EP 19: Rebuilding the Internet for the AI Era with Zachary Smith, Datum

In this episode of AI in NYC, Rob and Ryan sit down with Zachary Smith, co-founder of Datum, to explore why the foundational infrastructure of the internet needs a radical overhaul for the AI era. Zach — a lifelong New Yorker who traded a classical music career at Juilliard for the wild world of Linux web hosting in 2001 — brings a rare depth of experience spanning multiple companies, acquisitions, and a front-row seat inside Equinix, one of the largest interconnection companies on Earth.

Zach introduces his concept of the 'splinternet' — a world where geopolitics, regulation, and the demands of AI workloads are fragmenting the once-unified internet — and explains why Datum is building an open network cloud to serve the next wave of what he calls 'alt clouds': the roughly one thousand (and growing) new cloud providers that don't fit neatly into the old hyperscaler model. From Databricks to GPU startups to niche SaaS platforms, Zach argues these alt clouds need shared infrastructure primitives they can't afford to build alone.

The conversation also gets deeply personal. Zach opens up about the emotional toll of selling his first bootstrapped company after 11 years, the therapy and intentional downtime he needed before starting again, and the unique dynamic of building multiple companies with his identical twin brother Jacob. His mentor Bill Luby's advice — 'this is the best time because you have no past' — becomes a throughline for how Datum approaches building for the long term in a world obsessed with speed.

Whether you're a founder, an infrastructure nerd, or just curious about how the physical internet actually works, this episode is packed with insights about what's changing beneath the surface of every AI application you use. Tune in for one of the most thoughtful conversations we've had about the invisible plumbing of the internet age.

Check out datum: https://datumdata.ai/

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