Moonshots with Peter Diamandis

EP #210: AI This Week: NVIDIA’s Record Revenue, Elon’s Data Centers in Space & Gemini 3’s Insane Performance w/ Salim Ismail, Dave Blundin & Alexander Wissner-Gross

Date: November 22, 2025

Overview

In this dynamic episode, Peter Diamandis and his distinguished guests—Salim Ismail, Dave Blundin, and Alexander Wissner-Gross—explore the rapid evolution of AI-driven technology, its socioeconomic impact, and the moonshot ambitions that are redefining our future. The conversation dives deep into NVIDIA’s explosive growth and evolving chip ecosystem, Elon Musk’s audacious plan to build data centers in space, the stunning performance of Google’s Gemini 3, and the quantum leap in robotics, energy, and life sciences. The discussion combines technical depth, economic analysis, and philosophical implications, all delivered with excitement and urgency.

1. NVIDIA: The Central Bank of AI Compute

[00:00–09:22]

• NVIDIA’s Unprecedented Growth:

  • At $57B revenue and 62% YoY growth, NVIDIA is not just a graphics card maker anymore.
  • Dave Blundin: “Nvidia has just become the central bank for AI, and they're minting their own currency, which is compute. And everybody's got to buy their currency.” (00:00)

• Competitive Threats on the Horizon:

  • Google’s TPUs powering Gemini, AMD, and various ASICs are emerging as non-incumbent alternatives.
  • AI-driven chip design will reduce development cycles, challenging NVIDIA’s current dominance.
  • Dave: “We're only halfway through redesigning chips for AI. There’s another 2–10x performance coming.” (05:56)
  • Alex Wissner-Gross: “We're moving toward a heterogeneous ecosystem of architectures, not just CUDA.” (08:03)

• Strategic Partnerships & Industry Realignment:

  • Anthropic agrees to spend $30B on Microsoft Azure, powered by NVIDIA, in return for significant investment—forming an “AI power block.”
  • This may signal a future Anthropic-Microsoft merger, creating more vertical integration in the AI ecosystem.
  • Salim Ismail: “This is them diversifying their bets from just OpenAI.” (12:11)

• Ethics and Leadership:

  • Leaders Demis Hassabis (Google DeepMind) and Dario Amodei (Anthropic) are credited for driving the sector with deep ethical commitment.
  • Dave: “They’re the two leaders in ethics. At the core of their heart, they're concerned about ethics.” (13:33)
  • Peter: “It makes you feel so much safer in the world when you hear that coming from leaders like that.” (13:57)

2. Vertical Integration: The New AI Frontier

[15:37–20:43]

• Rise of Vertically Integrated AI ‘Power Blocks’:

  • Anthropic, following in the footsteps of Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, begins designing its own data centers and chips.
  • Possible scenario: a handful of giant, fully integrated “frontier AI” companies dominating compute, models, and applications—echoing Detroit’s classic automakers.
  • Alex: “We're moving to this vertically integrated future, like Detroit had the N largest car companies.” (15:37)

• Bubble or Sustainable Growth?

  • Not a speculative bubble, but a correction is possible as tech giants attack adjacent industries.
  • Peter: “I don’t think we’re in a bubble where aligned revenue and values are going up in parallel.” (17:37)
  • Salim: “It’s like a Gartner hype cycle—vertical correction, then up again.” (18:00)

3. The Shift in Compute: From Small to Cosmic

[18:37–21:16]

• AI Data Centers Are the New Mainframes:

  • The trend toward ever-smaller devices reverses: now, the most important computers are massive, global AI superclusters.
  • Alex: “The cosmic calendar of compute form factors is reversing...we’re seeing the rise of coherent superclusters.” (18:37)

• Integration Lessons from the iPhone:

  • NVIDIA moves from selling chips to offering full-stack AI servers, aiming to dominate the ecosystem end-to-end.

4. Sovereignty & Geopolitics in AI Compute: Saudi Arabia & Elon Musk

[21:16–28:18]

• Saudi Arabia’s Vision:

  • With $100B+ investments, Saudi Arabia is positioning itself as a global AI superpower, building massive data centers as both testbeds and investment vehicles.
  • Peter: “Their goal is number two behind the US in AI...This is a massive commitment.” (21:16)

• Elon Musk & XAI’s Need for Compute:

  • Musk’s XAI is compute-starved, gaining early access to NVIDIA chips and investing in massive Samsung chip orders.
  • Rumors surface about Musk possibly acquiring Intel to accelerate chip output.

• Multipolarity Is Good:

  • Salim: “The multipolarity is the most exciting thing for me...a rising tide lifts everyone.” (27:47)
  • Alex: “There is a race to superintelligence, and we’re going to get abundance from superintelligence.” (28:06)

5. Data Centers in Space: The Ultimate Moonshot

[28:18–41:22]

• Elon's 100 GW/Year Space Data Center Plan:

  • Musk outlines a pathway toward launching 100 gigawatts/year of solar-powered AI satellites—equal to a quarter of US power generation—with the eventual goal of mining the Moon and building Dyson swarms.
    • Dave: “That’s a quarter of U.S. electricity output.” (29:22)
    • Peter: “This is how you decouple AI from Earth’s power grid and put the limit on SpaceX’s launch grid.” (35:13)

• Radiative Cooling & Technical Feasibility:

  • Alex: “It’s completely doable...just radiate heat toward the cosmic microwave background.” (34:08)

• Interplanetary Internet & Beyond:

  • Discussion of building orbital and lunar server factories, mass drivers, and even mining Saturn in the far future.
    • Alex: “If Jupiter isn’t decompiled, there’s something wrong.” (36:07)

• Breakthroughs in Space Tech:

  • Starship and relativity-driven space economics rapidly lowering the cost to orbit; aluminum-based radiators for space compute now tested with H100s.
    • Salim: “For me, this is like an iPhone moment for vertical integration in AI.” (20:59)

6. Energy’s New Arms Race: U.S. vs. China and Next-Gen Nuclear

[41:22–56:48]

• China’s Explosive Energy Lead:

  • China now outproduces the US 4:1 in new power generation (mainly solar, wind, nuclear, and gas).
    • Salim: “Solar is now cheaper than the OPEX of fossil fuels.” (42:44)

• Urgency of Energy Investment (U.S.):

  • Calls for “Project Warp Speed” for energy to close the gap; fusion and advanced fission still years away; the US at risk of electricity shortages for compute.

• Next-Gen Nuclear Comes Online:

  • Construction begins on the first US Cat 2 nuclear fuel facility (X Energy): pebble-bed reactors using TRISO fuel, a meltdown-proof, safer technology.
    • Alex: “Pebble-bed nuclear is finally happening after decades.” (52:56)
    • Salim: “My father worked on pebble beds in the '80s, wondering why we weren’t using them for everything.” (55:05)

• AI as the “Innermost Loop” Accelerant:

  • Peter: “AI is the string pulling everything forward...driving us into orbit, to the moon, to global infrastructure.” (55:41)

7. Robotics Revolution: From Drones to Humanoids

[57:31–77:47]

• Zipline Shatters Drone Delivery Barriers:

  • Scaling to 20K autonomous drones per year; now delivering every 30 seconds; began in Rwanda & Ghana where regulation was light, now doing US retail (Walmart, Chipotle).
    • Keller Rinaudo (Zipline CEO): “Right now, Zipline is doing an autonomous delivery about every 30 seconds.” (58:46)

• Ubiquitous Sensing & Privacy Paradigms:

  • With drones, autonomous cars, AR glasses, and satellites constantly imaging Earth, we’re approaching a ‘know anything, anywhere’ world.
    • Peter: “Everything knowable on the planet is being imaged and recorded constantly...you can know anything you want, anytime you want.” (65:58)

• Rise of Humanoids: Data, Training, and Swarms:

  • Rapid proliferation of humanoid robot startups; breakthroughs in dexterity through direct demonstration, glove-tracking, and AI-augmented feedback.
    • Alex: “The hard part is the training data…so many different approaches emerging for training data for these VLA models.” (73:12)

• Robot Biodiversity:

  • Not just humanoids: quadrupeds, microdrones, and other animal-like platforms will fill functional niches in logistics, security, and dangerous environments.
    • Alex: “Ratio between humans and dogs is 9:1; will we see robot dogs scale similarly to humanoids?” (76:37)

8. Abundance in Life Sciences & Medicine

[79:18–84:45]

• Epigenetic Reprogramming: Age Reversal Trials Begin:

  • Life Biosciences (David Sinclair) enters human trials of partial epigenetic reprogramming in 2026, with the promise of profound longevity gains.

• Anthropic Bets on AI for Biology:

  • Hiring top life science researchers, with expectation that biology and disease will be “solved” by AI by 2030.
    • Alex: “Dario has stated publicly that medicine will be solved by AI in five years.” (81:35)

• AI Overtaking Radiology:

  • Gemini 3 Pro outperforms radiological residents; total replacement by AI likely within a year.
    • Peter: “This is the progression of AI as a radiologist...I think in a year we'll be there.” (83:14)
    • Dave: “My brother-in-law is a radiologist and he's just super excited about it saving lives.” (83:55)

9. Geoengineering, Resources, and Localized Abundance

[85:16–90:37]

• Climate Engineering at Scale:

  • Drones applied to atmosphere seeding and replenishing water for environments like the Great Salt Lake—a preview of large-scale biosphere-wide remediation.
    • Peter: “If you can pull quadrillions of liters from the atmosphere, you can move water to where you need it.” (86:16)

• Localizing Supply Chains with AI and Robotics:

  • AI-powered robotics now extract rare earths from recycling and landfills.
    • Alex: “Ultimately, we’ll have nano-systems and self-contained supply chains locally—this is a 10–15 year journey.” (88:22)
    • Dave: “It’s a pure good enabled by AI and robotics...very profitable.” (89:17)

10. Boston’s Startup Edge & Closing Thoughts

[90:37–end]

• Boston Tops VC-Backed IPO Probability:

  • Massachusetts startups have a higher likelihood of IPO success, linked to density of top-tier universities.
    • Dave: “If you do the chart on university density, you come up with the same curve. It’s just a really unique place on earth.” (91:14)

• Personal Moonshot Journeys and Community:

  • The crew encourages listeners to engage, attend potential meetups, and submit questions for future episodes.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On AI acceleration:
  • Alex: "My modal scenario for the next 10 to 20 years is...all [the sci-fi futures] happen at once. We're going to speedrun the Star Trek universe." (56:07)
• On existential opportunity:
  • Peter: “What an extraordinary time to be alive. When in Earth’s history would you ever prefer to be living other than now…or perhaps tomorrow?” (56:48)
• On moonshots and abundance:
  • Salim: “You’re going to have a personal AI that’s a doctor, a lawyer, a tutor, a mentor, and that’s all going to be free...We’re getting there so fast.” (94:55)
• On rendering the universe as computronium:
  • Alex: “Solar system is a dead mass right now. We’ve got to fix that.” (41:01)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• NVIDIA’s Platform Power & Competition — 00:00–09:22
• Strategic Partnerships: Anthropic & Microsoft — 09:22–15:37
• Vertical Integration & The New Computing Stack — 15:37–20:43
• Saudi Arabia, Sovereignty, and the AI Compute Race — 21:16–28:18
• AI in Space: Musk’s Orbital Data Centers & Cooling — 28:18–41:22
• China vs. US: Power Generation & Next-Gen Nuclear — 41:22–56:48
• Robotics: Drones, Humanoids, and Sensing Everything — 57:31–77:47
• Abundance in Health and Longevity — 79:18–84:45
• Geoengineering, Rare Earths, Supply Chains — 85:16–90:37
• Boston’s IPO Success & Outro Segment — 90:37–end

Conclusion

This episode of Moonshots is a whirlwind through generational shifts in compute, energy, robotics, and biology. The hosts highlight both the urgency and opportunity in scaling technology for universal benefit, blending infectious, future-focused excitement with sober analysis. Peter, Salim, Dave, and Alex challenge listeners to see our present moment as the threshold of an abundant, accelerated, and interconnected age.

For the full experience, visit the Moonshots YouTube or subscribe to Peter Diamandis’s metatrends newsletter.