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The Lunar Society
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they'll win AGI? - Casey Handmer

The Lunar Society

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 15, 2025 68:22


How will we feed the 100s of GWs of extra energy demand that AI will create over the next decade? On this episode, Casey Handmer (Caltech PhD, former NASA JPL, founder & CEO of Terraform Industries) walks me through how we can pull it off, and why he thinks a major part of this energy singularity will be powered by solar. His views are contrarian, but he came armed to defend them.Watch on YouTube; listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Sponsors* Lighthouse helps frontier technology companies like Cursor and Physical Intelligence navigate the U.S. immigration system and hire top talent from around the world. Lighthouse handles everything for you, maximizing the probability of visa approval while minimizing the work you have to do. Learn more at lighthousehq.com/employersTo sponsor a future episode, visit dwarkesh.com/advertise.Timestamps(00:00:00) – Why doesn't China win by default?(00:08:28) – Why hyperscalers choose natural gas over solar(00:18:01) – Solar's astonishing learning rates(00:27:02) – How to build 50,000 acre solar-powered data centers(00:40:24) – Environmental regulations blocking clean energy(00:44:04) – Batteries replacing the grid(00:49:14) – GDP is broken, AGI's true value must be measured in total energy use(00:58:45) – Silicon wafers in space with one mind each Get full access to Dwarkesh Podcast at www.dwarkesh.com/subscribe

MacBreak Weekly (Audio)
MBW 985: Debasement Meter - Lower-Cost MacBooks Coming?

MacBreak Weekly (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 13, 2025 148:13


Low-cost MacBooks could begin production soon, with a release period for early 2026. The developer beta for iOS 26 Beta 6 is out now. Could the iPhone 17 be introduced with a higher price point? And Alex Lindsay is excited to play with a new camera to record Vision Pro content. Low-cost MacBook production starting soon, possible $599 or $699 pricing. Apple's MacBook Pro overhaul with OLED might not launch until 2027. Apple's bid to close the AI gap could be hampered by AI brain drain. Apple will bring GPT-5 to Apple Intelligence in iOS, iPad OS and macOS 26. Everything New in iOS 26 [dev] Beta 6. AirPods could soon get Live Translation, iOS 26 beta code suggests. iPhone 17 models 'likely' to have higher prices, another analyst says. Gold, Frankincense, and Silicon. Japan law is forcing more browser choice on iPhone in December. Tech giants Apple and Google lose landmark court case as federal judge rules they engaged in anti-competitive conduct. Picks of the Week: Andy's Pick: DockLite Board Alex's Pick: The BlackMagic Immersive Camera Jason's Pick: Instapaper Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: helixsleep.com/twit

All TWiT.tv Shows (MP3)
MacBreak Weekly 985: Debasement Meter

All TWiT.tv Shows (MP3)

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 13, 2025 148:13 Transcription Available


Low-cost MacBooks could begin production soon, with a release period for early 2026. The developer beta for iOS 26 Beta 6 is out now. Could the iPhone 17 be introduced with a higher price point? And Alex Lindsay is excited to play with a new camera to record Vision Pro content. Low-cost MacBook production starting soon, possible $599 or $699 pricing. Apple's MacBook Pro overhaul with OLED might not launch until 2027. Apple's bid to close the AI gap could be hampered by AI brain drain. Apple will bring GPT-5 to Apple Intelligence in iOS, iPad OS and macOS 26. Everything New in iOS 26 [dev] Beta 6. AirPods could soon get Live Translation, iOS 26 beta code suggests. iPhone 17 models 'likely' to have higher prices, another analyst says. Gold, Frankincense, and Silicon. Japan law is forcing more browser choice on iPhone in December. Tech giants Apple and Google lose landmark court case as federal judge rules they engaged in anti-competitive conduct. Picks of the Week: Andy's Pick: DockLite Board Alex's Pick: The BlackMagic Immersive Camera Jason's Pick: Instapaper Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: helixsleep.com/twit

MacBreak Weekly (Video HI)
MBW 985: Debasement Meter - Lower-Cost MacBooks Coming?

MacBreak Weekly (Video HI)

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 13, 2025 148:13


Low-cost MacBooks could begin production soon, with a release period for early 2026. The developer beta for iOS 26 Beta 6 is out now. Could the iPhone 17 be introduced with a higher price point? And Alex Lindsay is excited to play with a new camera to record Vision Pro content. Low-cost MacBook production starting soon, possible $599 or $699 pricing. Apple's MacBook Pro overhaul with OLED might not launch until 2027. Apple's bid to close the AI gap could be hampered by AI brain drain. Apple will bring GPT-5 to Apple Intelligence in iOS, iPad OS and macOS 26. Everything New in iOS 26 [dev] Beta 6. AirPods could soon get Live Translation, iOS 26 beta code suggests. iPhone 17 models 'likely' to have higher prices, another analyst says. Gold, Frankincense, and Silicon. Japan law is forcing more browser choice on iPhone in December. Tech giants Apple and Google lose landmark court case as federal judge rules they engaged in anti-competitive conduct. Picks of the Week: Andy's Pick: DockLite Board Alex's Pick: The BlackMagic Immersive Camera Jason's Pick: Instapaper Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: helixsleep.com/twit

Radio Leo (Audio)
MacBreak Weekly 985: Debasement Meter

Radio Leo (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 13, 2025 148:13 Transcription Available


Low-cost MacBooks could begin production soon, with a release period for early 2026. The developer beta for iOS 26 Beta 6 is out now. Could the iPhone 17 be introduced with a higher price point? And Alex Lindsay is excited to play with a new camera to record Vision Pro content. Low-cost MacBook production starting soon, possible $599 or $699 pricing. Apple's MacBook Pro overhaul with OLED might not launch until 2027. Apple's bid to close the AI gap could be hampered by AI brain drain. Apple will bring GPT-5 to Apple Intelligence in iOS, iPad OS and macOS 26. Everything New in iOS 26 [dev] Beta 6. AirPods could soon get Live Translation, iOS 26 beta code suggests. iPhone 17 models 'likely' to have higher prices, another analyst says. Gold, Frankincense, and Silicon. Japan law is forcing more browser choice on iPhone in December. Tech giants Apple and Google lose landmark court case as federal judge rules they engaged in anti-competitive conduct. Picks of the Week: Andy's Pick: DockLite Board Alex's Pick: The BlackMagic Immersive Camera Jason's Pick: Instapaper Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: helixsleep.com/twit

Gary and Shannon
Police Department Readies Drone As First Responders

Gary and Shannon

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 13, 2025 29:34 Transcription Available


Michael Monks joins the show to discuss that Los Angeles County purchased the Gas Company Tower in downtown Los Angeles for $200 million. Huntington Beach Police Department readies Drone as First Responder program. Silicon Valley Smart Babies.

All TWiT.tv Shows (Video LO)
MacBreak Weekly 985: Debasement Meter

All TWiT.tv Shows (Video LO)

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 13, 2025 148:13 Transcription Available


Low-cost MacBooks could begin production soon, with a release period for early 2026. The developer beta for iOS 26 Beta 6 is out now. Could the iPhone 17 be introduced with a higher price point? And Alex Lindsay is excited to play with a new camera to record Vision Pro content. Low-cost MacBook production starting soon, possible $599 or $699 pricing. Apple's MacBook Pro overhaul with OLED might not launch until 2027. Apple's bid to close the AI gap could be hampered by AI brain drain. Apple will bring GPT-5 to Apple Intelligence in iOS, iPad OS and macOS 26. Everything New in iOS 26 [dev] Beta 6. AirPods could soon get Live Translation, iOS 26 beta code suggests. iPhone 17 models 'likely' to have higher prices, another analyst says. Gold, Frankincense, and Silicon. Japan law is forcing more browser choice on iPhone in December. Tech giants Apple and Google lose landmark court case as federal judge rules they engaged in anti-competitive conduct. Picks of the Week: Andy's Pick: DockLite Board Alex's Pick: The BlackMagic Immersive Camera Jason's Pick: Instapaper Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: helixsleep.com/twit

The New Quantum Era
Silicon Spin Qubits with Andrew Dzurak from Diraq

The New Quantum Era

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 8, 2025 33:33 Transcription Available


Host: Sebastian HassingerGuest: Andrew Dzurak (CEO, Diraq)In this enlightening episode, Sebastian Hassinger interviews Professor Andrew Dzurak. Andrew is the CEO and co-founder of Diraq and concurrently a Scientia Professor in Quantum Engineering at UNSW Sydney, an ARC Laureate Fellow and a Member of the Executive Board of the Sydney Quantum Academy. Diraq is a quantum computing startup pioneering silicon spin qubits, based in Australia. The discussion delves into the technical foundations, manufacturing breakthroughs, scalability, and future roadmap of silicon-based quantum computers—all with an industrial and commercial focus.Key Topics and Insights1. What Sets Diraq ApartDiraq's quantum computers use silicon spin qubits, differing from the industry's more familiar modalities like superconducting, trapped ion, or neutral atom qubits.Their technology leverages quantum dots—tiny regions where electrons are trapped within modified silicon transistors. The quantum information is encoded in the spin direction of these trapped electrons—a method with roots stretching over two decades1.2. Manufacturing & ScalabilityDiraq modifies standard CMOS transistors, making qubits that are tens of nanometers in size, compared to the much larger superconducting devices. This means millions of qubits can fit on a single chip.The company recently demonstrated high-fidelity qubit manufacturing on standard 300mm wafers at commercial foundries (GlobalFoundries, IMEC), matching or surpassing previous experimental results—all fidelity metrics above 99%.3. Architectural InnovationsDiraq's chips integrate both quantum and conventional classical electronics side by side, using standard silicon design toolchains like Cadence. This enables leveraging existing chip design and manufacturing expertise, speeding progress towards scalable quantum chips.Movement of electrons (and thus qubits) across the chip uses CMOS bucket-brigade techniques, similar to charge-coupled devices. This means fast (

The Tara Show
Silicon Showdown: How Chips, China, and Apple Are Rewiring America's Future

The Tara Show

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 7, 2025 15:35


A $600 billion Apple deal backed by Trump-era strategy is turbocharging America's fight to reclaim tech dominance from China. With Taiwan's chip supremacy in the crosshairs and rare earth mines roaring back to life, the U.S. is turning supply chain vulnerability into national strength. This isn't just about manufacturing—it's about power, protection, and a global tech war reshaping geopolitics.

The Tara Show
H1: Silicon Sovereignty: How Trump and Apple Are Rewiring America's Future

The Tara Show

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 7, 2025 28:19


Apple's $600 billion manufacturing deal, backed by Donald Trump's bold trade and tech strategy, is igniting a Made-in-America revolution. With chip giant TSMC building in Arizona, rare earth minerals back in play, and full supply chain control coming home, the U.S. is taking the power back from China—one wafer at a time. This isn't just an economic revival; it's a national security play that could reshape global tech dominance.

The Tara Show
Silicon Sovereignty: How Apple and Trump Are Rewiring America's War for Chips

The Tara Show

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 7, 2025 16:27


What do a $600B Apple deal, rare earth minerals, and Taiwan's chip factories have in common? Everything. Dive into the explosive story of how Trump's push to onshore tech production—and Tim Cook's latest moves—are reshaping America's national security strategy and its fight to outmaneuver China in the global tech war.

The Tara Show
Chip War Victory: How Trump & Apple Outmaneuvered China with a Silicon Power Play

The Tara Show

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 7, 2025 11:53


A tariff-fueled tech revolution is underway. With a $600B Apple investment, TSMC's chip plant in Arizona, and the Pentagon pouring $400M into rare earth mining, the U.S. is reclaiming its tech dominance and cutting China out of the supply chain. Trump's bold “build here or pay up” strategy has flipped the global semiconductor game—making Taiwan expendable, thwarting China's tech takeover, and setting the stage for an American manufacturing renaissance. This is next-level economic warfare—and we're winning.

The Tara Show
Silicon Showdown: Apple, Trump, and the High-Stakes Battle for Chip Supremacy

The Tara Show

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 7, 2025 14:03


A $600 billion Apple investment, a TSMC factory in Arizona, and a renewed focus on rare earth minerals mark a seismic shift in America's tech war with China. Backed by Trump-era strategy and new Pentagon funding, the U.S. is rebuilding its supply chain from the ground up—on American soil. This is more than manufacturing; it's about national security, energy dominance, and stopping China from seizing Taiwan's tech crown. The chip war is here—and the battlefield just moved stateside

The IC-DISC Show
Ep066: From Silicon to Steel with Ronak Shah

The IC-DISC Show

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 7, 2025 49:04


In this episode of the IC-DISC show, I sit down with Ronak Shah to discuss his transition from a corporate career at Intel to entering the scrap metal business, to founding a successful scrap metal business in New Caney, Texas. We talk about the motivation behind his career shift and the mentors who guided him along the way. Ronak opens up about the challenges he faced while transitioning from a large corporate environment to a smaller, more hands-on business. We also explore Ronak's decision to sell his business and the unexpected opportunities that arose from that choice. He reflects on the experiences gained throughout his career, emphasizing the importance of taking calculated risks and adapting to change. His story offers insights into the value of connecting past experiences to current ventures, even when the path isn't always straightforward. Finally, we discuss navigating today's fast-paced digital world and the importance of maintaining a low profile on social media. Ronak's journey highlights the balance between professional growth and personal fulfillment, making this episode a thoughtful exploration of entrepreneurship and resilience.     SHOW HIGHLIGHTS I explore Ronak's remarkable transition from a corporate role at Intel to establishing a successful scrap industry business in New Caney, Texas, emphasizing his desire for more tangible work and the influence of key mentors. The episode delves into Ronak's career progression at Schnitzer Steel and Alter Trading, where he gained critical insights in non-ferrous recovery and learned the importance of agile, smaller teams in driving technological advancements. Through journaling and introspection, Ronak clarifies his professional desires, leading to the creation of Levitated Metal and reflecting on personal challenges, including his late wife's battle with cancer. We discuss the financial strategies Ronak utilized in his entrepreneurial ventures, such as leveraging IC-DISC tax advantages and aligning financial decisions with personal values. The conversation highlights Ronak's leadership insights, his decision to pursue a smaller business for personal fulfillment, and the impact of selling his business on both his professional and personal life. Ronak shares reflections on his entrepreneurial journey, touching on the lessons learned from his career, the importance of taking risks, and the role of hindsight in connecting the dots of his experiences. The episode concludes with a discussion on navigating the complexities of the modern digital landscape and the importance of maintaining a low profile in a rapidly changing social media environment.   Contact Details LinkedIn - Ronak Shah (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronakshahpdx/) LINKSShow Notes Be a Guest About IC-DISC Alliance About Levitated Metals Ronak ShahAbout Ronak TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dave: Hi Ronak, how are you today? Roank: Good David, Nice to see you again. Dave: Likewise, and where are you calling into from? Where are you in the world at the moment? Roank: I'm at my factory in New Caney, Texas, just a little bit northeast of Houston Great. Dave: Now are you a native Houstonian. Roank: I'm not, so I moved out here in 2019 to build this factory and start this business. I think I've been to Houston once in the prior year to visit for the first time and never before, other than perhaps through the airport. So, I didn't know a lot about Houston. I'm not saying that I know a lot about Houston now, but it's been a great place to build a business. It's been a fine place for my kids to grow up. Dave: It's been good it's been a fine place for my kids to grow up. It's still good. Yeah, it's. Uh, it's kind of a, it's kind of a hidden gem in a lot of ways. Uh, you know houston is, it's got a lot going for it that if your only experience is just driving through town or going through the airport, you know, I mean you hear traffic, humidity, heat, urbanl and you're just kind of like, you know, yeah, it doesn't sound like my kind of place. Roank: Yeah, well, it would be a lot more believable if you did not have a Breckenridge background behind you. Dave: True, yeah, that is the Breckenridge background for sure. So where did you grow up then, if you didn't grow up in Houston? Roank: I grew up in upstate New York so my dad was one of the many immigrants that came over in the late 60s, early 70s. They were looking for people with medical training and background. So he came over from India, lived in New York. I was born in New York City but very soon after grew up in the middle of the Finger Lakes. We moved to Syracuse when I was in middle school and then I went to Boston for undergraduate and I bounced kind of between Boston and London and back to Boston, then to Portland, oregon, which is where I came into the scrap industry and lived for some time in St Louis. I lived there for about nine years and from St Louis to here. Dave: Okay. So what made you get into the scrap business if you didn't have a family history in it? Roank: Yeah, it was just very random, my interest in the scrap industry. I think, the truth of the answer is probably the more interesting one. So after mba I was working, I was an operations guy and I was working at intel corporation in portland, near portland oregon, and loved being in portland. It's a fine place to live. But intel was, I mean, a huge company, right, 80 000 people, and just like the process of making something that was about this big, the the size of the core diet, multiprocessor, microprocessor this wasn't sufficiently interesting to me and I was too far from it, as well as my chain organization. Yeah. It didn't feel tangible enough, and so that was one part of it. But then the other part of it as well was you know I was there as a worker bee, you know, in a reasonably senior job for someone of my age, but then, you know, in a reasonably senior job for someone of my age, but then you know intel was having difficulty. So they bring in bane and company to kind of work on strategy or whatever and so two of the guys that I went to school with that, I knew well, were like literally working literally seven layers in the organization above me, and I'm like what? and so I just hit that, I tapped out, I extracted, I was like this is just some horse crap. I, this isn't the place for me. I need to go somewhere where I'm, you know, in a, in a smaller pod, where I can really touch and feel a thing. And so I just started throwing resumes out and wound up at Schnitzer Steel. Now really, yeah, and oh really. Yeah, and it was great. It was a time of transition for Schnitzer. I don't know if it was a great transition time for Schnitzer. They were transitioning from an older style scrap company to a more professional slash corporate company of the style that it is today. So they had parts of the parts of their business were both things and for sure I liked the old thing a lot and just tons of fun being in places like Boston and Portland scrapyard when they were building big mega shredders and new factories and driving the continuous improvement process there and trying to get metrics around things. It was really a good time. I enjoyed a lot of it. I came to Alter Trading in 2010 and that was wonderful right, I owe so much of my career everything I learned everything to the team at Alter, to Jay Rabinovitz and Rob and Michael Goldstein. I learned a lot there. I did a lot of really fun stuff for them that helped transform the company into the highly successful privately owned scrap company it is today. Dave: Like on the technology side, correct yeah. Roank: So I built a few factories, non-ferrous recovery plants to process not steel non-ferrous portions of the shredder and extract more metals out of stuff that would otherwise have gone to the landfill. And it was you know, exciting to do that, and it wasn't just building the factories but really growing out the entirety of the division that became, you know, a kind of center of excellence around that function, and it's an area that you know Alter remains very strong in today. Dave: Okay, well, I am excited to get into the next part of your story. So you're living in St Louis, working at Alter, being involved in some cool stuff and forward thinking technology. So how did from there? How do you end up starting a company in New Caney, texas? Roank: Yeah, so it's no reason not to be as open and honest about it as possible. So Alter was amazing. For the first six or seven years I was there, the job was like a nine and a half out of 10. I remember I was in New York going to make this time up sometime in 2013 or something like that. I've been there for three years and the Powerball was like some huge number, like a billion dollars, and so me and some buddies that were in finance, we all bought Powerball tickets and we talked about what we would do if we won the money, and I remember I determined to say I don't know if I would necessarily quit my job, right, like I really love what I do. I still think about that today. Dave: Did any of them have the same thought? Roank: No, they thought I was just completely crazy and they weren't necessarily wrong. I think I think perhaps again I loved it, but the point of it is I really enjoyed it. It was fulfilling, I had impact, things were changing. All of that when I struggled is as that phase of what Alter needed ended and I needed to move and assist alter with other things, primarily helping them grow a tier of management that had come from the art management level into being the next business leaders of the company. Just, you know, it's kind of standard transition planning type stuff and succession planning. I struggled with doing that successfully, a role that perhaps would have been viable or successful or satisfactory for me to do had it occurred during a standard line management. You know, hierarchical management structure was hard for me to find value in fulfillment, in and I would say success in doing. Yeah, as a matrix manager, you know, as a, as a guide, as a internal consultant. I just didn't love it. I hate to put it that way. I just sure, sure and at the same time, alter was going through a certain amount of a a ton of growth, right, a lot of growth that I participated in through acquisition and internal growth as well disbanded organic growth. But it was going through a lot of growth and so the company that felt small and familial at 40 yards suddenly felt just large and 70 for me. Dave: Too much like it felt too much like Intel. Roank: Nowhere near that level. There's nothing like that. It remains a really effective, well-directed company today. But, it felt different for me and I also realized that I wasn't good at that bigger company stuff. You know, my way of thinking about things didn't scale successfully to that level. I would not be the right guy at that level and this is an unfortunate thing to say. But I chose to. I did not want to change. You know, I thought about so. My boss for many years there was Jay Rabinowitz, who was, until he retired recently, the CEO of Alter Trade. He was fascinating. His ability to grow into the mindset required, the management rank that he was in at the time, or growing into, was phenomenal. And so a guy that if you only knew him 30 years ago was a rough and tumble scrap guy was and you've seen him on podcasts and things like that. It became and presents fully as and fills the shoes of a methodical, thoughtful, mature and a CEO who does a great job of leading A 1,200, 1,500 person organization. You would have never thought that if you only knew him 25 years ago perhaps, but his ability to grow was really phenomenal. For, by choice or by capability or whatever it was, I did not have or want that and so I wanted something dramatically smaller. Dave: Okay. Roank: And so I spent a bunch of time not just thinking about it but literally journaling about it. Because when you just think about these type of problems in your mind like hey, what do I want to do professionally? Yeah, you can just ping pong in your brain. And what I found helped me through the process was writing it down. And if you remember, back in high school, your English teacher would tell you to you know write a draft of the story, or an outline, and then a draft and then the final essay. I mean, I don't know about you, but I would never do any of that crap. But I did this time and I found that, like the first draft was, you know, just vomit on a page of orally thought out concepts and beliefs. And so I wrote it again and it was clear. And I wrote it again, it was clear. It helped me really understand what I liked and didn't like and what I wanted and didn't want from the next phase. And it was a time when, you know, my kids were just about to graduate middle school. If I was ever going to leave St Louis, this was the time to do it. It was not going to be easy. It was not easy for them to leave St Louis, but that's when. That's how I made that choice. I was uncertain as to what I would do. Right, I was out there both looking at shredder yards to buy as well as businesses. To start, I looked at a wire chopping plant. I ultimately built a heavy media plant. I did look at and made successful offers on a couple of different shredders, but none of that actually panned out and in the end I raised a bunch of money, moved out to Houston, built this thing. Dave: That is a great story and your kids ended up adjusting okay to, because I believe you live in one of the really nice master plan communities around Houston. Roank: Yeah, and they've adjusted well. I think my son is glad that we moved down here. My daughter is a little bit on the fence, but she was younger when we moved. Both my wife my late wife and I in many ways would have probably preferred where we lived in. Dave: St Louis, it was a small town in Kirkwood. Roank: You're familiar with it, but here it's been great. The Woodlands is a, you know, magical little bubble of a place to live. It's got everything you need. It's 25 minutes to the factory. All of it has been, from that perspective, just fine. When my wife got cancer, we were right here at MD Anderson. You know a lot of that stuff worked out. Dave: That is great. So tell me what your business premise was for Levitated Metal. So maybe give just a little background. What does the company do? Roank: Sure, so we're a heavy media flotation platform. What we do is we buy a thing called Sorba and we make aluminum Twitch. But stepping back from that to people that don't know what any of those words mean, our suppliers are the largest scrap metal processors in the region. Right, the states who will buy something like an old 2008 ford 500 sedan that's at the end of its life, yeah, shred it into fist size and smaller pieces, extract all the steel out with a magnet and then extract all the other metals like aluminum from the engine, copper, brass zinc, die, cast through other technologies. That aluminum, copper, brass zinc all is mixed up together in little pieces in a giant pile and that product is called a made up word Zorba by the industry. They make lots of it inside of houston. probably 15 million pounds to 18 million pounds of it is made every month right I buy that it's useless the way it is because you can't melt it, because it's got too many different types of metals in it and it doesn't make a useful alloy. But if you can get the aluminum out, that aluminum is super valuable because that aluminum you know used to be the engine block of a old car. It's a pretty tight chemistry match to the alloy required for the engine block of a ford f-150 a 2005. So through a density flotation process using water and ferrosilicon, we can change the density of that water so we can actually float the aluminum out. Dave: Hence the name levitated. Roank: Yeah, it's not a novel technology. I buy the equipment from some dude in Italy. There are well over 100 of these kind of plants in the world, maybe a little less than a dozen when levitators started up in the united states and a very what it sounds like a simple process is a royal pain in the rear. That actually managed because it's a very analog system with all sorts of weird chemistry and other things involved and a challenging plant to rot. But you know, we do a pretty decent job of it. Dave: Now, why did you pick New Caney, texas? I've been to St Louis, in fact, I was just there last month. They appear to have plenty of land around that place, you know, especially across the river in uh, is that illinois? That's just east so why? Didn't you just buy some land and do it up there? Roank: so where these plants, where the competitive plants exist, are relatively close to where their consumers, the aluminum smelters that would buy the recycled aluminum, are, and that's generally already in that area. So there are plenty of plants in that area. Dave: Okay. Roank: Down here in Houston. What was the case when I chose to move down here it became very quickly not the case, because two other people also built plants was that there was a large market in Mexico that did not have access to this type of material because there were no media plants in Texas or along the Mexican border. And aluminum manufacture in Mexico was growing incredibly well, much like the rest of their economy, and so what I saw was a consumer need right mexican heavy media plants, a set of suppliers in the texas area that did not have a domestic buyer for their zorba and so good supplier footprint and, at the time, a relative lack of competition. But I didn't realize. So, like two months after the financial raise was done and everything like that was, there were in fact, two more plants that were in the process of being built. They both started, you know, six to 12 months after mine did not so far away. There's one up near dallas, there's one up in arkansas so it became a little bit more competitive, though in truth that has not really changed the calculus on anything in a great way. It hasn't really improved the deal too much. Dave: Okay, and it was you started with, just a green field, right? Roank: Yeah, it was some trees and dirt and 10 acres. It was some trees and dirt and 10 acres and I started with dirt work and stormwater and concrete and buildings and equipment and built the whole thing. Dave: What year did you? Roank: start COVID 2020. Oh, it was the heck of a time. Dave: That was the construction was during COVID yeah. And when did you open? Roank: Then we started processing. At the end of December we shipped our first 2020 and we started shipping material in full January 2021. Dave: Oh wow, that really was in the midst of COVID. It was Most of it wasn't? Roank: that big a deal. There was some delay in equipment delivery because it came from Italy, and so if anybody had a rougher time COVID wise, it was Italy. So it came from Italy, and so if anybody had a rougher time COVID-wise, it was Italy. So it came from Italy but that might have only cost us a couple months. What was really frustrating and challenging and ultimately we were able to get through it was simply the difficulty of bringing process experts from Europe to the US during the COVID timeline. You know, like I can't tell you how many voicemails I left at the US embassy in Milan to sorry the US consulate in Milan to try to, you know, accelerate the review of the visa for the texts to come in from Italy, but I can tell you how many times somebody probably listened to it with zero, so just a royal pain in the rear. You know, just because the pain in the rear to get that all done, it got done. But those were challenging times. Dave: So started January of 2021 and, uh, at the time, had you given any thought to how long you might want to, that you and your investor group might want to run the business or own the business? Did you have any thought when you started it about what I honestly thought? I? Roank: would run it and own it for like nearly 10, 15 years years and grow it over time and continue to be in the space, et cetera, et cetera. It was meant to be a longer term cashflow, not one necessarily built on an exit strategy of selling at some point in the future. That was the original intent. Dave: How did that-year plan end up working out for you? Roank: Well, it turned out to be much shorter than that. So, as it turned out, in 2023, we had an unsolicited offer from Murfrees Industries to purchase the business assets. Dave: Wow, just two years later. Roank: Yeah, two years of operation later. Yeah, and for a number of reasons, it was the right choice for me and my investors to do the sale and it's been absolutely phenomenally good, I think, for both sides. The transaction itself, you know, from my perspective, great because you know it was an accelerated exit, but an exit nevertheless, and it still gives me the opportunity to continue to do the same job in the same office every day that I really enjoy doing that. I find great fulfillment and mental stimulation and sense of purpose in without the undeniable and underestimated stress of being a business owner. Dave: Yeah. Roank: So that's been absolutely great. It occurred at a time when my wife was battling cancer and took a lot of stress off. Taking that business stress off the table Sure Just made it easier to get through that entire process. Yeah, and it's just been a good. I think it's been fun for everybody. You know Adam and Michael Mervis were the you know fourth generation. Perhaps Adam and Michael Mervis we're the fourth generation perhaps owners of Mervis Industries enjoy having the levitated team in their company. We enjoy being part of it. Both of us have to do better together. It's been really just great. Dave: That is awesome, because not all transactions work out that well. Roank: Yeah, I'm sure there's some number out there that I would have sold the company at, knowing full well that I would not have wanted to work there afterwards. I'm sure there is, but I'm glad I didn't have to. Dave: Because you were I'm guessing you were the. Were you a minority shareholder? Did your? I was a minority shareholder. Roank: Oh, you were the majority, okay. Dave: So it was ultimately your call Correct and your but the the deal clicked, checked all the boxes and and were your investors disappointed that they were going to lose their cash flowing business. Roank: No, they were very pleased with the cash they got all up front. They were fine. That is great. Coincidentally, I did this math when we were doing the sale. I think that the net result of it was the same. Dave: IRR or plus or minus one within 1% of the IRR. Roank: That was in the financial presentation for the business itself. Really, yeah, very unexpected. Yeah, again, nothing more than a coincidence yeah what do you, what do you enjoy most? enjoy the most about the business is building and growing things. What I have realized is that is not sufficient to be a great leader. Right, there's building and growing things. A great leader right, there's building and growing things. But there's also all the other things that a leader should gain and find value in a business that I'm just not personally built to enjoy nearly as much. Right, I enjoy growing the skillset for the people that work for me. I enjoy seeing them be successful, but I don't think I enjoy it as much as I really should, or that a leader really should. In many ways, I think what I've discovered is I almost enjoy being an individual contributor more than. I enjoy being a leader and in in many ways, that's why I enjoy being at such a small company. Right, yeah, here the leadership I have to do is very direct. It's in the office, with people that are no more than 15 feet away from me right now. It's a very old style of working. You, you know, I have one remote employee and thank God she is very self-directed and capable and intelligent and proactive about reaching out to me, because otherwise she would be really disappointed and I would suck at that job. And so when we talk about you know what do we like about the job? I enjoy the improving of things. I enjoy the new thing to be done. That is not as much of it's not that much of running a business as you would want it to be. Sure, it's not like about a small business, though are just the variety of stuff I get to do I wear slightly fewer hats now than I did before the acquisition, but I was the CFO. I was, unfortunately, the lead IT guy, even though portions of these functions were outsourced as well. I sold all the metals. Having never sold a pound of metal in my life prior to levitated metals, I sold all the amount and then I was the president. I was the lead on any plant improvement projects of great size that we had again support throughout the organization on all these little pieces. But that's a lot of little hats to wear okay, okay. That a bigger company would have a head underneath every one of those hats. Sure, so I enjoy being able to do the breadth of those activities. I think it's rare that people can do the breadth of those activities. You and I talk about ICDIS stuff all the time and I would wager at a level that maybe less than five company owners that you interact with are able to discuss the situation. Is that probably correct, or am I? I think it's probably less than three yeah. Dave: And I can't think of who the other two are, so you might be in a class of your own. Roank: Yeah, I enjoy that thing right when I think about things that I would have been in a different life. Perhaps tax accountant could be one of those. But man, this is a very different life than tax accountant. Dave: Yeah for sure I think you made the right call. Well, as we're kind of rounding the home stretch, I've just got a few more questions. One is when you were leaving Intel, if you had a time machine, or maybe right after you left Intel and you had a time machine that you could go back and have a conversation with the younger Ronak 20 years ago, what might you have told yourself? What advice might you have had? Roank: or wisdom that you might've wanted to share. I don't think I would've shared anything. Dave: No, wouldn't want to, but I would've wanted that. Roank: With the exception my wife's death, there is not a single thing that I would have changed that is a you're. Dave: I asked that question on my guest and you're probably the only one who's ever answered it that way. Roank: So I would say, yeah, what type of things do people say? Oh, you know the number one, because I'm not just saying that because I don't want to watch other podcasts, I just yeah, well, no, I can give give you the rundown. Dave: The most common answer is they wish they would have taken a risk sooner. They wish they would have started their company sooner. They wish they'd been more willing to take a chance. Now, granted, many of my guests are self-made first-generation entrepreneurs like you know, are, you know, self-made first generation entrepreneurs like you are meaning? You know they formed the company, but some of them may have worked at other companies. In hindsight they realize, oh, I should have done this five years sooner, you know it. Just, it would have only been better if I'd done it five years. That's kind of. The most common answer is just, they wish they'd played it less safe. You know, they wish they'd taken, you know, more risks in college. They wish they. That's kind of the most. But that one is consistent with what most people say near the end of their life they don't regret the things they did, they regret the things they didn't do. So that tends to be the answer. But that, to me, is a really good. That's a really good answer for somebody who's pretty content with where their life is. Roank: Yeah, other than you know your wife, obviously, and I see what everybody else describes, but I feel that everything I did, I was learning something that became foundationally valuable. Dave: Yeah. Roank: You know there was a period of time I got laid off from Schnitzer in early 2009. And I didn't start up at Alter Trading until, you know, about a year later. But I did some consulting in the middle for a wonderful company, Steel Pacific Recycling in Vancouver Island, Victoria, British Columbia, and I was there for three months and it was a magical time because we were there in the wintertime. The whole family moved up. My kids were very young. We had an apartment right in Victoria. I rode a bicycle to work to the scrapyard. But I did a bunch of really interesting financial cost accounting structure set up that helped them understand their business better and those were super useful skills when I had to do a chart of accounts setup for levitated metals. We were able to slice and dice our financials. You know extremely well and I don't know if I would have used an erp system nearly as well as I do here had I not had all those little formative experience things in the end I think for me at least. I don't feel like I had a lot of wasted years throughout any of that time I learned steve jobs, as you say. Dave: Steve jobs has the saying that you can only connect the dots when you look backwards, that at the time you can't. It's not like you had some grand plan, I'm guessing you know when you left intel. It just you know. Because steve talks about. He took this calligraphy class that he audited in college and, uh, you know, and that influenced everything at apple design and fonts and and other stuff that it only makes sense looking back so that's. Roank: That's interesting. Yeah, I can. I can see that, and it is hard to connect the dots until yeah until you look back so. Dave: So here's kind of a fun one. I think you've been a like me, you're a. Well, I consider myself a naturalized texan. My wife's a native texan, so, uh, you know, if you you know. So you're also a non-native texan, but I think you've been here long enough for this question. Tex-mex or barbecue. Roank: Barbecue makes me fall asleep. I'm not saying Tex-Mex, I've always loved Tex-Mex. So yeah, we've got some great barbecue. Actually, right near the plant Rusty Buckle is some great barbecue. Near my house is Corkscrew, which just got a Michelin star, which. Dave: Oh nice. Roank: Yeah, which I still struggle to understand how that all plays out. But Texas I guess you get a star. But I love me some Lupe Torquillo yeah yeah, I am with you. Dave: Well, is there anything I didn't ask you or we didn't talk about that you wish we had or we should have? Roank: No, but I'll do you a favor and I'll plug a little bit the IC disc. I know that's not the goal of this podcast, but it is why we know each other. Yeah, so I'll tell this story if I may. Yeah, absolutely, the IC disc and levitated metals. Yeah absolutely, yeah, absolutely, disc and levitated metals. So I called you on my birthday, three months before I, a little bit before I sold the company, and I had talked to you many times previous to that about setting up an icy disc. We, like many scrap companies, are well suited to the icyDIS because the profile of our sales are high margin exports and lower margin domestic sales, and the value of, as a pass-through entity, being able to translate ordinary income into dividend income, has great benefits to the investors of a company. I think there's probably some advantages, even if you're a C-corp, but you can detail that kind of At most. I think there's probably some advantages, even if you're a C-corp, but you can detail that kind of stuff out. I don't really know. Dave: Sure. What was? Roank: interesting when we talked about it is I was in the process of selling the company and when you sell a company that's done a bunch of bonus depreciation because it built a big factory, there's always depreciation recapture that shows up as ordinary income at the time of the sale and so whatever normal ordinary income there would have been that year it was going to be much, much higher because we would have clawed back a ton of depreciation. I put a recapture on depreciation. It's ordinary income. We, like many scrap companies again, have an IC discable kind of amount of headroom of income translation from ordinary income to dividend income Well in excess of the ordinary income we normally make in any particular year, and so, like most scrap companies, there should be no reason to pay ordinary income tax. Dave: Right. Roank: Again, most scrap companies that are Nazi corpse or whatever. But in the year of the sale, all that extra headroom suddenly became valuable because I was going to have this abnormal ordinary income from the depreciation recapture, and so what would have been X million dollars of ordinary income that would have turned to dividend income wound up being something like 2.5, x, yeah, all of which I was able to use because I had so much ordinary income, yeah. And your shareholders as well. Yes, absolutely yes, I and my shareholders. And that was phenomenal. And then on top of it, I think I got to. The ICDIS lets you defer some of that dividend income into the following year. So just sat there in our bank accounts making 5% or whatever we chose to do with that money for another year more than a year, excuse me. Just truly phenomenal. The impact of the ICDIS in my space. Not an easy thing to kind of think through. You and I were just spitballing stuff. We popped it up as an option. You had to go back and think about it, but it looks like it works. And I don't know if you have done it before. Dave: No, yeah, it was just such a unique fact and it was mostly because of how new the business was. Right, if the business had been open for 10 years, we would have started the IC desk probably in year four or five it was coming, and then you would have been using it and then you would have had that transaction, the depreciation recapture, and it would have given you a bigger benefit. It would have happened anyway. It was just your circumstances were so unique is how it all fell out, and I doubt we'll ever see that. That circumstances, because it's so rare to start a business and sell it so quickly, you know I think the takeaway of it is the one. Roank: So one of the takeaways I have from this is I should have started the ICS earlier, because of the bonus depreciation as a startup of the company and the complete depreciation of the entire factory. In the first year, I and investors had a ton of NOL and net operating losses that were just going to take a while to turn into a cumulative net gain and before that happened we sold the company. I was planning on doing an IC disc in 2024, I think was my expected timeline, which is when we would have clicked over to a game and then suddenly there would have been income that I wanted to translate over into dividend income. But I really should have just done it before into dividend income but I really should have just done it before. Dave: So the question I should have asked you was if you could go back in time two years and do anything different. Give any advice to yourself. What would it have been? I mean, it's a joke, right? You would have said start the ICDISC sooner. Roank: The real advice I would have given would have been understand how your NOLs work so that you can do a donor advice fund for the ordinary income you thought you were going to. But outside of that, in truth it's a minor esoteric thing that doesn't really matter. Dave: And so, since you brought it up I rarely talk about this. Since you brought it up, just a couple quick questions. One, because the cpa firm you use actually has some icdisk expertise and you know you could have used them. So do you recall what aspect of our I remind you. Roank: Yeah, because you're, I see this guy. Okay, and the thing that I was talking about felt esoteric enough that I didn't want to click just on a cheap bastard. I didn't want to click over, you know. CPA for billable hours while they tried to figure it out and roll me in a show or something like that. That's not how I want to play now, but the truth is I just needed something done quick and fast because every day that I waited to do the icy disc was another day of revenues that I couldn't utilize. And the second reason is, you know there's a time there's time it takes to create an icy disc and set it up and all that kind of stuff. You have that down to a science and had a method to kind of quickly get me rolling on it. While you and I both know you made a bunch of money on that transaction for a couple of years of work on it, it was completely worth it to me and a very satisfying business and personal relationship that tested both of our intellectual capabilities to kind of put together and work on. I enjoyed doing it right, like when we talk about what we enjoy and work. Dave: Yeah, that was a fun thing it was, yeah, no, it was for me too, because so yeah, so few of my clients, you know, know, have that much interest, you know, getting into the weeds there, and it caused me to think of some things I hadn't thought about in this. And again, since you brought it up, in the experience, you know, the team was the responsiveness Good, I mean, was the? Is the experience been positive? Oh yeah, it's been great, yeah what about coordinating with your CPA firm, because sometimes a CPA firm who has an ICDIS practice will sometimes say things like yeah, but it'll be more seamless if it's all under one umbrella right. Umbrella right, I mean, it's the. Did you get the sense that? That it created a lot of of extra work by the cpa firm, or that balls got dropped because you didn't have one entity doing it all? Roank: I don't think I got that sense, because the cpa firm is made up of multiple people too. That, oh, it's a good point, right? I mean, it's not like the ICDISC person is the CPA that you're working with, right? Dave: You know, I hadn't thought about that, and you're right, and there's some level of communication that is required regardless. Roank: Yeah, and that. Dave: IC-DISC practice, if I recall, for that particular firm. I think it's out of a different office. Roank: Anyway, I don't think, even if they were next to each other right which are of course not next to each other because they all work remote Even if they were next to each other, still two people having to talk, and so there's still coordination that has to happen, and you know what you're talking about. In the end. There is enough esoterica on optimizing the ICDISC usage, that especially trying to maximize the ICDISC capability that I don't think others really understand and not all of them need to understand it. But what I mean by that is for many companies they can just use the stupid simple approach for doing ICDISC and it'll still let them translate all the income they have right. In my particular case, it was important to look at the transaction by transaction optimization capability of the ICDISC in order to fully utilize and maximize the amount of income I could translate to dividend income. I use shared logic as my ERP system. There is literally an ICDISC button that creates the report that you care about. Dave: Right, and so that's one of the benefits of not to interrupt you, but people ask me because, like my, our IC disc business is almost impossible to sell. In fact your CPA firm even talked to me a few years ago about buying the ICDIS practice. The problem is we're not very sellable. We have a huge, we have a concentration risk because it's all tied to one part of the tax code. So they wanted to discount that, or they would have wanted if the conversation on that far. And the second problem is I'm a craftsman, I have the primary relationship with all of the clients. So they would have made me stay around for three or five years and I'm like you know and it would have been tied to some kind of an earn out because they're going to say well, what if the IC just goes away next year? You know we want you to basically keep some of that risk. So I don't know what got me off on this tangent of that risk. Roank: So I don't know what got me off on this tangent. I hear you, and I've thought about that question on your behalf as well, because from my perspective I think your job is kind of interesting and fun. Right, you get to visit a lot of different scrap yards, talk to a bunch of different scrap dudes about a thing you're very knowledgeable about that you know really could trans dramatically improve their financial position, and yet it's still a tough sell. Right, it should be like selling. You know it's not like selling ice cream to eskimos, and yet sometimes it probably feels that way. It is that way, yeah, yeah, and also the question of how to. Because you have a couple of people, I think that work for you, right, at least? Dave: one, yeah, yeah, there's a whole team, yeah. Roank: And so, yes, if IC-DISC went away, it would be I don't know what else you guys do, but pretty close to the end of the company and that's a rough gig. And you know, the low-grade communist in me certainly is shocked, shocked by all the awesome and incredible tax code optimization tools that exist for business owners tools that exist for business owners. Dave: I mean between the IC-DISC, new market tax credits opportunity zones right Bonus appreciation just it's Cost segregation, research-. Roank: Absolutely phenomenal, right, I am now a W2 employee like a putz, you know it's just phenomenal. But if that went away then, yeah, this does die. It's a really difficult thing to try to sell, right. It's the type of thing that, I don't know, if you can't keep some level of skin in the game or risk on it. It feels like the type of thing that if you have the right person in the organization that could be the face, should be kind of employee acquired in some capacity. Dave: Well, and that opportunity exists Some of my partners, I mean I have a standing offer to basically sell my part of the business and in many ways are you familiar with the inside. Roank: I am the. Dave: There's a deep dive of tax yeah, yeah, the structure for us I've already looked at it just doesn't. It doesn't really, it's not not the right fit, but yeah, I thought this thing. You know the funny thing about the disc it's been around since 1972, but it's been quote going, going away since 1973. So I've been doing this 20 years, and I thought I might have five years before this went away or there was a change. But the key, though, is that and that's true the concentration risk is there, but on the flip side, there's also a premium. You get a specialization premium that comes along with it. It's the reason if you look at a lawyer, the more specialized they are, the higher their billing rate, and so there's a premium that comes with that specialization. I know what I was going to say, and then I doubled down further where we have a concentration of risk within the scrap metal industry. But the benefit of that, though, is that when I show up to a scrap metal conference, I'm the only one there talking about IC disc, and I'm the one that well, a scrap guy introduced us. I mean, in fact, I won't mention him by name, but I call him my best unpaid salesman. He's referred as multiple clients. For a variety of reasons, they don't use us, but he's still a big fan of uh, of the work we do. So, yeah, and then the. Finally, there's this concept that has not caught on with a lot of americans. But there's this concept of saving Like you don't have to spend all your income in any given year, so there is this concept of you can make money, put it away and then, if the business goes away, you have this thing called like a nest egg, or you know. So People should think about it, yeah, but yeah my clients, my clients who I have a relationship with, that's. Oftentimes they'll ask me hey, dave, I'm a little worried about you, like as a friend, what happens if the IC disc goes away and I'm like I'll just spend more time there? That's what will happen. Roank: If it makes you feel better, I don't worry about you. I just think it's a very interesting company sale situation. I just think it's a very interesting company sale situation. Yeah, and you know, when you look at the environment today, you could be a tweet away from getting doged. Yeah, yeah, exactly yeah. So one of the you know, keep your head down and stay quiet, kind of things which appears to be the standard business approach to today's situation. Dave: It does seem to be. Roank: Well, hey Ronak. Dave: I can't believe how fast the time has floated. This has been a blast. I really appreciate it and I hope you have a great afternoon. Thank you, it's good to talk to you. Special Guest: Ronak Shah.

The Morning Review with Lester Kiewit Podcast
AI Empowered Summit: Jade Julie - Sugoii X Media & Chuka Ezenwalie - Silicon Overdrive

The Morning Review with Lester Kiewit Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 7, 2025 12:06 Transcription Available


Jade Julie - Sugoii X Media & Chuka Ezenwalie - Silicon Overdrive. Views and News with Clarence Ford is the mid-morning show on CapeTalk. This 3-hour long programme shares and reflects a broad array of perspectives. It is inspirational, passionate and positive. Host Clarence Ford’s gentle curiosity and dapper demeanour leave listeners feeling motivated and empowered. Known for his love of jazz and golf, Clarrie covers a range of themes including relationships, heritage and philosophy. Popular segments include Barbs’ Wire at 9:30am (Mon-Thurs) and The Naked Scientist at 9:30 on Fridays. Thank you for listening to a podcast from Views & News with Clarence Ford Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays between 09:00 and 12:00 (SA Time) to Views and News with Clarence Ford broadcast on CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/erjiQj2 or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/BdpaXRn Subscribe to the CapeTalk Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/sbvVZD5 Follow us on social media: CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The CyberWire
Chasing Silicon shadows.

The CyberWire

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 6, 2025 37:47


Two Chinese nationals are arrested for allegedly exporting sensitive Nvidia AI chips. A critical security flaw has been discovered in Microsoft's new NLWeb protocol. Vulnerabilities in Dell laptop firmware could let attackers bypass Windows logins and install malware. Trend Micro warns of an actively exploited remote code execution flaw in its endpoint security platform. Google confirms a data breach involving one of its Salesforce databases. A lack of MFA leaves a Canadian city on the hook for ransomware recovery costs. Nvidia's CSO denies the need for backdoors or kill switches in the company's GPUs. CISA flags multiple critical vulnerabilities in Tigo Energy's Cloud Connect Advanced (CCA) platform. DHS grants funding cuts off the MS-ISAC. Helicopter parenting officially hits the footwear aisle. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn. CyberWire Guest Today we are joined by Sarah Powazek from UC Berkeley's Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC) discussing her proposed nationwide roadmap to scale cyber defense for community organizations. Black Hat Women on the street Live from Black Hat USA 2025, it's a special “Women on the Street” segment with Halcyon's Cynthia Kaiser, SVP Ransomware Research Center, and CISO Stacey Cameron. Hear what's happening on the ground and what's top of mind in cybersecurity this year. Selected Reading Two Arrested in the US for Illegally Exporting Microchips Used in AI Applications to China (TechNadu) Microsoft's plan to fix the web with AI has already hit an embarrassing security flaw  (The Verge) ReVault flaws let hackers bypass Windows login on Dell laptops (Bleeping Computer) Trend Micro warns of Apex One zero-day exploited in attacks (Bleeping Computer) Google says hackers stole its customers' data in a breach of its Salesforce database (TechCrunch) Hamilton taxpayers on the hook for full $18.3M cyberattack repair bill after insurance claim denied (CP24) Nvidia rejects US demand for backdoors in AI chips (The Verge) Critical vulnerabilities reported in Tigo Energy Cloud connect advanced solar management platform (Beyond Machines) New state, local cyber grant rules prohibit spending on MS-ISAC (StateScoop) Skechers skewered for adding secret Apple AirTag compartment to kids' sneakers — have we reached peak obsessive parenting? (NY Post) Audience Survey Complete our annual audience survey before August 31. Want to hear your company in the show? You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here's our media kit. Contact us at cyberwire@n2k.com to request more info. The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Varn Vlog
Signs, Symbols, and Silicon: How AI Changes Our Understanding of Thought with Nicolas D. Villarreal

Varn Vlog

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 4, 2025 159:45 Transcription Available


What makes human thought distinctive, and can machines ever truly think like us? In this profound conversation with Nicholas Villarreal, author of "A Soul of a New Type: Writings on Artificial Intelligence and Materialist Semiotics," we journey into the heart of what makes intelligence possible—through the often overlooked lens of semiotics.The discussion begins with a critical examination of how we conceptualize both human and artificial intelligence. Villarreal challenges the dominant frameworks used by today's AI rationalists and humanist critics alike, offering a materialist semiotic approach that provides startling new insights into the nature of thought itself. By exploring how signs and symbols function as the building blocks of cognition, we discover why current AI systems simultaneously impress and disappoint us.Rather than seeing artificial intelligence as either a potential godlike superintelligence or a mere statistical parlor trick, Villarreal guides us toward understanding AI as a different kind of intelligence altogether—one that interacts with the entire semiotic field in ways fundamentally different from humans. Where human understanding is shaped by individual experience, trauma, and desire, large language models neutrally absorb patterns across the entire spectrum of human communication.The conversation takes fascinating detours through the philosophy of mind, the nature of narrative, the failures of linguistic policing, and even the unexpected ways social media platforms have trained us to interact with each other. Throughout, we return to a central question: how might semiotics help us create technologies that enhance rather than diminish our humanity?Whether you're fascinated by artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy of mind, or political theory, this conversation offers fresh perspectives that challenge conventional wisdom and open new avenues for understanding both technology and ourselves. Join us for a thought-provoking exploration that may forever change how you think about thinking.Send us a text Musis by Bitterlake, Used with Permission, all rights to BitterlakeSupport the showCrew:Host: C. Derick VarnIntro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesArt Design: Corn and C. Derick VarnLinks and Social Media:twitter: @varnvlogblue sky: @varnvlog.bsky.socialYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeCurrent Patreon at the Sponsor Tier: Jordan Sheldon, Mark J. Matthews, Lindsay Kimbrough, RedWolf, DRV, Kenneth McKee, JY Chan, Matthew Monahan, Parzival, Adriel Mixon

The Six Five with Patrick Moorhead and Daniel Newman
The Six Five Pod | EP 270: Silicon Strategies: Intel's 14A Gambit and the Future of Chip Manufacturing

The Six Five with Patrick Moorhead and Daniel Newman

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 4, 2025 67:04


On this episode of The Six Five Pod, hosts Patrick Moorhead and Daniel Newman dive into the latest tech news and earnings reports. They discuss Intel's foundry strategy, NVIDIA's chip sales to China, and recent earnings from major tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Apple.  Get their analysis of market trends, geopolitical factors affecting the tech sector, and the competitive landscape among industry giants. This week's handpicked topics include:   Discussion of the EU's 40 billion Euro AI chip purchase agreement with the U.S.: A quick analysis of the practicality and implications of this deal. (The Decode) Palo Alto Networks Acquisition of CyberArk: A look at their potential $25 billion acquisition of CyberArk and the strategic importance of identity management in cybersecurity. (The Decode) NVIDIA Updates: Concerns about potential backdoors in NVIDIA's H20 chips and an analysis of the insatiable global demand for NVIDIA's AI chips. (The Decode) Microsoft & OpenAI's Ongoing Relationship Challenges: Commentary on Satya Nadella & Sam Altman's respective strategies (The Decode) The Flip - Intel's 14A Foundry Strategy: A simulated debate on Intel's approach to 14A Foundry development, including a discussion of geopolitical implications and competition in the semiconductor industry.  Bulls & Bears Tech Earnings Roundup - Analysis of recent earnings reports from major tech companies: - Amazon's impressive growth and future potential - Microsoft's strong performance, particularly in Azure - Meta's success in leveraging AI for platform stickiness - Apple's steady performance and potential AI developments - Arm's strategic shift towards chip production - Qualcomm's challenges in market perception despite solid performance Market Reactions and Future Outlook: Market responses to earnings reports and strategic moves, and speculation on future developments in AI, robotics, and data center technologies. For a deeper dive into each topic, please click on the links above. Be sure to subscribe to The Six Five Pod so you never miss an episode.  

AI Unraveled: Latest AI News & Trends, Master GPT, Gemini, Generative AI, LLMs, Prompting, GPT Store

This episode examines the unprecedented global capital expenditure in Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure. It quantifies this investment, currently estimated at approximately £410 billion annually, highlighting that this "Silicon Stimulus" is significantly propping up US GDP growth, masking underlying economic weaknesses.The report draws parallels with historical infrastructure booms like the 19th-century railroad expansion and the dot-com era's telecom buildout, noting that the AI boom's scale already surpasses the latter. A critical distinction is the short lifespan of AI hardware, particularly GPUs, which have an effective useful life of only one to three years, creating a "Capital Maintenance Trap" that necessitates continuous, massive investment.

Nerd Best Friends
Summer Nerdstalgia: Episode 28 - Cosplay in LA

Nerd Best Friends

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 30, 2025 62:31


Your nerd best friends did not make it to SDCC this year, so instead it's a re-roll of the interview with Cosplay winner of Los Angeles Comic Con 2022. Check out this episode and get ready for The Great Goblin Argle-Bargle NEW episode next week!-----------------------Los Angeles Comic Con's 2022 Best in Show Costume Contest winner, Alison, joins the podcast today to talk about cosplay and costume making, and the path to her big win in December 2022. Rob is speechless at the artistry and Analese missed out on seeing it live!CALL TO ACTION: (1) create your 23 for 2023 and let us know by sharing on social media with #2023nerdgoals, (2) share your progress over the year when you complete a goal with the same hashtag, (3) gamify your goals for this year!OTHER NERDY TOPICS: Rotate your GM/DM, nerd algorithm, The Dark Crystal, Jim Henson, Labyrinth, Winchester Mystery House, SiliCon, Adam Savage, Rose Bowl Flea Market, Dungeon Mayhem. @NerdBestFriends is our social media, podcast@nerdbestfriends.com is our email - message us today! Follow and like our stuff, it'll be fun, we SWEAR!Original Airdate: January 25, 2023 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vietnam Entrepreneurs
Business Insights #59 | Tăng tỷ lệ chuyển đổi nhờ dữ liệu hành vi khách hàng | Thông Đỗ, Palexy

Vietnam Entrepreneurs

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 30, 2025 47:27


Stand Up For The Truth Podcast
John Haller: A Treasonous Plot, An AI Scheme, and a Silicon Cabal

Stand Up For The Truth Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 25, 2025 55:25


John Haller is back to bring us headlines from any and every corner and byway of the "information superhighway". Remember when the internet was called that? A highway of information, bumper to bumper and filled with potholes? Well, they had that right. And it's very hard to find an exit ramp if you are on it, because it gets weirder by the day. Today we talk about a treasonous conspiracy that frankly, most Americans will not have any trouble believing - the Clinton/Obama/DOJ/Biden mafia circle of influence on American politics circa 2016. We all know that something went really wrong and still, few of us think anything will come of it. We also talk about AI and the dangers, which change daily - and affect every person in the Western world at least. For now. Soon enough it will engulf the globe via technocracy. Then there's Turkey and it's love fest with Qatar. Back in 2023, following the Hamas brutality against Israel, Qatar was hosting some negotiations, something that should have sent up multiple red flags. Just whom is in bed with whom over there? John helps us sort all that out in today's installment of Stand Up for the Truth. You can find John's excellent and timely updates on the FBC YouTube channel.   Stand Up For The Truth Videos: https://rumble.com/user/CTRNOnline & https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgQQSvKiMcglId7oGc5c46A

AGORACOM Small Cap CEO Interviews
HPQ Silicon Poised to Disrupt Multi-Billion-Dollar Fumed Silica Market with Cleaner, Cheaper, Commercial-Grade Production

AGORACOM Small Cap CEO Interviews

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 24, 2025 18:28


WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOWA signed Letter of Intent with the world's largest fumed silica producer highlights industry confidence and commercial interestInterest from additional potential partners is growingPhase 2 testing begins in August, with expectations of producing commercial-grade material in just one or two production runsDiscussions around long-term offtake agreements are expected to accelerate once consistent commercial-grade output is achievedDISRUPTING A LEGACY INDUSTRYHPQ Silicon is advancing a breakthrough process for manufacturing fumed silica, an essential material used in cosmetics, toothpaste, food additives, and industrial products. Traditional production methods, unchanged since 1944, are costly, fossil-fuel intensive, and environmentally harmful. HPQ's proprietary approach promises a cleaner, more efficient, and potentially superior alternative.INDEPENDENT ANALYSIS CONFIRMS PROGRESSRecent production tests delivered a major leap forward, validated by independent analysis from a lab serving global fumed silica manufacturers. These results confirm HPQ's material is within reach of commercial-grade output.“Independent analysis confirms we are very close to commercial-grade material. It's not just progress—it's a leap forward,” said Bernard Tourillon, CEO of HPQ Silicon.BEYOND FUMED SILICADespite a share price not yet reflecting these milestones—due largely to external market factors—HPQ continues to advance multiple projects, including next-generation battery technologies and hydrogen initiatives, expanding its portfolio of clean technology solutions.OUTLOOKHPQ is on the verge of commercial viability for its fumed silica process while setting its sights on exceeding conventional product performance. With validated results, growing strategic interest, and additional clean energy initiatives, HPQ is well positioned for accelerated commercialization and long-term growth.Watch the full interview to hear how HPQ plans to capitalize on this momentum and drive shareholder value.

The Todd Herman Show
The Battle of Our Time Ep-2280

The Todd Herman Show

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2025 45:24


Angel Studios https://Angel.com/ToddJoin the Angel Guild today and stream Testament, a powerful new series featuring the retelling of the book of Acts. Alan's Soaps https://www.AlansArtisanSoaps.comUse coupon code TODD to save an additional 10% off the bundle price.Bioptimizers https://Bioptimizers.com/toddEnter promo code TODD to get 10% off your order of Berberine Breakthrough today.Bizable https://GoBizable.comUntie your business exposure from your personal exposure with BiZABLE.  Schedule your FREE consultation at GoBizAble.com today.  Bonefrog https://BonefrogCoffee.com/toddThe new GOLDEN AGE is here!  Use code TODD at checkout to receive 10% off your first purchase and 15% on subscriptions.Bulwark Capital https://KnowYourRiskPodcast.comHear directly from Zach Abraham as he shares insights in this FREE “Halftime” Webinar, THIS Thursday, July 24th at 3:30 Pacific.  Register now at Know Your Risk Podcast dot com. Renue Healthcare https://Renue.Healthcare/ToddYour journey to a better life starts at Renue Healthcare. Visit https://Renue.Healthcare/ToddLISTEN and SUBSCRIBE at:The Todd Herman Show - Podcast - Apple PodcastsThe Todd Herman Show | Podcast on SpotifyWATCH and SUBSCRIBE at: Todd Herman - The Todd Herman Show - YouTubeCode is the new medicine. Silicon valley and big pharma have converged, which is why I still believe that the fight against the medical technocrat elite is the battle of our time.Episode Links:I still stand by my message and my warning, research us before we dieHHS Secretary RFK Jr. announces the Trump administration has rejected U.S. participation in the World Health Organization's IHR regulations and pandemic response measures:The press and others consistently shout out the vaccines are safe and effective. Vaccinate your family … We all vaccinated our families. Everybody sitting here bar two vaccinated their families with catastrophic results. Over 12,000 signatures on those two buses of death, death, death."Emily Tarsell, a retired psychotherapist, stood before Senate to share the heartbreaking story of her daughter, Christina—a vibrant, healthy 20-year-old whose life was cut short by the HPV vaccine.American surgeon records her peer-2-peer call with UnitedHealthcare trying to get a patients surgery approved they deniedThe infamous Letter. ~

SpaceTime with Stuart Gary | Astronomy, Space & Science News
Cosmic Origins: Cracking the Matter-Antimatter Mystery and Witnessing a New Solar System

SpaceTime with Stuart Gary | Astronomy, Space & Science News

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2025 27:54


In this episode of SpaceTime, we tackle some of the most profound questions in science, including the mystery of why the universe exists, the potential for liquid water on Mars, and the birth of a new solar system.Unraveling the Mystery of the UniverseScientists have made significant strides in understanding the fundamental differences between matter and antimatter, a question that has puzzled humanity since the dawn of physics. The LHCB collaboration at CERN has provided compelling evidence of a mirror-like asymmetry in how baryons behave compared to their antimatter counterparts. This breakthrough could shed light on why our universe is predominantly composed of matter, despite the equal creation of matter and antimatter during the Big Bang. We delve into the implications of this discovery and its potential to unlock the secrets of the universe's existence.Liquid Water on Mars: A New PossibilityA groundbreaking study suggests that liquid brines may form on the Martian surface, challenging the long-held belief that Mars is devoid of liquid water. Lead researcher Vincent Chevrea from the University of Arkansas discusses how meteorological data and advanced computer modeling indicate that brines could develop during specific seasonal windows. This finding opens new avenues for the search for life on Mars and highlights the importance of targeting these periods for future exploration.Witnessing the Dawn of a New Solar SystemAstronomers have made an unprecedented observation of a new solar system forming around the protostar HOPS 315, located 1300 light-years away. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), researchers have identified the very first specks of planet-forming material, marking a significant milestone in our understanding of solar system formation. This discovery not only provides insight into the processes that shaped our own solar system 4.6 billion years ago but also offers a unique opportunity to study planetary formation in real-time.www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com✍️ Episode ReferencesNature Journalhttps://www.nature.com/natureJournal of Communications Earth and Environmenthttps://www.nature.com/commsenvBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-space-astronomy--2458531/support.

New England Business Report with Kim Carrigan and Joe Shortsleeve
Silicon and Steel: AI's Role in Jobs, Cars, and Communities

New England Business Report with Kim Carrigan and Joe Shortsleeve

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 20, 2025 58:03 Transcription Available


On today's program, we speak with Boston Globe reporter Aaron Pressman about job cuts due to AI. Don Seiffert managing editor of the Boston Business Journal shares this week's top business headlines. Mike Marshall of Marshall Wealth Management explains business succession planning. The CEO of REVV joins us to talk about AI and car repair shops. And finally, Matt Dunne from the Center on Rural Innovation explains how AI technology is being introduced to rural New England.   

Steve Blank Podcast
Blind to Disruption – The CEOs Who Missed the Future

Steve Blank Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 18, 2025 15:22


How did you go bankrupt?” Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises Every disruptive technology since the fire and the wheel have forced leaders to adapt or die. This post tells the story of what happened when 4,000 companies faced a disruptive technology and why only one survived.

The Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest
The CEO Spot: From Silicon Chips to Supply Chains – Dipti Desai's Mission to Modernize EDI

The Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 17, 2025 54:49


In this debut episode of The CEO Spot, Rick Watson sits down with Dipti Desai, Founder and CEO of CRSTL, for an unfiltered look into one of the most quietly powerful protocols in commerce—EDI.From her early days as an electrical engineer in Silicon Valley to building mission-critical infrastructure for today's omni-channel brands, Dipti shares the journey that led her to found Crystal—a SaaS network designed to modernize the way suppliers and retailers communicate.We explore:The surprising origin story of Crystal during the PPE crisisWhy EDI is more like the English language than a piece of legacy techThe difference between the application layer and the protocol layer—and why it mattersHow penalties, complexity, and digital transformation are reshaping supplier operationsWhy Crystal doesn't charge by seat and how it's enabling real collaboration at scaleThe future of B2B commerce in an age of AI, API, and protocol convergenceWhether you're a founder, brand operator, or just EDI-curious, this episode unpacks how structured data exchange is fueling the future of retail—and why ignoring the "boring" infrastructure could be your biggest mistake.

From Now To Next
Shattering the Silicon Ceiling: Leading with Impact

From Now To Next

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 16, 2025 38:48


What if the path to leadership in tech isn't just about technical skill, but about breaking down systemic barriers and fostering true inclusion?In this episode of Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors, Erica Rooney sits down with Anna Radulovski, CEO and founder of Coding Girls and co-founder of Global Innovation Catalyst. Anna is a dynamic force dedicated to empowering women and diverse leaders in tech through education, inspiration, and connection.Together, they dive into the critical reasons behind the scarcity of women in tech, the nuances of allyship, and the importance of advocating for your worth. Anna shares invaluable insights from her new book, Chief in Tech, offering strategies for women to negotiate powerfully, join impactful boards, and leave a lasting legacy in the innovation economy.Inside the Episode:The Root of the Problem: Exploring why so few women lean into tech, from early childhood influences to the lack of visible role models.Beyond the Numbers: Why diverse teams are more innovative and financially successful, and the challenges of changing entrenched systems.Effective Allyship: Practical advice for men and women on how to speak up against microaggressions and injustice in the workplace.Your Personal Board of Directors: The power of a trusted circle for honest feedback, expert advice, and crucial support in your career journey.Dreaming Without Borders: Cultivating the mindset that your worth is your birthright and embracing healthy entitlement to achieve your biggest aspirations.Negotiating Your Worth: Strategies for women to powerfully advocate for themselves in salary negotiations and career advancement.Making Boardroom Impact: Navigating different types of boards to drive change and build a legacy, beyond just public company boards.The 24-Hour Rule: A practical approach to managing highs and lows in your career and maintaining resilience through life's challenges.If you're ready to break through self-imposed ceilings and lead with authenticity and impact in the tech world and beyond, this episode is your blueprint.

From Now To Next
Shattering the Silicon Ceiling: Leading with Impact

From Now To Next

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 16, 2025 38:48


What if the path to leadership in tech isn't just about technical skill, but about breaking down systemic barriers and fostering true inclusion?In this episode of Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors, Erica Rooney sits down with Anna Radulovski, CEO and founder of Coding Girls and co-founder of Global Innovation Catalyst. Anna is a dynamic force dedicated to empowering women and diverse leaders in tech through education, inspiration, and connection.Together, they dive into the critical reasons behind the scarcity of women in tech, the nuances of allyship, and the importance of advocating for your worth. Anna shares invaluable insights from her new book, Chief in Tech, offering strategies for women to negotiate powerfully, join impactful boards, and leave a lasting legacy in the innovation economy.Inside the Episode:The Root of the Problem: Exploring why so few women lean into tech, from early childhood influences to the lack of visible role models.Beyond the Numbers: Why diverse teams are more innovative and financially successful, and the challenges of changing entrenched systems.Effective Allyship: Practical advice for men and women on how to speak up against microaggressions and injustice in the workplace.Your Personal Board of Directors: The power of a trusted circle for honest feedback, expert advice, and crucial support in your career journey.Dreaming Without Borders: Cultivating the mindset that your worth is your birthright and embracing healthy entitlement to achieve your biggest aspirations.Negotiating Your Worth: Strategies for women to powerfully advocate for themselves in salary negotiations and career advancement.Making Boardroom Impact: Navigating different types of boards to drive change and build a legacy, beyond just public company boards.The 24-Hour Rule: A practical approach to managing highs and lows in your career and maintaining resilience through life's challenges.If you're ready to break through self-imposed ceilings and lead with authenticity and impact in the tech world and beyond, this episode is your blueprint.

AGORACOM Small Cap CEO Interviews
HPQ Silicon to Begin North American Battery Production This Quarter - Multiple Talks Underway

AGORACOM Small Cap CEO Interviews

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 15, 2025 31:58


HPQ Silicon $HPQ $HPQFF is making a bold leap into battery commercialization—targeting Q3 2025 to launch its own line of high-performance 18650 and 21700 battery cells for the North American market. The company is now bypassing the traditional two-phase rollout strategy and entering production concurrently with its French R&D partner, Novacium. This shift not only accelerates market access but does so without major capital expenditures, thanks to an outsourced manufacturing model.WHY IT MATTERS TO INVESTORSThis isn't just a pilot project—it's a clear step into revenue-generating operations. HPQ is leveraging its exclusive North American license to manufacture next-gen silicon-enhanced lithium-ion batteries, addressing surging demand in mobility, power tools, and defense.“We're positioned to deliver our own high-performance 18650 and 21700 batteries to the North American market by the end of Q3 2025—unlocking the full commercial value of our exclusive license.” — Bernard Tourillon, President & CEO, HPQ SiliconKEY HIGHLIGHTSZero Capex Entry: Batteries will be produced under HPQ specifications by third-party manufacturers—removing upfront riskPerformance Advantage: Independent testing shows HPQ's Gen 3 battery tech delivers 20–30% more energy over 1,000+ cycles—outlasting common cells that fail after 300Expanding Inquiries: HPQ has confirmed interest from North American stakeholdersDistribution Strategy Underway: Early B2B outreach has begun with spec sheets already requested from potential customers and branding development in progressScalable Opportunity: A 50-ton pilot plant could support production of up to 5 million battery cells, aligning with commercial scale needsWHAT SETS HPQ APARTHPQ Silicon isn't just chasing the battery trend—it's entering with a sellable product, validated performance metrics, and a path to early revenues before building out infrastructure. The company retains flexibility to scale production while maintaining margin strength due to premium battery performance.OUTLOOKThe move to commercialize batteries after years of R&D positions HPQ to potentially sign its first battery contracts before year-end. For investors seeking exposure to the energy transition without the usual Capex risk, HPQ's current trajectory deserves serious attention.Watch the full interview for more insights into HPQ's Q3 commercialization strategy and what's next in the company's multi-vertical roadmap.

99Vidas - Nostalgia e Videogames
99Vidas 677 - Rock N' Roll Racing apresentou muita música boa pras crianças!

99Vidas - Nostalgia e Videogames

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 12, 2025 87:30


Jurandir Filho, Felipe Mesquita, Evandro de Freitas e Bruno Carvalho batem um papo sobre a "Rock N' Roll Racing", lançado em 1993 para Super Nintendo. Ele é um daqueles jogos que marcaram época não só pela jogabilidade viciante, mas também por sua atitude irreverente e trilha sonora inesquecível. Desenvolvido pela Silicon & Synapse, que mais tarde se tornaria a lendária Blizzard Entertainment, o game colocou os jogadores em corridas futuristas recheadas de armamentos, explosões e, claro, muito rock ‘n roll.O diferencial do jogo estava no seu estilo: uma mistura de corrida isométrica com combate veicular, tudo embalado por versões em 16 bits de clássicos do rock como "Paranoid" do Black Sabbath, "Born to Be Wild" do Steppenwolf e "Bad to the Bone" do George Thorogood. Era a primeira vez que muitos jogadores ouviam essas músicas, ainda que em versões sintetizadas, e isso ajudava a criar uma atmosfera única, empolgante e rebelde. A narração de Larry "Supermouth" Huffman também foi um show à parte. Frases como "The stage is set, the green flag drops!" ou "Rip is dominating the race!" ecoam até hoje na memória de quem cresceu nos anos 90.O jogo ainda resiste ao tempo?Esse é mais um episódio da nossa série Remakes!-- ALURA | Faça o Quiz Jornada Tech e entenda qual o seu perfil profissional! É DE GRAÇA!!! https://alura.tv/99vidas-quizjornada

SemiWiki.com
Podcast EP297: An Overview of sureCore’s New Silicon Services with Paul Wells

SemiWiki.com

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 11, 2025 14:39


Dan is joined by sureCore CEO Paul Wells. Paul has worked in the semiconductor industry for over 25 years including two years as director of engineering for Pace Networks, where he led a multidisciplinary, 70 strong product development team creating a broadcast quality video & data mini-headend. Before that, he worked for… Read More

Steve Blank Podcast
Why Investors Don't Care About Your Business

Steve Blank Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 10, 2025 10:20


I've been having coffee with lots of frustrated founders (my students and others) bemoaning most VCs won't even meet with them unless they have AI in their fundraising pitch. And the AI startups they see are getting valuations that appear nonsensical. These conversations brought back a sense of Déjà vu from the Dot Com bubble (at the turn of this century), when if you didn't have internet as part of your pitch you weren't getting funded.

Decouple
Sun, Silicon, and Xinjiang

Decouple

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 8, 2025 71:41


This week, we talk solar power—a long overdue topic on Decouple. In the past, guests have often been critical of the value of renewables on grids without extensive storage, and of the quality of jobs that politicians often claim when justifying renewables programs. Today, however, we drop preconceptions and get to the nuts and bolts. My guest is Seaver Wang, director of the Climate and Energy Research Program at The Breakthrough Institute. Despite is imperfections, the solar power has a remarkable story, from its technological origins, to its dramatic cost reductions in the last decade, to the sheer scale of new capacity being added in places like China. We cover these topics and more in this episode: the Solar Masterclass.Watch now on YouTube.We talk aboutHistorical roots and evolution of solar technologyImpact of the German Energiewende and feed-in tariffsChina's rise to dominance in solar manufacturingEnergy-intensive production processes of polysiliconControversy over Uyghur forced labor in XinjiangSolar's lifecycle emissions and environmental impactsDramatic cost reductions and economies of scaleLimitations and misconceptions in distributed solarFuture integration with battery storageRole of geopolitical and ethical issues in solar supply chains

Nerdland maandoverzicht wetenschap en technologie
Nerdland Maandoverzicht: Juli 2025

Nerdland maandoverzicht wetenschap en technologie

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 3, 2025 156:23


Een nieuw #nerdland maandoverzicht! Met deze maand: Halfgeleiders in space! Schimmel van de Farao! Schubdiertjes! Ruimtechampagne! Smartphone uit Noord-Korea! De EU Space Act! En veel meer... Shownotes: https://podcast.nerdland.be/nerdland-maandoverzicht-juli-2025/ Gepresenteerd door Lieven Scheire met Marian Verhelst, Peter Berx, Hetty Helsmoortel, Bart van Peer en Els Aerts. Opname, montage en mastering door Jens Paeyeneers en Els Aerts. (00:00:00) Intro (00:01:40) China bouwt AI computernetwerk in de ruimte (00:08:55) UK satelliet wil halfgeleiders bouwen in de ruimte (00:12:43) Champagenemerk maakt ruimtechampagne (00:14:57) Cognitieve achteruitgang detecteren via bankafschriften (00:23:37) Is de bedwants onze eerste plaagsoort? (00:29:00) Nieuw onderzoek naar uien snijden zonder traantjes? (00:31:58) Lieven en Hetty in Geschiedenis voor Herbeginners (00:34:08) Smartphone uit Noord-Korea gesmokkeld (00:39:03) Schubdieren sterven uit omdat ze lekker zijn (00:44:11) Bacterie tovert plastic om in paracetamol (00:49:49) Rupsen zetten chemisch materiaal om in ander (00:54:00) Planetoide slaat misschien in op de maan (01:00:23) Silicon valley nieuws (01:00:37) Pakjes sorteer beelden van Figure robot (01:04:46) NASA budget is bloedbad (01:07:02) 2 Starship tests (01:11:53) Honda heeft nu ook landende raket (01:14:54) Proba 3 in de internationale pers (01:21:44) Lieven ging naar de Eu Space Act persconferentie (01:31:30) Terugblik Nerdland Festival (01:34:37) Studente ontdekt schimmel waar LSD uitvinder naar zocht (01:39:09) Schimmel van de Vloek van de Farao blijkt succesvol kankermedicijn (01:46:40) LLMs kunnen beter nadenken als we gedachten wissen (01:49:48) Spaar het milieu, vloek tegen Google (01:50:39) ChatGPT heeft een typische frase (01:55:13) Claude AI als verschrikkelijke winkelier (02:07:21) 1 simpele reden om verspreiding van leven op aarde te verklaren (02:16:03) Chimp Empire op Netflix (02:18:25) Nieuwe Dr Who? (02:24:16) Aankondigingen (02:33:23) Sponsor Podcast Ik Heb Een Vraag

Steve Blank Podcast
Lean Launchpad at Stanford – 2025

Steve Blank Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 2, 2025 9:09


We just finished the 15thannual Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford. The class had gotten so popular that in 2021 we started teaching it in both the winter and spring sessions. During the 2025 spring quarter the eight teams spoke to 935 potential customers, beneficiaries and regulators. Most students spent 15-20 hours a week on the class, about double that of a normal class.

The Icelandic Roundup
Silicon, meth, self-defeating socialists, MRI scanner, Moomins and heart shaped traffic lights

The Icelandic Roundup

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 30, 2025 53:41


Are you enjoying this? Are you not? Tell us what to do more of, and what you'd like to hear less of. The Reykjavík Grapevine's Iceland Roundup brings you the top news with a healthy dash of local views. In this episode, Grapevine publisher Jón Trausti Sigurðarson is joined by Heimildin journalist Aðalsteinn Kjartansson, and Grapevine friend and contributor Sindri Eldon to roundup the stories making headlines in recent weeks. On the docket this week are: ✨ A Silicon Factory near Húsavík, North-East Iceland, PCC are laying off 30 people and at least temporarily closing down production. We talk about how this is not the first such factory in Iceland to go belly up.✨ Socialist Party infighting continues. We half-heartedly explore the Icelandic Socialist Party's journey towards self-destruction.✨Moomins in Akureyri. A new set-to-be-open soon Moomin themed outdoor area near Akureyri runs into copyright issues. ✨MRI scanner problems in Landspítali Hospital. One of the few MRI machines in Iceland went offline as a floor cleaning machine got stuck on its exterior a couple of weeks ago. The floor cleaning machine has now been (finally) separated from the MRI machine, but the MRI machine is still broken.✨Heart shaped traffic lights in Akureyri are to be removed. Now the President of Iceland has intervened on the behalf of the traffic lights. ✨We discuss a 2023 door bell prank with consequences. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------SHOW SUPPORTSupport the Grapevine's reporting by becoming a member of our High Five Club: https://steadyhq.com/en/rvkgrapevine/You can also support the Grapevine by shopping in our online store: https://shop.grapevine.is------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is a Reykjavík Grapevine podcast.The Reykjavík Grapevine is a free alternative magazine in English published 18 times per year, biweekly during the spring and summer, and monthly during the autumn and winter. The magazine covers everything Iceland-related, with a special focus culture, music, food and travel. The Reykjavík Grapevine's goal is to serve as a trustworthy and reliable source of information for those living in Iceland, visiting Iceland or interested in Iceland. Thanks to our dedicated readership and excellent distribution network, the Reykjavík Grapevine is Iceland's most read English-language publication. You may not agree with what we write or publish, but at least it's not sponsored content.www.grapevine.is

The FrogPants Studios Ultra Feed!
PLAY RETRO 173: The Lost Vikings Duology

The FrogPants Studios Ultra Feed!

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2025 71:40


The Lost Vikings and its sequel star Erik, Baleog, and Olaf—sarcastic Norsemen solving puzzles through alien ships, pyramids, and futuristic worlds. Released in the early '90s by Silicon & Synapse (now Blizzard), the games mix platforming, brain teasers, and humor. And it holds up! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

CC Pod
Revolutionizing Lithium-Ion Batteries with Nano-Silicon (with Andre Zeitoun @ Ionic Mineral Technologies)

CC Pod

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2025 17:46


This is CC Pod - the Climate Capital Podcast. You are receiving this because you have subscribed to our Substack. Manage your CC Substack subscription here.Disclaimer: For full disclosure, Ionic Mineral Technologies is a portfolio company at Climate Capital where Katie Durham works as a Venture Partner.CC Pod is not investment advice and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any investment decision.Don't miss an episode from Climate Capital!Before we dive in: Climate Angels, CC Network Fund, & CC SyndicateWhether you're new to climate investing or a veteran, three opportunities for you:→ Back the CC Network Fund. Large fund access with micro-fund minimums. So far in Q2 the fund has invested in 13 companies including Alta & LGND.→ Back the CC Syndicate. SPVs with investment minimums starting at $1k.→ Join Climate Angels. Three top tier sessions/month with veteran investors & angel peers; apply by July 7 for 10% off.In the latest episode of the Climate Capital podcast, host Katie Durham interviews Andre Zeitoun, the founder and CEO of Ionic Mineral Technologies. The discussion revolves around the innovative work being done at Ionic Mineral Technologies, particularly in the realm of battery materials and sustainable energy solutions.Ionic MT is pioneering the commercialization of a unique mineral called halloysite, which has the potential to revolutionize battery technology. Halloysite is a naturally occurring clay mineral that can be transformed into nano-silicon, significantly enhancing battery performance. This transformation is crucial as the demand for more efficient and sustainable energy storage solutions continues to grow, particularly in electric vehicles (EVs) and consumer electronics. One of the standout features of Ionic MT's approach is its environmentally friendly production process. The company has developed a silane-free method to produce nano silicon, which not only minimizes waste but also results in one of the lowest carbon footprints among competing battery material companies. Additionally, the process generates boehmite alumina as a byproduct, further contributing to a sustainable production model.Andre emphasizes the importance of domestic production of battery materials, particularly in light of the U.S.'s heavy reliance on imported materials, predominantly from China. By producing high-quality silicon that can rival Chinese imports without the need for subsidies or tariffs, Ionic Mineral Technologies positions itself as a key player in the push for energy independence.Looking ahead, Andre shares his vision for the future, where advancements in battery technology could lead to electric vehicles charging in under ten minutes and lighter, more efficient military drones. With recent developments, including the designation of silicon and alumina as critical minerals by the U.S. government, Ionic MT is poised for significant growth and innovation.To learn more about Ionic Mineral Technologies, visit https://ionicmt.com/.

Play Retro Show
PLAY RETRO 173: The Lost Vikings Duology

Play Retro Show

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2025 71:40


The Lost Vikings and its sequel star Erik, Baleog, and Olaf—sarcastic Norsemen solving puzzles through alien ships, pyramids, and futuristic worlds. Released in the early '90s by Silicon & Synapse (now Blizzard), the games mix platforming, brain teasers, and humor. And it holds up! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Disruptor Series by AllianceBernstein
The Mind in the Machine, Part One: From Silicon to Sentience - Mapping the AI Supply Chain

Disruptor Series by AllianceBernstein

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2025 59:02


In this episode: Register for our 3Q Capital Markets Outlook Webcast: https://info.alliancebernstein.com/3Q25-CMO.html?partnerref=DisruptorPodcast Artificial intelligence is everywhere—but what powers it is often overlooked. In this latest installment of the AB Disruptor Series, we'll look behind the algorithms and output to examine the critical ecosystem that underpins AI. We'll explore the key links in the AI supply chain—from raw materials and semiconductors to data centers and energy demand—and why they matter to investors. And of course, we'll also look at how geopolitics, trade policy and tariffs are reshaping this landscape, creating both risks and potential across the value chain.  The commentary provided herein by AllianceBernstein L.P. are from sources it believes are reliable as of 06/11/2025. AllianceBernstein L.P. makes no representations or warranties concerning the accuracy of any data. There is no guarantee that any projection, forecast or opinion in this material will be realized. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The views expressed herein may change at any time after the date of this release. This video is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. AllianceBernstein L.P. does not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. It does not take an investor's personal  investment objectives or financial situation into account; investors should discuss their individual circumstances with appropriate professionals before making any decisions. This information should not be construed as sales or marketing material or an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument, product or service sponsored by AllianceBernstein or its affiliates.

Steve Blank Podcast
Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2025 – Lessons Learned Presentations

Steve Blank Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2025 12:58


We just finished our 10th annual Hacking for Defense class at Stanford. What a year. Hacking for Defense, now in 70 universities, has teams of students working to understand and help solve national security problems. At Stanford this quarter the 8 teams of 41 students collectively interviewed 1106 beneficiaries, stakeholders, requirements writers, program managers, industry partners, etc. – while simultaneously building a series of minimal viable products and developing a path to deployment.

Silicon Curtain
Silicon Bites #158 - Russia Hits the Obscene Total of One Million Dead Soldiers in its Senseless War

Silicon Curtain

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 12, 2025 18:58


Edition No158 | 12-06-2025 - Russia's war against Ukraine has achieved not only a horrifying milestone, but an extraordinary conjunction of symbolic dates and numbers. On the Russian National Day public holiday, the grim figure of one million Russians lost in Putin's senseless war has been reached. We'll get into the casualty numbers, and their potential implications in a minute. First though, we need to reflect on the obscene act of sycophancy just unleashed by Mr. Rubio on 12th June. In an announcement, he wrote to congratulate the Russia people, on Russia Day. He is the first US Secretary of State to do so since the beginning of the full-scale war. He wrote, “The United States remains committed to supporting the Russian people as they continue to build on their aspirations for a brighter future.” Pause. Memes have not inaccurately compared this to an imaginary scenario where FDR congratulates the NAZI regime on Hitler's birthday, 18 April 1941, which was a public holiday in Germany. “We also take this opportunity to reaffirm the United States' desire for constructive engagement with the Russian Federation to bring about a durable peace between Russia and Ukraine. It is our hope that peace will foster more mutually beneficial relations between our countries.”----------Links: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/2067608/ukraine-live-russia-day-troop-losseshttps://kyivindependent.com/as-russian-losses-in-ukraine-hit-1-million-putin-faces-an-economic-time-bomb/https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/sogodni-nashi-vijskovi-zafiksuvali-ponad-miljon-rosijskih-vt-98417https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/06/12/russia-loses-one-million-soldiers-moscows-casualties-reach-seven-figures-ukraine-says/ ----------SUMMER FUNDRAISERSNAFO & Silicon Curtain community - Let's help help 5th SAB together https://www.help99.co/patches/nafo-silicon-curtain-communityWe are teaming up with NAFO 69th Sniffing Brigade to provide 2nd Assault Battalion of 5th SAB with a pickup truck that they need for their missions. With your donation, you're not just sending a truck — you're standing with Ukraine.https://www.help99.co/patches/nafo-silicon-curtain-communityWhy NAFO Trucks Matter:Ukrainian soldiers know the immense value of our NAFO trucks and buses. These vehicles are carefully selected, produced between 2010 and 2017, ensuring reliability for harsh frontline terrain. Each truck is capable of driving at least 20,000 km (12,500 miles) without major technical issues, making them a lifeline for soldiers in combat zones.In total we are looking to raise an initial 19 500 EUR in order to buy 1 x NAFO truck 2.0 Who is getting the aid? 5 SAB, 2 Assault Battalion, UAV operators‍.https://www.help99.co/patches/nafo-silicon-curtain-community----------Car for Ukraine has once again joined forces with a group of influencers, creators, and news observers during this summer. Sunshine here serves as a metaphor, the trucks are a sunshine for our warriors to bring them to where they need to be and out from the place they don't.https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/summer-sunshine-silicon-curtainThis time, we focus on the 6th Detachment of HUR, 93rd Alcatraz, 3rd Assault Brigade, MLRS systems and more. https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/summer-sunshine-silicon-curtain- bring soldiers to the positions- protect them with armor- deploy troops with drones to the positions----------SILICON CURTAIN FILM FUNDRAISERA project to make a documentary film in Ukraine, to raise awareness of Ukraine's struggle and in supporting a team running aid convoys to Ukraine's front-line towns.https://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extras----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Save Ukrainehttps://www.saveukraineua.org/Superhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/-----------

The Todd Herman Show
Souls of Silicon to Police the People Ep-2225

The Todd Herman Show

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 10, 2025 29:15


Angel Studios https://Angel.com/ToddBecome a Premium Angel Studios Guild member to watch The King of Kings, stream all fan-curated shows and movies, and get 2 free tickets to every Angel Studios theatrical release. Alan's Soaps https://www.AlansArtisanSoaps.comUse coupon code TODD to save an additional 10% off the bundle price.Bioptimizers https://Bioptimizers.com/toddEnter promo code TODD to get 10% off your order of Berberine Breakthrough today.Bizable https://GoBizable.comUntie your business exposure from your personal exposure with BiZABLE.  Schedule your FREE consultation at GoBizAble.com today.  Bonefrog https://BonefrogCoffee.com/toddThe new GOLDEN AGE is here!  Use code TODD at checkout to receive 10% off your first purchase and 15% on subscriptions.Bulwark Capital https://KnowYourRiskPodcast.comBe confident in your portfolio with Bulwark! Schedule your free Know Your Risk Portfolio review. go to KnowYourRiskPodcast.com today.Renue Healthcare https://Renue.Healthcare/ToddYour journey to a better life starts at Renue Healthcare. Visit https://Renue.Healthcare/ToddLISTEN and SUBSCRIBE at:The Todd Herman Show - Podcast - Apple PodcastsThe Todd Herman Show | Podcast on SpotifyWATCH and SUBSCRIBE at: Todd Herman - The Todd Herman Show - YouTubeChoose Your Ending, America: Hard Truths or Feel-Good Lies. // Souls of Silicon to Police The People. // Dear Baptist “Thought Leader”: You Go First, Sir.Episode Links:"Like a pendulum": How America's racial reckoning unraveledJake Tapper's podcast moment exposes the Democratic Party's struggle to connect with voters, exemplified by the assumption his son's policeman aspiration is racist.Black dude on the street interviewing white man - potentially race-fueled explosion defusedBiracial woman is hurt over not being able to use the "N" word, never been accepted by the cultureSen. Chris Murphy shreds Education Secretary Linda McMahon for cutting funding to mental health counselors for students. Murphy: "You decided to shut down that program... it's a really cruel thing to do." The cruelty is the point.Secretary of Education Linda McMahon tells Harris Faulkner that the DOE and the DOJ will be teaming up to stop biological boys from competing in girls sports.Imma speak from the heart about the pointlessly destructive attacks on Harvard and other universities. I may be a bit los t for how to find the right words, but I do hope you'll get a sense of what I'm trying to say.Things we like: Pastor John L'hommedieu of Church Eleven32 issues a public apology for teaching a false message about prayer and healing to thousands of youth.Francis Chan tells Lecrae that he'd have a bigger church than Jesus, then throws his old church under the bus.So this is interesting. @HwsEleutheroi says that @PastorNinja will kick you in the face and knock you out if you express views on race that Jeff disagrees with. Sounds like very normal behavior for an elder. If there are any updates in the future, I'll let you know. I watch the Dividing Line so that you don't have to. What Does God's Word Say?James 4:1-2 ESV  What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.