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

Watch on YouTube ↗  |  August 29, 2026 at 00:32  |  1:47:44  |  This Week in Startups
Speakers
Jason Calacanis — Angel Investor / Founder, LAUNCH
Lon Harris — Editorial Director
Craig Piggott — Founder & CEO, Halter
Matija Milenovic — Founder & CEO, Hop Aero

Summary

Jason Calacanis and Lon Harris break down Nvidia's $12.9B Hugging Face acquisition and Poolside licensing deal as a strategic move to own enterprise open-source AI and unmetered on-prem compute. They also discuss the OpenAI-led AI cyber-defense open letter, framing AI-enabled hacking as both a cybersecurity stock catalyst and a risk to crypto holdings. Guests Craig Piggott of Halter and Matija Milenovic of Hop Aero present startups in livestock management and autonomous cargo rockets, followed by a debate about AI-generated op-eds.

  • Nvidia agrees to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9B and licenses Poolside's coding model for $6B+.
  • Jason argues Nvidia is becoming the US open-source champion and will sell unmetered on-prem racks.
  • He predicts this could shift one-third of Anthropic/OpenAI revenue or market value to Nvidia.
  • OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Microsoft signed an open letter warning of AI-enabled cyber threats.
  • Lon sees PANW and CRWD as beneficiaries; Jason warns of AI hacks targeting crypto and Bitcoin.
  • Craig Piggott demos Halter's solar-powered cattle collar and virtual fencing platform.
  • Matija Milenovic shows Hop Aero's Rook autonomous hypersonic cargo rocket concept.
  • The show closes with AI-generated op-ed ethics and off-duty recommendations.
Ideas
Jason Calacanis Angel Investor / Founder, LAUNCH 0:00
Nvidia open-source/unmetered strategy wins.
Nvidia is becoming the US open-source/open-weight AI champion via the Hugging Face acquisition and Poolside coding model deal. Jensen plans to sell enterprise on-prem racks running an unmetered open-source coding stack, undercutting Anthropic and OpenAI's metered frontier coding products and potentially shifting one-third of the top two frontier model companies' revenue/market value to Nvidia.
NVDA HIGH
Lon Harris Editorial Director 12:57
AI hacking boom lifts PANW, CRWD.
AI-enabled hacking is getting cheaper and more scalable as models like DeepSeek improve. Frontier model companies will need to work with leading cybersecurity firms to secure software and infrastructure, creating a boom for Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike. Lon says he is considering doing an analysis and possibly buying those two stocks this weekend.
PANW CRWD HIGH
Jason Calacanis Angel Investor / Founder, LAUNCH 13:50
AI hacks make Bitcoin risky.
AI coding models make at-scale phishing and automated hacking widely accessible, and Jason expects a cataclysmic AI-enabled breach before the end of the year, possibly dumping private messages, banking information, or draining crypto/Bitcoin wallets. This makes Bitcoin/crypto a risky area to own.
BTC MED
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This This Week in Startups video, published August 29, 2026, features Jason Calacanis, Lon Harris discussing NVDA, PANW, CRWD, BTC. 3 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Jason Calacanis, Lon Harris  · Tickers: NVDA, PANW, CRWD, BTC