20VC: The Future of Datacentres: What You Need to Know | Why Everyone Gets GPU Depreciation and AI's Energy Costs Wrong | Who Really Makes Money From AI & Why Most Moats Don't Exist with Chase Lochmiller

Chase Lochmiller (0:00)

So, absent having a purpose, I was like, man, I guess I should get rich. That's maybe the next best thing to having a monastic calling that you're devoted to. The infrastructure to support AI wasn't gonna be centralized, it was gonna be distributed where energy was low cost and abundant. Energy prices actually come down. It's actually the opposite of the narrative that's being told. People are very emotional about data centers. There's really like three products that we ultimately sell to customers and we're making money. We can sell data centers, we can sell GPUs and we can sell tokens. Well, you know, the GPU is actually the most valuable thing in the entire data center. Most moats are an illusion. Most moats don't exist.

Harry Stebbings (0:40)

This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings. Now, my job is to bring you the most relevant interviews in technology. Right now, we are in a race for data centers, for compute capacity, for energy and there is not a more pertinent guest that could join me in the hot seat today than Chase Lochmiller from Crusoe Energy. They provide several different layers of this very important business, which is they provide the data centers, they can provide the compute, and then they can provide the inference. Three of the most valuable pillars of this value chain. He sits down today to join me, following their $3.9 billion Series F, which was raised at a $30.9 billion valuation. Get the notebooks out. This one went very granular into the build out that's required over the next few years to supply the incessant demand for AI. But before we dive in to the show today, Founders and Investors sleep on 8 Sleep. It is the intelligent sleep system trusted by Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Charles Leclerc and the Aston Martin F1 team. The pod is a smart mattress cover that fits on any bed. It cools each side to 55 degrees, heats to 110 degrees. It even tracks your heart rate, HRV and sleep stages without a wearable. Thank god! The new pod 6 has a hub 50% smaller than the last one and starts at just $1999. Visit 8sleep.com/20vc.

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Chase Lochmiller (4:43)

I'm pumped to be here, man.

Harry Stebbings (4:44)

I am just going to start with a totally weird one that I never expect to start with. Mountaineering. I hear that you are an experienced and skilled mountaineer. I haven't had that often in the hot seat. What do you learn from mountaineering that you think makes you better as an entrepreneur?