How the 1% Will Own Compute (and What It Means for You)
The future of AI isn't a smarter chatbot. It's a model that watches your screen, listens to the room, and acts on what it sees. We dug into Thinking Machines' new interaction model, what it means for compute, and the layoff wave that's already here.This week's roundtable: Anastasios Angelopoulos (CEO of Arena, formerly LMArena), Nick Harris (CEO of Lightmatter, photonic computing chips), and Philip Johnston (CEO of StarCloud, building megawatt data centers in space).
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Timestamps:
0:00 Cold open
1:21 Welcome to Episode 13
2:51 Is China closing the AI gap? Arena's data
5:16 Lightmatter and the photonic interconnect bottleneck
9:42 StarCloud 2, Nvidia Space Ruben 1, and orbital data centers
17:24 Thinking Machines' interaction model: what's actually new
28:22 Whisper Flow and the 3-pedal desk setup
33:48 Real-time desktop and camera awareness as the real unlock
40:25 Why this 100x's compute demand
42:43 The polarization of compute and $10M personal data centers
49:25 The layoff wave: Cloudflare, PayPal, Coinbase, Upwork
54:48 The 10x gap between AI-first and non-AI-first employees
59:52 Unlimited agency and the abundance future
1:00:46 Anthropic's Project Luna runs a retail store
1:03:45 Decoupling labor from value creation
1:05:03 P(doom) round
🔗 Guests:
Anastasios Angelopoulos, Arena: https://arena.ai | @ML_Angelopolous
Nick Harris, Lightmatter: https://lightmatter.co
Philip Johnston, StarCloud: https://starcloud.com | @philipjohnston
🔗 Referenced in this episode:
Thinking Machines, Introducing Interaction Models: https://thinkingmachines.ai/blog/interaction-models/
LMArena leaderboard: https://lmarena.ai
Lightmatter: https://lightmatter.co
Starcloud: https://www.starcloud.com
TechCrunch, Cloudflare says AI made 1,100 jobs obsolete: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/08/cloudflare-says-ai-made-1100-jobs-obsolete-even-as-revenue-hit-a-record-high/
Fast Company, Tech layoffs this week due to AI (Cloudflare, PayPal, Coinbase, Upwork): https://www.fastcompany.com/91538995/tech-layoffs-due-to-ai-this-week-cloudflare-paypal-coinbase-upwork
Bloomberg, South Korea floats citizen dividend from AI profits: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-05-12/korea-s-massive-ai-boom-triggers-call-for-tech-tax-roiling-market
PYMNTS, Inside a retail store run entirely by AI (Andon Labs / Luna): https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2026/inside-a-retail-store-run-entirely-by-ai/
Wispr Flow (voice-to-text tool Jason uses): https://wisprflow.ai
Fermi Paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox
🔗 Subscribe and follow:
Newsletter and all platforms: https://thisweekinai.ai
#ThisWeekInAI #AI #ThinkingMachines #Lightmatter #StarCloud #Arena #Anthropic #ProjectLuna #AIcompute #AIlayoffs #Superintelligence
Greetings, Earthlings: Philip Johnston of Starcloud on Data Centers in Space
Philip Johnston, founder and CEO of Starcloud, explains why space will become the primary location for AI compute infrastructure within the next decade. After witnessing SpaceX's massive manufacturing scale at Starbase, Philip realized that declining launch costs would make space-based data centers cheaper than terrestrial ones. He breaks down the physics of heat dissipation in vacuum, the economics of solar power without atmosphere, and why the marginal cost of space infrastructure decreases while Earth-based costs increase. Philip previews a future where close to a trillion dollars per year in CapEx flows to space compute. And, yes, we get his take on aliens.
Hosted by: Sonya Huang and Pat Grady, Sequoia Capital.
Let's build AI data centers in space | Philip Johnston
AI is setting up residence in the final frontier, says technologist Philip Johnston. He shares the incredible work being undertaken to build data centers in outer space — and how they might harness both solar power and frigid temperatures in order to address the AI energy challenge. Learn more about the affordability of this wild idea and how it could address concerns about the resources needed to keep up with the AI boom.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
TikTok Ban, Data Centers in Space… and What's a Vector? | E2073
Today’s show: Alex sits down with two CEOs from companies freshly added to the TWIST500. We get a masterclass from Bob van Luijt of Weaviate, on vector databases helping AI and LLMs do what they do. An then Philip Johnston from Lumen Orbit explains his vision of building data centers in space!
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Alex kicks off the show.
(0:58) Supreme Court ruling on TikTok and key market numbers
(3:49) Interview introduction with Weaviate and Lumen Orbit CEOs
(4:06) Deep dive into vector databases with Weaviate's Bob van Luijt.
(8:23) Lemon. TWiST listeners get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist
(11:35) Exploring deep learning, vector indexing, and Weaviate's open-source significance
(18:03) Northwest Registered Agent. For just $39 plus state fees, Northwest will handle your complete business identity. Visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist today.
(19:32) Discussion on vector databases use cases and retrieval augmented generation (RAG)
(27:17) Weaviate's business model, revenue streams, and growth
(28:12) Vanta. TWiST listeners automate your SOC2 and get $1,000 off at http://www.vanta.com/twist
(32:52) The future of AI, agentic architectures, and enterprise adoption
(40:50) Lumen Orbit's vision for space-based data centers
(42:54) Philip Johnston on the technical aspects of Lumen Orbit
(49:12) Satellite demonstrators, technology challenges, and VC interest
(53:26) Addressing chip obsolescence and cost advantages in space
(56:21) Deployment strategies and competition in the space data center market
(1:00:12) Strategies for staying ahead of competition and future plans for Lumen Orbit
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Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Check out Weaviate: https://weaviate.io/
Check out Lumen Orbit: https://www.lumenorbit.com/
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Follow Bob:
X: https://x.com/bobvanluijt
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobvanluijt
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Follow Philip:
X: https://x.com/johnstonphil
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnstonphilip/
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Follow Alex:
X: https://x.com/alex
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm
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Follow Jason:
X: https://twitter.com/Jason
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
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Thank you to our partners:
(8:23) Lemon. TWiST listeners get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist
(18:03) Northwest Registered Agent. For just $39 plus state fees, Northwest will handle your complete business identity. Visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
(28:12) Vanta. TWiST listeners automate your SOC2 and get $1,000 off at http://www.vanta.com/twist
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Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
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Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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