Nvidia brings it all back home

Top News

• Nvidia to build AI factories at home: Remember when Nvidia boss Jensen Huang argued that in the future, large data centers running AI workloads would become the factories of the future? His argument was that the massive compute clusters would generate AI tokens, each of which will have a discrete element of economic value. Good news, if you are American that is. Nvidia intends to build some of its current-gen Blackwell chips in the States, and the aforementioned AI factories. Details are a scarce, but if you wanted more domestic compute capacity, here you go!

• Meta fights back against regulators: Years after it was filed, American social media giant Meta went to court today to argue that it does not have monopoly power in the United States’ social media market. The government, in a case that has spanned three different Presidential administrations and two different parties of political leadership, thinks that it does. Expect the case to take a long time to sort through — and for the second Trump administration to make a choice between listening to its own experts and the whims of POTUS.

• UK funding falls: While there’s a lot of work being done to revitalize Europe’s technology industry, the United Kingdom could use a boost of its own. New data from Dealroom — as reported by the FT — indicates that “British start-ups raised just £16.2bn in 2024, the lowest haul since 2020.” Given that the world is currently in the grips of a major platform shift with all the constituent investment that that normally brings, it’s a bleak figure for Fintech Island.

TWiST500

The week just started but TWiST500 companies are making a lot of noise already. OpenAI, always busy with a press release, has several new models out and plans for even more releases this week. We’ve covered them so much lately, I think we can set them aside for the rest of today.

There are two other notes from startup-land that we need to touch on, however:

• A new company incubated at Founders Fund called General Matter came out of stealth today. I need to delve a bit more into the economics of uranium enrichment — I presume that my knowledge of Factorio Kovarex ratios doesn’t apply — before adding the company to the list formally, but given how bullish these pages are on nuclear power generally, it would be a bit of a shock if we didn’t also find quite a lot to like in the startup that wants to power those other concerns.

• And then there’s Kraken. Kraken is a TWiST500 company focused on the crypto world. It’s an exchange, in simple terms. But now, it is even more. Thanks to a deal with Alpaca — a company that I’ve covered a few times in the past — it is bringing equity trading to its platform. A bit like Robinhood backed into crypto, Kraken is now backing into equities. Robinhood makes a lot of money, so Kraken’s choice makes good sense.

Keep in mind that Kraken is somewhere on the IPO trail, even if progress along that path has ran into a trade-related roadblock. We could still see the company list this year if we are lucky. Soon enough that we might not get a chance to see how many crypto folks also want to sling stocks. At IPO time at least. More soon! — Alex

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This Week in Startups

E2110: On a big Friday show, Jason, Alex and Lon talk about Palantir’s bold new fellowship program for ambitious high schoolers who don’t mind skipping college, and DoorDash’s new Coco burrito-delivery bots. Plus on the debut of our new “Tips from the Trenches” segment, the gang surveys various suggestions for landing your startup’s very first customer. All that AND Office Hours with the CEOs of AI agent maker BRX and calendar-based marketers InviteJet.

E2109: On a new TWiST, Jason, Alex and Lon run down a bunch of stories impacting the world of startups. Delivery drone-maker Zipline wants to get you your burrito in under 5 minutes. Meanwhile, Trump’s tariff announcements have led to chaos in the global markets that’s having a trickle down impact on startups and founders. PLUS we’re chatting with Orchestra CEO Sergie Poe AND announcing the Founder Friday tournament’s Elite Eight companies.

E2108: It's a wild and chaotic week in the markets, and Jason and Alex are getting their bearings, calling balls and strikes, sifting through the President's actual tariff proposals, and even considering the "fake news" that briefly seemed to salvage everyone's portfolios. Plus details on the Shopify CEO's BOLD new AI memo, Alex chats with Sunny Khamkar of MenuData, and two more Founder Friday bracket challenge match-ups.

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