Huawei has just announced a new AI chip—does this mean tariffs accelerating Chinese innovation?


This week, Chris Saad, Yaniv Bernstein, and guest Amir Shevat dig into how the AI trade war and tech monopolies are reshaping the global startup landscape. Plus, on a lighter note: why Sam Altman says politeness in AI prompts is surprisingly expensive.


In this episode, you will:

  • Break down how China’s Huawei is pushing out a homegrown AI chip — and why US tariffs might be backfiring
  • Hear why US arrogance may be accelerating China’s rise in AI innovation, not slowing it
  • Learn how tariffs are hurting startups — from hardware costs to startups skipping Delaware altogether
  • Debate Google’s antitrust showdown: are they abusing market power or just defending their turf?
  • Explore why Perplexity AI is fighting for “choice” — and why it's really about distribution
  • Consider whether saying “please” to ChatGPT actually improves responses — and keeps you off the robot hit list
  • Laugh (or cry) as the team wrestles with whether our political system is just “dumb,” or already boiling over


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Key links

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 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.vanta.com/tsp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.


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


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

Content Strategist: Carolina Franco https://www.linkedin.com/in/francocarolina/

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

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