Scott and Matt dive into the biggest tech stories of the week, covering Meta's aggressive talent acquisition spree, XAI's massive $10B funding round, Neuralink's breakthrough presentations, and the escalating race to artificial superintelligence. Plus: robot soccer leagues, Dyson's strawberry venture, and why AI nerds are now being traded like professional athletes.

• Meta's billion-dollar talent poaching - Zuckerberg offering 9-figure packages to lure top AI researchers from OpenAI
• Alexander Wang acquisition - Scale AI founder becomes Meta's Chief AI Officer for $12B
• Viral memes - "I used to pray for the day nerds would be traded like athletes"
• OpenAI's response - Leaked Slack messages reveal employee burnout concerns

• $10 billion funding - Half equity, half debt structure
• Star-studded investors - A16Z, Sequoia, Fidelity, BlackRock, Nvidia, AMD, and the Saudis
• Elon's strategy - Building "truth-seeking AI" with vertical integration across his companies
• Smart investor selection - Learning from past PayPal coup experience

• Human bandwidth bottleneck - Average person limited to 1KB/second (8MB/day) through thumbs
• 100x improvement promise - Direct brain-computer interface eliminates typing constraints
• Strategic approach - Starting with disability and disease to navigate privacy concerns
• Vision restoration - Literally curing blindness as next product launch

• Trump's F-word diplomacy - How swearing apparently ended a conflict
• Dyson's strawberry crisis - Vacuum legend pivots to fruit farming
• Posting to product head - How Nikita Bier memed his way to head of product at X
• China's AI glasses war - Xiaomi vs Meta in wearable AI race

• Amazon's million-robot army - Quiet deployment of massive automation infrastructure
• Genesis AI's $100M bet - Becoming the "GPT for robotics" (but maybe don't challenge Nvidia)
• K-Bot home delivery - $9,000 household robots ready for pickup in San Francisco
• Robot soccer betting - New AI football league creates gambling opportunities
• Australia's innovation attempts - First AI robotics accelerator launches

• Campfire's $35M accounting disruption - AI-first tool challenging Oracle NetSuite and Xero
• Microsoft's medical superintelligence - Claiming AI models better than GPs
• Google's education push - Notebook LM integration into classrooms
• Big Tech bundling strategy - Using ecosystem lock-in to crush startups

Chef by Convex - AI-powered development tool competing with Replit and Bolt, highly recommended by Matt's business partner for internal tool development.

"I used to pray for the day nerds would be traded like athletes. That day is finally here and it's effing glorious."

"Your dad kept getting poached back and forth by the top AI labs, and he actually never did any work."

"They've been fighting for so long. They don't know what the f** they're doing. And then it stopped."*

"The average human can only produce 8 megabytes a day of throughput......

Hosts: Scott Wilcox (W & Elycium) & Matt Perrott (BuildPass)

This week, Scotty & Matt explore the seismic shifts in AI talent acquisition, humanoid robots reaching consumer price points, and Australia's untapped potential to become a tech superpower.

The Great AI Talent Migration

• Thinking Machines raises unprecedented $2B seed round at $10B valuation with no product, just talent
• OpenAI leadership exodus creating billion-dollar startups overnight
• The new reality: buying teams vs traditional hiring in AI

Wearable AI Revolution

• Limitless pendant deep dive: AI coach vs note-taker reality check
• Future convergence of analog watches and AI technology
• De-optimization movement challenging data-driven lifestyle tracking
• 
  

Robotics Breakthrough

• Hugging Face humanoid robots priced under $3K (cheaper than MacBooks)
• Open-source revolution democratizing robotics development
• Tesla robo-taxi milestone: 20+ rides with zero interventions

Australia's Trillion-Dollar Missed Opportunity

• Energy policy crisis: shipping coal while paying 10% more for domestic power
• Darwin/Geelong innovation hub vision as "Australian Shenzhen"
• Cultural barriers: tall poppy syndrome vs American business optimism

Headlines & Hot Takes (00:00)

• Limitless pendant early impressions
• Noosa beach remote work setup
• Thinking Machines $2B mystery round breakdown

AI Tool Showdown (32:50)

• 11 Labs conversational AI vs ChatGPT voice mode
• Y Combinator AI startup school insights
• Elon's 12-month AGI prediction analysis

Tool of the Week (48:35)

iPhone home screen optimization for AI-powered productivity

Robot Rundown (52:20)

• Sub-$3K humanoid robots changing the game
• SoftBank's $1T Arizona AI manufacturing hub
• Autonomous vehicle update: Tesla vs Waymo strategies

Australia Tech Policy Deep Dive (01:02:15)

• Energy crisis impact on tech competitiveness
• Innovation hub strategy discussion
• Cultural transformation needed for tech leadership

AI Startups:

• Thinking Machines (Mira Murati)
• Cluely AI (A16Z-backed)
• Limitless (AI pendant)
• Eleven Labs

Major Players:

• OpenAI, Y Combinator
• Hugging Face, Tesla, Waymo
• SoftBank Vision Fund, TSMC
• A16Z (Andreessen Horowitz)

Key Figures:

• Mira Murati, Sam Altman, Elon Musk
• Masa Son (SoftBank)

The AI talent wars are reshaping venture capital, with teams commanding billion-dollar valuations before building products. Meanwhile, open-source robotics and autonomous vehicles are hitting critical adoption thresholds. Australia sits at a crossroads - blessed with resources but held back by policy and culture.

Perfect for: Founders, VCs, tech operators, and anyone tracking the intersection of AI, robotics, and geopolitics.

Built 2 Scale delivers weekly deep dives into the tech trends reshaping business. Subscribe for founder-focused insights on startups, AI agents, robotics, and the future of work.

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Scott returns from China with a chipped tooth and eye-opening insights into Shenzhen's tech dominance, while Matt reports from Vegas conferences. This week: Zuckerberg's $15B talent grab, Jensen's European roadmap, the reality behind viral ARR growth, and why Tesla's $40K robo-taxi approach might crush Waymo's $180K strategy.

Timestamp Segment

00:00:00 Headlines — The mystery week off, China revelations, talent wars

00:01:19 Scott's Shenzhen dental disaster (cardboard water box incident)

00:04:07 Limitless pendant returns + DIY AirTag hack strategy

00:04:51 Talent acquisition mania: Alexander Wang's $15B vs Johnny Ive's $6.5B

00:08:10 Apple intern's "LLMs are stupid" research paper

00:10:49 China Deep Dive: Hong Kong's 4,000 towers vs Sydney's 50

00:15:45 Manufacturing tour: half-price + not automated yet

00:19:27 Dual-stack strategy: Huawei backend, Nvidia frontend

00:21:09 Matt's Vegas conference intel—Premier partnership breakthrough

00:28:42 ARR speed-running: quality vs viral growth metrics

00:31:01 Impulse tool purchasing—the Hawk Tuah of SaaS revenue

00:32:49 AI News: Google VO3 & Flow viral video generation

00:40:28 Jensen in Paris: NVIDIA's full-stack Europe awakening

00:46:28 ChatGPT tools integration vs Slack's data restrictions

00:53:02 Perplexity Labs: Greg Eisenberg's 5-job replacement tweet

00:58:00 Tool of the Week: ChatGPT Projects upgrade for client pitches

01:07:31 Robot Rundown: Tesla $40K vs Waymo $180K robo-taxi costs

01:13:14 Autonomous drones beat world champion human pilot

01:17:19 Next Week Preview: Building Australia's own Shenzhen

• Peak AI Bubble Behavior – Buying talent without products
• China Manufacturing Dominance – Shenzhen's 40-year transformation
• ARR Quality vs Quantity – Viral growth vs sustainable revenue
• Data Ownership Wars – Big Tech fighting for your information
• AI-Native Workforce – 18-year-olds eating everyone's lunch
• Custom GPT Enterprise Strategy – Turning AI into sales weapons
• Autonomous Vehicle Economics – First principles vs bolt-on approaches

• Alexander Wang / Scale AI ($15B Meta acquisition)
• Jensen Huang Paris GTC speeches
• ChatGPT Projects tool integration
• Perplexity Labs capabilities
• Notebook LM research synthesis
• Tesla Robo-taxi vs Waymo cost analysis
• DJI autonomous drone championships
• Built 2 Scale incubator concept

Founders Scott Wilcox (construction/property) and Matt Perrott (BuildPass) explore startups, AI, manufacturing, and the intersection of physical + digital innovation. Fresh insights drop weekly.

• YouTube: @built2scale
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• Social: @built2scale

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