TBPN Podcast Summary – September 19, 2025

Episode: xAI’s Colossus 2 Reactions, Sam Ross & Aaron Slodov LIVE in The Ultradome
Hosts: John Coogan & Jordy Hays
Notable Guests:

• Pippa Lamb (early-stage VC, UK context)
• Aaron Slodov (CEO, Atomic Industries)
• Will Hurd (CSO, Chaos Industries; ex-CIA & Congress)
• Ariana Thacker (MoldCo Founder)
• Sam (CEO, Numerl)

Episode Overview

This lively episode, streamed live from TBPN’s Ultradome, dives deeply into two broad themes:
1. The accelerating arms race of AI infrastructure – especially with xAI’s Colossus 2 data center, Elon's tactics, and the state of the 'AI bubble'.
2. The intersection of technology, geopolitics, and business – with focus on UK/US tech diplomacy, manufacturing reindustrialization, defense tech, new venture rounds, and quirky tech-news moments.

Enriched with real-time reactions to breaking news, expert guests, funding reveals, and candid tangents, the co-hosts keep up their trademark energetic, tongue-in-cheek style. This jam-packed episode ventures from AI gigawatts to anti-mold startups, with plenty of inside scoop and industry context.

1. xAI’s Colossus 2, Data Center Wars, and the State of AI Infrastructure

Colossus 2 and Elon’s Tactics

• Breaking News: xAI raised an additional $10B at a $200B post-money valuation to scale Colossus 2 (01:50–02:00).
  • John: “Every time you think Elon has lost his touch or is failing, he does some crazy stuff and you’re like damn, he really still got it.” (02:08)
• World’s Largest Data Centers:
  • Colossus 2 will be the world's biggest gigawatt-scale data center; faster buildout than competitors like OpenAI and Meta.
  • xAI’s ‘goat move’—building at the tri-state (TN/MS/AR) border to dodge environmental restrictions; when faced with pushback, Elon shifts turbines across state lines (11:00–12:05).
  • “Such a crazy move... this genius trick” (12:05, John).
• AI Bubble Debate:
  • Discussion of Alex Heath’s Interview with Mark Zuckerberg (05:36–06:54).
    • Zuckerberg: “It’s quite possible… most other major infrastructure buildups in history... ended up being fundamentally very valuable. But in all past cases, the infrastructure gets built out, people take on too much debt... a lot of the companies end up going out of business and then the assets get distressed and then it’s a great opportunity to go buy more. So ... it’s impossible to predict, but there’s definitely a possibility ... that something like that would happen here.” (05:36–06:54)
    • Hosts emphasize: Zuckerberg is open to a possible bubble, but isn’t definitive.
• Landscape & Revenue:
  • xAI still trails OpenAI in capacity, but is rapidly catching up and now exceeds Anthropic and Meta (03:11–04:32).
  • Financial backing flows in: major investments from KSA, UAE, Qatar sovereign wealth. Reports suggest Colossus 2 is nearing OpenAI’s Stargate capacities.
  • xAI’s consumer product ‘Grok’ is far behind ChatGPT in app revenue and enterprise adoption, but growing (13:05–14:58).

RL (Reinforcement Learning) and AGI Strategy

• xAI’s unique RL approach is spotlighted: Instead of focusing on coding and API productivity (like Anthropic), xAI is exploring “human-in-the-loop” RL, e.g., ‘Annie’ the romantic companion bot – maximizing engagement and emotional intelligence (28:10–28:41).
  • John: “The model can attempt to maximize on that ... could be very Black Mirror ... but could be very cool.”
• Risks: Whether engagement-optimized models will lead to breakthroughs or “just a dystopian future where people are addicted to some anime girl they talk to.” (28:28, John)

Talent, Operations, and Market Risks

• Extreme Work Culture: Engineers at xAI are on “996, 007” schedules—12 to 12, 7 days a week—“working endlessly.”
• Churn and Poaching: Real attrition; some top data center people left for OpenAI, yet Colossus 2 progress is unaffected (21:35–22:19).
• Hyperscaler Hedge: Even if the “AI app” thesis stalls, xAI’s compute will be extremely valuable as rent/sell-to-hyperscalers like AWS/Google.
• Evolving business models: Internal revenue streams, e.g., X.com licensing xAI’s LLMs for recommendations and ads.

2. Technology, Geopolitics & Venture Context

US-UK Tech Diplomacy: A Transatlantic “Tech Prosperity Deal”

Guest: Pippa Lamb (@31:01–47:05)

• White House and Tech Delegations Descend on UK:
  • First-ever ceremonial second visit from a US president; extensive pageantry, banquets at Windsor Castle.
  • Major Silicon Valley CEOs in attendance: Satya (Microsoft), Sundar (Google), Jensen Huang (Nvidia), Alex Karp (Palantir), Brian Schimpf (Anduril), Sam Altman (OpenAI), plus Tim Cook and Blackstone/Blackrock.
  • Eye-popping investments: Microsoft & Google pledge $30B+ each to UK's tech ecosystem; Nvidia puts $670M into UK’s nScale AI cloud and eyes $500M for AV company Wave.

Pippa: “Jensen was extremely bullish on the UK ... announcing with a lot of enthusiasm that the UK is going to be a superpower.” (34:56)

• Keir Starmer's Pragmatism:
  • New Labour PM enjoys a huge mandate – “a real pragmatism to actually getting stuff done... pro-business, open for business.” (38:20–38:47)
  • UK is keen to distinguish itself from risk-averse EU regulation; pro-AI, pro-nuclear, pro-US alignment.
• Strategic Aims:
  • UK as a tech and AI R&D hub, capitalizing on universities, ARM, and Google DeepMind.
  • “Tech Prosperity Deal” signed for US-UK alignment on how data models are built—trying to set a Western standard for global AI infrastructure.

Private/VC Markets – UK/Europe & US

• Strong IPOs: Klarna’s quiet, successful IPO seen as proof of EU/UK startup health.
• Watchlist: Revolut seen as elephant-in-the-room for UK fintech IPOs; Nvidia rumored to potentially invest in them.
• Government Focus: Immense energy in nuclear independence and shoring up national AI infrastructure.

3. Guest Spotlights: Manufacturing, Defense, Wellness, & Tax Tech

Manufacturing: American Reindustrialization & Atomic Industries

Guest: Aaron Slodov (Atomic Industries, @88:56–105:42)

• Series A Announced: Atomic Industries closes “$25M Series A” (90:30).
• Building in Detroit: New, massive factory enables scaling from mold-making software to parts manufacturing.
• Tech-First Approach: Software-driven design for component/mold creation; moving towards automated, versatile "factories of the future.”
• Talent: Built deliberately in Detroit for trades talent pool; currently ~50 employees.
• On Reindustrialization:
  • “The biggest American dynamism story…has oddly been xAI Colossus.”
  • US manufacturing needs to vertically integrate and apply AI/automation to keep pace—XAI and SpaceX are cited as examples to follow.

Defense Tech: Radar, Sensors, and National Security

Guest: Will Hurd (Chaos Industries, ex-CIA & Congress, @122:00–147:26)

• Background: Ex-CIA spy master and US Congress rep; now CSO at Chaos, a radar and defense startup with recent major contracts.
• Tech Arms Race:
  • China has an explicit, engineering-led “master 16 technologies” plan; US must reboot “big project” mindset and technical talent in government (124:31–126:35).
  • Hurd: “Chinese are going to do it the exact same way we did it in the past. Shocker—they are going to steal all our plans and replicate them.” (126:36)
• Air Superiority and Drones:
  • US no longer guarantees air superiority; hypersonics, subsonic missiles, and drone swarm threats are top focus.
  • Chaos’s Vanquish radar is expeditionary, “three of us can carry it,” designed to spot both high and low threats (136:45–136:57).
• Real-world Impact:
  • Drones proliferating in narco-trafficking as well as Ukraine, Israel, and the Pacific theater.
  • Speed to deployment, operator feedback, and out-of-the-box reliability are key for modern defense startups.
  • Contracts: $2M USAF deal, $10M House Defense Appropriation (137:38–137:50).

Health & Wellness SaaS: MoldCo

Guest: Ariana Thacker, MoldCo (@111:51–121:45)

• Mold Health Awakening:
  • Describes chronic health conditions from mold; company delivers direct-to-consumer testing (environment and health), virtual concierge care, genetic risk screening (HLA haplotypes), and treatment protocols (“Shoemaker protocol”).
  • “There’s a cultural awakening… Reddit, Netflix shows, influencers are talking about this.” (112:42–112:59)
• Viral traction:
  • 7M content views in a week via TikTok/Instagram; community-driven education and referrals.
• Recent Fundraise:
  • Closed $8M round (“delayed announcement”) led by Kantos and Cloud Fund. Further plans to target related chronic health issues.

Fintech/SaaS: Numerl

Guest: Sam, CEO Numerl (@148:00–167:13)

• Funding News: $35M new round at $350M post, Mayfield joins Benchmark.
• Product: Full-stack sales tax compliance automation, both for e-commerce and SaaS/digital businesses, including global tax registrations.
• Category Insights:
  • “AI has to be front and center, otherwise it's hard to get a meeting.” (151:34)
  • Competition with legacy players (Avalara, Vertex); Numerl is first to file digital taxes in places like Tanzania.
  • Gross margins compressed by inference costs (as with Notion), but product much better—services market much larger than software alone.
• Hiring & Operations: Grown from 25 to 65 employees; still “running lean,” focus is on sales scale and hyper reliable product, especially in compliance contexts.

4. Notable News Bites & Memorable Moments

• Meta Ray-Ban Smart Glasses & Wearables:
  • Meta’s partnership with Luxottica (Rocco Basilico = ‘Roko’s Basilisk’ joke); the fusion of AI and familiar consumer form factors.
• Apple & AI:
  • Hosts agree Apple, despite slow AI moves, is still strong; bullish on Apple integrating Gemini and capturing value with minimal capex.
• Real Estate Tangents:
  • Johnny Carson’s former Malibu home listed for $110M; UAE spree on DC mansions; ex-spouse of the Related Properties founder lists NY apartment for $9.75M.
• VC+AI Fun:
  • Discussing "VC Bench," an Oxford research initiative to test if LLMs can predict founder “success” better than VCs—debate over pattern recognition, secrets, and contrarian bets. “The LLMs are not designed to be contrarian machines.” (109:43, John)
• VC as Last Stand Against AI:
  • Referencing Marc Andreessen: “Venture capital may be one of the last jobs AI can’t do as well as a human.” (107:03–107:22)
• GPT Revenue Race:
  • Sensor Tower data: ChatGPT at 100, Grok at 2.6, Claude at 1.3, Gemini at 0.5; OpenAI revenue at $14.5B run rate, Grok far behind (26:10).
• Viral Clips:
  • Matthew McConaughey wants “a private LLM” fine-tuned on all his journals; hosts joke about “logging data into your private LL” (64:00–66:04).
• Deflating AI Myths:
  • On OpenAI’s hardware ambitions—rumors about smart speaker, glasses, or voice recorder, but watch form factor and household Lindy-ness is likely to dictate winners.

5. Selected Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• “Every time you think Elon has lost his touch... he does some crazy stuff and you’re like damn, he really still got it.” — John (02:08)
• “It’s quite possible... most other major infrastructure buildups in history... ended up being fundamentally very valuable. But ... you hit some blip ... and then the assets get distressed and then it’s a great opportunity to go buy more.” — Zuckerberg (05:36–06:54)
• “Such a genius trick, such a crazy move. And you have to think... he thought about the state regulation... a year ago.” — John, on launching turbines across state lines (12:05)
• “Part of this is the fast, extremely hardcore pace. XAI engineers 996 looks easy. Often pulling 996, 007—which is 12 to 12, seven days a week.” — John (21:35)
• “Jensen [Huang] was extremely bullish on the UK... The UK is going to be a superpower.” — Pippa Lamb (34:56)
• “The Chinese government has made it very clear the way they’re going to surpass the United States as the global superpower is by mastering a number of different technologies.” — Will Hurd (125:24)
• “We’re giving the war fighter more time, time to understand, time to decide, and time to act.” — Will Hurd (128:54)
• “I hate mold. I’m one of the number one haters ... I got terribly sick ... ended up being this crazy saga.” — Jordy (111:54)
• “AI has to be front and center... otherwise it’s hard to get a meeting.” — Sam (151:34)

6. Other Segments and Timestamps

• xAI vs. OpenAI vs. Anthropic Data/Capex Race: (01:59–04:32)
• Meta smart glasses partnership & Roko’s Basilisk tangent: (56:42–62:40)
• UK/US tech-biz diplomacy & investment: (31:01–47:05)
• Mold health/Chronic illness startup: (111:51–121:45)
• Defense Tech (Chaos Industries, Will Hurd): (122:00–147:26)
• Atomic Industries factory, AI in manufacturing: (88:56–105:42)
• Numerl tax automation, funding & market insights: (148:00–167:13)
• Apple’s slow AI plays, device form factors: (73:45–76:29)
• Real estate tangents (Carson house, UAE in DC): (47:17–53:02, 70:06–73:20)
• Viral tech/VC/culture memes: sprinkled throughout

Final Thoughts

This episode is a hyper-current pulse check on the global AI and technology ecosystem, covering Elon's relentless infrastructure push, US-UK diplomatic tech alignment, the recalibration in manufacturing and defense, and vibrant startup culture—delivered with the hosts’ signature mix of depth, irreverence, and speed. The “Ultradome” stage plays host to a unique mix of high-level deals, first-principles analysis, and delightfully random tech memes.

Useful for anyone seeking context on:

• The state and structure of AI infrastructure competition
• US/EU/China/A.I. dynamics
• Emerging geopolitics of tech investment
• New trends in defense, manufacturing, and compliance automation
• Real voices from the front lines of AI, entrepreneurship, and government