Breaking down Nvidia's Hugging Face and Poolside bets

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

Today's show:

*Nvidia agreed to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, just days after quietly licensing Poolside's coding model for $6 billion+. On TWiST, Jason lays out why this is actually the biggest AI story of the year. Nvidia plans to offer enterprises unmetered, unlimited on-prem compute, pulling them away from reliance on Anthropic and OpenAI's frontier models and products.

PLUS we're chatting with Halter founder & CEO Craig Piggott about how his company helps farmers optimize their land use via solar-powered AI-driven cattle collars. AND Hop Aero CEO and co-founder Matija Milenovic shows us Rook, his autonomous hypersonic cargo rocket that can launch from a shipping container and deliver cargo up to 450 miles away in about 15 minutes. Finally, Jason and Lon explain why you never post Slop on the timeline.

Guests:

Craig Piggott on X: x.com/craig_piggott

Halter: halterhq.com

Matija Milenovic on X: x.com/mat_milenovic

Hop Aero: hopaero.com

Relevant Links:

OpenAI Open Letter: openai.com/collective-cyberdefense

OpenAI Hugging Face report: openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the…

OpenAI Jalapeño report: openai.com/index/jalapeno-first-results

Dario Amodei-Gavin Baker tweet thread: x.com/DarioAmodei/status/2088758816376807762

TechCrunch: Nvidia-Hugging Face deal: techcrunch.com/2026/08/26/nvidia-closes-in-on-…

TechCrunch coverage of Halter: techcrunch.com/2026/04/04/unpacking-peter-thie…

Dealroom: Sir Peter Back on Rocket Lab: app.dealroom.co/news/note/sir-peter-beck-on-ro…

WSJ: Druckenmiller op-ed: "Let the Bond Market Speak": wsj.com/opinion/let-the-bond-market-speak-8152…

NOTUS: Druckenmiller's WSJ op-ed was written with AI: notus.org/media/stanley-druckenmillers-wsj-op-…

WaPo: Wall Street Journal defends Druckenmiller op-ed: washingtonpost.com/business/2026/08/25/wall-st…

Photon Matrix Laser Mosquito Killer: photonmatrixlab.com

"The Wizard of the Kremlin" trailer: youtube.com/watch?v=U7ctYp3zQVA

"King & Conqueror" trailer: youtube.com/watch?v=anS9xQEPTsU

"Lanterns" trailer: youtube.com/watch?v=7UIBOsuUwc4

"Rebel Ridge" trailer: youtube.com/watch?v=gF3gZicntIw

Alpaka Bravo Sling Max 2 bag: alpakagear.com/products/bravo-sling-max-v2

No Agenda podcast: noagendashow.net

THR: John C. Dvorak obit: hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/j…

Timestamps:

The 100+ company open letter on cyberdefense

DigitalOcean - Want to see what building on a true AI-native platform looks like? Head to do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today — and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%.

Why some models are "unsafe at any latency"

Craig Piggott of Halter joins the show

Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit every.io

How do you add cows to Starlink?

PayPal - Pay zero processing fees on your first $100K in eligible PayPal payment volume. Learn more at paypal.com/business

Founder-led hyper-local sales motion

Remember John C. Dvorak

Matija Milenovic of Hop Aero joins

Sending out autonomous swarms in the Indo-Pacific

Nvidia's mega-Hugging Face deal

Nvidia's "unmetered" play against Anthropic and OpenAI

How letting AI write for you is like lip syncing

Laser-guided mosquito defense system

Lon's streaming picks

Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: ticker.thisweekinstartups.com

Check out the TWIST500: twist500.com

Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: rb.gy/v19fcp

Follow Lon:

X: x.com/lons

Follow Jason:

X: twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Check out all our partner offers: partners.launch.co

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, (youtu.be/pvJa2pzuXWQ) Eoghan McCabe (youtu.be/9dHN4YFkgv4), Steve Huffman (podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reddit-ceo-steve…), Brian Chesky (podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/airbnb-ceo-brian…), Bob Moesta, (youtu.be/y2UMzSqX94Q) Aaron Levie (podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/box-ceo-aaron-le…), Sophia Amoruso (podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/sophia-amoruso-o…), Reid Hoffman (podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/reid-hoffman-on-…), Frank Slootman (podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/snowflake-ceo-fr…), Billy McFarland (podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/billy-mcfarland-…)

Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: substack.com/@calacanis

Follow TWiST:

Twitter: twitter.com/TWiStartups

YouTube: youtube.com/thisweekin

Instagram: instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

TikTok: tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

Substack: twistartups.substack.com

Breaking down Nvidia's Hugging Face and Poolside bets | E2331

Kapitelklicken springt direkt hin

Shownotes