Top News | TikTok set to stay in limbo: It seems the fate of TikTok is set to stay uncertain for a little while longer. Despite Congress placing legal limits on the Chinese-owned app’s right to operate in the United States, President Trump is set to allow even more time to pass so that TikTok’s future can be included in a larger trade package with China. Who might buy TikTok, if it comes to that? The FT reports that a raft of potential buyers — from venture-shop a16z to podcaster Tucker Carlson and beyond — were floated earlier this year. Drone deliveries accelerate: Alphabet’s Wing drone delivery company is quietly accelerating. The BigTech subsidiary announced this week that is working to expand its partnership with Walmart from two cities to seven, and the number of stores that it can draw from to 100 in the coming quarters. The companies claim that they’re already executing thousands of weekly deliveries, and Wing also recently announced a new deal with DoorDash. We look forward to the future, when we try to race a delivery drone our carrying dinner home, while we watch its progress on our pocket computers from the backseat of a self-driving car. Oh, so that’s why: Earlier this week on TWIST, we looked at news that Anthropic had blocked Windsurf from accessing its Claude family of AI models. Alex argued that the move detailed potential platform risk from closed-source AI model companies. But we no longer have to speculate as to the why behind the move, with Anthropic stating plainly that it severed commercial ties with the AI coding service over its potential — expected, really — purchase by OpenAI.
| TWiST500 | With the Circle IPO behind us — though we’re still watching its rising share price with interest — other crypto companies are getting their own filings ready. Reporting today indicates that Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by the well-known Winklevoss twins, has filed confidentially to go public. | We saw similar reporting back in March, noting that Gemini had filed privately to go public. Presumably the crypto platform is now more serious, and moving faster than it was earlier in the year. | The change in White House leadership has shifed the relationship between regulators and crypto companies, clearing much of the brush that might have tripped them up on the path to the public markets. As for past concerns about market uncertainty: with Circle soaring, what’s the risk? | We’ll know more when we get our hands on the formal, public filing, but for now we know that Gemini’s 2021-era Series A had a host of venture players included. However, Gemini has not raised that much capital compared to its pervceived market worth. So, it could be a win of for venture, but not as big a one as, say, the upcoming Chime debut. | Gemini cleared a few hurdles of its own in recent quarters, including a deal to return certain cryptocurrency to users over its Earn program in 2024, and the payment of a $5 million fee to the CFTC earlier this year. | But all that is in the past. What’s hot today are crypto shares, and Gemini wants to meet market demand. (Recall also that Kraken, another exchange, is reportedly on the IPO path itself. It could be a big year for crypto debuts!) — Alex | 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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