AI Summary
5 min readAre we already in the Singularity? | E24
When Sam Altman recently declared on a podcast that "we are now like in the singularity," he wasn't making a sci-fi prediction about the future. He was describing the present. "For the last 10 years ago, this was like a kind of far off dream at best," he said. "And now we're like actually in the moment that we used to like talk about at the lunch table in a very not serious way." This episode of This Week in AI takes that provocation seriously, using it as a lens to examine where value is actually accruing in the AI stack—from open-weight models and orbital data centers to the application layer and the fine-tuning debate.
The open-weight fight and who benefits
A letter defending open-weight models, initially signed by Nvidia and about 25 other companies, has since grown to over 100 signatories—including OpenAI, notably, while Anthropic has stayed out. The episode's guests see this as structurally aligned with their businesses, not just philosophical conviction.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:08) **Where Value Accrues in AI** - Alex sets up the central question of the episode: Will value go to foundation labs, chips, hyperscalers, or application-layer companies?
- 2 (01:28) **Open-Weight Debate and Industry Pressure** - The guests discuss the Nvidia-backed letter defending open models and whether signing it is genuine advocacy or industry bullying.
- 3 (03:38) **Why Open Models Benefit Both Guests' Businesses** - Alex connects the open-model debate directly to each guest's company economics.
- 4 (06:19) **Customer Preferences: Open vs. Closed Models** - Grant details how enterprise and geographic factors drive model choice, and how Gamma adapts.
- 5 (08:11) **StarCloud's First GPU in Space** - Philip recounts the launch of StarCloud One, the first H100 in space, and what they accomplished with it.
- 6 (11:55) **SpaceX IPO and Starship Economics** - Alex asks about StarCloud's dependence on Starship for venture-scale economics.
- 7 (14:14) **Extension Rounds as a Positive Signal** - The guests discuss how the meaning of "extension rounds" has flipped in the AI era.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
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Today’s show:
On a podcast this week, Sam Altman made a bold declaration: “We are now, like, in the singularity.” A bold claim which Alex puts bluntly to this week’s panel. Grant Lee of Gamma and Philip Johnston of Starcloud sound off… Is this actually the Singularity, and if so, why do things still feel so normal?
Plus the panel and guest host Alex Wilhelm discuss the infrastructure and economics that will make singularity-scale AI buildout possible… NVIDIA’s strongly worded letter about open-weight models… Moonshot’s new Kimi K3 twist on open-source licenses… Stripe’s reported $10B run at OpenRouter… and more.
Guests
Grant Lee on X: https://x.com/thisisgrantlee
Gamma: https://gamma.app/
Philip Johnston on X: https://x.com/PhilipJohnston
Starcloud: https://www.starcloud.com/
Relevant Links
TechCrunch: Gamma hits $110M ARR: https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/10/ai-powerpoint-killer-gamma-hits-2-1b-valuation-100m-arr-founder-says/
Nvidia: How Starcloud is Bringing Data Centers to Space: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/starcloud/
Open Weights and American AI Leadership letter: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/open-weight-models-letter-1.pdf
CNBC on Nvidia-OpenAI infrastructure plans: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/27/nvidia-and-openai-in-talks-for-up-to-250-billion-dollar-ai-backstop.html
Kimi K3: https://www.kimi.com/en
Crusoe announces strategic Starcloud partnership: https://www.crusoe.ai/resources/newsroom/crusoe-to-become-first-cloud-operator-in-space-through-partnership-with-starcloud
Andrej Karpathy on YouTube: “Let’s Build GPT”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCc8FmEb1nY
Demis Hassabis Starcloud post on X: https://x.com/demishassabis/status/1999296127276126417