Designing the Physical World with AI
The a16z Show
a16z
4.2 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 11 June 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | I want to be able to spin up a hardware company the same way that my friends spin up B2B SaaS. |
| 0:06.0 | Like, you should be able to say, I want to do something that's considered very hard and just go and do it. |
| 0:11.0 | We basically built a compiler that gives the model enough hints that it feels like it's writing a Python program instead of designing a circuit board. |
| 0:20.0 | It's basically this combination of a very model-led approach that allows you to use these agents |
| 0:25.1 | to write code, which is what they know how to do. Put on Rails. |
| 0:28.5 | Everything is code. The last frontier standing is we don't have enough data. The data is |
| 0:33.6 | the thing that we need to generate it as a society if we want circuit boards to be automated by AI. |
| 0:38.8 | Making sure that you design the system to actually be fully autonomous and to not be human in the loop. |
| 0:43.7 | I think for us at least, it feels like it's driven a very different architecture. |
| 0:48.5 | What happens when intelligence gets cheap, but the physical world stays slow? |
| 0:53.7 | In the 20th century, industrial power came from the ability to design and build at scale. |
| 0:59.0 | From assembly lines to semiconductor fabs, progress meant compressing time between idea and output. |
| 1:05.0 | Software accelerated that loop to near zero, but in construction and manufacturing, timelines still stretch |
| 1:11.9 | into years, shaped by fragmented workflows, fixed incentives, and systems that resist change. |
| 1:19.2 | Now that's starting to shift. |
| 1:21.0 | AI can write code, run simulations, and generate designs across thousands of permutations. |
| 1:27.3 | The question is whether that translates into faster builds or just better plans. |
| 1:32.2 | I want to understand what it takes to actually move atoms, not just bits. |
| 1:37.4 | A16Z general partner Aaron Price-Rite speaks with Alex Modin, |
| 1:41.7 | co-founder and CEO at Unlimited Industries, and Davide Asnagi, CEO at Diode Computers. |
| 1:51.0 | We're thrilled to be here today with Davidei Asnagi and Alex Modin. Davide is the CEO of diode computers, |
| 1:58.3 | and they're using AI to design and manufacture custom circuit boards |
... |
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