On August 5, WeShine brought together founders, investors, and technology leaders in Palo Alto to explore how AI is moving beyond software and into infrastructure, hardware, robotics, and the physical world.
One theme stood out throughout the evening: the next wave of AI will be defined not only by smarter models, but by the infrastructure and systems that make intelligence useful in the real world.
🚀 Next at WeShine: AI Agents & The Future of AI
Our next event continues the conversation around one of the fastest-moving areas of AI:
AI Agents & The Future of AI | VC Insights • Founder Pitches
📅 September 9, 2026 | 5:30–8:30 PM
📍 Palo Alto, California
Register for the September 9 event
From Agents to Memory: Building the AI Stack
The evening opened with companies building different layers of the emerging AI ecosystem:
TheAgentic is building infrastructure for production-ready AI agents across biotech, healthtech, cybersecurity, and fintech.
Sanscritic.AI is developing the reasoning layer for more reliable, specialized, and verifiable AI systems.
Memverge introduced Memorybox, a local-first, multi-model AI memory layer focused on context, efficiency, privacy, and ownership.
RobotGyms showcased Robot PU, a pocket-sized embodied AI platform bringing robotics and edge AI to young creators.
Together, they highlighted how quickly the AI stack is expanding beyond foundation models into agents, reasoning, memory, edge computing, and embodied intelligence.
💡 Keynote and Panel Sessions
Keynote Guest Speakers:
Larry Li — Founder & Managing Partner, Amino Capital
Clara de Ros — Principal, Plug and Play Tech Center
Panelists:
Larry Li — Founder & Managing Partner, Amino Capital
Clara de Ros — Principal, Plug and Play Tech Center
Lu Wang — Founder & CEO, Adora Robotics
Elaine Liu — Co-founder & CEO, ProsGrow AI
Charles Fan — Founder & CEO, MemVerge
🚀 What Stood Out
1. AI Is Becoming Infrastructure
The first wave of generative AI centered on applications. The next phase is moving deeper into the stack: reasoning, memory, agent orchestration, edge computing, specialized hardware, and robotics.
For founders, some of the biggest opportunities may come from building the infrastructure that future AI applications and autonomous systems depend on.
2. AI Needs to Remember and Reason, Not Just Respond
AI agents need more than great responses. They need context, memory, multi-step reasoning, and the ability to make reliable decisions over time.
The question is shifting from “Can AI answer this?” to “Can AI reliably understand, remember, reason, and act?”
3. Physical AI Is Moving Intelligence Into the Real World
AI is expanding into robotics, autonomous mobility, industrial automation, and intelligent devices.
Physical AI must perceive its surroundings, handle uncertainty, and make real-time decisions, bringing AI models, sensors, hardware, robotics, and software together.
4. Hardware Is Becoming “Soft”
Larry Li of Amino Capital captured an important shift with “Making Hardware Soft.”
With AI, physical products can continue improving through software, models, data, and continuous learning. The strongest Physical AI companies may be those that successfully combine the adaptability of software with the complexity of hardware.
5. The Real Test Is Deployment
AI has no shortage of impressive demos. The harder question is whether customers will actually use and pay for them.
For founders, the questions are increasingly practical: Who is the customer? What problem is painful enough to pay for? Can the technology work reliably outside a demo? Can it scale economically?
This matters even more in robotics and Physical AI, where deployment can involve manufacturing, integration, safety, maintenance, and longer sales cycles.
Ultimately, the companies that bridge technical possibility and real customer value will stand out.
🚀 Founders Building What’s Next
The evening concluded with pitches from founders building across AI, robotics, infrastructure, and deep tech:
Zodhya • CentralAgent • NuPort Robotics • Legend Photonics • GoCodebook • Sanscritic.AI
Thank you to all the founders who shared what they are building, and to Snell & Wilmer and Langrenus Fund for helping bring the community together.
Beyond the Stage
The most valuable moments often happen beyond the presentations: a founder meeting an investor, an engineer discovering a new technology, or one conversation turning into a future collaboration.
Thank you to everyone who joined us in Palo Alto.
See you on September 9! Registration →
We Shine Together.
Located in Silicon Valley, WeShine is a nonprofit driving innovation and supporting entrepreneurs. We connect founders, technologists, investors, and industry experts to turn ideas into impactful realities. Through online seminars, meetups, incubation programs, talent initiatives, and global startup events, we provide the resources and networks entrepreneurs need to grow. Join us and be part of a community where visions shine brighter.