The BOOM ROOM by Arcanum Ventures

Arcanum Ventures

The BOOM ROOM is the venture capital podcast for founders, funders, and deep tech enthusiasts building the future. Hosted by Arcanum Ventures — a pre-seed and seed stage VC fund focused on Europe — we go deep on AI, deep tech, robotics, space, blockchain, and what it really takes to build and fund frontier companies. Each week we sit down with the investors, founders, and operators shaping the next wave of European and global innovation. If you're raising a round, deploying capital, or just obsessed with where technology is going, this is your show. Follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Yo

  1. 1h ago

    ROUNDUP: Is the US AI Ultimatum Changing Everything?

    The United States drafted a letter to 35 countries telling them they may have to choose between the American AI ecosystem and China's, and not both.The initiative is called Pax Silica, built around cooperation on AI models, semiconductors, and critical minerals. Roughly two dozen countries have already signed on, including Japan, Australia, and South Korea. China has stood up its own competing organization, and when Kazakhstan quietly joined both, it set off alarms in Washington. The draft State Department letter warns that participating in the competing framework could mean exclusion from the US-led coalition. It's still a draft and could change, but the direction is unmistakable. AI is turning into a Cold War style alliance system, and by being the one forcing the choice, the US risks handing China the position of the reasonable partner that isn't making anyone pick.Also this week: the global bond market is selling off with the 30-year Treasury yield hitting its highest level since 2007, oil climbed back above $91 as the Strait of Hormuz stays effectively blockaded, Anthropic hit a $65 billion run rate and is projecting $200 billion by 2028 ahead of its IPO, China's LandSpace landed an orbital booster to join SpaceX and Blue Origin, and a European drought knocked Romanian nuclear reactors offline.Plus the biggest funding rounds of the week, including Databricks at a $190 billion valuation and Etched at $21 billion.Hosted by Carmelo Giuliano and Sasha Asheghi.Subscribe for weekly coverage of markets, deep tech, AI, blockchain, and venture.Timestamps:00:00 – Intro01:19 – The Global Bond Market Is Revolting04:03 – Oil Is Back Above $91 as Hormuz Stays Choked07:47 – Unitree Just Went Public and Exploded 460% on Day One12:15 – China Put More Than 2,000 Robots on Display in Beijing14:56 – China Just Landed Its Answer to SpaceX's Falcon 917:50 – Hungary Started Sinking Barges21:23 – Anthropic Is Pitching $200 Billion by 202825:33 – Pick U.S. AI or Chinese AI28:52 – The AI Data Center Boom32:24 – OpenAI's Giant Ohio Data Center36:09 – Prediction Markets: Finance or Gambling?40:24 – Austria Fines Bitpanda Under MiCA43:24 – France's Tax Authority Was Hacked46:54 – Biggest Fundraise of the Week50:37 – Outro--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------📍Useful Links for Arcanum Ventures:👉 Arcanum Venture Website: https://www.arcanum.ventures/👉 Arcanum Media Center: https://www.arcanum.ventures/media-center/👉 Arcanum Linktree: https://linktr.ee/arcanumventures👉 Arcanum Ventures X: x.com/ArcanumVentures👉 Arcanum Ventures LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arcanum-ventures/👉 Arcanum Telegram Community: https://t.me/Arcanumventures👉 Arcanum Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/ArcanumVenturesOfficial👉 Arcanum Instagram: https://t.me/Arcanumventures👉 Arcanum TikTok: https://www.arcanum.ventures/👉 Arcanum Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ArcanumVentures/👉 Work With Us: https://www.arcanum.ventures/workwithusform/👉 Arcanum Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/40tReh4cuLioFiBI3VJo7N?si=2ac7e96b6d004509--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------📍Disclaimer:Arcanum Ventures is not currently invested in or advising with any of the mentioned companies. The context of this content is merely meant to provide discussion and insight to viewers interested in the #startups, tech, AI, and web3 industries.This video was created to serve as an educational aid, and nothing in the video constitutes any financial advice. Do your own research and #invest wisely!

  2. 1d ago

    INTERVIEW: Designing Trust: Thomas Malone On Building The Brand Behind USDC

    Thomas Malone joined Circle as employee number 60. The company had a logo and a landing page. Six years later he'd co-founded the brand behind USDC and watched it through an IPO.He's now brand and design lead at Veda, building the identity for a company doing for vaults what Circle did for stablecoins. He came on The BOOM ROOM to explain how brands actually get made: the first principles work that happens before anyone sees a logo, why Circle's primary color was chosen for a reason nobody outside the company would guess, and what he tells founders who think design will fix a product nobody wants.We also got into the brand archetypes behind Pump.fun and Liquid Death, the guerrilla campaign that landed a deal by buying every billboard on one executive's commute, and what changed for creative work when a $200,000 agency quote stopped being the only option.Talking about: How Circle scaled USDC's brand identity from a niche stablecoin to global financial infrastructure.Lessons on brand strategy from ConsenSys to white-labeled vault infrastructure at Veda.Why human brand architecture and creative problem-solving beat AI-generated visual assets.Thomas Malone is the Brand & Design Lead at Veda and a veteran creative problem solver who spent six years scaling design systems at Circle.With deep experience across ConsenSys and Polymath, he specializes in building high-trust visual identities for complex Web3 platforms.#tech #design #branding #AI #machinelearning #LLM #crypto #cryptocurrency #stablecoins --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------📍Useful Links for Arcanum Ventures:👉 Arcanum Ventures X: x.com/ArcanumVentures👉 Arcanum Ventures LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arcanum-ventures/👉 Arcanum Venture Website: https://www.arcanum.ventures/👉 Arcanum Telegram Community: https://t.me/Arcanumventures👉 Work With Us: https://www.arcanum.ventures/workwithusform/👉 Arcanum Media Center: https://www.arcanum.ventures/media-center/--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------📍Useful Links for Thomas Malone and Veda:👉 Thomas Malone LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thommalone/👉 Veda Website: https://www.veda.tech/👉 Veda LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/veda-tech/👉 Veda X: https: https://x.com/veda_labs--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------📍Disclaimer:Arcanum Ventures is currently invested in and advising Veda. The context of this interview and the content is merely meant to provide discussion and insight to viewers interested in the #startups and #web3 industriesThis video was created to serve as an educational aid, and nothing in the video constitutes any financial advice. Do your own research and #invest wisely!

  3. Aug 14

    ROUNDUP: Musk Is Building a $119 Billion Chip Fortress in Texas

    Tesla and SpaceX are building a $119 billion semiconductor complex in Texas so Musk never has to depend on Nvidia again, Nvidia is building its own trillion-parameter model to compete with its own customers, and China's Unitree robot IPO got oversubscribed 8,000 times over. Carmelo and Sasha get into the race to own the whole stack, plus a weak jobs report, OpenAI's comeback and its Astra safety pause, Anthropic watermarking AI text, and the Clarity Act falling apart. Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 01:20 – Trump Keeps Raising the Price of Peace With Iran 05:54 – The U.S. Economy Lost 23,000 Jobs in July 09:25 – Tesla and SpaceX $16.8 Billion Chip Fortress 13:39 – Data Centers Anti-Drone Defense Systems 17:08 – Britain’s 406 MPH Hydrogen Car 20:24 – Unitree’s Oversubscribed IPO 23:30 – ChatGPT Text Chats Unlimited for Free Users 28:22 – OpenAI Slowed Astra Over Cyber Risk 32:11 – Nvidia to Build One-Trillion-Parameter AI Model 35:30 – Anthropic to Watermark AI Text 40:00 – CLARITY Act's Future Is in Doubt After Missed Deadline 43:52 – The SEC Moves on Crypto Without Congress 47:17 – Bank of England Tests Stablecoin 53:01 – Biggest Fundraises of the Week 57:27 – Outro -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 📍Useful Links for Arcanum Ventures: 👉 Arcanum Venture Website: https://www.arcanum.ventures/ 👉 Arcanum Media Center: https://www.arcanum.ventures/media-center/ 👉 Arcanum Linktree: https://linktr.ee/arcanumventures 👉 Arcanum Ventures X: x.com/ArcanumVentures 👉 Arcanum Ventures LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arcanum-ventures/ 👉 Arcanum Telegram Community: https://t.me/Arcanumventures 👉 Arcanum Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/ArcanumVenturesOfficial 👉 Arcanum Instagram: https://t.me/Arcanumventures 👉 Arcanum TikTok: https://www.arcanum.ventures/ 👉 Arcanum Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ArcanumVentures/ 👉 Work With Us: https://www.arcanum.ventures/workwithusform/ 👉 Arcanum Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/40tReh4cuLioFiBI3VJo7N?si=2ac7e96b6d004509 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 📍Disclaimer: Arcanum Ventures is not currently invested in or advising with any of the mentioned companies. The context of this content is merely meant to provide discussion and insight to viewers interested in the #startups, tech, AI, and web3 industries. This video was created to serve as an educational aid, and nothing in the video constitutes any financial advice. Do your own research and #invest wisely!

  4. Aug 7

    ROUNDUP: The Stock Market Stopped Making Sense

    The physical, financial, and digital compute layers are colliding under extreme market volatility. Capital allocation in 2026 is enforcing a brutal divide: revenue-generating, hard-compute infrastructure is pulling away, while legacy model safety narratives are unraveling under operational failure. Whether it is Samsung deploying stablecoins across 800 million Galaxy AI devices or Nvidia pouring $5B into Ilya Sutskever's SSI, the market is aggressively rewarding physical infrastructure, sovereign power generation, and immediate cash generation over black-box theoretical safety promises. Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 01:37 – The AI Trade Roared Back 05:58 – US and Japan Jointly Defend Yen 08:39 – Trump's $100K Feed Faces 'Insider Trading' Backlash 13:10 – SpaceX $100B Lockup Hits 17:51 – Northrop Grumman’s Robot Mechanic Operates in Orbit 20:49 – Single Oxygen Valve Caused Blue Origin Rocket Explosion 23:31 – White House Summons AI Giants for Safety Talks 26:31 – Meta AI Hacks Tech Firm 30:12 – Google's AI Brain Drain Goes Nuclear 33:45 – Palantir's Karp Slams AI Safety Labs 38:51 – German Court Rules Suno Broke Copyright Law 45:35 – Samsung Plans Stablecoins for 800Mn Galaxy Phones 49:53 – Coldcard $120M Hack Exposes 5-Year Flaw 52:45 – Biggest Fundraise of the Week 56:28 – Outro -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 📍Useful Links for Arcanum Ventures: 👉 Arcanum Venture Website: https://www.arcanum.ventures/ 👉 Arcanum Media Center: https://www.arcanum.ventures/media-center/ 👉 Arcanum Linktree: https://linktr.ee/arcanumventures 👉 Arcanum Ventures X: x.com/ArcanumVentures 👉 Arcanum Ventures LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arcanum-ventures/ 👉 Arcanum Telegram Community: https://t.me/Arcanumventures 👉 Arcanum Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/ArcanumVenturesOfficial 👉 Arcanum Instagram: https://t.me/Arcanumventures 👉 Arcanum TikTok: https://www.arcanum.ventures/ 👉 Arcanum Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ArcanumVentures/ 👉 Work With Us: https://www.arcanum.ventures/workwithusform/ 👉 Arcanum Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/40tReh4cuLioFiBI3VJo7N?si=2ac7e96b6d004509 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 📍Disclaimer: Arcanum Ventures is not currently invested in or advising with any of the mentioned companies. The context of this content is merely meant to provide discussion and insight to viewers interested in the #startups, tech, AI, and web3 industries. This video was created to serve as an educational aid, and nothing in the video constitutes any financial advice. Do your own research and #invest wisely!

  5. Aug 6

    INTERVIEW: Benzinga's Andrew Lebos On Becoming The Data Layer For 400 Brokerages

    In this Boom Room interview, Andrew Lebbos, SVP of Data Licensing at Benzinga, reveals how proprietary financial data, prediction markets, and AI training models are redefining retail trading and institutional crypto asset tokenization. Andrew Lebbos scaled the company's licensing operations nearly 10x across global brokerages and fintechs. He specializes in financial market APIs, alternative data licensing, and monetizing proprietary news feeds for modern trading platforms. Discussion: Data Rails & AI Integration: How Benzinga supplies Perplexity and AI engines with first-party financial data and LLM training corpora. Prediction Markets as Infrastructure: Why data settlement partnerships with platforms like Kalshi transform event markets into core financial infrastructure. Crypto Meets TradFi: Dissolving the boundaries between retail investors and institutional DeFi yield built on tokenized securities. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 📍Useful Links for Arcanum Ventures: 👉 Arcanum Ventures X: x.com/ArcanumVentures 👉 Arcanum Ventures LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arcanum-ventures/ 👉 Arcanum Venture Website: https://www.arcanum.ventures/ 👉 Arcanum Telegram Community: https://t.me/Arcanumventures 👉 Work With Us: https://www.arcanum.ventures/workwithusform/ 👉 Arcanum Media Center: https://www.arcanum.ventures/media-center/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 📍Useful Links for Andrew Lebbos and Benzinga: 👉 Andrew Lebbos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lebbosandrew/ 👉 Benzinga Website: https://www.benzinga.com/ 👉 Benzinga API: https://www.benzinga.com/apis/ 👉 Benzinga LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/benzinga/ 👉 Benzinga X: https: https://x.com/benzinga 👉 Benzinga Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/benzinga -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 📍Disclaimer: Arcanum Ventures is currently invested in and advising AIGO.ai. The context of this interview and the content is merely meant to provide discussion and insight to viewers interested in the #startups and #web3 industries This video was created to serve as an educational aid, and nothing in the video constitutes any financial advice. Do your own research and #invest wisely!

  6. Jul 31

    ROUNDUP: Rogue AI, Flying Burritos, and the Robot Cold War

    An AI agent breaks containment and hacks companies, Claude Opus 5 lies and colludes to dominate economic benchmarks, the FCC bans Chinese humanoid robots, and BNY tokenizes $8.6 Trillion in Wall Street fund assets. We are rapidly moving from software assisting human decision-making to autonomous systems competing for physical and financial capital. The question isn't whether AI agents will run major economic workflows. The question is: who owns the security protocols and hardware rails when they do? Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 01:22 – Trump Reopened a War with Iran 05:12 – The Kospi Ripped 27% Off Its Highs 08:01 – FOMC Voted to Hold Rates But Warsh Overruled Them 11:22 – Starship Flight 13 Launched 15:02 – Sweden Declared Its Rocks a National Security Asset 18:10 – The US Shut China Out of the Robot Business 21:53 – DoorDash Just Became an Airline 25:16 – Amazon Filed to Put your Phone Calls in Orbit 28:14 – OpenAI Hacked 2 Companies Without Being Told To 32:02 – Nvidia, Microsoft Launch Open AI Security Alliance 35:09 – Tech Giants Told Congress to Leave Open-Weight AI Alone 39:22 – Claude Opus 5 43:54 – Martha Stewart Co-founded an AI Company 47:39 – Circle Bought a Thousand Patents from IBM 50:36 – BNY Launched a Blockchain-based Transfer Agency 52:51 – CLARITY Act Might Die 58:16 – Biggest Fundraise of the Week 01:01:23 – Outro -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 📍Useful Links for Arcanum Ventures: 👉 Arcanum Venture Website: https://www.arcanum.ventures/ 👉 Arcanum Media Center: https://www.arcanum.ventures/media-center/ 👉 Arcanum Linktree: https://linktr.ee/arcanumventures 👉 Arcanum Ventures X: x.com/ArcanumVentures 👉 Arcanum Ventures LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arcanum-ventures/ 👉 Arcanum Telegram Community: https://t.me/Arcanumventures 👉 Arcanum Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/ArcanumVenturesOfficial 👉 Arcanum Instagram: https://t.me/Arcanumventures 👉 Arcanum TikTok: https://www.arcanum.ventures/ 👉 Arcanum Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ArcanumVentures/ 👉 Work With Us: https://www.arcanum.ventures/workwithusform/ 👉 Arcanum Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/40tReh4cuLioFiBI3VJo7N?si=2ac7e96b6d004509 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 📍Disclaimer: Arcanum Ventures is not currently invested in or advising with any of the mentioned companies. The context of this content is merely meant to provide discussion and insight to viewers interested in the #startups, tech, AI, and web3 industries. This video was created to serve as an educational aid, and nothing in the video constitutes any financial advice. Do your own research and #invest wisely!

  7. Jul 24

    ROUNDUP: The First Real Skynet Moment Just Happened | BOOM ROOM Weekly Roundup

    Anthropic files for a $1T IPO, an OpenAI agent escapes containment to launch a live attack, and Citadel drops $400M into Crypto.com. US Treasury Secretary Bessent threatened sanctions against Chinese open-source models (like Kimi K3) over IP theft, endangering the 45% of US enterprise token usage currently relying on Chinese APIs. Capital is furiously concentrating at the extreme ends: sovereign-backed physical infrastructure at the bottom, and highly regulated, audited public monopolies at the top. Everything in between is getting squeezed by state sanctions and security vulnerabilities. Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 01:18 – American Soldiers Are Dead in the Iran War 04:29 – Andy Burnham Is UK’s New Prime Minister 06:54 – Japan to Build a National Robot Brain 10:02 – China Launched the World's First Robot Fighting League 14:00 – India Joined the Private Space Club 18:02 – The US Treasury Threatened to Sanction Chinese AI Models 21:13 – Thinking Machines Released a 975-billion-parameter Open AI Model 24:31 – China's Kimi K3 Just Took the Coding Crown 27:35 – Anthropic Filed for an IPO 31:44 – OpenAI Disclosed an Unprecedented AI Security Incident 35:10 – Cardano Upgraded Itself Entirely by Community Vote 40:34 – Citadel Just Bought Into Crypto.com at $20 Billion 44:24 – Biggest Fundraise of the Week 47:26 – Outro -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 📍Useful Links for Arcanum Ventures: 👉 Arcanum Venture Website: https://www.arcanum.ventures/ 👉 Arcanum Media Center: https://www.arcanum.ventures/media-center/ 👉 Arcanum Linktree: https://linktr.ee/arcanumventures 👉 Arcanum Ventures X: x.com/ArcanumVentures 👉 Arcanum Ventures LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arcanum-ventures/ 👉 Arcanum Telegram Community: https://t.me/Arcanumventures 👉 Arcanum Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/ArcanumVenturesOfficial 👉 Arcanum Instagram: https://t.me/Arcanumventures 👉 Arcanum TikTok: https://www.arcanum.ventures/ 👉 Arcanum Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ArcanumVentures/ 👉 Work With Us: https://www.arcanum.ventures/workwithusform/ 👉 Arcanum Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/40tReh4cuLioFiBI3VJo7N?si=2ac7e96b6d004509 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 📍Disclaimer: Arcanum Ventures is not currently invested in or advising with any of the mentioned companies. The context of this content is merely meant to provide discussion and insight to viewers interested in the #startups, tech, AI, and web3 industries. This video was created to serve as an educational aid, and nothing in the video constitutes any financial advice. Do your own research and #invest wisely!

  8. Jul 17

    ROUNDUP: Apple Is Suing OpenAI and It's Getting Ugly

    Apple sues OpenAI over 400 defected engineers, SWIFT launches a massive 17-bank blockchain rail, and Meta deploys custom AI silicon. The US-Iran ceasefire is long gone, with Central Command executing its fifth consecutive day of strikes across 80+ targets, including Greater Tunb Island and Kharg Island. As Brent crude climbs past $85 and domestic gas hits a $3.87 national average, Donald Trump briefly declared the US "THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT," threatening a 20% cargo fee that sent shipping executives into a frenzy before rolling it back. Meanwhile, Wall Street is printing record money while legacy tech melts down. Goldman Sachs single-handedly saved the Dow, posting a staggering $20.98 earnings per share against a $14.48 consensus. Concurrently, IBM cratered 24.4% in a single session, dragging the entire enterprise software sector, Salesforce, Workday, and Microsoft, into a deep correction. Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 01:41 – The US-Iran Ceasefire Is Long Gone 07:30 – Banks Print Money While Tech Melts Down 10:54 – Meta Puts Own AI Chip Into Production 15:52 – Broadcom's Quiet Rise to AI Dominance 18:52 – UN Secretary-General Wants Killer Robots Banned 26:02 – Apple Sues OpenAI Over Alleged Trade Secret Theft 30:49 – Anthropic Claude Corps 34:34 – China May Block Foreign Access to Its AI 37:48 – Wall Street Urges Buy on Chinese AI 41:59 – CLARITY Act Tensions Rise 46:27 – UK Targets Permanent Crypto Donation Ban 51:14 – Swift Launches 17-Bank Tokenized Deposit Pilot 55:23 – Biggest Fundraise of the Week 58:37 – Outro -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 📍Useful Links for Arcanum Ventures: 👉 Arcanum Venture Website: https://www.arcanum.ventures/ 👉 Arcanum Media Center: https://www.arcanum.ventures/media-center/ 👉 Arcanum Linktree: https://linktr.ee/arcanumventures 👉 Arcanum Ventures X: x.com/ArcanumVentures 👉 Arcanum Ventures LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arcanum-ventures/ 👉 Arcanum Telegram Community: https://t.me/Arcanumventures 👉 Arcanum Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/ArcanumVenturesOfficial 👉 Arcanum Instagram: https://t.me/Arcanumventures 👉 Arcanum TikTok: https://www.arcanum.ventures/ 👉 Arcanum Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ArcanumVentures/ 👉 Work With Us: https://www.arcanum.ventures/workwithusform/ 👉 Arcanum Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/40tReh4cuLioFiBI3VJo7N?si=2ac7e96b6d004509 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 📍Disclaimer: Arcanum Ventures is not currently invested in or advising with any of the mentioned companies. The context of this content is merely meant to provide discussion and insight to viewers interested in the #startups, tech, AI, and web3 industries. This video was created to serve as an educational aid, and nothing in the video constitutes any financial advice. Do your own research and #invest wisely!

About

The BOOM ROOM is the venture capital podcast for founders, funders, and deep tech enthusiasts building the future. Hosted by Arcanum Ventures — a pre-seed and seed stage VC fund focused on Europe — we go deep on AI, deep tech, robotics, space, blockchain, and what it really takes to build and fund frontier companies. Each week we sit down with the investors, founders, and operators shaping the next wave of European and global innovation. If you're raising a round, deploying capital, or just obsessed with where technology is going, this is your show. Follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Yo