<p>Dan Wright (Co-founder &amp; CEO of Armada) joins GTMnow to unpack what it actually takes to bring AI infrastructure to the places the cloud was never built to reach.</p><p><br></p><p>The cloud covers about 30% of the world. The other 70% (think: oil rigs, the Arctic tundra, military ships, remote mines) is where some of the most critical decisions happen, making latency a life-or-death and billions of dollars difference. Armada is building the infrastructure for that part of the world: modular, ruggedized AI data centers that go to the data, instead of the other way around.</p><p><br></p><p>From the first offshore edge computing deployment with the US Navy, to cutting avalanche response times in Alaska from over a day to real time, to sovereign AI installations in Saudi Arabia with Aramco and Microsoft, Armada is redefining what operating at the edge even means.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>In this episode, we cover:</strong></p><p>- Why cloud infrastructure was built for a pre-AI world and what that gap costs</p><p>- How Starlink turned every remote location into a potential AI cluster</p><p>- What &quot;distributed intelligence&quot; means and why it&#39;s the founding principle behind Armada</p><p>- The global race for AI sovereignty and why modular compute is the linchpin</p><p>- How Armada goes to market when a product demo involves shipping a 40-foot container to a desert (yes, really)</p><p>- Why customer champions are better than any sales rep</p><p>- The Microsoft partnership and how Armada extends Azure to places Azure could never go on its own</p><p>- Category creation lessons from building a company before the market had a name for the industry</p><p>- What&#39;s next: SpaceX, sovereign AI, and why Dan thinks humans are on the moon in two years (yes, REALLY)</p><p><br></p><p>Guest links: </p><p>Dan Wright - LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/wrightdh/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.linkedin.com/in/wrightdh/</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/armadaai/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">h</a></p><p>Dan Wright - X: <a href="https://x.com/danwrightSF" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://x.com/danwrightSF</a></p><p>Armada - LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/armadaai/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.linkedin.com/company/armadaai/</a></p><p>Armada - Website: <a href="https://www.armada.ai/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.armada.ai/</a></p><p><br></p><p>Host links:</p><p>Sophie Buonassisi - LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/</a></p><p>Sophie Buonassisi - X: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbHY5ZmE2WjFoaEZodDF3Z3lRNkI4S1Y3TkZTUXxBQ3Jtc0tuQ2hQTnJsa21FUzA5alJrMWk3NGxHOUFqcVlMSVl6Rmo1US1rM2prNHVGa0JJZUpTbzVqZFNINW84MFFGTFUtUllXcUc1bXlzR3ljV2FSQVdqbEZTZUlCUlM1VmtyOENzcllZaXJuWnpfY2cwdnlOVQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fx.com%2Fsophiebuona&v=wTKFZqIU4Dc" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://x.com/sophiebuona</a></p><p>Newsletter: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbExGY2RBbFk0eEdMWVN6M182UnFveUxPanVaZ3xBQ3Jtc0ttekRIemotY2NlakZhcmtKRVBKd3N5N0tFeG1qa3o4NWZvRkQ1dGVIbXZ0QmFTUll1Rmo4ZVhyY3lGVGxwNElXTEs5V1ZXVW54djhvR3lBZEpIaHpEV0txQWFhYkk1NzM4NEFCalExUXlLVjh2U3hUcw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fthegtmnewsletter.substack.com%2F&v=wTKFZqIU4Dc" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://thegtmnewsletter.substack.com</a></p><p><br></p><p>Sponsors: </p><p>HockeyStack - the AI platform that unifies GTM data to help teams convert, expand, and scale. Learn more at <a href="https://www.hockeystack.com/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.hockeystack.com/</a></p><p>Nooks - the AI workspace for outbound teams, where AI agents handle prospecting, research, and sequencing so reps can focus on conversations. Learn more at <a href="https://www.nooks.ai/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.nooks.ai/</a></p><p><br></p><p>Transcript available under the episode here: <a href="https://gtmnow.com/tag/podcast/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://gtmnow.com/tag/podcast/</a></p><p>Subscribe to GTMnow for the latest episodes! <a href="https://gtmnow.com/**" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://gtmnow.com/</a></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Highlights:</strong></p><p>00:00 – Why the cloud only reaches 30% of the world and what Armada actually builds</p><p>03:11 – From Saudi Arabia to the Arctic: recent deployments that redefine the edge</p><p>04:12 – AI&#39;s physics problem: why distance from data breaks everything</p><p>05:31 – How Starlink turned every remote location into a potential AI cluster</p><p>07:14 – What distributed intelligence means and why it&#39;s Armada&#39;s founding principle</p><p>08:14 – The global AI race: sovereign compute as a national security strategy</p><p>09:00 – The Genesis Mission, the White House, and Davos: why sovereign AI is mainstream</p><p>12:49 – GTM for a hardware company when the demo involves shipping a 40-foot container</p><p>15:18 – Why Armada&#39;s customers do the selling for them (and do a better job than some reps)</p><p>17:35 – The Microsoft partnership and extending Azure to the places it can&#39;t reach on its own</p><p>18:51 – Category creation: the lesson Dan learned about specificity and business value</p><p>21:02 – What&#39;s next for Armada, SpaceX, and why Dan thinks we&#39;re two years from the moon</p><p>25:34 – The founder advice Dan wishes more people took seriously</p><p><br></p><p><em>For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email </em><a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">[email protected]</a></p><p><br></p><p>GTMnow is a media brand brought to you by VC firm, GTMfund: <a href="https://gtmfund.com/*" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://gtmfund.com/</a></p><p><br></p>