There's more Core in store... for sure

Top News

• CoreWeave will buy Core Scientific: Recent technology IPO CoreWeave intends to spend around $9 billion at current share prices to purchase Core Scientific, a crypto mining company that has pivoted into AI compute infra. The two companies had previously worked out a deal that would have seen CoreWeave lease 70MW worth of capacity from its fellow public company. Now that deal is obviated through anticipated agglomeration; or, in simpler terms, you don’t have to pay for what you already own. Shares of both companies fell on the news.

• AI talent is even more expensive than you thought: While much attention has been paid to Meta and its massive push to secure leading AI minds at whatever price necessary, its rivals are already paying through their noses. The Information reports that OpenAI spent 119% of its revenue in 2024 paying its staff. High-growth startups often lose money. And they often pay their staff partially in shares. But OpenAI’s revenue was around $3.7 billion last year, which means it’s share-based comp is a bit hotter than average.

• TikTok plans a reboot: Ahead of a potential sale, TikTok is prepping a new version of its app that could land in September. Existing users, reporting indicates, would need to download a refreshed application that would, in theory, allay concerns regarding data security. Recall that TikTok is under a divestment-or-ban cloud, though it appears that the law has become flexible in front of the White House’s view that it can delay the enforcement of the 2024 bill that pushed TikTok to make a choice.

TWiST500

Welcome back! The TWiST crew hopes you had a lovely, and hopefully relaxed, holiday weekend.

While you and I may have been slacking off in the sun, TWiST500 member company Anthropic was hard at work on a “targeted transparency framework” for frontier-stage AI development. The gist is that Anthropic thinks that the larger players should operate against “clear disclosure requirements for safety practices.”

Anthropic is not trying to slow down the pace of AI progress; it specifically and in bold wrote in its post announcing the framework concept that any such ruleset should “not impede AI innovation, nor should it slow our ability to realize AI's benefits.” So, what does Anthropic think would make for good practices?

• Mandate that large AI model companies “have a Secure Development Framework that lays out how they will assess and mitigate unreasonable risk in a model.”

• Public posting of Secure Development Frameworks, “subject to reasonable redaction protections for sensitive information, on a public-facing website registered to and maintained by the AI company.”

• Transparent standards that would operate as “flexible, lightweight requirements that can adapt as consensus best practices emerge among industry, government, and other stakeholders.”

• And making it a “violation of law for a lab to lie about its compliance with its framework,” while protecting whistleblowers.

All told, it’s a pretty reasonable list, and one that’s aimed at providing more public information from closed-source AI shops — and Meta, I suppose. Some individual acts by AI model giants have found wide adoption, including Anthropic’s MCP; Google is working towards something similar with its A2A framework. Could Anthropic once again set industry policy? — Alex

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This Week in Startups

E2147: Alex hosts another blockbuster panel of insiders, with Astasia Myers from Felicis, Matt Turck of First Mark Capital, and D.A. Wallach from Time BioVentures joining for a deep-dive on the biotech Great Depression, the post-Q2 startup landscape, revenue durability and product market fit in AI, supporting founders from academia, innovations in fertility and pre-natal treatments, and much much more.

E2146: Jason’s away, but Alex is hosting founders from not just one or two but FOUR of our favorite startups! First up, Grammerly CEO Shishir Mehrotra AND Superhuman founder Rahul Vohra join together to talk about their companies coming together, and how they plan to use AI to reshape the future of work. PLUS Manu Sharma from data labeling innovators LabelBox AND Jeff Cardenas from humanoid robot startup Apptronik. Now that’s a packed show!

E2145: In a special TWiST, recorded during Jason’s trip to Singapore, he chats with entrepreneur and investor Balaji Srinivasan about The Network School and his wider vision for an internet-native, decentralized society. Is the future going to be “sharp societies” creating civilizations united by shared values rather than physical boundaries? MAYBE!

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LAUNCH Accelerator

We’re hosting an in-person Demo Day for LA34 in SF on July 16 from 9a-12p PT, the latest cohort from Jason Calacanis’ Accelerator.

If you are an early-stage investor and interested in attending, please reach out to [email protected].

Want to Work for This Week in Startups?

We’re looking to fill two in-person sales positions at our Austin, Texas HQ! First, a high-performing Sales Executive to help us seek out and promote clients, sponsorships, branded content, and more. Plus an experienced Sales Manager to lead, coach, and scale our sales executive team, while setting performance goals. Love the podcast and have B2B sales experience? We want to hear from you!

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.

Founder University

Applications are open for Founder University Cohort 11, a 12-week remote pre-accelerator program tailored towards navigating early-startup practices, building an MVP, and growing traction. Submit your application at Founder University— Cohort 10 will kick off Summer 2025!

The TWiST500 newsletter is the new, updated, and improved TWiST Ticker.