
What happened
Ben Longmier of Ambrosia Energy and Bill Thayer of Bloom Energy will take the Smart Systems Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 for a session on where the AI infrastructure boom is creating winners.
Why it matters
The session will examine which constraints are creating durable business opportunities, where new categories are emerging, and what founders can build as AI moves further into the physical world.
WHO IT HITSFounders, investors, and tech leaders thinking about the next phase of AI growth may find this session relevant, since it focuses on physical infrastructure constraints such as power generation, grid connections, data centers, cooling, and electrical equipment.
Summaries like this, in your inbox every morning.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will host a conversation specifically about the physical layer of AI: the power, cooling, and electrical systems that sit beneath models and applications. The session's framing suggests the organizers see an opportunity in the gap between how fast compute demand grows and how quickly that physical infrastructure can be delivered.
Rather than treating AI solely as a software story, the discussion is positioned to ask which shortages are temporary and which could reshape the market for years. That question implies a shift in where founders and investors might look, away from the most visible AI applications and toward energy, data centers, and grid technology. The event also notes that the next major opportunity could emerge in categories that don't yet have established names.
The session brings together a CEO in energy and an executive in data center solutions, which may give the audience a view of both the constraints and the business models forming around them.
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