#AskJcal Request | Got a burning question for JCal? We want to hear it, and he might answer it on an upcoming episode of TWiST. Send us an audio or video clip of you asking the question. You can hit us up via DM or email your file to nils@launch.co. And be sure to include your name and a social media link so we can shout you out! (A little plug for your company is okay, too, but let’s not go nuts.) |
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| Top Stories | The US military disabled ad tracking on troops’ devices after foreign adversaries reportedly used available location data to target service members. — TechCrunch GPT-6 Astra scored 67 on the Artificial Analysis Coding Agent Index, roughly matching Claude Opus 5, Fable 5, and Muse Spark 1.3. Fable 5.1 has the leading score with 70. — Artificial Analysis Abu Dhabi’s G42 has explored selling a majority stake to American companies to preserve access to advanced AI chips beyond next year. — Bloomberg Tesla launched steering-wheel-free Cybercabs on Austin streets, escalating its driverless-taxi bet. — AP News Pennsylvania voters are uniting against data centers amid fears that residents will face higher power costs and local disruption. — Financial Times
| Top Funding Announcements | Wonderful — The enterprise AI agent startup raised a $550M Series C at a $5B valuation. — TechCrunch Gimlet — The startup, which distributes AI tasks across different chips, raised a $300M round led by Andreessen Horowitz at a $3B valuation. — Bloomberg Crusoe — The AI data center developer reportedly raised $3B at a $30B valuation after securing a $13B contract with Jane Street. — TechCrunch Ultrahuman — The wearable-tech startup raised a $70M round led by Qualcomm. — TechCrunch
| A Message from Rippling | Don’t settle for AI that’s all talk. Head to Rippling.ai/twist to get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business. | |
| | | This Week in Startups |  | VC experts on why Physical AI funding is heating up | E2333 |
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| Timestamps: 0:00 Why making it to Fund IV is when it gets real
8:55 Pentagon rolls out ChatGPT Mil and Grok for Government
10:20 Sentry - Your team should be focused on shipping features — not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST
11:24 Paige on defense tech and three years at Northrop Grumman
13:11 Katelin: The bottleneck used to be winning the contract, now it's surviving one
15:44 Autonomous weapons, robot dogs, and the Boston Dynamics conversation in Paris
18:38 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you — it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app
21:34 EU designates ChatGPT a "very large online search engine" under the DSA
24:25 Katelin's contrarian take: Europe is undercapitalized
29:27 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist
30:38 Starcloud raises $250M at a $2.3B valuation
52:37 Competing with Elon: the single point of failure for the whole space economy
57:20 Physical AI raised ~$47B in the first half of 2026
1:03:13 Jason's Zipline regret and the death of "hardware is hard"
1:06:38 Is "unc" a compliment? A Gen X / millennial / Gen Z / Gen Alpha
1:09:10 Anthropic reverses its data retention policy after enterprise pushback
1:11:49 Katelin on data custody: "That's not a procurement question"
1:15:02 Back to on-prem: Go.AI, the Go1, and vertical LLMs |
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| TWiST Partner Offers | Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started for today at Odoo.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent: Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! — Learn more at www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Sentry.io: Your team should be focused on shipping features — not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST
| Today’s Fascinating Fact from Harmonic | Wonderful takes enterprise AI beyond bolted-on chatbots, with an agentic platform that’s paired with locally embedded, forward-deployed “teams’ that integrate directly into their clients. The agents don’t just adapt to that team’s workflow. They’re also customizable across regions, so they can adapt to the tone, phrasing, behavior, customs, and language of wherever they’re deployed, across more than 30 international markets. (The founders call their agents “culturally fluid.”) The company’s annualized revenue jumped from around $1 million to $70 million inside of one year. | Try it yourself at harmonic.ai | Subscribe to Us On Your Favorite Podcast Platforms | | |
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