Tariff relief is here... for now

Top News

• Stocks rip on tariff relief: Technology stocks and the broader market soared today on news that some of the recently enacted tariffs will be rolled back to a much lower 10% rate. The Trump administration raised tariffs on China in the same stroke to an even more extreme level. The tariffs that were knocked down today could rear their heads again in 90 days time. Or sooner. Or later. No one really knows, but at least equity prices have partially recovered.

• Anthropic rolls out a gigaplan: TWiST500 stalwart Anthropic is aping OpenAI’s pricing strategy, adding a super-premium tier of service. Anthropic will charge $100 or $200 per month for “Claude Max,” which boasts early access to new models and other technologies. On one hand, AI prices come down over time. On the other, we’re seeing access to the newest AI tools seem to become more expensive over time. Something to keep an eye on.

• The EU ramps up its AI push: One impact of the US-instigated trade war is non-US nations and blocs turning to their own shores for technology products. The EU, for example, is planning to spend tens of billions of dollars to build AI-ready data centers and cut regulations to give local tech shops more room to maneuver. Falling tariff rates could limit some of the fallout, but the global tech landscape could settle into a new foundational pattern all the same.

TWiST500

Up top, we’re adding NexGen Cloud to the TWiST500. The UK-based neocloud just raised $45 million for EU-friendly AI compute. The company disclosed bonkers growth, and with some companies looking for more local compute — see above — I anticipate that it will continue to smash its plan.

But I want to spend more of our TWiST500 column inches today on Anthropic. Beyond its new, more expensive service tiers, the company changed the AI game last year and not everyone has fully grokked the change. Last November, Anthropic rolled out Model Context Protocol, released as open-source software, what it called a “new standard for connecting AI assistants to the systems where data lives.” MCP has become a standard, which could help companies around the world avoid integration issues between their AI brains and their private data.

That’s ages ago in AI terms. Today, Google announced a new tool called Agent2Agent, or A2A. What does it do? Here’s Google:

And guess what? It will play nice with MCP. Google writes that “A2A is an open protocol that complements Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP), which provides helpful tools and context to agents.” It’s hard to imagine a larger compliment for a recent product than getting name-checked by Google in this manner; not only is a big tech company building next to a startup competitor instead of against it, but it had to give Anthropic flowers to boot!

We’ve never been more confident in Anthropic’s place on our list. — Alex

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This Week in Startups

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.

E2107: On an all new TWiST, Jason and Alex discuss the chaotic response to President Trump’s new tariffs, including Klarna’s decision to delay their hotly-anticipated IPO, and they give advice to founders on how to ride out this new wave of uncertainty. Then it’s a double-dose of “Office Hours with JCal” featuring Luke Belbina from AI-powered podcast research tool PodEngine and David Moscatelli from the fast-growing fintech AI paltform, Abacus.

E2106: On today’s TWiST, Jason and Alex go DEEP on the shocking details of the Rippling vs. Deel Affair, a sordid tale of corporate espionage, scandal, betrayal, and confidential project road maps. PLUS they chat with Rabbit CEO Jesse Lyu about their latest AI “intern,” which can build entire apps from a single prompt.

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