Top News | AMD, Figma soar: News that OpenAI will purchase tens of billions of dollars worth of AMD chips — and up to 160 million shares in the semiconductor company— had their stock spiking by 24% today. Then, later in the day, as part of a developer event (see below), OpenAI touted integration with Figma into one of its products, pushing shares of the recently public design company up more than 9%. OpenAI still has the Midas touch, at least as far as investors are concerned. Why Cerebras pulled its IPO: The market was a bit befuddled when Cerebras pulled its IPO last week. Chip companies are hot (see above), so why would the unicorn decide to shelve its offering? Its CEO weighed in on LinkedIn, writing that so much had happened at the company since it first filed that a traditional S-1/A, an updated filing wouldn’t cut it. Citing growth, founder and CEO Andrew Feldman told investors that by withdrawing and refiling, Cerebras can better show off its “strategy” and “approach to [the] rapidly changing AI landscape.” Don’t worry about the company’s prospects for now. It raised $1.1 billion just last week. Heidi Health raises $65M: Today on the podcast, Jason spoke with Nextvisit, an AI startup in Launch’s current accelerator class that wants to use technology to cut back on doctors’ various administrative duties. The space is hot, as Heidi Health’s latest round makes clear. In a piece discussing the massive Series B, TechCrunch wrote that the company offers “an AI medical scribe that takes care of all the admin work that hassles doctors.” Medical TAM is large enough for multiple players, of course, and likely different entry points. (For example: Nextvisit is starting with psychiatrists.)
| TWiST 500 | During a developer event on Monday, OpenAI told developers, investors, and fans alike that it has scaled to 800 million weekly active users of its ChatGPT product. Apart from its consumer momentum, OpenAI’s API processes six billion tokens per minute, good for a rate of about 260 trillion per month. (For reference, Google last announced that it was close to a quadrillion tokens processed per month.) | The TWiST500 giant - now the most valuable private company in the world — also wants to bring apps into ChatGPT, potentially offering developers access to a large, and engaged, userbase. The Verge reports that apps from “Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Expedia, Figma, Spotify, and Zillow” will start working inside of ChatGPT today, with more on the way. Recall that OpenAI also teamed up with Etsy recently to allow for in-chat shopping. | While ChatGPT started off as a place where people made AI models do tricks for fun, it has quickly become a search/chat/work service that’s extending to more areas. Anyone who currently directs web traffic for money should have their antennas up. | Finally, OpenAI also announced AgentKit, a set of services to help third parties quickly build AI agents. | OpenAI has been a headline machine lately, announcing massive deals with Nvidia, AMD, Oracle, a social video service, the general availability of its Codex coding service, an agreement to buy memory from Samsung and SK, new parental controls and more in recent weeks. Jason loves to vet companies on their product velocity and OpenAI is shipping. — Alex | A message from Perspective AI | Surveys never capture what customers are really thinking. That’s why we use Perspective AI. Real insights, straight from your customers. AND the first two months are on us. Just go to getperspective.ai/twist. | This Week in Startups | E2188: The TWiST Team has spent some serious time playing with the Sora app now, and they have PRESSING feedback for Team OpenAI. Hear all about their experiences in the #1 iOS Store app, PLUS the latest on the Brave browser, why Jason would sell his OpenAI shares as quickly as possible, Apple pulls the ICEBlock app amid criticism, AND one founder’s elite coffee shop trick that landed him three VC intros. | E2187: Jason and Alex took a look at Sora 2 on this week’s TWiST, and wondered aloud about whether or not we should actually consider this content “Slop” or not. (The debate rages on.) Plus are Synthetic Performers like Tilly Norwood the future of Hollywood, or pure hype, why Jason thinks the death of the Boomers will be a huge boost for crypto, and our thoughts on the coming Wealthfront IPO. | E2186: On a special Tuesday TWiST, Alex chats with Boom Supersonic founder/CEO Blake Scholl about picking up where the Concord left off, getting investors excited about jet engines in the era of AI Everything, and the complexities involved in designing the world’s fastest airliner. PLUS check out TWO MORE finalists in our Gamma Pitch Deck competition: Confy and The Drive AI. | TWiST Partner Offers | Stripe: Stripe Startups offers early-stage, venture-backed startups access to Stripe fee credits, expert insights, and a focused community of builders. Apply today on https://stripe.com/startups. NetSuite: The business landscape is very chaotic right now. That’s why you need NetSuite, by Oracle. Download the CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning for free at https://www.netsuite.com/twist Coda: Coda empowers your startup by bringing words, tables, and teams together. Strategize, plan, and track goals effectively with all your valuable data in one place. Go to https://www.coda.io/twist to get started for FREE and get 6 free months of the Team plan.
| 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/ | 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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