Podcast Summary: Inevitable (MCJ Podcast)

Episode: AI-Powered Infrastructure Development with Unlimited Industries
Date: December 3, 2025
Host: Cody Simms
Guest: Alex Modin, CEO & Co-founder of Unlimited Industries

Episode Overview

In this episode, Cody Simms sits down with Alex Modin of Unlimited Industries to discuss how AI is revolutionizing the world of infrastructure development. The conversation explores the historical inefficiencies of traditional Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) models and how Unlimited's AI-driven platform unlocks faster, cheaper, and more innovative project development—crucial for climate tech and the energy transition. The discussion delivers deep insights into the misaligned incentives in legacy construction, Unlimited's ambition to automate and improve capital projects, and a candid look into Alex's journey from software to heavy industry.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Broken Model of Traditional EPCs

EPCs typically manage all engineering, procurement, and construction for large projects (power plants, data centers, mines, etc.), acting as a vertically integrated contractor (03:15).
Cost plus contracts dominate the industry: EPCs bill hourly or by project scope with built-in margins—leading to incentive misalignment, since EPCs benefit from more hours worked, not faster or better results (05:19).

“The only way that the EPC in that world makes sense is increasing the number of billables they have or increasing the scope. You see this misaligned incentive in defense and a whole bunch of other principal-agent problems.” — Alex (05:22)
Turnkey (fixed-price) contracts are rare, especially for first-of-a-kind projects since risk is too high to price upfront (05:42).
Industrial construction lags behind manufacturing in process innovation and efficiency, partly due to this misalignment and risk aversion (04:38).

2. Why Now: The First-of-a-Kind Infrastructure Imperative

Energy transition and climate technologies require new, never-built-before infrastructures (06:14).
Iterative improvement is hampered: Traditional EPCs usually evaluate just a handful of designs (three to five), favoring “happy path” approaches due to high engineering costs and slow feedback loops (09:24).

“If you want any innovation at all, even just a process we've done a lot and want to improve it, there is actually an anti-incentive structure…” — Alex (07:18)

3. Unlimited’s AI-Enabled Approach

Unlimited Industries aims to “radically reduce the marginal cost of engineering,” allowing thousands of design permutations to be evaluated, not just a chosen few (10:02).

“The real leverage happens when you take even that same fixed budget that you'd spend on engineering. Instead of doing two or three cycles for improvement, you do a thousand or 10,000.” — Alex (10:29)
By accelerating and automating design iteration, owners get more visibility and control, and project risk is reduced earlier (11:22).
Platform is currently used internally by Unlimited’s own multidisciplinary engineering team; over time, more tooling will be exposed to clients for collaboration (18:38, 22:41).
The long-term vision: fully autonomous construction—from automated engineering to vendor procurement to on-site work with earthmovers, robots, and drones (20:43, 25:02).

“If we’re really willing to zoom out, I think in a decade from now, all construction will be fully autonomous… Everything from the engineering, the vendor management, the fabrication, all the way through on-site construction.” — Alex (19:34)

4. Origin Story and Personal Motivation

Alex’s background: Grew up in industrial Akron, Ohio; parents met at a steel mill; moved to the Bay Area and started multiple software companies (12:35–13:13).
Inspiration came from frustrated experience working with EPCs during an attempt to scale an early-stage industrial climate tech pilot (13:31).

“It was only being hands on and actually trying to work with EPCs... and realizing, is there maybe a future where you could—rather than just build a product EPCs could use—systemically fix this very broken industry?” — Alex (14:05, 15:15)
Realized software solutions alone won't be adopted without upending the business model and incentive structure.

5. Product, Team, and Future Vision

Unlimited’s platform: Modern, AI-native engineering tool, designed to feel familiar yet more powerful to engineers in different disciplines (18:38).
They deliver projects as a modern EPC, combining in-house software with hands-on construction management—“AI-enabled and software-first” (23:41).
Team composed of multidisciplinary engineers experienced in real-world heavy industry projects (24:10).
Not aiming to build hardware robots but to orchestrate the autonomous, intelligent management of future job sites (25:02).

6. Climate Alignment and Market Focus

Not branding as a “decarbonization company” but as a builder for abundance: Reducing cost and time for all kinds of physical infrastructure, naturally addressing climate needs (26:57).

“I don’t think about us as a decarbonization company. I just want to build stuff… The answer to a lot of our problems can be solved with abundance.” — Alex (26:57)
Biggest impact for early-stage, first-commercial-facility projects ("beyond pilot, turning the corner on commercialization")—where legacy EPCs are not equipped to help (36:11, 36:45).
Their clients are generally companies struggling to scale innovative tech from pilot to full commercial deployment—particularly in process industries

7. Fundraising and What’s Next

Unlimited raised a $12M seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Civ, with MCJ participating (31:18).
Current focus: Helping clients advance through front-end engineering and design (FEED) stages, progressing towards managing actual builds (32:23).
Seeking more early client partnerships, especially reciprocal relationships with companies building first or nth-of-a-kind commercial facilities (34:06).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On incentive misalignment in the EPC model:
“You see this misaligned incentive in defense and a whole bunch of other principal agent problems that you get in third party contractor scenarios.” — Alex (05:22)
On engineering iteration with AI:
“Instead of doing two or three different cycles for improvement, you do a thousand or you do 10,000. And that certainly only works in a world where your marginal cost for engineering effort is really, really low.” — Alex (10:29)
On changing the system:
“It doesn’t matter the impact that AI actually brings us from a potential perspective. I really don’t think that it’ll be recognized in the world unless you fundamentally change the model.” — Alex (18:10)
On combining software with real-world execution:
“At the end of the day, they deliver the service that their customer really needs, which is in our case to go build a thing.” — Alex (23:50)
On motivation and abundance:
“I do believe in the you’re either growing or you’re dying… The best way we can do that is by radically reducing the cost and time that it takes to actually build physical things.” — Alex (27:06)
On working with like-minded, mission-driven clients:
“You have to pitch our team. Our people have to be fired up about this broader mission… We’re not a coin operated team.” — Alex (34:22)

Important Timestamps

[03:15] – EPC process and why it’s fundamentally flawed for first-of-a-kind projects
[05:19] – Deep dive into cost-plus contracts and misaligned incentives
[10:02] – The power of AI to model massive design permutations
[13:31] – Alex’s personal “aha” moment with EPC inefficiencies
[18:38] – Unlimited’s product: Modern AI design platform & internal tools
[20:43] / [25:02] – Vision of fully autonomous construction
[26:57] – Unlimited’s philosophy: focus on building, not just decarbonization
[31:18] – Details of Unlimited’s $12M seed round
[34:06] / [36:11] – Current client profile and how to work with Unlimited

Conclusion

This episode offers a comprehensive exploration of AI’s potential to transform the lagging infrastructure development sector. Unlimited Industries, under Alex Modin’s leadership, is not only building better tools—they’re changing the game by altering the incentives, accelerating innovation, and embracing a hands-on approach to building first-of-a-kind climate and industrial projects. Their story is a call-to-action for founders and innovators struggling with legacy EPC constraints to imagine what’s possible when technology and ambition are fully aligned.

Podcast Summary: Inevitable (MCJ Podcast)

Episode: AI-Powered Infrastructure Development with Unlimited Industries
Date: December 3, 2025
Host: Cody Simms
Guest: Alex Modin, CEO & Co-founder of Unlimited Industries

Episode Overview

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Broken Model of Traditional EPCs

EPCs typically manage all engineering, procurement, and construction for large projects (power plants, data centers, mines, etc.), acting as a vertically integrated contractor (03:15).
Cost plus contracts dominate the industry: EPCs bill hourly or by project scope with built-in margins—leading to incentive misalignment, since EPCs benefit from more hours worked, not faster or better results (05:19).

“The only way that the EPC in that world makes sense is increasing the number of billables they have or increasing the scope. You see this misaligned incentive in defense and a whole bunch of other principal-agent problems.” — Alex (05:22)
Turnkey (fixed-price) contracts are rare, especially for first-of-a-kind projects since risk is too high to price upfront (05:42).
Industrial construction lags behind manufacturing in process innovation and efficiency, partly due to this misalignment and risk aversion (04:38).

2. Why Now: The First-of-a-Kind Infrastructure Imperative

Energy transition and climate technologies require new, never-built-before infrastructures (06:14).
Iterative improvement is hampered: Traditional EPCs usually evaluate just a handful of designs (three to five), favoring “happy path” approaches due to high engineering costs and slow feedback loops (09:24).

“If you want any innovation at all, even just a process we've done a lot and want to improve it, there is actually an anti-incentive structure…” — Alex (07:18)

3. Unlimited’s AI-Enabled Approach

Unlimited Industries aims to “radically reduce the marginal cost of engineering,” allowing thousands of design permutations to be evaluated, not just a chosen few (10:02).

“The real leverage happens when you take even that same fixed budget that you'd spend on engineering. Instead of doing two or three cycles for improvement, you do a thousand or 10,000.” — Alex (10:29)
By accelerating and automating design iteration, owners get more visibility and control, and project risk is reduced earlier (11:22).
Platform is currently used internally by Unlimited’s own multidisciplinary engineering team; over time, more tooling will be exposed to clients for collaboration (18:38, 22:41).
The long-term vision: fully autonomous construction—from automated engineering to vendor procurement to on-site work with earthmovers, robots, and drones (20:43, 25:02).

“If we’re really willing to zoom out, I think in a decade from now, all construction will be fully autonomous… Everything from the engineering, the vendor management, the fabrication, all the way through on-site construction.” — Alex (19:34)

4. Origin Story and Personal Motivation

Alex’s background: Grew up in industrial Akron, Ohio; parents met at a steel mill; moved to the Bay Area and started multiple software companies (12:35–13:13).
Inspiration came from frustrated experience working with EPCs during an attempt to scale an early-stage industrial climate tech pilot (13:31).

“It was only being hands on and actually trying to work with EPCs... and realizing, is there maybe a future where you could—rather than just build a product EPCs could use—systemically fix this very broken industry?” — Alex (14:05, 15:15)
Realized software solutions alone won't be adopted without upending the business model and incentive structure.

5. Product, Team, and Future Vision

Unlimited’s platform: Modern, AI-native engineering tool, designed to feel familiar yet more powerful to engineers in different disciplines (18:38).
They deliver projects as a modern EPC, combining in-house software with hands-on construction management—“AI-enabled and software-first” (23:41).
Team composed of multidisciplinary engineers experienced in real-world heavy industry projects (24:10).
Not aiming to build hardware robots but to orchestrate the autonomous, intelligent management of future job sites (25:02).

6. Climate Alignment and Market Focus

Not branding as a “decarbonization company” but as a builder for abundance: Reducing cost and time for all kinds of physical infrastructure, naturally addressing climate needs (26:57).

“I don’t think about us as a decarbonization company. I just want to build stuff… The answer to a lot of our problems can be solved with abundance.” — Alex (26:57)
Biggest impact for early-stage, first-commercial-facility projects ("beyond pilot, turning the corner on commercialization")—where legacy EPCs are not equipped to help (36:11, 36:45).
Their clients are generally companies struggling to scale innovative tech from pilot to full commercial deployment—particularly in process industries

7. Fundraising and What’s Next

Unlimited raised a $12M seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Civ, with MCJ participating (31:18).
Current focus: Helping clients advance through front-end engineering and design (FEED) stages, progressing towards managing actual builds (32:23).
Seeking more early client partnerships, especially reciprocal relationships with companies building first or nth-of-a-kind commercial facilities (34:06).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On incentive misalignment in the EPC model:
“You see this misaligned incentive in defense and a whole bunch of other principal agent problems that you get in third party contractor scenarios.” — Alex (05:22)
On engineering iteration with AI:
“Instead of doing two or three different cycles for improvement, you do a thousand or you do 10,000. And that certainly only works in a world where your marginal cost for engineering effort is really, really low.” — Alex (10:29)
On changing the system:
“It doesn’t matter the impact that AI actually brings us from a potential perspective. I really don’t think that it’ll be recognized in the world unless you fundamentally change the model.” — Alex (18:10)
On combining software with real-world execution:
“At the end of the day, they deliver the service that their customer really needs, which is in our case to go build a thing.” — Alex (23:50)
On motivation and abundance:
“I do believe in the you’re either growing or you’re dying… The best way we can do that is by radically reducing the cost and time that it takes to actually build physical things.” — Alex (27:06)
On working with like-minded, mission-driven clients:
“You have to pitch our team. Our people have to be fired up about this broader mission… We’re not a coin operated team.” — Alex (34:22)

Important Timestamps

[03:15] – EPC process and why it’s fundamentally flawed for first-of-a-kind projects
[05:19] – Deep dive into cost-plus contracts and misaligned incentives
[10:02] – The power of AI to model massive design permutations
[13:31] – Alex’s personal “aha” moment with EPC inefficiencies
[18:38] – Unlimited’s product: Modern AI design platform & internal tools
[20:43] / [25:02] – Vision of fully autonomous construction
[26:57] – Unlimited’s philosophy: focus on building, not just decarbonization
[31:18] – Details of Unlimited’s $12M seed round
[34:06] / [36:11] – Current client profile and how to work with Unlimited

wavePod

AI-Powered Infrastructure Development with Unlimited Industries

Powered by Wave AI

Summary

Podcast Summary: Inevitable (MCJ Podcast)

Episode Overview

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Broken Model of Traditional EPCs

2. Why Now: The First-of-a-Kind Infrastructure Imperative

3. Unlimited’s AI-Enabled Approach

4. Origin Story and Personal Motivation

5. Product, Team, and Future Vision

6. Climate Alignment and Market Focus

7. Fundraising and What’s Next

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Important Timestamps

Conclusion

Summary

Podcast Summary: Inevitable (MCJ Podcast)

Episode Overview

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Broken Model of Traditional EPCs

2. Why Now: The First-of-a-Kind Infrastructure Imperative

3. Unlimited’s AI-Enabled Approach

4. Origin Story and Personal Motivation

5. Product, Team, and Future Vision

6. Climate Alignment and Market Focus

7. Fundraising and What’s Next

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Important Timestamps

Conclusion