The future is explained in Palo Alto

On Wednesday night at PlayGround Global in Palo Alto, some very smart people who are building things we don’t yet understand will explain what’s coming. This is the last StrictlyVC event of 2025 and the line-up is truly ridiculous.

This series has traveled the world under the auspices of TechCrunch. Steve Case rented a theater in Washington, DC. We spoke with the Greek Prime Minister in Athens. Kirsten Greene hosted us at the Presidio in San Francisco. However, the concept is always the same. That means bringing together people working on really important developments in a small environment before others realize their importance.

One of our favorite moments was when Sam Altman told the StrictlyVC audience in 2019 that OpenAI’s monetization strategy is essentially “build AGI and then ask how do we monetize it?” Everyone laughed. He wasn’t kidding.

This time, we’re introduced to Nicholas Keres, a particle accelerator physicist who spent 20 years at the Department of Energy building things that should be impossible. He is currently tackling semiconductor manufacturing’s biggest problems. That means every advanced chip relies on a $400 million machine that uses a laser and only one company in the Netherlands knows how to make it. (Some people are even more annoyed: Americans invented the technology and then sold it to Europe.) Keres is building the next generation in America using particle accelerator technology. It may sound nerdy, but it’s also extremely important at this point. Competition for the same prize is also intensifying.

And Mina Fahmi has created a ring that captures your whispered thoughts and turns them into text. Before you roll your eyes, know that he and co-founder Kirak Hong had been working on this at Meta for years after the company was acquired. Stream Ring isn’t trying to be your friend, it’s trying to extend your brain. With help from operator Toni Schneider, who extended the early WordPress, Sandbar has just emerged from stealth and may be on to something. (Schneider is a partner at True Ventures, whose other hardware investments include Peloton, Ring, and Fitbit. He also plans to be in Palo Alto next week.)

Max Hodak, the founder of Science Corporation, the cover of Time magazine, and the former co-founder of Neuralink, has already restored the sight of dozens of blind people with retinal implants. He is currently working on a “biohybrid” brain-computer interface in which a chip seeded with stem cells grows into brain tissue, allowing paralyzed people to control devices with their thoughts. In Hodak’s view, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, he thinks 2035 will look very different from today, and he’s happy to share what it looks like.

Finally, we’re pleased to welcome Chi-Hua Chien and Elizabeth Weil, two VCs who have backed Twitter, Spotify, TikTok, Slack, SpaceX, Figma, and Coinbase since before they were famous. Chien runs Goodwater Capital. After stints at Andreessen Horowitz and Twitter, Mr. Weil founded Scribble Ventures, where he made more than 100 angel investments and delivered a 4x return on his first fund. (Her network is annoyingly good.) As everyone pours capital into enterprise AI, they think Silicon Valley has completely misread the times, and here’s why.

PlayGround Global is co-hosted by General Partner Pat Gelsinger, former CEO of Intel. There will be drinks, delicious food, and a good time. Seating is limited, so if you want to go, act early.

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