“TERAFAB isn’t just a chip factory — it’s the industrial engine for a galactic civilization, unlocking the power and compute humanity needs to expand beyond Earth.”
🌌 The Vision
Type II Civilization Goal: Capture the Sun’s energy directly in space — not just the tiny bit that reaches Earth.
Multi-planetary Future: Cities on the Moon and Mars, where science fiction finally becomes science fact.
🏗️ The TERAFAB Project (Austin, Texas)
All-in-One Fab: A vertically integrated chip facility producing custom logic, memory, and packaging under one roof.
Recursive Loop: Rapid self-improvement cycles — Musk claims it will iterate 10x faster than any other fab on Earth.
Custom Chips: Optimized for Optimus humanoid robots, Tesla vehicles, and radiation-hardened space environments.
☀️ The Shift to Space-Based Compute
Space might soon outcompete Earth for AI compute — constant solar power, no regulations, no night, no clouds. Musk projects that within 2–3 years, it’ll be cheaper to run AI in orbit than in terrestrial data centers.
🔋 Scaling to Petawatt Power
Using Moon-based electromagnetic mass drivers, Musk envisions launching materials to build massive solar-powered compute arrays in deep space — feeding an AI economy at unimaginable scale. One petawatt (PW) is equal to 1,000 terawatts or 1,000,000 gigawatts.
🌍 The Future of Abundance
From billions of humanoid robots to a post-scarcity society, Musk imagines an economy millions of times larger than today’s — a universe where “if you can think it, you can have it.”
💭 My Personal Take on Elon & Tesla and a painful confession:
I first bought Tesla shares back in 2017 and made 100% gains twice, but like many, I bailed early in Aug 2018 when Elon’s “funding secured” tweets made me write him off as too erratic a CEO for my liking.
If I had held the shares till today… Well, let’s just say I could’ve bought a few Teslas outright for free now as the share price increased by 15x.
The turning point for me? Reading Walter Isaacson’s and Ashlee Vance’s biographies. I finally understood him. Asperger’s makes him intensely logical and unapologetically driven. Cold logic over emotion. Bottomless conviction and a risk appetite few humans possess.
When he bets the house — Tesla, SpaceX, now xAI — he tends to win. You can doubt his methods, but never his willpower.
So, I’ve rejoined the ride — accumulating Tesla again since 2022, with plans to hold through the wild road ahead… and maybe into the SpaceX IPO too.
AI is everywhere — it’s in your face, on your feed, and shaping your future. Generative AI gave us the “wow” factor. Agentic AI is now stealing the spotlight.
But here’s what few people talk about: AI’s profound impact on biotech and healthcare. It’s quietly supercharging medical research, accelerating discoveries, and giving scientists new superpowers.
Take AlphaFold, for example — a groundbreaking tool that cracked the code on protein structure prediction. Created by Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind (the same mind behind AlphaGo beating the top Go human player in 2016), AlphaFold earned him the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Recently, a story caught my eye — a passionate AI enthusiast used ChatGPT and AlphaFold to help save his beloved dog. It’s a heart‑warming glimpse into what’s possible when human determination meets AI innovation.
AI is no longer just a tool for writing emails or summarising docs.
It’s starting to:
✅ Accelerate personalised medicine – what once took years can now happen in weeks.
✅ Democratize innovation – a non-biologist, armed with AI, worked alongside top researchers.
✅ Shorten the “concept-to-injection” timeline – the biggest bottleneck in cancer vaccines today.
We’re already seeing this spill over into human medicine:
Personalised mRNA vaccines are in Phase III trials for lung cancer.
AI-powered liquid biopsies are catching colorectal cancer earlier with simple blood tests.
The takeaway?
We’re entering an era where the combination of AI + mRNA + next-gen sequencing is turning “impossible” into “let’s try”.
Rosie’s story is a powerful reminder that innovation doesn’t always start in a big pharma lab. Sometimes, it starts with someone who refuses to give up—and the courage to ask an AI for help.
What’s the most surprising use of AI you’ve seen in healthcare or biotech? 👇
For the past two years, we’ve been obsessed with LLM Processing—AI that answers questions, generates text, and “thinks” for internal consumption.
But Jensen just signalled a paradigm shift to Agentic AI. These aren’t just chatbots; they are autonomous entities with:
Working & Long-Term Memory: They remember your preferences and past tasks.
Tool Use: They don’t just write code; they deploy it, test it, and fix it.
Collaboration: Agents talking to agents to solve problems that would take humans weeks, in seconds.
2. The “Physical AI” Frontier
We’ve spent decades perfecting the “Digital Brain.” Now, Nvidia is giving that brain a body. Jensen highlighted the role of the Omniverse—a virtual “gym” where robots and self-driving cars learn to obey the laws of physics before ever touching the pavement. From telecommunications base stations becoming AI “radios” to digital biology modelling proteins like ChatGPT models sentences, the scope of AI is widening across every physical sector of our $50T global economy.
3. The 10,000x Compute Explosion
Most people think AI growth is linear. It’s not. In just 24 months, the compute power required has increased by 10,000x. Why?
Reasoning (o1/o3) required 100x more compute than simple chat.
Agentic workflows require another 100x more compute. The demand isn’t just “full”—it’s essentially infinite.
The Personal Perspective:
I am a deep believer in exponential growth, but witnessing it is different from predicting it.
I remember April 2020 vividly. The world felt like it was falling off the COVID pandemic cliff. Markets were in freefall, and the “experts” were telling everyone to hoard cash. In that chaos, I sat down and listed 5 “must-hold” stocks—the foundational companies I believed would define the next decade. Nvidia was in that list.
Since that moment, I’ve watched that conviction turn into an 18x return, as Nvidia became the first company to breach the $5 trillion market capitalization.
The Road Ahead: Is There More Upside?
When you see a company with a $1 trillion orders backlog through to 2027 and a CEO who is more bullish now than he was four years ago, the answer becomes clear. We aren’t just looking at “more upside”; we are looking at the foundational infrastructure of the next century.
Jensen’s parting advice for all of us? Don’t fear the technology. Master the “Artistry” of guiding it. The most important programming language of 2026 isn’t Python—it’s your ability to architect a vision for these agents to execute.
The future is so bright, I’ve gotta wear shades (and maybe finally pick up one of Jensen’s black leather jackets). 😎
Are you building with agents yet, or are you still just “chatting”?
The AI labs are waving their arms. It’s time we look up. AI researchers are warning us: the “exponential takeoff” is here.
GPT-5.3 helped create itself. Spotify developers haven’t written code since December—they’re now managing AI that does the coding. Anthropic’s CEO predicts Nobel Prize-level AI by 2027. One developer just built a billion-dollar company solo. AI is now exhibiting taste and judgment — the “safe zone” we thought we’d hold for years.
If AI can code, create, and reason, what does that mean for knowledge workers? The question isn’t if this shift arrives, but when.
Don’t wait for the whiplash. Start conversations. Experiment. Stay curious.
Ever wondered why articles are becoming more frequent, are better written and eye-catching nowadays? The author highlights below his method of articulating his thoughts and using AI to help him refine the final version of his articles:
“If AI has taste, what do we need writers for?
In my own experience, the quote from Matt Schumer resonates. I write a lot, and it used to be that an essay would take two days of effort to do well. I always started out knowing roughly what I wanted to say, but the research, organising the ideas, and making it readable, that was an iterative, agonising process.
And I can honestly say that’s shifted to the point where now I can open a Google Doc, dump in some of my thoughts and sentences, a summary of a YouTube video, some quote snippets like the ones in this article, and give it to Gemini to re-structure and then Claude to add finesse.
What comes out the other side is usually 80% done. And what took 2 days now takes 2 to 4 hours. In fact, that’s the very reason I do this AI edition of the newsletter.
This essay worked that way. And what you’re reading now was the output of 5 or 6 back-and-forth prompts, a manual edit, including this sentence, and then another quick review with Opus 4.6 before publishing.”
“In 2024, Sam Altman told an audience that he and his tech CEO friends had a betting pool for when the first one-person billion-dollar company would emerge. Forbes projected it could happen by 2028.
It happened two years early.
On February 15, 2026, Altman announced that Peter Steinberger – the solo Austrian developer behind OpenClaw, the fastest-growing open-source project in GitHub history – was joining OpenAI to lead the next generation of personal AI agents.”
TL;DR – The emergence of a one-man unicorn – 2026 is the year of the AI Agent. – Peter committed to enhancing OpenClaw further, to “build an agent that even my mum can use.” – Productivity will skyrocket – The writer predicts what will happen next – open source wins, app economy under structural threat
🚀 🤩
“In three months, Peter Steinberger went from a Friday night Telegram bot to an OpenAI acqui-hire with billion-dollar bids, a community of nearly 200,000 developers, and a seat at the table where the next computing platform is being designed.
He didn’t raise a dollar of venture capital. He didn’t hire a single employee. He built something people wanted, gave it away for free, and let the strategic value compound until the biggest companies in tech came to him.
That’s either the most compelling founder story of the AI era or the most compelling argument that the era of the traditional startup is ending.
Singapore is considered the first “Blue Zone 2.0” (or “engineered” Blue Zone) because its high life expectancy (84 years now, 77 in 2007) and low chronic disease rates are driven by proactive government policies, urban design, and accessible healthcare rather than just traditional, organic lifestyles.
The system encourages health through preventative care, active mobility, and strict regulation of lifestyle risks.
Key Reasons for Singapore’s Blue Zone Status:
– Preventative & Accessible Healthcare: The Healthier SG initiative focuses on long-term preventative health, shifting from reactive treatment to managing health before illness occurs.
– Engineered Urban Infrastructure: The city is designed to encourage walking and exercise, with widespread park connectors, accessible green spaces, and efficient public transport that reduce car reliance.
– Proactive Public Health Policies: Strict regulations, such as high taxes on tobacco and alcohol, smoking bans, and mandatory, colour-coded nutritional labelling on beverages (Nutri-Grade), help nudge residents toward healthier choices.
– Food Environment: While a food-loving culture, the Health Promotion Board works to make healthier, less-oily/salty options more available at hawker centres.
– Community and Safety: High levels of safety, social stability, and strong, closely knit family values contribute to lower stress and better mental well-being, enhancing longevity.
Unlike traditional Blue Zones, Singapore is a modern, high-density city-state that has “constructed” a healthier environment through strategic policy decisions.
As usual, it is time again to set my 2026 KPIs after closing the year and evaluating my 2025 performance. This will provide me with focus and accountability by putting this out in the public domain.
Today is already 31 Jan 2026, and we are 1 month into the new year. So here goes for the achievements I want to reach in the next 11 months:
Read 15 books
I tried for 20 last year after hitting 15 in 2024, but couldn’t hit it. Travel too much or just laziness? So I have lowered it back to 15 now.
2. Do 3 courses – classroom or online
Also, making it easier to achieve after only doing 2 in 2025. I need to actively seek out newer courses as SkillsFuture has set tighter restrictions on the use of the funds.
3. Deep dive into 2 new or existing interests
I am sure I can find new areas to explore as AI goes into a quantum leap again this year. Clawdbot/Molt is just the latest AI agent that is creating a buzz.
4. Edit the backlog of raw family videos since 2020
This is a task I have been procrastinating on for years, ever since the Muvee software stopped working, which I had been using for 20+ years. Probably have to deep dive into Clipchamp now to clear the backlog.
5. Do a successful school reunion – Rafflesians from the class of 1982/84 to celebrate our 60th birthdays
We celebrated our 50th together in 2016, and now it will be our 60th. Planning has started with my partner in crime (co-organiser KT) to target a May date.
6. Share more topics of interest and write more on LinkedIn
Maybe it’s time to share my thoughts and info with the whole world instead of through WhatsApp chat groups with people who never read my contributions. Be more vocal to the world, and maybe some will listen.
7. Travel
Starting the year with a 1-week trip to a new place, Xiamen. There is the BTS concert that my wife had managed to get a ticket for April in Seoul. Then she has planned for our family trip in Sep in South Africa to celebrate my 60th birthday. Our Oysters’ trip to celebrate all our 60th, like what we had done in Macau for our 50th, sometime in Nov.
8. Stay happy and healthy
My basic motto for life is easy to remember and to refer to anytime I lose focus. Count my blessings and smell the roses. I am grateful for what I have been given and will cherish every moment.
It’s the beginning of a new year, and that time of the season to evaluate my previous year’s KPIs and rate them accordingly before I set out my 2026 new year resolutions.
My 2025 KPIs were the following:
1. Read 20 books – They can be non-fiction or fiction books, short stories or novels. I will read anything that interests me, at a rate of 1 to 2 books a month. I will borrow the ebooks from the National Library to read on my PC or iPad. As usual, I will write a summary of every book I finish as a matter of record.
Rating: C
Only managed to read 8 books in total – a summary of each book read is listed below. Travelled overseas a lot because my wife and I retired earlier this year. I have to read more into 2026 and make it a bedtime habit.
2. Do 5 courses – Either physical classes or online MOOC, I will utilise the new Skillsfuture funds ($4k) to educate myself on topics I want to learn more about, with more than 25,000+ courses listed on the Skillsfuture website for me to explore.
Rating: C
I only managed to do 2 physical courses:
ACI food and wine – 23-24 Aug with my wife and some relatives to utilise the Skillsfuture funds before they expire in end of 2025
Frank’s NextPlay one-day course – 20 Nov 2025. An interesting course that was therapeutic, which he invited me to share life experiences with like-minded participants and try to map out the next phase of our life journey.
3. Deep dive into at least 2 more new or existing interests, to continue on my life-long learning journey. With the Internet and AI tools available to help us, it should be easier. But we get an overload of information around us, and the main problem is to sieve between the BS and discover the truth. That is getting harder to do nowadays.
Rating: B
Read up more on Quantum Computing and Nuclear Energy as 2 areas that are becoming more relevant to AI development and could become the next big thing.
We embarked on a home renovation project after staying in the same place since Dec 2007 (18 Years). Given that the kids are now young adults, we thought it was time to upgrade the house and modernise it. After 6 months and more than 300k spent, it was finally ready. We had to move to my in-laws’ place for five months while the house was being completely renovated internally.
I was more active in writing articles on LinkedIn to share my thoughts and experiences, especially about being retrenched. I am positioning myself based on my views on retirement, technology and investment themes.
4. Travel more – My wife and I have already planned for one major long trip every quarter to Portugal/Spain (Lisbon, Madeira, Porto, Madrid), South Korea (Busan, Seoul) and China (Chengdu, Chongqing). There will also be short trips between these trips to neighbouring places like Johor Bahru and cities in South East Asia. Given that we have more time on our hands now, as we retired earlier last year, we do not need to rush during our vacations and can slowly enjoy and absorb the local culture and vibe.
Rating: A
Travelled a lot in 2025 and am planning more for 2026. I did a total of 7 trips to Portugal/Spain, South Korea, Penang (with the guys), China (Chengdu and Chongqing), Desaru, HK/Shenzhen and JB.
5. Be happy and healthy – to enjoy our 2nd halftime period. Life is short. We will take time to smell the roses. Have a regular exercise regime, and aim to constantly seek small feelings of happiness while exploring new experiences. We need to also count our blessings daily as we enjoy our retirement years.
Rating: B+
Retirement and a lot of travelling in 2025, while focusing on health issues in the second half of the year.
More mindful of health due to a few highlights in my latest annual medical checkup, plus my in-laws’ prostate and hip issues. I did a colonoscopy in Dec and saw various specialists for ECG and prostate examinations.
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Books read and summarised (8):
(1) The Nvidia Way – Tae Kim. A few highlights of its success. Time GPU product launches to be aligned to the twice-a-year PC releases, with 3 teams to ship 3 chips per design cycle. Don’t waste rejected top-line GPUs, just dumb it down slower and sell as cheaper versions to reduce waste cost. Transforming GPU to simulations and AI. The evolution and development of CUDA and backward compatibility. How GPU parallel computing worked well with deep learning and AI – Nvidia discovery and bet all-in in that direction. CUDA complemented the process. The Nvidia Way and culture, Jensen’s quotes, hire the best, lose together, focused – “The mission is the boss”.
(2) Source Code, my beginnings – Bill Gates. The first of 3 books which Gates will write. About his childhood till around 1980, when Microsoft started with Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer. Good insight into his geeky past and how his values and principles were formed, of course, from his point of view. About his close childhood friend Kent, who passed away young at 13. How his journey created Basic and the start of the evolution of personal microcomputers from mini computers. His later years might be a problem soon with Epstein. Overall, an easy read on how he decided to pivot to software via microcomputers, hence the name Micro Soft. His journey there as a software programmer began. The book ends with Microsoft relocating to Seattle.
(3) The Gate to China – Michael Sheridan. Rereading the book again about HK history. Wanted a better understanding of HK history, especially leading into the 2019 riots and what happened next as COVID hit. A complicated read of twists and turns, which made HK into what it is. Will it fade now that China has full control, or will it remain as a financial hub to continue to challenge Shanghai and Shenzhen? Only time will tell.
(4) The Dark Forest – Cixin Liu. Next book after The 3 Body Problem novel, which was made into a Netflix series. A few twists and turns. Bottom line, if you announce your location to the universe, some alien nation will come to destroy you. Long 1,000 pages talking about some tech stuff written in 2008, which seems likely today.
(5) Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race that Will Change the World – Parmy Olson (Sep 2024). About Sam Altman and Demis Hassabis, who eventually aligned themselves with Microsoft and Google, respectively. Trying to do good with AI, but the commercial aspect is so strong. Altruism and helping humanity always give way to profit and revenue motives in the end. Too much talk on ethics and AI doomsayers makes it a less technical book.
(6) The LLM Stack – A practical guide to understanding AI by Uli Hitzel – 89 pages. My trainer from the NUS Fintech course. Brief overview of LLM internal workings in layman’s terms, but some technical stuff is still hard to comprehend, as I have no programming or API cloud experience. Just good to know.
(7) The Split: Finding the Opportunities in China’s Economy in the New World Order – Shaun Rein. Pretty enlightening read of the various themes of China’s rise and its issues from a foreigner’s perspective who has lived there for 20 years. Some good points made and challenges, as it is China has an upper hand now to succeed in the global arena.
(8) The Psychology of Money – Morgan Housel. Humility, respect the power of luck and risk. Less ego, more wealth. Manage money to sleep well at night. Increase your time horizon. Be ok that a lot of things can go wrong. Use money to gain control over your time. Be nice and less flashy. Save all the time. Define the cost of success and be ready to pay it. Have room for error. Avoid extreme ends of financial decisions. Take risks over time, but avoid ruinous risk. Define the game you are playing, and don’t be influenced by others playing a different game. Respect the mess and differences that may not work for you. Some common-sense approaches to money.
