Contrary

Today, Foundations & Frontiers goes through some back-of-the-envelope math to estimate how much power it will take to run and scale AI models. Read the full essay below and stay tuned as we continue to explore bottlenecks and breakthroughs across the technological frontier.

Armada’s mission to redefine the future of edge computing just got a boost! Today, we’re thrilled to announce a $40 million funding round led by M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund. This investment propels our total funding to over $100M and marks a significant milestone in our journey to bring AI to the edge and bridge the digital divide. We’ve also signed a key partnership with Microsoft, which brings Armada's innovative solutions to the Microsoft Azure Marketplace , allowing Azure customers to use pre-committed spend on Armada’s cutting-edge solutions and making our technology more accessible than ever. Dive deeper into our vision and read more about our latest developments from #AllieGarfinkle at Fortune https://bit.ly/3Y4v1rr.

Last night's Foundations & Frontiers Zine launch party in SF brought together founders, researchers, and engineers to talk about the technologies that will define the next decade. The event featured talks by Contrary founder Eric Tarczynski on the origin of Foundations & Frontiers, Anna-Sofia Lesiv on the need for good storytelling about technological frontiers, and lightning talks by Ian Brooke, JC B., and Pavle Jeremić on the future of aerospace, fusion, and molecular manufacturing. Our second volume on space tech features essays about rocketry, satellites, and Mars colonization with beautiful new illustrations from Ryan Ma and Audrey Chow. We were excited to get them into the hands of our readers for the first time. Stay tuned for details of our next Zine drop event in NYC this fall

Zepto has raised $665 million at a $3.6 billion valuation. In less than 4 years, the company has surpassed $1 billion in annualized sales. We’re excited to continue supporting Aadit Palicha, Kaivalya V. and the Zepto team:

Geothermal energy is effectively inexhaustible. Just beneath our feet is an inferno that has been burning since the very creation of the planet. The lasting heat from that process, alongside the vast quantities of radioactive isotopes that spontaneously decay and release energy, is responsible for the Earth’s super-hot inner core, which at its center reaches nearly 6000 °C. Estimates suggest that the amount of time it will take for this subterranean heat to run out could be something like 17 billion years. Other estimates suggest that harnessing just 0.1% of the Earth’s heat could supply the world’s total energy needs for two million years. If we can manage to tap this resource effectively, it could usher in an era of lasting global energy abundance. Read today's full Foundations & Frontiers essay on geothermal energy below: https://lnkd.in/g2k5TD8G

The Foundations & Frontiers Vol. 2 Zine is almost here! Join us in San Francisco on June 26 to celebrate over two years of Foundations & Frontiers — The event will feature lighting talks on aerospace, biotech, and fusion, bringing together top experts from science, technology, and business to explore the past and future of our most crucial technologies. Register here to secure your spot for Foundations & Frontiers Vol. 2 Launch Party: https://lnkd.in/gChYX6SM

The past decade has delivered remarkable improvements in artificial intelligence systems which have demonstrated an uncanny ability to identify patterns in rich, complex data. It’s exactly this capability that the field of biology has been lacking thus far, and it might be the one we need to finally get answers to biology’s biggest outstanding questions.

Last night's Frontiers of Manufacturing dinner was an incredible evening featuring a tour of Machina Labs, which co-hosted the event. Discussions centered on an emerging new vision for flexible and rapid manufacturing.

I found my prior role as the founding PM of a Greylock-backed Series A by working with VC talent partners. They can be one of the highest leverage paths to finding and working at great startups. A little over a year I stepped in to lead Contrary’s talent function. As a technical operator, my goal was to deepen our network of engineers, PMs and designers. Here’s what I learned from that experience: ▪️ How to identify and leverage talent vortexes ▪️ The importance of treating talent as an extension of the investment team ▪️ The need to emphasize quality over quantity in candidate sourcing I wrote about it on Contrary’s blog: https://lnkd.in/g-3Gd3ug

We're thrilled to announce the launch of the Foundations & Frontiers Vol. 2 Zine! Join us in SF on June 26th as we bring together the sharpest minds working across science, tech and business to celebrate over 2 years of Foundations & Frontiers sparking discussions on the history and future of our most important technologies. Register here to secure your spot for the Foundations & Frontiers Vol. 2 Launch Party: https://lnkd.in/gChYX6SM