Is Project Europe a YC Riff? Nick Denton is Back! And more! | E2096

This Week in Startups

Jason Calacanis

Technology

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s show: Europe wants to keep its founders from fleeing, AI is growing at breakneck speed, and Nick Denton is back with a spicy Twitter storm—so we had to talk about it. Jason, Alex, and Lon break down Project Europe, a new $10M fund aimed at stopping the European startup brain drain. Plus, Anthropic’s revenue just jumped 40% in a single quarter, and we debate what that means for AI’s future. Meanwhile, China’s EV makers are coming for Tesla, Saudi Arabia is building a gaming empire with a $3.5B Pokémon GO buyout, and we ask the big question: Should X and XAI just merge? Since XAI gets real-time data from X, it’s got a major advantage—so what’s stopping them from becoming one?

Timestamps:

(0:00) Alex, Jason and Lon kick off the show!

(1:29) Recap of Jason's appearance on Glenn Beck's show and advice to MBA students

(4:21) The value of an MBA vs. starting a company(8:14) Nick Denton on Musk, Trump, and investment thesis

(9:47 Squarespace. Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST

(15:16) The rise of Chinese EV manufacturers and Tesla's challenges

(19:09) Jason's stance on vandalism, protests, and political affiliations

(20:35) Northwest Registered Agent. Form your entire business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Get more privacy, more options, and more done—visit http://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist today!

(23:13) Tesla's brand challenges and future prospects

(25:03) Jason's audience and political neutrality(26:35) Inflation data and its implications for startups

(28:07) Project Europe and entrepreneurship in the EU and Middle East

(29:45) AdQuick. Easily plan, deploy and measure out-of-home campaigns as easily as digital ads. Visit www.AdQuick.com/twist to learn more

(38:09) Jason's personal health and productivity protocol

(41:18) Anthropic's revenue growth, API credits, and AI developments(45:09) AI competition and consumer trust

(46:41) Mainstream adoption of ChatGPT and AI challengers

(48:02) Grok AI's integration with X

(51:12) Sale of Niantic's games business and global market shifts(

58:06) India's economic rise and TSMC's potential deal with Intel

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Transcript

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0:00.0	How long until X and XAI are the same company?
0:03.0	Because we know there's like financial ties,
0:05.0	there's product integrations,
0:06.0	and it really feels a little arbitrary.
0:08.0	I think the X shareholders got ownership in XAI.
0:12.0	XAI needs to be, I don't, I'm not an investor in either,
0:15.0	but I know the guy who's running it, and a lot of my friends are.
0:18.0	XAI is doing something interesting, which is, I think they get
0:22.0	X's corpus, which is a huge advantage. So the huge advantage is what I was talking about on
0:26.7	Glenn Beck today. The huge advantage is if you have a real-time data source, giving you
0:30.7	information. And so whoever's got real-time data, whether it's Reddit or X or Facebook,
0:35.5	they're going to have such a huge, huge LLM advantage.
0:39.7	Yeah, well, they have a couple hundred thousand of my tweets, Elon.
0:42.3	Where's my check?
0:43.2	Anyways, everyone on the XAI investment team, you're welcome for all my tweets.
0:47.7	This weekend startups is brought to you by Squarespace.
0:51.1	Turn your idea into a new website.
0:53.0	Go to Squarespace.com slash twist for a free trial.
0:55.7	When you're ready to launch, use offer code twist to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
1:00.7	Northwest Registered Agent. Starting your business should be simple. With Northwest
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	...

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