Did Sora just leak? OpenAI’s video model appears on HuggingFace

Top News

• Big tech wins, big tech loses: Intel’s haul from the CHIPS Act will total “up to $7.865 billion” worth of direct funding, the government reports. For folks hoping for more domestic chip production, this is good news. Amazon, however, is having less fun. It received an on-site inspection from the Japan Fair Trade Commission over allegedly rewarding lower prices with better product placement.

• AI startups keep winning: TechCrunch covered Cradle’s new funding round. The $73 million deal will see the AI startup stay at work on computer-aided protein design. Elsewhere, /dev/agents is building an OS for AI agents. Given that there’s some question about where they will live — at the OS level or in the browser- the startup is a fascinating wager. And it just raised from Index to boot.

• Sora may have leaked: OpenAI’s much-ballyhooed video generation model that has been teased but not released may have gotten itself a temporary market introduction. A project on LLM database HuggingFace appeared to make it possible to use Sora, although the window quickly closed. TechCrunch reports that it appears that access was revoked. Shockingly. Could the leak imply that Sora is getting closer to release?

TWiST500

TWiST just interviewed the founders of Wayve and Cuby Technologies, two member companies of the TWiST500. One interview is going out today, the other on Monday, so make sure you stay tuned.

Today’s update to the TWiST500 is that Maddie (follow her on X here) and I are going to get the list to around 250 companies by the end of the year. That’s about double where we are. So, expect this newsletter to get very busy for the next few weeks.

We also had a little hiccup with the database, so there are a few more we need to re-add now that we’ve sorted that out. In short, the TWiST500 is going to be all over our work for the next few months. I’m stoked. — Alex

p.s. A thank you to folks who have nominated startups for inclusion. Keep ‘em coming. We read your emails. Shoot a note to [email protected] if you want!

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This Week in Startups

E2051: Jason and Alex sit down with a fantastic guest—Alex Kendall, founder and CEO of Wayve, an AI company working on self-driving. You might recall that Wayve raised $1 billion earlier this year, but TWIST wanted to know how the company intends to commercialize —and how soon. From there, it was back to the bitcoin mines. Figuratively, as the hosts dug into MicroStrategies' bitcoin buying bet. Precisely why it is trading at such a NAV premium remains occluded to the show, but we did chase down its debt terms.

E2050: Jason and Alex have Fredrik Haga on the show to discuss Norway's controversial wealth tax and its impact on startup formation, including the exodus of top taxpayers. They explore Dune Analytics' revenue growth, Michael Saylor's bold Bitcoin strategy, and OpenAI's new browser project and its potential to reshape search. Plus, they dive into CoreWeave's IPO and the evolving GPU cloud market.

E2049: Jason and Alex dive into Nvidia’s blockbuster earnings, highlighting the massive demand for Blackwell GPUs and what it means for AI’s future. They break down the DOJ’s antitrust push against Google, including potential divestitures of Chrome and Android, and how it could reshape search and advertising. Jean-Paul Schmetz from Brave joins to talk about privacy-first search and the future of AI, and we wrap up with inspiring Founder Fridays stories from Georges Colbert and Longview’s Kitty and Coco, showcasing how startups are thriving in unexpected places.

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LAUNCH Cloud Kitchens Incubator

Applications are open for Cohort 2 of the LAUNCH CloudKitchens Incubator (LiCK). We're looking for food entrepreneurs who wish to expand into the ghost kitchen space or tech founders with a team and a great idea. The application and more information can be found at https://ck.launch.co/.

The TWiST500 newsletter is the new, updated, and improved TWiST Ticker.