Latest Interviews
Showing 1–7 of 7 transcripts.
Clear all filtersLumentum CEO: How Lasers Are Transforming AI Data Centers
Michael Hurlston, Tony Kim, Molly O'Shea
Under CEO Michael Hurlston, Lumentum has transformed from a diversified manufacturer into a pure-play data center optical leader, tripling revenue and driving its stock price up to 12-fold by capitalizing on the industry's rapid shift from copper to fiber connectivity. This transition, necessitated by the physical limitations of copper in high-speed environments, is straining the specialized Indium Phosphide supply chain due to long lead times for dedicated fabrication facilities. Facing tens of millions in new hyperscaler orders, the company is simultaneously expanding into space-based internet infrastructure and navigating geopolitical dynamics that favor U.S. domestic suppliers over Chinese competitors.
Hyperscalers Are Out of Capacity? | MongoDB CEO
Driven by hyperscaler capacity shortages and stringent data sovereignty requirements, major enterprises are migrating workloads back on-premises while adopting heterogeneous AI architectures to manage complex agentic environments. CEO CJ Desai leads MongoDB's strategic response by prioritizing real-time, operational database solutions for AI-native startups and Fortune 500 clients, shifting from traditional model selection to a focus on deterministic outcomes and autonomous administration. This approach positions the company to capitalize on the "AI super cycle" by ensuring the high-quality data layer required to transition experimental prototypes into scalable, production-grade applications in sectors like banking and aviation.
AMD, Starcloud, Coatue..10 Hot Takes From The Biggest Names in AI
Max Cook, Matan Grinberg, Pim de Witte, Philip Johnston, Mark Papermaster, Rodrigo Liang, Ramin Hasani, Robin Rombach, Chris Madden, Henri Delahaye, Molly, Philippe, Thomas
At the RAISE Summit, industry leaders like Max Cook and Matan outlined a decisive shift toward agentic AI ecosystems that replace traditional interfaces with natural language and naturalize the routing between frontier and open-source models based on latency and cost. Concurrently, hardware giants such as SambaNova and StarCloud announced billion-dollar investments and space-based compute strategies to overcome power constraints and enable efficient inference on edge devices. This convergence of sovereign AI initiatives, supply chain scaling, and automated software engineering marks a global transition where enterprises treat AI as a deployed product rather than a research tool.
Andrew Feldman on Building a Chip 58x Larger Than Nvidia's
Cerebrus has secured a landmark partnership with OpenAI valued at over $20 billion to address the severe shortage of AI infrastructure caused by data center construction lagging behind compute demand. The company employs a co-design strategy to overhaul traditional power and cooling architectures while urging industry participants to diversify chip suppliers to avoid single-vendor lock-in. This surge in hardware innovation, marked by Cerebrus's recent IPO creating 1,000 millionaires, is expected to drive breakthroughs in cancer research, autonomous safety, and personalized education within the next quarter-century.
A Rare Look Inside Applied Intuition’s Physical AI Garage
Qasar Younis, Peter Ludwig, Molly O'Shea
Applied Intelligence deploys a unified end-to-end AI platform across six industrial sectors, serving 18 of the top 20 global automakers and the U.S. military with solutions for autonomous mining, trucking, and maritime operations. Led by CEO Peter Ruch, the company modernizes legacy infrastructure by consolidating disparate electronics into single compute units, leveraging dual-use hardware to address acute labor shortages and safety crises in defense and heavy industry. Operating from 18 global sites while excluding China due to IP concerns, Applied Intelligence is currently commercializing Gen 2 autonomous trucks in Japan and expanding its "Physical AI" footprint into the Middle East and Latin America.
Thomas Laffont, Coatue - Anthropic, Citrini Paper, AI Volatility & Next Mag 7
Thomas Lafont and the Kotu firm, managing over $100 billion in assets, predict that private AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic will dominate the next major market indices as SaaS valuations face re-rating pressures from decelerating growth. While anticipating significant IPOs within 24 months and a shift toward "Big Fucking Ideas" that expand total addressable markets, Lafont argues that AI will enhance engineering productivity rather than reduce headcount, following a historical model of market expansion similar to the introduction of ATMs. The firm actively applies these insights by integrating coding-first AI tools into their due diligence while advocating for democratized access to private equity to capture the exponential growth of early adopters like Clock Code.
Data Centers in Space? Armada’s CEO on SpaceX and the Edge
Armada, funded by over $200 million, deploys modular AI factories to bring hyperscale computing to remote and hostile environments, effectively bridging the digital divide in regions lacking traditional infrastructure. Strategic alliances with key entities like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Microsoft enable the company to integrate edge connectivity and proprietary models into diverse sectors ranging from military operations on aircraft carriers to disaster response in the Arctic and Saudi desert. By prioritizing rapid deployment of American-led AI stacks, Armada aims to secure global data sovereignty and expand its footprint into critical industries such as energy and defense through 2026.