Friday 5.0: MCP, GTC, AI megaclusters and US vs. China in AI, Vibe coded retirement planning, and 12 Inevitable Technology Forces
A Friday scan of tech topics I'm diving into in the world of Compute/AI/Robotics/Energy, cool tools I'm using, and books for your reading- / playlist
Table of Contents:
Topics I’m Studying: Model Context Protocol (MCP) and NVIDIA GTC 2025
Videos to Watch: DeepSeek, China, OpenAI, NVIDIA, xAI, TSMC, Stargate, and AI Megaclusters
Tools I’m playing with: Vibe coding my retirement
Books to Read: Inevitable Technology Trends, by Kevin Kelly
Topics I’m Studying
Model Context Protocol (MCP) isn't just another tech standard for how AI agents communicate, it might be the missing puzzle piece that finally lets AI assistants tap into enterprise data without requiring an army of data engineers building custom connectors for every data source.
MCP is the difference between having a “brilliant but isolated” AI assistant versus unleashing an interconnected ecosystem of AI agents that can actually get things done across an organization.
I think we’re still very early on MCP’s overall adoption, and there might be better standards just around the corner, but the fact that we’re seeing these standards emerge and being adopted makes me very bullish on the overall AI agent ecosystem. Maybe soon I can finally get that “AI travel agent” I’m dreaming of…
To go deeper, I would recommend the following:
NVIDIA’s GTC 2025: Oh, to have been at San Jose Convention Center for NVIDIA’s GTC this year. So many cool announcements this year, from new Compute Hardware to Physical AI (“robotics”, as some would call it).
If you really want to go deep on GTC this year, I recommend the following article from Semianalysis:
To pick the announcements that hit the headlines I found most interesting:
Blackwell Ultra GPU: Next-generation Blackwell Ultra GPU, set for release in the second half of 2025
AI Factory Platform: NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra AI Factory Platform, designed to accelerate training and test-time scaling inference
DGX Personal AI Computers: New DGX AI computers powered by Blackwell Ultra chips, including DGX Spark and DGX Station
Agentic AI and Reasoning Models: Open Llama Nemotron family of models with enhanced reasoning capabilities, designed for creating advanced AI agents
Silicon Photonics Networking: Spectrum-X and Quantum-X silicon photonics networking switches, which use light for data transmission
Do yourself a favor, and watch this 16-minute super cut of Jensen’s keynote:
Videos I’m Watching
Another great podcast with Dylan Patel of Semianalysis - this time on Lex Friendman together with Nathan Lambert - in a major deep dive on the current and future state of AI - and the geopolitics and supply chain struggles around it.
It’s just over 5 hours total, but worth every minute
Tools I’m Playing With
Embracing the world of “vibe coding”, I’ve been playing around with Replit Agent to build some fun calculators aimed at settling some recent dinner party discussions. The discussion was around retirement planning (never too early) and the long-term impact of management fees and risk on ones future wealth.
With Replit, I was able to build a calculator for a number of these discussions in about 15 minutes. Pretty awesome.
You can check out the tool yourself: “FINANCIAL PLANNER”
Books I’m Reading
The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future - by Kevin Kelly. According to KK there are twelve technological forces that govern our civilization - where intelligence is embedded everywhere, ownership gives way to access, and humans collaborate with machines rather than being replaced by them. Rather than fearing these inevitable disruptions, Kelly argues that we should shape and surf these tech waves instead, and that creating just 1% more than we as humans destroy each year compounds into civilization itself
About Me
Working at the interface between frontier technology and rapidly evolving business models, I work to develop the frameworks, tools, and mental models to keep up and get ahead in our Technological World.
Having trained as a robotics engineer but also worked on the business / finance side for over a decade, I seek to understand those few asymmetric developments that truly shape our world
You can also find me on X, LinkedIn or www.andreasproesch.com