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Top News

• TikTok strikes US investor deal: Forever scroll-addicted Americans can finally rest easy. After YEARS of threats and negotiations, The New York Times reports that Chinese giant ByteDance reached a deal with outside investors that will keep TikTok available for US users. Those investors include Oracle, U.S. investment firm Silver Lake, Emirati investment firm MGX, and Michael Dell’s investment firm, among others. Many questions remain, including “will this fundamentally change Americans’ experience on the TikTok app?” and “does this deal fully address the national security concerns about the Chinese government’s data collection practices and influence on the app?” But at the very least, viral dance fanatics know for sure TikTok isn’t going away entirely.

• Socher’s Recursive announces major raise: AI researcher Richard Socher already has a major profile in the industry, having led the AI team at Salesforce, founded the chat-based search engine You.com, and playing a key role in the development of “prompt engineering.” According to Bloomberg, his latest startup project is called Recursive, and it’s in early negotiations to raise hundreds of millions of dollars at a $4 billion valuation. What will Recursive actually do? Early reports suggest the goal is to build a “superintelligent AI” that improves and trains itself with minimal human intervention. That’s a pretty huge ambition, which makes it a bit surprising that Socher plans to stay on in his positions at You.com and his venture firm, AIX, while building and scaling the project.

• Farcaster makers plan to repay VCs: Merkle Manufactory is best known for developing Farcaster, a decentralized social network and crypto wallet. This week, they announced plans to sell off Farcaster to Neynar, a developer platform allowing users to vibecode mini-apps within Farcaster. To smooth over the deal, Merkle plans to repay the $180 million they raised from venture firms to grow the Farcaster product. (Farcaster has no plans to shut down. Neynar reportedly plans to simply pivot the company “in a more developer-focused direction.”) No word yet on what will become of Warpcast, Merkle’s X-like social app that was built atop Farcaster, but decentralized social networks are admittedly challenging to seed and grow. That project might simply be no more.

TWiST 500

Big news this week from some TWiST 500 faves we haven’t revisited in a few weeks. Let’s get right into it!

Databricks: CNBC reports that the analytics company took on $1.8 billion in fresh debt, bringing their total IOUs to a considerable $7 billion. The company is on the shortlist of tech firms most likely to go public in 2026, and currently generates a reported $4.89 billion in annualized revenue, while growing at a staggering rate of 55% YoY. So, fear not, they’ll be able to pay it back.

Oura: The smart ring maker, on the other hand, plans to remain private for the time being. To appease investors, they’re planning to give shareholders a chance to move their shares at a 25% discount from last year’s Series E round (which valued the company at $11 billion). CEO Tom Hale assured Bloomberg that the company could theoretically go public (they are already profitable), but wants to remain private longer in order to maintain focus on building great products, as opposed to managing their stock price.

Revolut: The UK fintech company had reportedly planned to purchase a US bank as a way to gain entry into the lucrative American banking system. But now, according to Financial Times, they’ve put this plan on hold, and will instead apply for a standalone banking license. An acquisition would have immediately put Revolut in play in all 50 US states — taken together, the world’s largest financial market — but FT suggests that, in a practical sense, this plan would have been both slow and burdensome. (For one thing, Revolut would be legally required to keep any acquired bank’s physical branches operational.) A “de novo” banking license (listing the company as a new bank) keeps things relatively simpler. – Lon

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This Week in Startups

E2238: We’ve got two awesome TWiST 500 interviews coming your way in this brand-new TWiST. First, Alex sits down with Keller Cliffton of drone delivery startup Zipline to discuss their new $600 million raise (at a tasty $7.6B valuation), and how they’ve managed to scale up to over 2 million deliveries so quickly. THEN, Anastasis Germanidis of Runway gives us insight into World Models, and why they will likely power the next generation of Physical AI applications. Finally, we’ve got Jason’s thoughts on when it’s time to pivot vs. when founders should give up on their project entirely and move on.

E2237: It’s another amazing episode of TWiST Tokyo, this time featuring local VC Shinichi “Shin” Takamiya from Globis Capital. He talks to Jason about the reality on the ground for Japanese investors, and how the culture is shifting from recent grads wanting to work for the largest and most established blue chip corporations to a more startup and innovation-forward focus. PLUS find out why Jason prefers training recent grads to become VCs rather than hiring for experience, AND Shin’s ultimate guide to eating out in Tokyo.

E2236: On a can’t miss edition of TWiST Tokyo, Jason sits down with long-time friend of the pod and iconic angel investor Thomas McInerney. Together, they discuss his long list of legendary investments, from Notion to SpaceX to Uber to Anthopic, and get deep on the strategy and philosophy behind them. Find out how the angel investing landscape has shifted, why founders need to stay both humble and smart, why it’s important for investors to maintain optimism, and much more.

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• Hubspot: Check out the guide “Advanced ChatGPT Prompt Engineering: From Basic to Expert in 7 Days.” Download it for free at clickhubspot.com/twist2.

• 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

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