The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: "Anti-Data Centres is a Chinese Psyop" | How Many Planned Data Centers Will Actually Get Built? | Is Energy AI's Biggest Bottleneck? With Thomas Sohmers, Co-Founder @ Positron
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC) interviews the world's greatest venture capitalists with prior guests including Sequoia's Doug Leone and Benchmark's Bill Gurley. Once per week, 20VC Host, Harry Stebbings is also joined by one of the great founders of our time with prior founder episodes from Spotify's Daniel Ek, Linkedin's Reid Hoffman, and Snowflake's Frank Slootman.
If you would like to see more of The Twenty Minute VC (20VC), head to www.20vc.com for more information on the podcast, show notes, resources and more.
Show Notes
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Thomas Sohmers is the co-founder and chairman of Positron AI, building chips to make running AI dramatically cheaper and more energy-efficient. The company recently announced an $875 million Series C at a $5 billion valuation, backed by investors including Gavin Baker's Atreides Management, NEA, Valor Equity Partners and Netscape co-founder Jim Clark.
AGENDA:
Why Does AI Inference Need Different Hardware from Training?
What Is Nobody Telling You About AI's Token Economics?
Should We Really Slow Down the AI Frontier?
What Happens If America Slows Down—and China Doesn't?
Should We Restrict China's Access to AI Chips?
Why Aren't Zuckerberg and Jensen Backing an AI Slowdown?
Are We Being Misled About Data Centers?
Can the West Beat China While Drowning in Regulation?
How Many Planned Data Centers Will Actually Get Built?
Data Centers in Space: Real Opportunity or Elon Hype?
Is Energy AI's Biggest Bottleneck?
Could the Debt Boom Derail AI?
What Is KV Caching—and Why Does It Change AI Economics?
Does Compressing AI's Memory Make It Less Intelligent?
How Do We Solve AI's Exploding Memory Demands?
Will Every Company Own Its Own AI Model?
Why Bet on Ever-Bigger Models?
If We Already Have AGI, What Comes Next?
What Happens When Every AI Lab Builds Its Own Chips?
If DeepSeek Can Slash Costs with Software, Why Build New Hardware?
How Cheap Will AI Tokens Be by 2028?
What Would Be the First Warning Sign of an AI Bust?
Could Open Models Break OpenAI and Anthropic's Growth?
Could Mercor and Surge Become $200 Billion Companies?
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