The Startup Podcast is back for its 300th episode – and it’s an absolute doozy.

In today’s Reacts, hosts Chris Saad and Yaniv Bernstein break down how Anthropic became the new industry leader in AI, and why betting on coding as the 'meta domain' of AI turned out to be one of the most consequential product decisions of the decade.

They also dig into Mythos and the newly released Claude Fable: what makes Fable different, whether it has something approaching genuine intelligence, and what the Anthropic 'strategy dividend' (per Ben Thompson of Stratechery) actually means for the industry.

Then: SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO. With a reported valuation of around $1.88 trillion and a prospectus that talks more about AI than rockets, Chris and Yaniv ask the obvious question: is it worth it?

In this episode:

How product discipline and a bet on coding put Anthropic in front

Strategy dividends: how Anthropic's genuine commitment to safety became both a real constraint and a powerful marketing asset at the same time

Claude’s new models, Fable and Mythos: what's actually changed?

Why Chris thinks the SpaceX IPO at ~90x revenue is a roll-up of Elon Musk's 'dead bodies'

Liquidity risk: with SpaceX, Google and Anthropic all raising simultaneously, is there enough liquidity in the market?

Timestamps

00:00 Coming Up...

00:39 On Today's Show: Chris returns, Anthropic’s Mythos/Fable, SpaceX IPO

02:30 Anthropic surges ahead of OpenAI

04:16 Why coding is a 'meta-advantage' for AI

07:24 OpenAI’s product turmoil

11:04 Are OpenAI competing with Anthropic, or Google?

13:25 Anthropic’s enterprise strategy

17:06 Mythos: ‘Safety marketing’ or ‘safety dividends’?

23:24 Are Anthropic the good guys?

26:32 Fable: “Mythos with a muzzle”

28:29 Does AI only need to beat the average human?

31:23 Yaniv’s experiences with Fable

32:46 Reasoning logs and self-correction

34:27 Is SpaceX over-valued? (Yes.)

39:32 SpaceX’s moats and growth potential

43:02 Why ‘second mover advantage’ sometimes wins

46:05 Will there be a crash? Chris predicts a liquiditycrunch

50:31 Closing Thoughts

Resources mentioned in this episode

Dario Amodei's essay, 'Machines of Loving Grace': https://darioamodei.com/machines-of-loving-grace
Ben Thompson's Stratechery: https://stratechery.com
Project Glasswing (Anthropic's restricted Mythos access program): https://www.anthropic.com/glasswing
Eric Ries on The Startup Podcast: https://youtu.be/HQ7cP1lGyiM

The Pact

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Key links

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This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by Vanta. Vanta helps businesses get and stay compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in demand compliance frameworks. With over 200 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on. For a limited time offer of US$1,000 off, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://⁠www.vanta.com/tsp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/

Learn more about Chris and Yaniv

Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/

Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/

Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/

Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur

Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/

Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/