2026 Starts with a bang: META AI Drama and Nvidia’s $20B Groq Acquisition | E2230
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Crusoe Cloud - https://crusoe.ai/build
Uber - http://uber.com/twist
Every.io - http://every.io/
Today’s show:
Jason and Alex are BACK on TWiST for 2026!
This holiday season was anything but calm, with deca-corn acquisitions, massive Polymarket bets, and major new startups breaking from stealth!
Jason talks the recent Nvidia-Groq $20B acquisition, a major exit for Chamath as the lead investor back in 2017! Jason delves into how the VC fund math shapes out for pre-seed VC funds vs. Series A VC funds.
Jason and Alex delve into drama swirling META’s AI team. Yann LeCun, META’s former Chief AI Scientist, announced that he would be leaving META to become Executive Chairman at AMI Labs. LeCun left the META team in the new year, calling the new Chief AI Scientist, Alexandr Wang, inexperienced. LeCun now looks to move AI beyond the era of LLM at AMI Labs.
PLUS Jason and Alex talk about the new social media app Tangle, from Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, and Evan Sharp, co-founder of Pinterest. Their Startup, West Co, launched tangle, which seeks to become an “intentional living” app. The two look to improve how humans interact with modern tech. Jason points out that very few news products have worked, but is eager to see how two industry veterans build in the space.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Why Restaurants are OVER — Peptides and other self medications
(06:41) Nvidia Acqui-Hires Groq for $20 BILLION
(9:48) Crusoe Cloud: Crusoe is the AI factory company. Reliable infrastructure and expert support. Visit https://crusoe.ai/build to reserve your capacity for the latest GPUs today.
(11:00) The VC fund math between seed vs. Series A funds
(15:00) META buys TWiST 500 Company, Manus! Why it matters.
(20:20) Uber AI Solutions: Your trusted partner to get AI to work in the real world. Book a demo with them TODAY at http://uber.com/twist
(21:24) Why Yann LeCun left META, and what could be behind it
(25:27) Producer Claude on the Gondola Crash in Zurich
(29:13) Jason’s Request for Augmented human intelligence
(30:11) Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit http://every.io/
(32:04) How one Trader made $436.8k on one bet on polymarket!
(36:05) Jason’s Predictions for 2026 IPOs
(40:01) Is news broken? How Tangle is tackling it.
(45:53) How much should startup incur in legal expenses? Should founders try to use AI to avoid costs?
(50:59) Why Google should let NotebookLM cook, make it a standalone brand!
*
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com/
Check out the TWIST500: https://twist500.com
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
*
Follow Lon:
X: https://x.com/lons
*
Follow Alex:
X: https://x.com/alex
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm/
*
Follow Jason:
X: https://twitter.com/Jason
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis/
*
Thank you to our partners:
(9:48) Crusoe Cloud: Crusoe is the AI factory company. Reliable infrastructure and expert support. Visit https://crusoe.ai/build to reserve your capacity for the latest GPUs today.
(20:20) Uber AI Solutions: Your trusted partner to get AI to work in the real world. Book a demo with them TODAY at http://uber.com/twist
(30:11) Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit http://every.io/
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It seems that he collapsed $50,000 worth of legal work into essentially a couple of queries |
| 0:04.8 | and a free-to-use tool if you already have G-suite. For founders out there who don't want to pay |
| 0:08.5 | insane amounts of legal expenses, does this sort of like involved intelligent approach using |
| 0:13.3 | modern tools provide a pathway to spend less money on things that are non-product critical? |
| 0:19.6 | We had a company that had no lawyer, no |
| 0:21.7 | accountant. They were doing it all themselves. And they had gotten to hundreds of thousands of revenue. I know you don't have an attorney, but this will become a blocker for future rounds. If you're going to get to the Series A, the seed round, you start raising over a million dollars, like doing it on convertible notes. I'm like, no, no, I can do it all myself. I can do it with an LLM. So founders find a way. And so there is a product opportunity here. There's always more legal work to be done. There's going to be 10 times as many startups as young people can't get jobs. This weekend startups is brought to you by every.io. For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes, or other backoff administration needs, visit every.io. |
| 0:57.7 | Uber A.I.O.A.I. of your incorporation, banking, payroll benefits, accounting, taxes, or other backoff administration |
| 0:55.3 | needs, visit every.io. |
| 0:57.7 | Uber AI Solutions, your trusted partner to get AI to work in the real world. |
| 1:02.6 | Book a demo with them today at uber.com slash twist. |
| 1:06.8 | Crusoe Cloud. |
| 1:08.2 | Crusoe is the AI factory company, reliable infrastructure and expert support. |
| 1:13.7 | Visit crusoe.a.ai slash build to reserve your capacity for the latest GPUs today. |
| 1:21.7 | All right, everybody, welcome back to Twist. It's 2026. Twist, 2026. We're ready to go. First episode of the year, January 5th. Don't call it this week and sort of. Just say twist. Twist. Twist 25. Just twist. It's simpler. It's cleaner. It's better. Just twist. No more long names. Yeah, like a little twist. You have a little cocktail. You put a little twist in it. Amen to that. In your case, a mocktail. It's all good. |
| 1:44.9 | You know what I love? |
| 1:45.7 | Jason is paying $12 for a mocktail. That always seems like such a good deal to me. Try having three daughters and all three want a mocktail. And you get hit for $36. And then they're like, can we have a second one? And I say absolutely not. you may have a diet coke at most i think think I got to pump the brakes on this moktail thing. I'm going to give them the choice. Mocktail or dessert? Yes. Because it's just too expensive. It's way too expensive on the moktail thing. But I understand, you know, there's a big thing going on. Speaking of startups, restaurants, I was talking to like pretty high level, very world famous chef. |
| 2:21.7 | I wouldn't say who. |
| 2:22.8 | Okay. |
| 2:23.0 | And I said, how's business? |
| 2:23.9 | He says, it's over. |
| 2:25.4 | I said, say again? |
| 2:26.3 | He said, it's over. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jason Calacanis, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jason Calacanis and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.