This Week in Startups
This Week in Startups

Cerebras's IPO goes vertical, and the death of OpenClaw? | E2287

May 11, 2026 · 1 h 23 min

🎙️ Full episode

0:00 / 1:22:38

No time for the whole episode?

A debrief is a short AI summary of this episode, written and voiced: the key takeaways, notable quotes, and the moments worth hearing in full. It takes a few minutes to make. Free during the beta, up to 5 new debriefs a week.

Show notes

Today's show:

Cerebras just jacked its IPO range to $150–$160 a share, OpenAI bought a consulting firm to seed its $4 billion private-equity joint venture, and a startup in Oakland is electrolyzing magnesium out of seawater for one-third the going price. Alex Wilhelm and Jason Calacanis go deep with AI21 co-CEO Ori Goshen on why model orchestration, not bigger LLMs, will decide who wins enterprise AI.

The crew also covered the decline of OpenClaw, TikTok's new £3.99 ad-free tier, more entries in the live-show sidebar bounty, and had time for a little Off Duty before signing off.

Guest Links:

Ori Goshen on LinkedIn

AI21

Alex Grant on LinkedIn

Magrathea Metals

Timestamps:

Ori Goshen, CEO of AI21 joins the show

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!

Why enterprises care about token cost optimization

Jamba as open-weight; Maestro as proprietary orchestration

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

AI21 customer roster: FNAC, US tech giants, Israeli companies

Alex Grant, CEO of Magrathea Metals joins to discuss pulling magnesium from seawater

Live video of the Oakland pilot electrolyzer

Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more.

Magnesium as a "gateway metal" for aluminum, defense, aerospace

TETRA joint venture & the Evergreen Project in Arkansas

Series A close, JV economics: $3,000/ton vs. $7,000/ton market

Sidebar bounty update: Glass Sidebar (Oliver Choy) demo

Netsuite - Get the free business guide Demystifying AI at https://netsuite.com/twist

Sidebar bounty update: Sidecast (Patrick Hughes) demo

Reducing scope to "real-time fact checker only" for final round

Ro.co: Ro's insurance checker will let you know if your coverage includes GLP-1s for FREE. Go to https://Ro.co/Twist for your free insurance check.

Cerebras IPO: $115–$125 → $150–$160 per share

Will OpenAI's compute commitments to Cerebras actually get funded?

Fervo Energy IPO — venture-backed geothermal company going public

OpenAI Deployment Company + Tomoro acquisition explained

Anthropic's parallel $1.5B PE joint venture with Blackstone & Goldman

Why Jason thinks these PE spinouts are convoluted financial engineering

OpenClaw's decline + competition from Cowork, Perplexity, Grok

TikTok's £3.99 ad-free subscription launches in the UK

Knicks sweep 76ers — Jason's playoff predictions

Off-duty: "There Is No Antimemetics Division" by qntm

Off-duty: Fall of Civilizations podcast by Paul Cooper

States' rights, federalism, housing supply & closing thoughts

Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com

Check out the TWIST500: https://www.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:

All episodes of This Week in Startups →