Are we already in the Singularity? | E24

This Week In Startups is made possible by:Paypal OpenToday’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.GuestsGrant Lee on X: https://x.com/thisisgrantleeGamma: https://gamma.app/Philip Johnston on X: https://x.com/PhilipJohnstonStarcloud: https://www.starcloud.com/Relevant LinksTechCrunch: 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.pdfCNBC 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.htmlKimi K3: https://www.kimi.com/enCrusoe announces strategic Starcloud partnership: https://www.crusoe.ai/resources/newsroom/crusoe-to-become-first-cloud-operator-in-space-through-partnership-with-starcloudAndrej Karpathy on YouTube: “Let’s Build GPT”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCc8FmEb1nYDemis Hassabis Starcloud post on X: https://x.com/demishassabis/status/1999296127276126417RAISE Summit: https://www.raisesummit.com/Lilian Weng exits Thinking Machines post: https://x.com/lilianweng/status/2081816923088814421Baseten: https://www.baseten.co/Fireworks AI: https://fireworks.ai/Legora: https://legora.com/OpenEvidence: https://www.openevidence.com/Yahoo: Stripe in talks to acquire OpenRouter: https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/stripe-talks-acquire-openrouter-potential-215104525.htmlSam Altman on the Relentless podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv3CEAS_w34TechCrunch: Cursor India-only pricing tier: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/27/cursor-makes-its-biggest-india-push-yet-ahead-of-spacex-acquisition-with-localized-pricing/Gergely Orosz: The Pragmatic Engineer: https://www.pragmaticengineer.com/Timestamps:0:00 Guest intros: Grant Lee (Gamma) and Philip Johnston (Starcloud)1:22 Nvidia's open weight letter8:11 Starcloud's first H100 in space19:47 Series A extension economics20:39 How Gamma stayed lean and balanced work and fun30:40 Betting on a compute-constrained world35:48 Different approaches to pricing44:59 Where does the AI moat really live?57:41 Are we in the Singularity?1:04:42 Starcloud's mission to Alpha CentauriSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisCheck out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com