Top News | Apple lines up another $100B: In a move that some are ascribing to a plea for tariff leniency, Apple has pledged another $100 billion in domestic investment for the US. (The company previously promised to invest $500 billion into the earlier this year.) Apple has found itself stretched across the Pacific Ocean as trade barriers between its home country (the United States), and its manufacturing hubs (China, India). Newly increased tariffs announced today on Indian exports to the United States only complicate the picture. AI for education is heating up: At the end of July, OpenAI announced ‘study mode,’ a service aimed at students who are working on mastering a topic. Today, Google announced a new service called ‘Guided Learning’ that Fast Company describes as breaking down “complex problems step-by-step to support deeper understanding.” Given that it seems impossible to stop students from using AI in their studies, tools like what the two tech titans are bringing to market could help make a complicated situation more palatable. AI for government is cheapening up: Anthropic and OpenAI have recently been approved to begin selling their products to the federal government. That’s the good news. The even better news is that both companies are so hungry for market share that they intend on offering their products for a nominal cost. Putting aside concerns about incumbent market share capture, seeing various federal agencies snap up leading AI tooling for $1 — the price that the companies intend to pitch — is good news for all of us taxpayers.
| TWiST500 | While the market digests a torrent of fresh AI news — open-weight models from OpenAI, plans by xAI to open-source Grok 2, an updated Claude Opus model from Anthropic, a new thinking model from the Qwen team and more — Sam Altman & Friends are apparently dropping GPT-5 tomorrow. (OpenAI, xAI, and Anthropic are all TWiST500 companies.) | The company’s new model release will either land like a meteor or a pebble. If GPT-5 is as good as many hope it to be, then OpenAI will once again find itself atop the global AI roost. Otherwise, it’s going to remain in the midst of the pack, alongside the other nimble AI model companies scraping for every point of benchmark scoring. | All of this is great news for smaller startups. Companies willing and able to lose billions of dollars to bring the latest and greatest models to market are doing so, and founders get to use their work to build their own companies. In terms of AI tailwinds, I’d hazard that nearly every single founder in market today is enjoying them. The question is simply whether OpenAI has made something better enough to change the velocity of the friendly breeze. | Expect fireworks tomorrow. And we’ll be tuned into the live stream, same as you. — Alex | A message from Northwest Registered Agent | Starting your business should be simple. With Northwest Registered Agent, you can form your entire business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. From LLCs to trademarks, domains to custom websites, they’ve got you covered. Get more privacy, more options, and more done—visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist today! | This Week in Startups | E2160: It’s a packed news-heavy edition of This Week in Startups, with Jason and Alex asking which countries are leading the AI race (in terms of academics), debating whether covert agencies are spying on Meta’s superintelligence team, marveling at BYD’s mega car carrier, criticizing Lina Khan’s inappropriate Figma victory lap on social media, AND a big announcement. We’re bringing Founder University to the MENA region. Now that’s a podcast! | E2159: Alex is back with three more interviews with some of our favorite TWiST 500 founders. Dr. Hon Weng Chong of Cortical Labs walks us through the basics of biological computing. Then, Turing founder Jonathan Siddarth teaches us about LLM benchmarking and why these tests need to get much more difficult FAST. Finally, Brendan Foody of Mercor tells us how they’re using AI to rethink the hiring process. | E2158: It’s another all-star TWiST Investor Panel, featuring special guests Sophia Amoruso of TrustFund VC and Ryan Hoover of Weekend Fund (not to mention the best place to launch your new website, Product Hunt)! They’re going DEEP on the current landscape for startup investment, including discussions of durable vs. brittle revenue, various approaches to follow-on investments and recycling, and the crucial importance of hosting co-working events and jam sessions for founders. Don’t miss this one! | TWiST Partner Offers | Squarespace: Turn your idea into a beautiful website! Go to http://www.squarespace.com/twist for a free trial. When you’re ready to launch, use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Oracle: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or OCI, is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. Save up to 50% on your cloud bill at https://oracle.com/twist Monarch Money: Get control of your overall finances with Monarch Money. Visit monarchmoney.com/twist for half off on your first year.
| TWiST wants to hear from YOU! | Along with our partners at Perspective AI, we’ve created a new AI-powered survey inviting our listeners to give us their feedback on the show, and specifically what kinds of topics they want to hear about on future episodes. Please take a few minutes to chat with Perspective’s friendly AI agent and share your thoughts on our podcast! We’d love to hear from you. | Founder U is coming to the MENA region! | Our 12-week pre-accelerator—designed to help early-stage founders build and grow—kicks off this fall in Saudi Arabia. The first cohort launches in Riyadh on November 3rd, followed by in-person and virtual sessions throughout the program. Founders in MENA: this is your chance to turn your idea into a business and get world-class insights on building a successful startup. Apply today: https://mena.founder.university/ | Want to Work for This Week in Startups? | We’re looking to fill two in-person sales positions at our Austin, Texas HQ! First, a high-performing Sales Executive to help us seek out and promote clients, sponsorships, branded content, and more. Plus an experienced Sales Manager to lead, coach, and scale our sales executive team, while setting performance goals. Love the podcast and have B2B sales experience? We want to hear from you! | SF Live-Work Space Now Available | Need a flexible living and working environment in San Francisco? This thoughtfully designed loft-style residence at 787 Bryant St., the heart of the vibrant SOMA district and the city’s creative hub, is now available for rent or purchase. Check the listing for more details. | The TWiST500 newsletter is the new, updated, and improved TWiST Ticker. |
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