The limiting factor for large-scale AI compute is no longer physical space but the availability of electrical power. As a result, the industry now sizes and discusses data center capacity and deals in terms of megawatts, reflecting the primary constraint on growth.
Brian Armstrong pinpoints three key growth areas defining crypto's future: the tokenization of all assets for on-chain trading (the "everything exchange"), the rapid rise of prediction markets, and the increasing use of stablecoins for B2B cross-border payments.
While tokenizing private stock could create liquidity for early investors, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong emphasizes the need for company permission. This prevents premature liquidation that could undermine vesting schedules and other crucial employee retention incentives before an IPO.
Well-intentioned regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley increased the burden of going public, causing companies to stay private longer. An unintended consequence is that the bulk of wealth creation now occurs in private markets, accessible only to accredited investors and excluding the general public.
Gecko Robotics' strategy extends beyond its own hardware. The company is creating a "nervous system" – a data and application layer – to manage fleets of industrial robots from various manufacturers, aiming to orchestrate them to solve high-ROI problems like refinery maintenance.
To avoid being classified as a bank, Coinbase's stablecoin model offers "rewards" for user activity like payments or trading, rather than paying interest directly on balances. This is a crucial legal distinction under new regulations allowing them to pass on yield from treasury reserves.
Gecko Robotics' CEO highlights a key benefit of their technology: it can transform workers without specialized degrees into highly-paid robot operators. The goal is to take someone from a retail job and, within months, have them safely managing advanced robotics on critical infrastructure.
Public opposition to AI data centers stems from early strategic errors by hyperscalers. By cutting deals that raised local power rates and aggressively seeking tax breaks without community engagement, they alienated the rural areas they sought to build in, creating an avoidable PR problem.
Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman argues that massive speed improvements in AI are not just about reducing latency. Like how fast internet turned Netflix from a DVD mailer into a studio, ultra-fast AI will enable fundamentally new applications and business models that are impossible today.
Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman posits that recent tech layoffs are a delayed reaction to efficiency gains from mature SaaS tools, not yet AI. These tools increased managers' span of control, reducing the need for middle managers whose primary role was moving information up and down the chain.
Unlike consumer AI trained on public internet data, industrial AI requires vast, proprietary datasets from the physical world (e.g., sensor readings from a submarine hull). Gecko Robotics is building this data corpus via its robots, creating an advantage that's difficult to replicate.
Brian Armstrong uses an AI connected to all company data (Slack, G-Docs) as a C-suite coach. He asks it questions like "What should I be aware of?" or "What did I change my mind on most?" to surface hidden issues and get objective feedback, treating the AI as a mentor.