Sovereign Albion

Who we are, where we're going & how we get there, told through the lens of the builders making it real. Host @andrewjb_, supported by @britishprogress.

[Sovereign Albion @sovereignalbion]

https://t.co/601PF3zYHW

[Andrew Bennett @andrewjb_]

How to scale cultural greatness, with @eli1ah

@eli1ah, an an artist, writer, DJ and founder of the @Butterz record label, is a very special person to have this @sovereignalbion conversation with: he came up through grime and pirate radio, a scene that produced something totally distinctive -- culturally, sonically and economically -- all while building its own infrastructure

this was an amazing discussion, covering:
07:19 cultural sovereignty and the role of media institutions in platforming British arts
10:29 power laws and talent spotting in record labels
13:46 cultural company building in the internet era
20:00 policy failures as a tax on connection & aspiration
30:43 public arts funding
31:59 rent as the creative director
34:08 london privilege
41:20 overcoming tall poppy syndrome
49:10 reviving patriotism

+ much more, all in service of a bigger question:
how do we platform, and scale, cultural greatness in Britain?

As always, thanks to @BritishProgress for supporting @sovereignalbion.

[Sovereign Albion @sovereignalbion]

https://t.co/hmG6reP6go

[Sovereign Albion @sovereignalbion]

How to find Albion, with Zakia Sewell:

On myth, folklore and the alternative spirit of Britain that could bring us together

Search @SovereignAlbion on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Youtube, etc

[Andrew Bennett @andrewjb_]

How to build a new AI paradigm, with @DanAkarca

A deeply ambitious new AI infrastructure company, based in London, launches today.

@CallosumAI has just raised $10.25m, led by @PluralPlatform, to unlock a world of heterogeneous compute that optimises between performance, cost, speed + sovereignty

If they're right, the implications go well beyond efficiency. If Callosum wins, they will build a global company by redistributing leverage globally, breaking our dependency on today’s dominant AI paradigm & rebuilding optionality across the world

00:00 The Brain as an Analogy for AI
04:38 Why One Big Model Fails
06:57 The Heterogeneous Compute Spectrum, from Datacentres to Edge Computing
11:54 Orchestrating Chips and Models
16:58 Supply, Demand and the Hardware Lottery
29:36 Value Beyond Chips
30:43 Bringing Chips to Market
35:50 Dynamic Compute Future
39:22 Funding and Roadmap
43:39 Riskiest Assumptions and Scaling the Team

[Andrew Bennett @andrewjb_]

How to invest in AI sovereignty, with @LawrenceLundy (Cloudberry VC) | @sovereignalbion

For the last year, I’ve been wrestling with what AI sovereignty means for us, here, in Britain:
- Should we focus on chokepoints if we can't really leverage them?
- Are there other strategies for energy and compute-constrained countries like Britain, or is the US capex buildout the only game?
- How do we build state capacity? What will it take for SovAI, the government’s new strategic AI venture fund, to succeed, especially given wider structural shifts in VC?

To explore these questions, I had a lot of fun catching up with my friend @LawrenceLundy, who has just launched Europe’s first dedicated semiconductor fund, Cloudberry. He’s spent his career going deep on frontier technologies and has thought more than almost anyone I know about the interplay of AI progress, structural shifts in venture capital, and UK sovereignty. Lemme know what you think.

00:00 Introduction
01:07 Launching Cloudberry VC
01:44 The Future of VC Funds: AUM Agglomerators vs Specialists
04:47 Semiconductors: Past, Present, and Future
10:21 The Importance of Edge Computing
12:58 Europe's Role in the Semiconductor Industry
21:38 Investing in New Applications
29:23 Government's Role in AI and Semiconductors
33:08 Complexity and Capabilities in Industrial Strategy
35:57 Domain Elasticity and Building Conviction in New Founders
41:41 Lawrence's Decision Making Process
47:40 The European Venture Capital Landscape
53:43 Raising Collective Ambition

[Sovereign Albion @sovereignalbion]

Launch ep! Let’s go: