Advanced Manufacturing · Cusp AI pioneers royalty-based materials discovery for semiconductors

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China China China, Substack & Pangram Fight Slop, Is It Bleak to Lock In, Search Fund Fairy Tale

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Cusp AI pioneers royalty-based materials discovery for semiconductors

2026-07-21 · 6 company · 6 thematic

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speakers

ferdinand deitz

Founder of Augustus, a modern correspondent bank using AI to automate dollar clearing and expand global dollar access. Raised $180M Series B at $1B valuation from Tiger Global.

kaiwei tang

Co-founder of Light Phone, a minimalist phone company offering modern utilities without the attention economy business model. Launched $299 Light Phone Flip.

chris best

Founder of Substack, a publishing platform for subscription newsletters. Launched AI detection feature with Pangram to combat 'slop' and emphasize human connection.

stephen

Co-founder of WOB (blob), an API-first platform enabling AI agents to programmatically run businesses—payments, ads, labor—via a new CLI.

zane dar

Founder of Dimension, a venture capital firm that closed $800M Fund III investing at the frontiers of science and compute: silicon, ML infrastructure, world models, and next-gen medicines.

chad edwards

Co-founder of Cusp AI, a generative materials discovery platform for semiconductors, energy, and climate. Raised $450M from Bezos, Kleiner Perkins, NEA using a royalty-based business model.

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