--- title: 'Silicon Florist links arrangement for October 23, 2026' date: '2026-10-23T10:30:30-07:00' type: post word_count: 1588 char_count: 14507 tokens: 2065 categories: - Portland --- # Silicon Florist links arrangement for October 23, 2026 Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today: [Oregon startup funding drops to $640.9M in first nine months – Portland Business Journal](https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2026/10/16/oregon-vc-investment-slows-q3.html?utm_source=st&utm_medium=en&utm_campaign=inno&ana=e_n&utm_content=po) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Venture capital investment into Oregon startups continues to pace below the amount invested last year, according to the latest data from the Venture Monitor report. [NVIDIA and Eclypsium Partner for Trusted AI Infrastructure](https://eclypsium.com/blog/safe-ai-agents-start-with-trusted-ai-infrastructure/) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Together, NVIDIA Open Agent Safety Platform and the Eclypsium Infrastructure Assurance Platform address agent safety and security from the underlying infrastructure to the actions AI agents are permitted to take. [(2009) CONFIRMED: OSCON 2010 will definitely be in Portland, Oregon, July 19-23](https://siliconflorist.com/2009/10/23/oscon-2010-portland-oregon-july-1923/) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now while we’ve heard rumors swirling about this for quite a while—including talk that Portland Mayor Sam Adams is lobbying for the conference fairly heavily—it’s rapidly moving into the 99% sure category. [What will computer chips look like in 2045?](https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/intel-tour) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I spent two days touring Intel’s most advanced fab and talking to its technical leadership to understand what the chips of the future will look like. [Keep Android Open](https://keepandroidopen.org/?) -------------------------------------------------- In August 2025, Google announced a new requirement: starting in 2027, every Android app developer must register centrally with Google before their software can be installed on any device. Not just Play Store apps: all apps. This includes apps shared between friends, distributed through F-Droid, built by hobbyists for personal use. Independent developers, church and community groups, and hobbyists alike will all be frozen out of being able to develop and distribute their software. [Midterm election outcome likely to impact startup policy debates](https://www.engine.is/news/startup-news-digest-102326) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are less than two weeks until the Midterm elections, and the outcome could impact the direction of several policy debates affecting startups. Democrats are poised to regain control of one or both chambers of Congress, which would carry significant implications for key policy debates affecting startups, including around AI regulation, immigration, trade, and more. Even if they can’t pass legislation that the president is willing to sign, a Democrat-led Congress is likely to use its oversight powers to make an imprint on key policy debates and the administration’s ability to pursue its agenda. The outcome will also change the dynamic when Congress returns the week after the election to consider lame-duck priorities, including a government spending package and a defense bill. [Hillsboro, North Plains advance data center restrictions – oregonlive.com](https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2026/10/small-oregon-city-could-be-first-to-enact-permanent-data-center-ban-others-mull-new-limits.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axioslocal_portland&stream=top&lctg=5862ca742ddf9c13c3be2e1a) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Monday, the North Plains City Council voted unanimously to direct city staff to start the land-use process for a permanent data center prohibition. [Portland coworking brand NedSpace is for sale – Portland Business Journal](https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2026/10/22/nedspace-is-for-sale.html) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Under Mubarak’s ownership, the group has created what it calls “villages” or clusters of members working in similar industries or interests. There are five villages: AI tech, events and community, art and sound, photo, film and media, and web design and interactive experiences. In addition to the expected office amenities, the space has a podcast studio, a professional photo studio and gym access. [BikePortland founder Jonathan Maus ‘stepping aside’ – Portland Business Journal](https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2026/10/22/bikeportland-founder-jonathan-maus-announcement.html?utm_source=st&utm_medium=en&utm_campaign=me&utm_content=PO&ana=e_PO_me&j=48071022&senddate=2026-10-23&utm_term=ep3&empos=p3) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maus posted Thursday that he intends to continue publishing submitted articles and opinions as well as “light news items and announcements” at bikeportland.org. The hope is to maintain to some degree BikePortland’s role as a place for “quality coverage of transportation, mobility, streets, public space and urbanism,” he said. [How could the US and China verifiably slow AI? — LessWrong](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ywrgeAPMn83FxzFBk/how-could-the-us-and-china-verifiably-slow-ai?utm_source=tldrai) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- An overview of the game theory of why a unilateral slowdown doesn’t work, an overview of various unilateral and bilateral verification methods, and a short scenario starting from after a warning shot combining these tools. [An Interview with OpenAI’s Richard Ho on Why Jalapeño Is a Groundbreaking AI Chip](https://taekim.substack.com/p/an-interview-with-openais-richard?utm_source=tldrai) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In late August, OpenAI presented its Jalapeño AI inference chip at the Hot Chips conference to widespread acclaim. SemiAnalysis InferenceX benchmarks showed the design outperforming its rivals in performance per watt, including Nvidia’s Blackwell, on a number of open-source models such as GPT-OSS, DeepSeek R1, and Kimi K2.5. The rankings could change once the newest Vera Rubin AI systems enter the picture. But building such a high-performing first chip so quickly is a big achievement. [Weekend Fund](https://weekend.fund/) ------------------------------------- We write $250k-500k checks into early-stage startups around the world, from weird consumer to boring B2B, alongside 400+ founder and operator LPs. [The end of startups | Evan Conrad](https://evanjconrad.com/posts/end-of-startups) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Startups are not investment grade. So, to get capacity, they are asked to pay larger and larger upfront payments. We’ve seen it go as high as 100% of the contract paid up front, which was required because neither the lender nor the cloud could take on any additional credit risk. [How I use skills for everything](https://posthog.com/blog/how-i-use-skills-for-everything) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To be clear, this isn’t a “try my magic skill bro” pitch. There’s a little cottage industry of skills that promise to fix your agent, and I find it a bit cringe. I’m not taking a dependency on your skill, bro. Skills can turn into tech debt (agent debt?), so the bar for adopting someone else’s should be very high. [Product Quality. – by Ravi Mehta – Top 1% Builder with Ravi](https://blog.ravi-mehta.com/p/product-quality) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As more people build products, the skills to do that well are becoming increasingly important. We can think about the job of building remarkable products as 12 competencies organized into four areas… [LLMs are making formal software verification feasible at a much larger scale](https://www.anthropic.com/research/formal-verification) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Even mature, heavily tested software contains bugs, and LLMs are increasingly adept at finding them. The Linux kernel—one of the most well-tested pieces of software today, deployed on billions of devices worldwide—recently had over 1,000 vulnerabilities disclosed. With frontier models becoming more capable of chaining seemingly benign bugs into critical exploits, we need techniques that can detect and fix these bugs before they can be exploited in the wild. [The Man Who Saved the Internet Yesterday – The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/10/man-who-saved-internet-php-vulnerability/689123/?gift=iWa_iB9lkw4UuiWbIbrWGX0S2EScp28jU-louXZfg5I&utm_source=tldrnewsletter) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Explaining to my wife how there’s this one guy. And he alone is responsible for most of the world’s distribution of PHP,” a software developer named Ian Landsman wrote on X. “And if anything happens to this guy, that’s just it. Everyone is screwed.” He was referring to Surý. [Startup Corvallis (Food/drink/networking get together), Wed, Oct 28, 2026, 6:30 PM | Meetup](https://www.meetup.com/startup-corvallis/events/316906221/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=seven_day_v6&dispatch_id=6adacb8418c70f12a97821361c35501c) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Startup Corvallis is all about meeting new and known innovators, talking about our projects, what we need, and what’s new from the universities, OSU/UO/PSU to the cities (PDX to EUG) and the many connected organizations that are part of our ecosystem. [Netflix: Wicked Hard Decisions with Gibson Biddle, Former Netflix VP of Product, Wed, Oct 28, 2026, 5:30 PM | Meetup](https://www.meetup.com/what-the-tech-bend/events/316771044/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=seven_day_v6&dispatch_id=6adac132999de6a4318e8b4fadb9c51d) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gibson Biddle joined Netflix in 2005 as VP of Product, during the years the company moved from DVDs by mail to streaming. On October 28, he’s walking the Bend community through five of the hardest calls in Netflix’s 30-year history and asking the room one question each time: what would you do? [Robotics companies connect with growers as new Yakima Valley incubator announced | Business | yakimaherald.com](https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/business/robotics-companies-connect-with-growers-as-new-yakima-valley-incubator-announced/article_8d0cead6-a01f-4ed8-87c1-86684d293616.html) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Agricultural robots of all shapes and sizes paraded to upbeat music Tuesday before an audience of growers, students and industry officials at Yakima’s State Fair Park. [Harley’s Next Rider-Friendly Off-Road Moto Looks Awesome, Approachable and Flat Out Fun | Gear Patrol](https://www.gearpatrol.com/motorcycles/livewire-dust-moto-hightail-eicma-2026/) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Earlier this year, Harley-Davidson-backed LiveWire acquired Oregon startup Dust Moto, signaling its intent to join the growing electric dirt bike segment. .sf-patreon-card{border:1px solid #EEE;background:#fff;border-radius:8px;padding:24px 28px;margin:24px 0;text-align:center;font-family:inherit;} .sf-patreon-card .sf-patreon-kicker{font-size:.95rem;letter-spacing:.06em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#777;margin:0 0 6px;} .sf-patreon-card .sf-patreon-count{font-size:1.35rem;color:#222;margin:0 0 16px;line-height:1.45;} .sf-patreon-card .sf-patreon-btn{display:inline-block;background:#f96854;color:#fff;text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;font-size:1.1rem;padding:13px 26px;border-radius:6px;} .sf-patreon-card .sf-patreon-btn:hover{background:#e0503f;color:#fff;} .sf-patreon-card .sf-patreon-free{font-size:1rem;color:#555;margin:12px 0 0;line-height:1.4;} Silicon Florist on Patreon Join **137** patrons supporting Portland startup coverage [Want even more?](https://patreon.com/turoczy)Includes an absolutely and totally **FREE** tier