Top News | Lots more stories about Anthropic: The TWiST 500 AI maker we can’t stop talking about is back in the news today (and every day!) They’ve released a new set of models, known as “Claude Gov,” made specifically for customers within the US government, designed to address “real-world operational needs.” As well, co-founder and Chief Science officer Jared Kaplan spoke at a TechCrunch conference about the company’s controversial decision to cut off Windsurf’s direct access to Claude, now that the coding assistant maker is reportedly being acquired by OpenAI. Finally, CEO Dario Amodei published an op-ed in the New York Times on Thursday, opposing the “Big Beautiful Bill” and its 10-year moratorium on AI regulations at the state level. Amodei argues that the provision is “too blunt an instrument” to propel AI development. X rewrites developer agreement: The xAI-owned “Everything App” added a new provision preventing third parties from using their content to train large language models. No huge shocker here: the big edge xAI gained from acquiring X is access to its vast trove of material written by actual non-synthetic humans. Reddit, which now makes a decent chunk of its revenue from AI licensing deals, has similar restrictions against AI crawlers in place. Circle goes IPO: The stablecoin platform opened at $69 on the New York Stock Exchange after pricing its IPO at just $31. Shares spiked 168% during trading on Thursday, raising around $1.1 billion all together. Circle is of course the issuer behind USDC, currently the world’s second-largest stablecoin by market cap (after only Tether). Farewell, Circle… The TWiST 500 will miss you… (It’s of course not for public companies.)
| TWiST500 | Anysphere Inc., the TWiST 500 company behind AI coding helper Cursor, is certainly making us proud, and a strong ongoing case for inclusion on the list. | They are, by most accounts, the fastest-growing startup of all time. After launching in only 2023, the company passed $100 million in ARR after just 14 months. (They’ve now surpassed $500 million in annual revenue.) | And these aren’t a few super-lucrative enterprise mega-deals, either. In fact, Cursor only brought in a sales team to work on enterprise customers in late 2024. Most of their revenue continues to come in from individual users paying for $20 or $40 personal subscriptions. Cursor has also started to make a genuine cultural impact, helping to introduce the concept of “vibe-coding” to the masses. | Clearly, we here at This Week in Startups aren’t the only ones taking notice. This week, Cursor closed a new $900 million round to help fuel future growth and expansion, led by Thrive Capital and also including Andreessen Horowitz, Access, and DST Global. It sets the valuation, according to Bloomberg, somewhere around $9.9 billion. | Sounds like good vibes all around for Cursor and Anysphere. – Lon | A message from Vanta | Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal-breaker for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC 2 report fast. TWiST listeners can get $1,000 off for a limited time at https://www.vanta.com/twist | This Week in Startups | E2134: Jason’s away, so Alex and Lon are handling TWiST all on their lonesome. They’re talking about Anthropic cutting off Windsurf ahead of its rumored OpenAI deal, the ongoing deal between Rippling and Deel, and a few stories that don’t actually contain the word “deal.” PLUS Alex chats with Garrett Langley from the in-the-news surveillance startup Flock Safety. (Don’t worry, Jason will be back on Friday.) | E2133: On a special Singapore edition, Jason and Alex are chatting about Grammarly’s billion dollar mega-investment from General Catalyst, questioning how an AI copywriting assistant is generating THAT level of hype. Plus a new Neuralink rival has emerged, founder lessons from Udio and Spotify, and the New York Times’ new licensing deal with Amazon. | E2132: Jason’s busying himself in Singapore this week, so Alex is flying solo on today’s new TWiST, and chatting it up with two fascinating founders who are working on cool new AI innovations. First, from Athena HQ, Andrew Yan explains Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and how it will help brands rank better in AI-powered search engines. Then, Magnus Müller from Browser Use tells us how he’s making AI agents even smarter. | TWiST Partner Offers | Lemon.io: Hire pre-vetted remote developers, get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist Northwest Registered Agent: Starting your business should be simple. With Northwest Registered Agent, you can form your entire business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. From LLCs to trademarks, domains to custom websites, they’ve got you covered. Get more privacy, more options, and more done—visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist today! Oracle: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or OCI, is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. Save up to 50% on your cloud bill at https://www.oracle.com/twist
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