Modern CTO Podcast Summary

Episode: Why Regenerative Tech Needs to be the Future with Tom Chi, Google X Founder & Author of Climate Capital
Host: Joel Beasley, ProSeries Media
Guest: Tom Chi (Google X founder, Founding Partner of At One Ventures, Author)
Date: March 12, 2026

Episode Overview

This enlightening episode features Tom Chi, a pioneering technologist, investor, and author known for his role in founding Google X and his latest venture, At One Ventures. The conversation delves into Tom's new book, Climate Capital, and explores how the future of technology must be centered on regenerative impact—specifically, how tech solutions can simultaneously deliver breakthrough economics and measurable healing for the planet. Tom offers a practical, physics-driven approach to investing in industrial innovation, focusing on "unit economic advantages" as the engine for lasting environmental change.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Regenerative Tech?

[00:20] Tom Chi:

• The motivation for Climate Capital is to address the three biggest crises of the 21st century:
  • Climate destabilization
  • Economic upheaval from robotics and AI
  • Geopolitical instability
• The book aims to prepare people with tangible skills and frameworks to face these challenges.

"I wanted to both talk about how one might be able to step up to those challenges and also practically teach a bunch of skills to step up to those challenges." [00:28, Tom]

2. AT ONE Ventures' Approach to Systemic Environmental Impact

[01:09–08:23] Tom Chi:

• Definition of “Damage”: AT ONE Ventures breaks "nature" into four clear, measurable domains: air, water, soil, biodiversity.
• Data-Driven Investing:
  • Stack ranks industries by their contribution to environmental damage.
  • Focuses on the “top two to five” sectors responsible for 80-90%+ of harm.
  • Leverages first-principles physics and open scientific data—"not arbitrary."
  • Intervenes at the earliest, most "low entropy" part of an industrial problem—for instance, changing plastic extrusion methods upstream, rather than cleaning up microplastics downstream.

"When you account for all of it, it's about 30 industries drive more than 90% of the damage to the planet across air, water, soil, biodiversity. And... it's too late to try to go clean it up after the fact... You want to change the core industrial production so it doesn't create the damage in the first place." [01:57, Tom]

• Entropy Concept:
  • Tackling problems earlier in the industrial process is exponentially more effective ("entering at the right point in the entropy curve").

3. Example Investment: KUBI Technologies and Built Environments

[08:32–16:01] Tom Chi:

• Kubi Technologies:
  • Offers factories that produce homes and industrial buildings at half the cost and drastically lower emissions.
  • Reduces average US build cost from ~$230/sq ft to $80–$110/sq ft.
  • Factories are cheap, relocatable, and can be deployed globally in under 6 months.
  • Enables rapid production (370+ homes/year per factory).
  • Utilizes “cobotic” (human + robot) labor to drastically reduce labor costs, unlock higher-quality materials, and minimize waste.
• Environmental Win:
  • Material recovery from buildings jumps from ~5% to 90% (theoretically).
  • Significant reductions in construction waste and operational carbon emissions.
• Economic Win:
  • Builders and developers "double margins" via cost savings—not reliant on regulatory pressure or consumer guilt.

"What we see with Kubi is that about 70% of the cost structure of building is the labor cost. And with Kubi we've been able to use cobotic labor... we've saved closer to 60% of the cost structure by focusing on the labor side of things." [17:07, Tom]

"We call it 'the triad': disruptive deep tech, radically better unit economics, paired with radically better environmental economics... We don't need to twist anybody's arm. No, you're just making more money by adopting a better technology..." [12:52, Tom]

4. Physics-Driven Investment Methodology

[25:47–34:47] Tom Chi:

• Key Points:
  • Physical businesses can be rapidly analyzed via physics' four vectors: matter, energy, time, and space.
  • 90% of the cost in any physical industry comes from: feedstock, processing (energy + labor), and transport/logistics.
  • A new tech approach that is more efficient in these costs will inevitably dominate.
  • Hardware innovation = non-discretionary adoption (vs. software, which can be subjective/preference-based).
  • Discretionary markets (software) are "tough," while physics determines clear industrial winners.
• Historical Context:
  • Silicon Valley was built on hardware; forgetting this is “insane.”
  • Successful examples: the cotton gin; advanced chip manufacturing in Taiwan.

"The market will actually tell you where to innovate through physics." [31:40, Host Joel]
"That's how we built the entire venture capital ecosystem... That's the reason we're called Silicon Valley, not lines of Code Valley..." [34:47, Tom]

5. AT ONE Ventures: Fund Details & Philosophy

[35:42–36:33] Tom Chi:

• Firm's name (At One Ventures) reflects intention to bring humanity into harmony with nature ("at one") and hints at atonement—combining Eastern and Western spiritual ideals in a single word.
• Has raised ~$800M to date across multiple funds, targeting $1B with Fund III.

6. Making Regeneration “Cool” and Deeply Practical

[38:00–44:06] Host & Tom Chi:

• Appreciation for Tom's approach: environmental action, delivered through profit-driven, physics-based practicality—"not lame, not performative."
• Most tech talk is “performative”; At One’s approach is “the most boring, exciting firm”—wins achieved in the details of manufacturing, fixture design, and supply chain optimization.

"When people need to make a lot of noise about saving the planet, a lot of that is kind of performative... We’re boringly, ridiculously practical on all of the physical production and business model stuff... It's literally just cheaper and better..." [38:53, Tom]

"I want as many people that actually can make a difference on those things to go make that difference." [39:22, Tom]

7. The Competitive Edge of Hardware

[46:36–48:38] Tom Chi:

• Hardware economics means that the provider of the "best unit economic" technology will "win the industry, full stop."
• Asserts that with the right technical team (covering electrical, mechanical, chemical, bio, software engineering), you can tackle any industrial problem.
• Hardware’s feedback loop is brutally honest; build something better, and the industry will scramble to adopt.

"If you have the winning unit economic, you will probably win the industry. In software… I just like the design of this other one better." [41:48, Tom]

8. Closing Thoughts & Call to Action

[48:43–51:21] Tom Chi:

• Ways to Engage: LPs can reach out about the fund, readers can buy the book (Climate Capital is a bestseller), and Tom offers extensive free educational content online (YouTube talks, lectures).
• Describes himself as an "anti-entrepreneur" speaker: only shares what’s been done, not plans or speculation ("high signal-to-noise").
• Stresses the future of climate tech will require these practical, physics-informed solutions—even as AI advances.

"If AI is going to have an important role in the climate fight, we're building the training data right now, at minimum. But we are also practically solving a lot of the problems on the way there." [51:09, Tom]

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• "It's actually too late to try to go clean it up after the fact... You want to change the core industrial production so it doesn't create the damage in the first place." [01:52]
• "If you achieve [the lowest unit economics], you will win the entire board... Go to any physical production around the world, you're not going to see a hundred approaches, you're going to see one or two. And those are the cheapest unit economics that we know how to make that physical thing." [30:27]
• "That's the reason we're called Silicon Valley, not lines of Code Valley... We are called Silicon Valley because we did physical things. That is how venture capital was created full stop." [34:47]
• "The future will be built by the builders, so you might as well get in with them now because that's where the action's going to be." [52:51]

Important Timestamps

• [00:20–01:00] – Why Climate Capital was written; overview of 21st-century crises
• [01:09–08:23] – Entropy, industrial damage to the planet, strategic intervention points
• [08:32–16:01] – Example: Kubi Technologies; industrial vs. residential build economics
• [25:47–34:47] – Physics-driven investment strategy; cost stack; why hardware wins
• [35:42–36:33] – Fund details; the double meaning of "At One Ventures"
• [38:00–44:06] – Regenerative tech as cool, practical, and profit-driven—not "lame"
• [46:36–48:38] – Staffing the firm for physical world innovation
• [48:43–51:21] – Call to action; Tom's educational approach; future of AI in climate action
• [52:48–53:02] – Final thoughts: "The future will be built by the builders."

In Summary

Tom Chi's vision for regenerative technology is grounded in pragmatic, physics-first frameworks, coupled with a relentless focus on industrial unit economics. By identifying and investing in early-stage deep tech ventures that tackle the largest sources of environmental damage and deliver the best business outcomes, Tom believes regenerative tech will become an unstoppable, self-reinforcing force in global industry—not because it's fashionable, but because it simply outcompetes legacy approaches.

Call to Action:

• Buy Tom Chi’s book [Climate Capital] or look up his accessible, practical lectures online.
• If you're a builder, innovator, or deep-tech founder, reach out—this is a community defined by action and integrity, not noisy, performative talk.