Fan Tan Smith

Founder and CEO of

[Fan Tan Smith @FanTanSmith3]

Attending NVIDIA GTC 2026 this week and the energy around AI and robotics is absolutely electric.

It was wonderful to see Jensen Huang in the exhibition hall and to have a great conversation and exchange with Michael Dell, Founder and CEO of Dell Technologies. Moments like these highlight how powerful collaboration across the technology ecosystem can be.

Jensen’s keynote captured a major turning point for our industry. AI is no longer just about models — it’s becoming real-world systems. We are entering the era of AI factories, agentic AI, and physical AI, where intelligence moves beyond the cloud and into robots, machines, and infrastructure operating in the physical world.

For those of us building in robotics, this moment feels especially significant. The convergence of AI, edge computing, and autonomous systems is accelerating faster than ever.

Excited to connect, learn, and explore what comes next for the future of AI-powered robotics.

#GTC2026 #NVIDIA #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Robotics #HumanoidRobots #PhysicalAI #AgenticAI #EdgeAI #AutonomousSystems #DeepLearning #MachineLearning #FutureOfWork #Innovation #TechLeadership #Dell #DellTechnologies #smAIT #FanTanSmith

[Andrew Ng @AndrewYNg]

U.S. policies are driving allies away from using American AI technology. This is leading to interest in sovereign AI — a nation’s ability to access AI technology without relying on foreign powers. This weakens U.S. influence, but might lead to increased competition and support for open source.

The U.S. invented the transistor, the internet, and the transformer architecture powering modern AI. It has long been a technology powerhouse. I love America, and am working hard towards its success. But its actions over many years, taken by multiple administrations, have made other nations worry about over reliance on it.

In 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. sanctions on banks linked to Russian oligarchs resulted in ordinary consumers’ credit cards being shut off. Shortly before leaving office, Biden implemented “AI diffusion” export controls that limited the ability of many nations — including U.S. allies — to buy AI chips.

Under Trump, the “America first” approach has significantly accelerated pushing other nations away. There have been broad and chaotic tariffs imposed on both allies and adversaries. Threats to take over Greenland. An unfriendly attitude toward immigration — an overreaction to the chaos at the southern border during Biden’s administration — including atrocious tactics by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) that resulted in agents shooting dead Renée Good, Alex Pretti, and others. Global media has widely disseminated videos of ICE terrorizing American cities, and I have highly skilled, law-abiding friends overseas who now hesitate to travel to the U.S., fearing arbitrary detention.

Given AI’s strategic importance, nations want to ensure no foreign power can cut off their access. Hence, sovereign AI.

Sovereign AI is still a vague, rather than precisely defined, concept. Complete independence is impractical: There are no good substitutes to AI chips designed in the U.S. and manufactured in Taiwan, and a lot of energy equipment and computer hardware are manufactured in China. But there is a clear desire to have alternatives to the frontier models from leading U.S. companies OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. Partly because of this, open-weight Chinese models like DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, and GLM are gaining rapid adoption, especially outside the U.S.

When it comes to sovereign AI, fortunately one does not have to build everything. By joining the global open-source community, a nation can secure its own access to AI. The goal isn’t to control everything; rather, it is to make sure no one else can control what you do with it. Indeed, nations use open source software like Linux, Python, and PyTorch. Even though no nation can control this software, no one else can stop anyone from using it as they see fit.

This is spurring nations to invest more in open source and open weight models. The UAE (under the leadership of my former grad-school officemate Eric Xing!) just launched K2 Think, an open-source reasoning model. India, France, South Korea, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, and others are developing domestic foundation models, and many more countries are working to ensure access to compute infrastructure under their control or perhaps under trusted allies’ control.

Global fragmentation and erosion of trust among democracies is bad. Nonetheless, a silver lining would be if this results in more competition. U.S. search engines Google and Bing came to dominate web search globally, but Baidu (in China) and Yandex (in Russia) did well locally. If nations support domestic champions — a tall order given the giants’ advantages — perhaps we’ll end up with a larger number of thriving companies, which would slow down consolidation and encourage competition. Further, participating in open source is the most inexpensive way for countries to stay at the cutting edge.

Last week, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, many business and government leaders spoke about their growing reluctance to rely on U.S. technology providers and desire for alternatives. Ironically, “America first” policies might end up strengthening the world’s access to AI.

[Original text: https://t.co/Nr5kfzcs5w ]

[Fan Tan Smith @FanTanSmith3]

What an extraordinary day at the Nebius Robotics & Physical AI Awards at the Computer History Museum. Congratulations to all the finalists and winners — and thanks to Nebius and NVIDIA for creating a platform that truly elevates Robotics and Physical AI.

It was an honor to meet and exchange insights with industry leaders shaping the future of robotics: Brad Porter — Founder & CEO of Cobot; Lindon Gao — Co-Founder & CEO of Dyna Robotics; Calvin Zhou — Co-Founder of Roboforce; Adrian Macneil — Co-Founder & CEO of Foxglove; Amit Goel, Nvidia, thank you all — I am deeply grateful for the conversations, insights, and shared purpose.

The future of robotics will not be defined by any one company —but by a community bold enough to imagine it together.

Onward.

#PhysicalAI #Robotics #AI #Autonomy #EmbodiedIntelligence #NVIDIAInception #Nebius #NVIDIA #RoboticsCommunity #FutureOfWork #HumanRobotCollaboration #Innovation #DeepTech #StartupEcosystem #smAIT

[Fan Tan Smith @FanTanSmith3]

@FutureJurvetson @jonc101x Interesting! AI > AI+Human — less bias, more accuracy, stronger empathy. Maybe humans will shift from diagnosis to oversight & trust?

[Fan Tan Smith @FanTanSmith3]

At Stanford’s Next Revolution of AI Summit—a global gathering shaping how AI transforms science, industry, and society—I had great conversations with Rodney Brooks, the legend of robotics, and the brilliant Steve Jurvetson, a visionary in deep tech and venture capital.

This summit brings together the most influential voices shaping our intelligent future—and what sets it apart is not just who’s in the room, but what’s being built.

The future of AI and robotics is truly exciting.

#AI #Robotics #Innovation #Stanford

[Fan Tan Smith @FanTanSmith3]

“From infrastructure to applications—the future of AI is convergence.” Thanks Modular AI for hosting this great event.

Wonderful conversations with Chris Lattner (Co-founder & CEO, Modular AI) and Feifan Fan (Inworld AI)tonight. Chris: “Democratizing AI compute means enabling more people to innovate.” He also unveiled Modular’s roadmap—with Apple Silicon GPU support launched tonight. Congrats!

Modular AI is a fully integrated platform that accelerates GenAI deployments with industry-leading performance—hardware-agnostic, no CUDA required. It makes running and scaling open models seamless, while giving developers full-stack customization with Mojo.

The future of AI is powerful, scalable, and human-centered—and I’m excited to explore how these advances can power robotics and real-world AI applications.

#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #GenerativeAI #ModularAI #InworldAI #Robotics #AIinRobotics #VoiceAI #AIInfrastructure #ScalableAI #FutureOfAI

[Fan Tan Smith @FanTanSmith3]

This is brilliance — thank you Steve Jurvetson for curating and sharing these.

Art has a way of cutting through time, politics, and circumstance to remind us of our shared humanity. Thankful for voices like Banksy’s… and for Steve’s eye in bringing them forward.

1. Putin’s pitiful projection — haunting in its simplicity.
2. A wall in The Jungle refugee camp — a reminder of displacement and resilience.
3. Snorting Copper, painstakingly recovered brick by brick after officials tried to erase it — truth always finds its way back.
4. Girl with Balloon — still lifting hearts, still inspiring hope.

[Steve Jurvetson @FutureJurvetson]

𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐒𝐘! 🥀
1) Putin's pitiful projection
2) A wall in "The Jungle", a Syrian refugee camp. Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant to the U.S.
3) Snorting Copper, recovered brick by brick after local officials covered it up
4) Girl with Balloon... still inspires us

[Fan Tan Smith @FanTanSmith3]

What a beautiful Pink Party celebrating Women founders in AI!

Self-built women in AI aren’t a sidebar—we are the force of transformation. 💖

Cheers to all the pink ladies who are building, leading, and transforming the future of AI together. 💖

And a special congratulations to HerPower AI on the launch—another milestone for women shaping the future of technology.

#WomenInAI #AI #Leadership #smAIT #PinkParty #Purpose

[Fan Tan Smith @FanTanSmith3]

What a Profound Honor! I’m incredibly grateful to receive the Best Female CEO of the Year 2025 award from the Leader 100 Global Wealth and Leadership Forum, presented to me by Sonoma Mayor Jack Ding.

This isn’t just recognition—it’s a reminder of the responsibility we carry when we choose to lead with purpose.

I accept this award with deep gratitude—for every woman who chooses to lead, to build, to boldly reimagine what’s possible, with vision and courage.

This is not a finish line. It’s the frontier. And let me be clear: We are just getting started.

At smAIT, we’re not just building robots—we’re building a future where technology serves humanity with compassion, intelligence, and reliability.

This award is for the women who lead, the founders who persevere, and the teams who believe.

It was also a great honor to spend this weekend at the beautiful Sonoma estate with some of the world’s most brilliant and inspiring leaders—exchanging ideas, sharing visions, and celebrating bold leadership that shapes a better future.

Thank you to the Leader100 committee, Jojo Garden, the City of Sonoma, my team, and the global community walking this path with me.

Let’s keep building.
Let’s lead with purpose.
Let’s empower the next generation to rise—
and to everyone who shares in this vision:
Onward.

#BestFemaleCEO #Leader100 #WomenWhoLead #AIWithPurpose #smAIT #LeadershipMatters #RoboticsWithSoul #WeAreJustGettingStarted #Empowerment #VisionAndCourage #GlobalLeadership #Sonoma2025

[Fan Tan Smith @FanTanSmith3]

When I stood beneath those soaring arches years ago, I felt something awaken inside me—something ancient, soft, and wordless. It wasn’t just awe. It was a quiet magic that reached into my soul, as if Gaudí had built a temple not of stone, but of light, spirit, and dreams. I couldn’t explain it then, and maybe I never will. But I left changed.❤️

[The AI Investor @The_AI_Investor]

If you still don't get Nvidia and the AI opportunity, watch this 10 times.

This was from January 2024, and it's becoming even more obvious now, Jensen is a true visionary. $NVDA

[Fan Tan Smith @FanTanSmith3]

Absolutely agree that AI’s energy capacity is a bottleneck —but the cost is just as critical. In Silicon Valley, we’re paying around $0.56/kWh, while in China it’s roughly $0.08/kWh. As the founder of a robotics company, I feel the pressure daily. High power costs make it incredibly hard to stay competitive, especially when scaling compute-heavy operations. If we’re serious about rebuilding U.S. manufacturing, EVs, robotics, and AI, we need not just more power—but affordable power.

[Fan Tan Smith @FanTanSmith3]

Truly energizing to be part of the 2nd Annual NYSE Wired Summit: Silicon Valley Robotics & AI Infrastructure Leaders. Wonderful gathering at the beautiful Rosewood Sand Hill with fellow innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, and AI visionaries.

A big thanks to Brian J. Baumann, Kwiri Yang, John Furrier, Dave Vellante, and the entire NYSE Wired x theCUBE x Quantum AI Ecosystem team for bringing us together. The curated conversations, deep connections, and exchange of ideas will certainly spark new collaborations.

Looking forward to continuing the journey with many of you

#AI #Robotics #Innovation #NYSEWired #QuantumAIEcosystem #smAIT #Leadership #Collaboration

[Fan Tan Smith @FanTanSmith3]

What an inspiring evening! Deep gratitude to Garry Tan, President & CEO of Y Combinator, for graciously opening his home and creating a space where faith, leadership, and technology could intersect so meaningfully.

Pat Gelsinger, a visionary CEO with 45+ years in Silicon Valley, didn’t share a highlight reel—he shared the valleys: raw stories of failure, doubt, and perseverance. What carried him through? Faith. Purpose. Integrity.

[Fan Tan Smith @FanTanSmith3]

Thanks for sharing, Steve. Fascinating perspective from Schmidt—less hype, more reckoning. The future of AI isn’t just about breakthroughs, but infrastructure, governance, and global dynamics. Superintelligence in five years? If that’s even close to true, lets build with foresight, not just ambition.

[Fan Tan Smith @FanTanSmith3]

What an inspiring evening at the 2025 Asia Game Changer West Awards Gala! It was an honor to be in the company of extraordinary individuals who are shaping the future with vision, courage, and brilliance. Congratulations to this year’s remarkable awardees:

Andrew Ng – a true pioneer in artificial intelligence whose work continues to transform industries and empower millions.

Daniel Dae Kim – an actor, producer, and advocate whose talent and leadership have elevated the voices of the AAPI community on a global stage.

Phyllis Kao – a trailblazing auctioneer at Sotheby’s who brings elegance, expertise, and cultural depth to the world of fine art.

[Fan Tan Smith @FanTanSmith3]

Incredible few days at #GTC! Grateful to @NVIDIA and the Inception program for empowering startups like smAiT to build service robots that predict, adapt, and evolve alongside people. Great seeing old friends and meeting new ones! #AI #Robotics #Innovation