This Week In Startups is made possible by:

LinkedIn Jobs - linkedIn.com/twist

Grasshopper Bank - grasshopper.bank/twist

Notion - notion.com

Today’s show:

This week, SpaceX announced that it was partnering with AI coding startup Cursor on new AI models. xAI’s parent company is bringing compute, while Cursor brings developer market share and recent successes, training its own coding models.

The deal, while interesting, comes with a steep price tag. SpaceX will pay Cursor $10 billion for their shared work, with an option to buy the entire company for $60 billion later this year.

After poking our way through the deal, Chris Zacharia and Brian McRindle of Bitstarter joined Lon and Alex. Bitstarter is a ‘Kickstarter for Bittensor,’ helping founders get their subnet up and running without tripping over their shoelaces. The Bitstarter crew also broke some news on the show, telling TWIST that they have a new accelerator-ish program kicking off.

Next, Ning Ren from Trajectory RL joined the program to explain how Bittensor subnet 11 is using decentralized competitions to design and release better skills. Skills — markdown files with words — have become a critical building tool in the agentic era; how Trajectory will monetize is an open, interesting question.

Timestamps:

2:27 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

4:07 SpaceX/ xAI "partners" with Cursor!

9:35 Will the Cursor deal help pump a future SpaceX IPO?

9:57 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist.

12:14 How AI coding models like Cursor help xAI grow recursively.

17:24 Chris Zacharia and Brian McRindle of Bitstarter join the show.

20:23 Grasshopper Bank: Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account.

29:59 Notion - Notion brings all your notes, docs, and projects into one connected space that just works with AI built right in. Try Notion, with Notion Agent, at https://www.notion.com/twist