In Jensen's 5 layer cake analogy for AI (energy, chips, infrastructure, models, applications), the middle layer (esp the software infra part) is much less understood - and thats where @VAST_Data became a $30B company few people know about, powering @SpaceXAI, @CoreWeave, @nebiusai, @MistralAI, @nscale etc My conversation with Renen Hallak, CEO: 00:00 Intro 00:51 The hidden software layer in NVIDIA's AI stack 02:28 What actually makes an "AI factory"? 05:13 Should Walmart and Goldman build their own AI? 06:20 "We infer during the day, fine-tune at night" 13:16 Announcement: frontier models & sensitive data 15:32 From P vs. NP to founding VAST Data 17:32 OpenAI, Navier–Stokes and 10,000 agents 20:25 The pre-transformer insight behind VAST 21:55 DASE: VAST's "shared everything" architecture 25:18 "Storage was where startups go to die" 27:39 Trillions of vectors: why old databases break 29:01 Are S3, Snowflake and Databricks ready for AI 31:29 Data gravity, vendor lock-in and zero churn 33:13 Training vs. inference: why the infrastructure changes 34:46 Model routing, KV caches, RAG & agent memory 36:59 Identity, permissions and security for AI agents 40:27 Can multi-agent systems unlock scientific discovery? 41:55 DataEnclave: how confidential AI protects data and weights 45:16 Who should be AI's trust layer? 46:37 "Sometimes it scares me": 500 petabytes to 2 exabytes 50:08 Is circular AI financing creating systemic risk 51:32 Why VAST is profitable when AI infra isn't 53:24 What separates the winning neoclouds? 55:06 "Their lunch is being eaten": why hyperscalers lag 59:10 Where will the trillions accrue across the AI stack 1:01:18 NVIDIA: "There's no legal document between us" 1:03:59 What VAST learned from xAI and @elonmusk 1:05:36 "Bad things loudly and often": building at AI speed 1:06:53 More change in 10 years than the previous 1,000? 1:08:39 VAST's endgame: all the data in the world

Oh the AT2040USB looks a great deal.

Much as I like a “well actually” you knew it wasn’t a state to begin with so not really. More I wanted to joke on the zip code

It has it’s own zip code but it’s not an entire state

Our hopes and prayers are with you

Also applies to canine companions

Gus Griisom’s mercury capsule sunk in a close call so NASA swore to never let that happen again

Well played Eric

Colossus the Forbin Project

after 10 days the wasp starts looking interesting as a treatment

Annual hello Eric

Thank Bob, since I married a shiksa and the grandkids are all goyim it’s more merry Christmas for me now a days. Though we did have latkes at dinner tonight. I miss your company my friend

What kind of asshole do you have to be to be angry at HOW someone wishes you well. Smile and take the good wishes, they are GOOD WISHES dammit.

I do have a particular set of skills acquired over a long career, but I'm bringing that career to an end soon. To paraphrase another movie line "I'm too old for another startup"

No one wins the Hunger Games. It’s a gold rush and the company the emulates Levi Strauss will win. At least I hope so

Those tears will do you good, and your church family just wants to help you bear the weight of grief. There is no need for anxiety, you are safe, let them help, let go of a little, we all understand

As Orwell wrote in 1984. “And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth”

Yeah that’s us

WinFS was an amazing idea well beyond MS’s and the hardware of the day’s ability to execute. The VAST AI OS is the closest thing since

Dead children that’s what. Millions of lost school days. I’m old I remember