JPMorgan ventures deeper into venture capital

Top News

• JPMorgan plans $10B worth of venture deals: As trade tensions between the United States and China gyrate, investment bank JPMorgan Chase plans to plow $10 billion worth of venture capital to “help select companies primarily in the United States enhance their growth, spur innovation, and accelerate strategic manufacturing.” JPMorgan is betting on and helping fund a rebound in onshore manufacturing alongside capital injections for minerals processing, energy production, AI, and quantum. The venture dollars are part of a larger, $1.5 trillion push by the storied financial institution to assist “industries critical to national economic security and resiliency.”

• California signs bevy of tech regulations: Today in regulatory news, the Governor of California signed SB 243 (stricter regulation of AI chatbots and how they interact with kids), AB 1043 (lightweight user age information at the device-level), and AB 56 (warnings on social media applications). Taken as a package, California has tightened tech rules for the young, partially with the tech industry's support in the case of AB 1043, which was more warmly received than more stringent, related bills passed in other states such as Texas.

• Strava plots IPO: After snapping up several startups and getting into a scrap with Garmin, the social fitness app is plotting an IPO. On the back of rising downloads, active users, and revenue that’s comfortably in the nine-figures per the FT, it makes sense that Strava wants to list. If the app maker wants to keep buying other companies, having liquid shares and more cash will make that process easier. It’s just somewhat odd to see a company that is an obvious IPO candidate say it will go public today. Other unicorns, take note!

TWiST 500

The biggest TWiST500 news today — apart from the regular slew of OpenAI headlines — is that UK-based Wayve is in talks to raise $2 billion from Microsoft and SoftBank. Nvidia previously signaled that it wanted to invest $500 million into Wayve’s next round, so the chip giant could also play a role in the funding round that could lift Wayve’s worth to $8 billion.

Wayve is a self-driving play betting that it can build an AI system of sufficient intelligence to handle cars on the road without tools like LiDAR, a technology that Waymo uses. If it pulls off its ambitions, Wayve’s technology could make millions of cars worldwide ready for self-driving, given that they already feature camera arrays.

As co-founder and CEO Alex Kendall told TWIST last December:

We’re big Waymo and Tesla fans here at TWiST, but we love competition even more.

And Wayve has some big names in its corner that could help it take on industry titans. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang hand-delivered an in-car computing system (the NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Thor) to Wayve back in September, hailing them as the “next trillion-dollar company.” We’ll see! — Alex

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This Week in Startups

E2191: No Alex today, so Jason and Lon are checking out the Figure 03 demo, and debating whether or not you’ll ever have a full-sized humanoid robot taking care of your day-to-day chores. PLUS President Trump’s latest trade war triggers panic in the markets, a look at ChatGPT’s new integrations, and why Mark Cuban and Jake Paul are in every other Sora app video.

E2190: Zach Dell joins Jason and Alex LIVE from the floor of Nasdaq, to talk about Base Power’s new $1 billion investment, and the challenges of making their batteries deep in the heart of Texas. Plus, it turns out Tesla is not releasing an upside-down fan car… We’re checking out what they actually announced. Also, is Tim Cook LEAVING Apple? And who might replace him? We consider the possibilities.

E2189: On TWiST, we’re considering the latest OpenAI mega-deal with AMD, and ponder just who is paying who for what in all of these extremely circular compute-for-cash agreements. PLUS Jason thinks Tesla might FINALLY be releasing the infamous Roadster 2, Jeff Bezos’ long-ago “datacenters in space” prediction might be company true, we investigate what Figure’s robots are REALLY doing for BMW, and Jason and Alex try their hand at Y Combinator’s new interactive gaming feature, YC Arena.

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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/

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