Primary

We back magic makers.
Alloy, Alma, Etched, Vestwell, and more.

[The Compute 100 @thecompute100]

Today’s guests are Barun Kar, CEO, and @rkhemani, Executive Chairman at @upscale_ai_inc.

Barun and Rajiv’s bet is that the AI era needs its own network: open, standards-based and built to connect AI chips to each other.

From switch silicon to supply chains, we discuss:

- How scale-up and scale-out networks work
- Where copper, optics and optical switches fit
- Why open standards matter for AI chips
- What a network operating system does
- How Upscale secures its supply chain
- Building culture while scaling to 300 people

Timestamps:

0:00 Introduction
1:05 Why AI needs a new network
5:21 Why cloud-era chips fall short for AI
9:05 Scale-up and scale-out inside an AI rack
16:09 The Auradine spin-out and Upscale’s founding story
20:52 Memory semantics versus packet switching
27:23 From Cavium and Palo Alto Networks to Upscale
32:23 Competition and the system-level advantage
35:55 What a network operating system does
37:01 Optics and optical switching
41:45 Selling to hyperscalers, new clouds and enterprises
47:40 How big AI networking could get
50:43 Securing supply across the chain
54:29 Building at the forefront of AI
57:40 Beyond networking: what comes next
1:03:38 Building culture in a fast-growing company

Listen to the show, and follow along for new episodes every Tuesday.

[gaby lorenzi @gabyllorenzi]

grateful to have @achterbrain on today’s episode of The Compute 100! our conversation with Jascha stretched from the philosophy and science behind “all roads lead to heterogeneity” to helping chipmakers understand where their product fits in market. thanks Jascha for joining!

[The Compute 100 @thecompute100]

Today's guest is @austinsemis, the writer behind @chipstrat.

Austin started his career as an engineer at Intel before moving into startups and independent analysis. Today, he writes about semiconductors, optics, networking, and physical AI, bringing an engineer's perspective to what's happening across the compute stack.

We're thrilled to have him join us for a conversation on the state of the chip industry. Give it a listen!

[Brian Schechter @BSchech]

Not many people writing about chips actually trained as semiconductor physicists. @austinsemis did — grad work at Illinois, years at Intel — and it shows in every issue of Chipstrat. New episode of The Compute 100.

[gaby lorenzi @gabyllorenzi]

Big news! I’m heading west to SF with @PrimaryVC. And we're hiring three new roles for our compute team to work alongside @BSchech and me.

I believe compute is the most compelling, and challenging, market opportunity in my lifetime. Visionary founders are building toward a future they believe is inevitable, larger than we can imagine, and ripe for reinvention at every layer. I will echo Brian’s sentiment: something special is happening and a new generation is answering the call. It is our goal, and privilege, to support them on the path to doing so.

We are scaling our team to meet the moment. This is a fast-paced, high-agency, “take an idea and make it a reality” type of job. We have deep empathy for founders and understand the risks they are taking. We are humble about what we do not know, while being incredibly eager to learn from experts, founders, and teachers we meet along the way. We are students of the industry.

I started in venture just over three years ago. I was a data scientist who cold-applied to the job via LinkedIn. I absorbed “Venture Deals” before my first call with the Primary team just well enough to know what a SAFE was. I knew very little of the venture world. But, I felt I couldn’t sit idly by in one of the biggest technology transformations of our time, and believed that early-stage investing gives you a unique seat to watch the future unfold.

Our goal is to build something consequential here and we are just getting started. Come join us!

[Brian Schechter @BSchech]

https://t.co/cZ50KQtkst

[Jeff Dean @JeffDean]

Did you know you can learn interesting things from computations in real rat neurons? I love what @AlexKsendzovsky and team are doing at @BioComputingCo are doing.

[The Compute 100 @thecompute100]

Today’s guest is @NaveenGRao, CEO and founder of @unconvAI. Naveen has been early to some of the biggest, most influential markets in technology, building Nervana and MosaicML ahead of his current venture: Unconventional AI. To Naveen, the future of compute means that systems will look much more similar to how the real world computes, as opposed to a paradigm we’ve all accepted as the best fit. Listen to the episode for an early look into what Unconventional AI is building and Naveen’s perspective on their journey ahead.

[Primary @PrimaryVC]

It's back to school for the best of tech.

On September 16, Summit returns to NYC with @UbertiGavin, @lancearmstrong, @eastdakota, @c_valenzuelab, @tankots, @paraga and many more.

Final applications are open for one more week.

Apply: https://t.co/530ZaFkbiq

[Brian Schechter @BSchech]

https://t.co/cmFTjrTIIE

[Brian Schechter @BSchech]

Three years ago, almost everyone said Etched couldn’t be built.

Today, they’re shipping production systems to Jane Street.

Huge congrats to the entire @Etched team, @UbertiGavin and @robertwachen for your stunning leadership. Thank you @sonyatweetybird for seeing from the outside what had become obvious on the inside, @stripesco_ for betting on the company at such a crucial moment, and @patrick_oshag for your steadfast championing of the mission.

A personal reflection on this milestone:
https://t.co/mWy6y4p5tF

[Gavin Uberti @UbertiGavin]

@JaneStreetGroup @kleinerperkins @sequoia @a16z @BainCapVC @blackstone @stripesco_ @psumvc @PrimaryVC @neo @sonyatweetybird @abhishekm1636 @BSchech and @patrick_oshag were some of our earliest believers, and I'm humbled they have chosen to double down in every single subsequent round.

[Primary @PrimaryVC]

Massive news. Etched just shipped their first rack, and is now the largest private AI chip company.

[Etched @Etched]

We've raised $700M at a $21B valuation from Jane Street, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia, A16Z, Peter Thiel, BCV, and Blackstone.

We're also excited to share that we've shipped our first rack to Jane Street.

[Primary @PrimaryVC]

Six weeks until Summit 2026.

The lineup starts with founders and leaders from:
@vercel, @runwayml, @Etched,
@WisprFlow, @Cloudflare, @RogoAI, @every, and more.

September 16. NYC.

https://t.co/hb9ljZjVyT

[Jason Shuman @JasonrShuman]

Who are the top speakers people want to see at our NYC summit this year?

[Brian Schechter @BSchech]

Big moment. Much much bigger ones coming soon.

Congrats to everyone at @Etched and a huge welcome to the incredible investors joining the team: @sonyatweetybird w/ @sequoia, @sarahdingwang w/ @a16z, @victoralazarte, and many more.

Buckle up everyone 🚀🚀🚀

[Jason Shuman @JasonrShuman]

Hardware-enabled software sold visibility: dashboards, alerts and reports.

Hardware-activated agents sell completed work.

We believe that difference can unlock 10–40× more value per deployed unit by moving from software budgets into labor budgets.

If you are a Founder, Operator or Investor in the hardware ecosystem, check out our 49 slide thesis at the link below.

[The Compute 100 @thecompute100]

This week's guest on The Compute 100 podcast is @ChaseLochmiller, co-founder and CEO of @CrusoeAI.

Chase is building Crusoe, an energy-first AI company, deploying compute at gigawatt scale, and a key part of the biggest infrastructure buildout of all time. Link below.