Another xAI ex-founder...

Top News

• xAI co-founder departs: Just a week after SpaceX’s high profile acquisition of xAI, co-founder Tony Wu announced his departure from the Grok makers. On X (where else?), Wu alluded vaguely to his “next chapter” and noted that he’s excited about building at a time when “a small team armed with AIs can move mountains and redefine what’s possible.” Musk launched xAI in 2023 with an initial team of 11 collaborators, but their ranks have been dwindling of late. Igor Babuschkin, Kyle Kosic and Christian Szegedy previously departed, and Greg Yang announced earlier this year that he plans to step back and focus on his health.

• Entire sets dev tool record: The startup from GitHub vet Thomas Dohmke builds open source tools that help developers manage and unify code that was originally generated by AI agents. Their first product, Checkpoints, pairs fresh agent-penned code with the context that led to its creation. That way, a human developer can review and search through the agents’ work, looking for problems or perhaps even gaining some valuable insights for themselves. It’s a promising enough pitch to set an actual record, according to lead backer Felicis. They claim Entire’s new $60 million seed round, at a $300 million valuation, is the largest ever for a startup designing dev tools.

• Cadence tool aids chipmakers: The public Austin-based company creates software helping engineers to design chips. Their stock has lately suffered the same fate as many other software companies, as retail investors grow increasingly convinced that AI tools are about to interrupt the once-vibrant market for SaaS solutions. So Cadence has joined the AI revolution themselves. Their new product, ChipStack AI Super Agent, works alongside chip developers, helping them to debug, verify, and evaluate their final blueprints. Notably, they also designed the underlying model on which the agent runs, as traditional LLMs lacked the detailed and highly technical training in chip design required for these kinds of tasks.

TWiST 500

Runway was an early entrant into the generative AI text-to-video scene in 2023 and their technology has remained at the forefront ever since. You’ve quite possibly already seen Runway outputs in experimental commercials and even a few Hollywood projects (like Amazon’s original series “House of David”). It’s also being used behind-the-scenes by designers, architects, and others.

The TWiST 500 stalwart raised $315 million in fresh capital, bringing their valuation to a sturdy $5.3 billion. They reportedly plan to use the funds for R&D and to expand their team (which currently sits at around 140 employees).

In other T500 headline news, crypto exchange Kraken moved its chief financial officer Stephanie Lemmermen into a strategic advisory role as it continues edging toward an IPO. VP of business expansion Robert Moore will take over the role for now.

No word on why the company is swapping out CFOs just months after raising $800 million in fresh capital and submitting a confidential pre-IPO filing to US regulators. One unnamed source who spoke to CoinDesk suggests the company is pivoting from serving largely as internal support for organizations into a public-facing, revenue-generating product.

Finally, prediction market giant Polymarket announced an intriguing new partnership with Web3 research platform, data aggregator, and search engine Kaito AI. They plan to team on so-called “attention markets,” which will allow users to place wagers on social media metrics and online trends. Specifically, Kaito is focused on measuring “mindshare” (the volume of online discussion about a topic) and “sentiment” (whether that discussion is primarily positive or negative).

This could prove compelling both as entertainment and in terms of the data. A Polymarket reflecting public opinion on a particular topic could ultimately prove more insightful and timely than conventional methods of gauging these metrics, such as opinion polls and surveys. – Lon

A message from Luma AI

Stop guessing and start directing with Ray3 Modify from Luma AI, the AI-powered post production tool. Explore it at: https://lumalabs.ai/twist

This Week in Startups

E2247: Two weeks is several YEARS in OpenClaw development time, so we brought back our first-ever guest experts Alex Finn and Matt Van Horn for a little catch-up session. Matt showed up all of his upgrades to Jason’s favorite OpenClaw skill, “Last30Days,” while Alex introduced us to his 8-bit virtual office full of individual AI agents. They each have distinct specializations, and work together and collaborate on complex tasks in a virtual workplace (complete with its own virtual water cooler). Check out how it works on a brand new TWiST.

E2246: It’s another OpenClaw deep dive on TWiST, as Jason chats with Producer Oliver about LAUNCH’s new “Ultron.” We’re now using a single dashboard to monitor all of our Replicant activities, to gauge just how much they can really accomplish on their own, without any human intervention. Plus we’re chatting with Alex Cheema of ExoLabs about helping everyday consumers run powerful frontier LLMs at home on their own devices. AND congratulations to Ryan Yanneli and NextVisit, the BIG WINNERS of our Gamma Pitch Deck Competition. They’re walking away with a $25K investment from LAUNCH and our pals at Gamma.

E2245: HQ Trivia legend Scott Rogowsky joins the show to tell Jason and Alex about his new livestreamed in-app game show, Savvy. (Think of it like Wordle meets HQ Trivia meets “Win Ben Stein’s Money.”) Join us for a behind-the-scenes chronicle of the rise and fall of the once-viral trivia game, and a sneak peek at Scott’s new project. PLUS Alex chats with Dr. Trevor Bennett of Starfish Space about the Otter Spacecraft and why orbital paths around Earth need so much clean-up.

TWiST Partner Offers

• 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 www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

• LinkedIn Jobs: Hire right, the first time. Post a job for free at LinkedIn.com/twist, then use LinkedIn Jobs’ new AI-assistant to promote it and find top candidates fast. That’s LinkedIn.com/twist to post a job for free.

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

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.