Betting on the physical economy: nuclear, eVTOLs and the AI moat
Key points
Key takeaways from a We The Builders interview with Oklo and Joby Aviation board member Michael Thompson, formerly managing partner of Reinvent Capital (September ́2026):
Nuclear's regulatory stall. The US built 133 reactors between the industry's inception and ́1978, but only two have come online since the NRC was established. Modular design, Thompson argues, turns bespoke cost-plus projects into mass-manufactured products with S-curve economics. He joined Oklo's board in March ́2025.
Pro-nuclear regardless of politics. Thompson contends nuclear is far safer than publicly portrayed, citing three decades of US Navy submarine and carrier reactors, and that anywhere in the climate debate you should be pro-nuclear. He calls Washington's recent push, including executive orders aiming to get reactors critical by July ́2026, an explosion of competence for the sector.
Physical economy as the AI beneficiary. His central thesis is that the biggest application-layer beneficiaries of AI will be physical-world technologies. Recursive industrialization, SpaceX-and-Tesla-style manufacturing amplified by frontier models, makes those moats unassailable, rather than trying to call software incumbents like Salesforce.
Joby's aircraft, deconstructed. He breaks the eVTOL into airframe, controls and powertrain. The current six-rotor fixed-wing design under certification flies on a flight computer derived from the F-35, which he calls arguably the most sophisticated commercial flight computer ever created. Fully electric today, with gas-turbine and hydrogen hybrids already demonstrated, founder JB expects it to become a hydrogen hybridwith roughly six times the range of battery-electric.
Ground-side charging. Joby's Geeks charging system keeps cooling on the ground to strip dead weight from the aircraft. Faster charging increases heat by the square, so cutting an hour-long charge to ́15 minutes multiplies heat 16-fold. The vehicle talks to the station, not vice versa, to remove hacking risk, and the station optimises the charge for the next trip. If Joby certifies first, this could become the industry-standard charging architecture.
Vertical integration isn't optional. For companies like Joby, vertical integration is a requirement, not a choice, covering engineering, controls, charging infrastructure and manufacturing in-house. Toyota, its biggest outside investor, is motivated by what to do with its manufacturing capacity as road-vehicle demand shifts. Success yields multiple companies in one, as with Tesla and SpaceX.
Autonomy stack. Joby's Super Pilot autonomy program, built through its X-Wing acquisition, runs across multiple aircraft types and powertrains, from drones to other aeroplanes, rather than being tied to one airframe, opening another product line for the company.
Read more: We The Builders · Oklo
