Sarkar: Neuralink Brain Chip Used on Patients

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00:00There was so much talk about the types of chips that the UAE would get access to,

00:05and it seems as though now there is an agreement with the U.S. to start sending over the first

00:09shipment of these NVIDIA chips. To what way does that help advance this region's goals,

00:17ambitions as another AI financial center? AI center, I should say.

00:22Yeah, yeah. You know, Middle East is now a very different region. Culture sets the precedent. So

00:28what we see right now in Middle East is completely different. I mean, they are enabling

00:32frontier technology. They are leading investments from Mubadla to Adaya to Qatar investments.

00:38And with an information flow that we are seeing in the market, I think it's a great political

00:44framework discovery for the United States, and Middle East has always been an ally to the United

00:49States. So it's a great opportunity, I do believe, because you don't want certain kind of technology

00:55to be available to only certain countries or certain sort of the people.

01:01And is your own company looking at investment opportunities over here in the region?

01:04Yeah, I mean, that's why I'm here. I'm speaking at Super Return today, and I'm hugely excited to be

01:09here because every year I come, we have limited partners here. We are highly excited to learn about

01:15the data centers that's getting built in Middle East, and there are huge opportunities. So there's a

01:20huge amount of collaboration that can be done from both the shores.

01:23And are any of your portfolio companies looking to use some of the compute power supplied by the

01:28UAE and Saudi Arabia? That's been a big focus, obviously, for both of those countries.

01:33Yeah, absolutely. So I think Cohere, which is one of our Canadian LLM company, they came down to

01:40Middle East multiple times. They had multiple discussions with some of the country heads and

01:46some of the big corporations. We also had another portfolio called Tense Torrent, which is another chip

01:51company. And they are in Middle East and having multiple discussions. So we are very positive,

01:56and we are looking forward to various collaborations.

01:59And is the attraction, I mean, one of the things I would say is perhaps the main attraction is the

02:05costs, right? The costs of running this power generation is so much lower because you have

02:10affordable, cheap, and pretty consistent energy supply in the UAE and in Saudi Arabia to power

02:17some of those data centers. Is that one of the appeals?

02:20I think the first appeal is, I definitely think, as I said, like culture sets the precedence.

02:25I think UAE, Saudi Arabia has set the precedence that they are open to Western technology,

02:31Western mindset. And I think that is pushing a lot of conversation, but also the amount of resources

02:37that are available and energy, obviously, renewable energies, opportunities. So I think that is opening up

02:44a huge door for a couple of our existing portfolio companies, but also other companies that we are

02:51looking at. They're already talking very highly about Middle East.

02:54Yeah. Let me ask you about the bigger topic at the moment, which is U.S., China, geopolitical rivalry.

03:01And I just wonder whether you see scope for both U.S. and China emerging into AI superpowers in coming years.

03:09Yeah. So, I mean, we are living in an information age. Everything can change when it comes to geopolitics,

03:15and country heads are making decisions based on those changes. So as a venture capitalist,

03:21we are always optimistic. But I think China has for a long time been appreciative of Western technologies,

03:27but now it is maintaining a strong foothold on manufacturing. But also when it comes to AI and robotics,

03:34with Unitree and with DeepSeq, you can see they have created these opportunities with

03:39one-tenth or maybe one-hundredth of prices. So I think it will be interesting to see how China

03:45goes further ahead. But U.S. has been maintaining its, I'll say, precedents and being the first when

03:53it comes to chip design. There will be geopolitical tension. But again, as I said, you don't want to live

03:59in a regressive society where only one country has certain kind of technologies. I think it's great

04:04that we advance technologies together as a society.

04:07Yeah. Okay. I want to ask you about something else that you've spoken about in your portfolio.

04:12You have an investment in Neuralink and BCIs. And for those who are not familiar with BCIs,

04:17brain-computer interface. It's a fascinating technology. And essentially, you can speak to machines by thought.

04:25I mean, if I want to break it down to ultimately what this technology is. First of all, how far along

04:33are we in this process?

04:34So I'm very, very proud of Neuralink, one of our portfolios. And I think the amount of work

04:39that has been done to make quadriplegic and paraplegic enabled, especially being independent,

04:45that's huge. Because I think many of our family members and in our society, especially among veterans

04:50and others, you can, I mean, the advancement is so huge that FDA has approved people who are born

04:57blind, they can see. So the brain-computer interface is basically you are connecting with

05:02an external device with your brain. And this has been not just in healthcare industry, but also in

05:10military and other industries. So I say that, you know, we talk about AI, how AI is advancing. Now we

05:16are enabling humans to be competing with AI. And is it actually being tested on patients?

05:21Yes, there are almost 12 patients and in US and also abroad. And I think there are clinics being

05:28set up in Middle East and London and Canada. So we are extremely positive with the amount of effort

05:34that is being put. And, you know, these are all FDA approved. So it's safe. I think that's the number

05:40one, I think, focus for Neuralink to make sure it's safe. And, you know, you see the neurological

05:45advancement that these devices have created. And that's amazing.

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