Top News | Meta debuts self-branded smart glasses: After collaborative smart glass releases alongside Ray-Ban and Oakley, Meta is striking out on their on (sorta). The social media giant announced a new line of smart glasses under the Meta label — $299 Meta Adventurer and Fury styles, along with the $399 Starfire model that’s co-branded alongside Kylie Jenner — all coming in at a significantly lower price than the Gen 2 Ray-Ban Wayfarers. Note the “sorta” above: that’s because Ray-Ban and Oakley parent co EssilorLuxottica SA is still designing and manufacturing the glasses, just as a silent partner this time around. The question around these wearable AI accessories remains the same: are mainstream consumers lagging behind because they’re not interested in smart glasses? Is it due to privacy concerns? Or is the lack of interest so far just because no one has released the RIGHT smart glasses, that satisfying nail both form and function. Meta and soon Apple aim to finally find out. Walmart acquires Vibe.co: Vibe’s platform helps advertisers design their own digital ads, then purchase spots for them on major streaming platforms. Of course, Walmart spends a lot on advertising each year, but that’s not the play here. They’re looking to SELL more ads on platforms like Walmart Connect — which offers ad inventory in Walmart stores and the retail giant’s own advertising — along with the native ad-supported streaming apps on Vizio smart TVs. Walmart hopes that Vibe’s tech will encourage more ad buys from small businesses that are traditionally left out of the digital ad landscape. Vibe co-founders Arthur Querou and Frank Tetzlaff will ease the transition by joining the Walmart Connect team full time. No word on how much Walmart paid for these immaculate Vibes. POTUS signs quantum computing EOs: The new orders attempt to boost the nascent quantum computing industry while also prepping the country’s frequently-threatened cybersecurity infrastructure for its arrival. One order directs the Energy Dept. and other federal agencies to start working with private interests and academics on a functioning quantum computer, with 2028 set as the goal for completion (or at least next steps). Another order directs federal agencies and national security experts to investigate possible counter-measures against the decryption and hacking potential of a future quantum system. WSJ reports that the Commerce Dept. is pumping “billions of dollars” into various companies exploring quantum projects, including IBM, Microsoft, and Google. Quantum computing is no longer merely theoretical: Google’s Willow chip is already capable of lightning-fast computations that would take conventional systems trillions of years or more to resolve. But it remains to be seen how practical or useful quantum could be in real-world scenarios, particularly considering the fragility of qubits, their essential building blocks.
| TWiST 500 | The AI landscape is frequently described as a binary struggle between China and the US (or “The West” if you want to include France’s Mistral). But then there’s also Japan, a country that has long been closely associated with innovative technology, but has yet to truly make international waves with its AI industry. Perhaps this is about to change? | One TWiST 500 member from Japan that we’ve long had an eye on is Tokyo’s Sakana AI, founded by a pair of Google vets (David Ha and Llion Jones) along with a former COO from Stability (Ren Ito). Founded in 2023, they’re working with both the Japanese government and many of the nation’s largest enterprises on complimentary AI models and workflows tailored to the their specific needs. In particular, Sakana has focused on the post-training step, allowing them to develop, optimize, and particularly customize frontier models. | Sakana’s latest release is Fugu, a “multi-agent orchestration system” designed for both enterprises and nations, that’s fully compatible with a variety of frontier models (including recent releases from OpenAI). In a post to X, Ha argues that Fugu’s dynamic mix of swappable agents can reach the performance levels of even the most advanced LLMs, like Anthropic’s Mythos/Fable 5. He also notes the inherent benefit of an application layer that interacts with a variety of different models, limiting over-reliance on any individual provider. “As recent export controls have shown,” he writes, “access to top models can disappear overnight.” Don’t we know. – Lon | A message from Deel | Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more. | This Week in Startups | E2303: Two fascinating new interviews with great founders on this Monday special. First up, Jason and Lon chat with Louis Phillips, the creator of Australia’s white-hot fitness app INTVL. The app gamifies your daily run, turning neighborhoods into “turf wars” that you win just by jogging around the block… until someone else doesn’t retrace your steps. Find out how Louis grew the project to over 1M users with zero paid ads. Then, Alice Zhang of Verge Labs stops by to discuss the startup’s recent name change and pivot, and how they managed to assemble one of the world’s largest proprietary brain tissue data sets. | E2302: Anthropic stabbed Cursor in the back. Then SpaceX swooped in with $60 billion. Today, TWiST connects the dots on the biggest deal in AI since the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership, and why it's a warning sign for every startup building on top of a frontier model. Jason is joined by Bling Capital’s Ben Ling, Banana Capital’s Turner Novak, and co-host Alex to go deep on the future of coding models, the current golden age of venture liquidity, OpenAI’s financials, and the ‘Four Ds’ of venture investing. The show closes with a tribute to Josh Baer, the founder of Capital Factory. | E2301: Lon and Jason chat with Skyler Chan, the founder of GRU Space. You may have heard of them during their viral press run earlier this year, after announcing plans to build a hotel on the Moon. (Reserve your spot today for just $1 million!) But beyond the marketing hype, GRU has a real plan to autonomously manufacture bricks out of lunar regolith, which can then be used to build any kind of structure, including an American moon base. PLUS we’re selecting the winner of our $5K bounty for a live AI podcast fact checker. Lon demos all three finalists, then Jason selects his fave. | TWiST Partner Offers | Agree.com: Stop chasing invoices and automate your entire contract-to-cash stack. Go to https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life! Quo: Quo (formerly OpenPhone) gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free and get 20% off your first 6 months at quo.com/TWiST. Superhuman: Get the AI that works where you work. Find out more at superhuman.com.
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