The Future Will Be Explained To You In Palo Alto

On Wednesday evening astatine PlayGround Global successful Palo Alto, immoderate very smart group who are building things you don’t understand yet will explicate what’s coming. This is nan last StrictlyVC arena of 2025, and truly, nan lineup is ridiculous.

The bid has bounced astir nan globe nether nan auspices of TechCrunch. Steve Case rented a theatre successful D.C.; we talked to Greece’s premier curate successful Athens; and Kirsten Green hosted america astatine nan Presidio successful San Francisco. The conception is ever nan same, though: get group who are moving connected genuinely important developments successful a room earlier everyone other figures retired they’re important.

Our favourite moment? In 2019, Sam Altman told a StrictlyVC crowd that OpenAI’s monetization strategy was fundamentally “build AGI, past inquire it really to make money.” Everyone laughed. He wasn’t joking.

This clip we’ve sewage Nicholas Kelez, a particle accelerator physicist who spent 20 years astatine nan Department of Energy building things that shouldn’t beryllium possible. Now he’s tackling semiconductor manufacturing’s biggest problem: each precocious spot depends connected $400 cardinal machines that usage lasers only 1 Dutch institution knows really to make. (More galling to some: Americans invented nan technology, past sold it to Europe.) Kelez is building nan adjacent procreation successful America utilizing particle accelerator tech. It’s arsenic nerdy arsenic it sounds but much important than you mightiness imagine.

Then there’s Mina Fahmi, who’s made a ringing that captures your whispered thoughts and turns them into text. Before you rotation your eyes, cognize that he and cofounder Kirak Hong spent years astatine Meta moving connected this worldly aft their institution was acquired. The Stream Ring isn’t trying to beryllium your friend, by nan measurement — it’s trying to widen your brain. Backed by Toni Schneider, an usability who scaled WordPress to a cardinal visitors, Sandbar conscionable emerged from stealth and mightiness good beryllium onto something. (Schneider is simply a partner astatine True Ventures, whose different hardware bets person included Peloton, Ring, and Fitbit; he’s besides coming to Palo Alto adjacent week.)

We person Max Hodak — Science Corp founder, Time mag cover subject, and, earlier, Neuralink cofounder — who has already restored imagination to dozens of unsighted group pinch retinal implants. Now he’s moving connected “biohybrid” brain-computer interfaces wherever chips seeded pinch stem cells turn into your encephalon insubstantial truthful paralyzed group tin power devices pinch their thoughts. And that’s conscionable nan extremity of nan iceberg, arsenic Hodak views it. In fact, he thinks 2035 is going to look wildly different from today, and he’s happy to stock how.

Finally, we’re thrilled to invited Chi-Hua Chien and Elizabeth Weil, 2 VCs who’ve backed Twitter, Spotify, TikTok, Slack, SpaceX, Figma, and Coinbase earlier they were family names. Chien runs Goodwater Capital and thinks Silicon Valley is wholly misreading nan AI infinitesimal while everyone piles into endeavor AI. Weil founded Scribble Ventures aft stints astatine Andreessen Horowitz and Twitter, made 100+ angel investments, and has a first money showing 4x returns. Her web is truthful bully it’s annoying. Both deliberation nan champion user tech opportunities are nan ones everyone’s ignoring, and they’ll explicate why.

PlayGround Global is hosting, on pinch wide partner Pat Gelsinger, nan erstwhile CEO of Intel. There will beryllium drinks, delicious food, and merriment; seating is limited, truthful if you want to come, act fast.

If you want to partner pinch nan bid successful 2026, get successful touch.