Everyone’s obsessed with AI.

Almost no one understands the war that’s already being fought.

In this episode of Not Another Podcast, Brennan Pothetes sits down with Nicole Maffeo, a former Bridgewater investor, ex-Google AI leader, and co-founder of Gambit Robotics, to unpack who’s really winning the global AI race.

From China’s surveillance-driven data advantage to the U.S.’s bureaucratic slowdown, Nicole and Brennan break down the uncomfortable truth:

AI isn’t just a tech trend. It’s a new geopolitical weapon.

They dive into:

– Why China’s data dominance and rare-earth control are reshaping global power

– How the U.S. is falling behind in energy, compute, and long-term vision

– Why hardware is the only real moat left in the AI era

– And how Nicole’s building a real robot that cooks your dinner — proving that applied AI can actually improve life right now

This isn’t another hype session about AGI. It’s a brutally honest conversation about how fast we’re falling behind and how founders can still win if they move now.

Timestamps

00:00 – Cold open: “We’re not winning the AI race.”

02:20 – Nicole’s wild career path: Bridgewater → Google AI → Robotics startup

06:00 – What Google got right (and wrong) about AI

09:00 – Why Gemini is back — and what it says about Big Tech’s comeback

14:00 – The problem with humanoid robots and building for 10 years from now

17:50 – The practical robotics revolution: AI that actually cooks your dinner

24:00 – Why foundational model companies are moving into hardware

27:00 – China’s AI strategy vs. America’s red tape

33:00 – Why compute and rare-earth minerals decide who wins

40:00 – The new “space race” for AI dominance

44:00 – Can America’s capitalist chaos still beat China’s centralization?

47:00 – The Middle East and India’s surprising AI momentum

50:00 – Why founders still have an edge: trust and human-in-the-loop

55:00 – The end of software moats: why data + hardware are everything

59:00 – The burnout of keeping up with AI as a founder

1:03:00 – Why building in New York gives founders an unfair advantage

1:06:00 – How SMBs and small founders can still win the AI era

1:08:00 – Closing thoughts: hardware, humanity, and what comes next

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