimate anyone!

Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com

Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com

Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

LinkedIn Jobs - linkedIn.com/twist

Grasshopper Bank - grasshopper.bank/twist

Notion - notion.com

Today’s show:

This week, SpaceX announced that it was partnering with AI coding startup Cursor on new AI models. xAI’s parent company is bringing compute, while Cursor brings developer market share and recent successes, training its own coding models.

The deal, while interesting, comes with a steep price tag. SpaceX will pay Cursor $10 billion for their shared work, with an option to buy the entire company for $60 billion later this year.

After poking our way through the deal, Chris Zacharia and Brian McRindle of Bitstarter joined Lon and Alex. Bitstarter is a ‘Kickstarter for Bittensor,’ helping founders get their subnet up and running without tripping over their shoelaces. The Bitstarter crew also broke some news on the show, telling TWIST that they have a new accelerator-ish program kicking off.

Next, Ning Ren from Trajectory RL joined the program to explain how Bittensor subnet 11 is using decentralized competitions to design and release better skills. Skills — markdown files with words — have become a critical building tool in the agentic era; how Trajectory will monetize is an open, interesting question.

Timestamps:

2:27 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

4:07 SpaceX/ xAI "partners" with Cursor!

9:35 Will the Cursor deal help pump a future SpaceX IPO?

9:57 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist.

12:14 How AI coding models like Cursor help xAI grow recursively.

17:24 Chris Zacharia and Brian McRindle of Bitstarter join the show.

20:23 Grasshopper Bank: Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account.

29:59 Notion - Notion brings all your notes, docs, and projects into one connected space that just works with AI built right in. Try Notion, with Notion Agent, at https://www.notion.com/twist

33:03 How Bittensor subnets monetize and how it compares to VC funds.

37:04 Is Bittensor hard-capped at 128 subnets?

42:37 Bittensor's biggest weakness.

46:10 Ning Ren of TrajectoryRL joins the show.

47:34 Skills now need entire agents just to write them!

48:26 Back up… What are skills?

1:07:38 Amazon and Anthropic's 5 BILLION deal

1:08:48 Google has 2 new chips!

1:09:50 Apple CEO, Tim is COOKED! John Ternus is in!

1:11:37 Alex is bullish on MacBook Neo!

Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com

Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com

Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis

Follow TWiST:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com