IBM and the Cost: Quantumania

Author

Alex Wilhelm
April 28, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

Top News

  • IBM plans big quantum spend: Big, splashy, high-dollar investment announcements are in vogue again in the United States. Companies from Apple to SoftBank are racing to pledge huge sums to bolster the domestic economy, and earn political succor. The latest? IBM, with a $150 billion pledge that includes $30 billion for “research and development to advance and continue IBM's American manufacturing of mainframe and quantum computers.” That’s potentially a lot of capital for quantum work, which is shaping up as a race between tech’s largest companies and a series of scrappy startups, including TWiST500 member Alice & Bob.

  • Temu tariffs: If China wanted to communicate to lower-middle income Americans that international trade has changed, having low-cost retailers directly communicate the cost of tariffs would be a great way to go about it. Over the weekend, Temu began adding ‘import charges’ to American orders. CNBC reports that a $18.47 dress from Temu will now cost $44.68, including $26.21 worth of tariffs. Oof.

  • Meta’s naughty bots: Today on the show, we dug into the latest mess from Meta, which allows its AI chatbots to talk dirty. And kids, the WSJ reports, are not protected from it. Not only are there risks afoot regarding child safety, but Meta might have a harder time getting cloned celebrity voice contracts if it doesn’t tighten up its internal rules. Do you want stringent AI regulation? No? Then get Meta to stop letting kids sext with John Cena’s disembodied voice.

TWiST500

We love every TWiST500 company the same. Except on days when one of them exits. Then we love that company that most.

Thus we have been endeared to CoreWeave when it listed, and today we’re infatuated with Protect AI. Why? Palo Alto Networks is snapping the company up for what GeekWire reports is “north of $500 million.” Given that the company was valued at over $400 million last year, the exit price is not a home-run for the last money into the business, but for earlier investors, the payday could be material.

What’s more, the deal underscores two themes that we’ve been focused on here on the TWiST500 team: Cybersecurity, and AI picks and shovels. Protect AI offers enterprise-ready tools to help large companies use genAI models safely. As you can imagine, that’s not a bad place to be in business today.

On one hand, I can’t help but wonder why the company sold when it did. Why not go for a lot more? On the other hand, Palo Alto Networks would have presumably worked to put Protect AI out of business — loosely — had it stayed separate. And as Jason argued during taping today, venture investors might leap at the chance of returning hard cash to impatient LPs instead of markups.

We’ll remove Protect AI from the TWiST500 this week now that it has graduated. And, as always, more to come. — Alex

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This Week in Startups

E2117: On Friday’s TWiST, Jason, Alex, and Lon checked out Slate Auto’s customizable $25K EV truck, considered whether Discord is circling an IPO, and gauged Uber’s new collaboration with Volkswagen. Plus aggressive moves from Perplexity, another Founder Friday bracket matchup, AND Alex sits down with Tailscale CEO Avery Pennarun to talk internet networking: what it is and why it may just fuel the next huge wave of innovation.

E2116: Jason’s calling in from New York for an absolutely JAM-PACKED episode of TWiST. He’s chatting with Alex and Lon about the insane growth curve of AI startup Cursor, evaluating whether or not Uber is using “dark patterns” to hold on to its top customers, AND gauging the long-term effects of tariff uncertainty on the market. PLUS we’ve got a chat with GoShare CEO Shaun Savage on the importance of obsessing about customers AND another exciting Founder Friday match-up.

E2115: We who are about to TWiST salute you! On a Sunday night pre-recorded Easter Weekend special, Jason and Lon look at OpenAI’s hallucinatory new models, behind-the-scenes Meta docs hinting at Zuckerberg’s FB-related woes, and China’s humanoid robot half-marathon. PLUS Alex chats with Thalamus founder Jason Reminick about how he’s helping to match medical residents with the ideal hospitals.

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