Hot Takes & Debates:
We’re bringing founders, investors, operators, students, and other opinionated people from across Austin together for a new in-person debate series. Think you can defend a hot take in front of a crowd? Want to attend and watch someone else try?
If you think you have what it takes or wish to attend, sign up here!
Top Stories
OpenAI canceled its next-generation model after internal tests surfaced safety concerns. — The Wall Street Journal
AMD agreed to buy Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs for $8.2 billion, bringing its physical-world AI models and Li herself in-house. — TechCrunch
Anthropic’s IPO prospectus projects $518B+ in AI infrastructure spending across six partners over a decade. 80% is effectively locked in. — Reuters
McDonald’s is deploying an AI pricing engine across nearly 14,000 restaurants to recommend location-specific menu prices. — Reuters
Top Funding Announcements
EliseAI — The back-office automation startup for housing and healthcare raised $350M at a $4B valuation to expand its AI workforce. — CRE Daily
Protego Ventures — The Israeli defense-tech investor closed its debut $125M fund to back startups building military and national-security technologies. — TechCrunch
Atomic — The former Tesla team raised a $12.5M round to expand its autonomous supply-chain software. — TechCrunch
Modal Labs — The AI inference infrastructure provider is nearing a $750M round at a $15.75B valuation to expand its platform. — TechCrunch
Global AI — The AI data center company led by AWS’s former chief secured a $1B strategic investment from Samsung Electronics. — Bloomberg Tech
A Message from Lightfield:
Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you — it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at lightfield.app.
Top Tweets
This Week in Startups
Timestamps:
0:00 Will Ternus take "massively big swings"?
3:19 Round 1: ElevenLabs
4:22 Round 1: Disney
5:54 Round 2: Sony
7:58 Round 2: Boston Dynamics
8:59 Round 3: Perplexity
9:38 PayPal is built for all business. Get started at https://paypal.com/business
11:28 Round 3: DigitalOcean
12:38 More picks: Etched
14:06 More picks: Lucid
15:34 More picks: Superhuman
16:24 More picks: Higgsfield and more
17:45 Fans make their selections
19:23 Got a new business idea? @northwestagent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more, with no purchase required! Learn more at www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
25:13 Stacy Salvi of The90 joins
29:04 Thanks to our partner, Odoo, the all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist
34:14 How the app calculates your Sunscore
41:48 Building a UV research dataset
44:45 Should The90 make a version for men?
TWiST Partner Offers
PayPal - Pay zero processing fees on your first $100K in eligible PayPal payment volume. Learn more at https://paypal.launch.co/
Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! — Learn more at www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started for today at https://Odoo.com/twist
Subscribe to Us On Your Favorite Podcast Platforms
SF Live-Work Space Now Available
Need a flexible living and working environment in San Francisco? This thoughtfully designed loft-style residence at 787 Bryant St., the heart of the vibrant SOMA district and the city’s creative hub, is now available for rent or purchase. Check the listing for more details.
