VC10X - Investing, Venture Capital, Asset Management, Private Equity, Family Office VC10X - Why Climate Change Can't Wait - Tom Chi, Founding Partner, At One Ventures
Tom Chi was a founding member of Google X — the team behind self-driving cars, Google Glass, and deep learning AI. At the peak of that career, he watched a coral reef die outside his home in Hawaii. In eight weeks, it was gone. That moment changed everything. Tom founded At One Ventures to fund companies building that future.
In this episode, Tom breaks down why the climate crisis is not a political debate — it's a physics problem. And physics doesn't negotiate.
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We cover:
- The calculation Tom ran in 2012 that predicted mass fires, floods, and displacement by 2022 — and why nobody was talking about it
- Why "green premium" is a myth, and how AT1 Ventures finds climate tech that is cheaper than the incumbent
- The physics framework he uses to evaluate every deal: matter, energy, time, and space
- Why Venezuela is a live case study in what the petrol-first worldview actually produces
- The difference between sustainable, net zero, and net positive — and why only one of them is the right target
- Why freshwater scarcity is a management problem, not a supply problem
- What ancient civilizations in Hawaii and South Asia got right about working with nature — that we've completely forgotten
Tom is also the author of Climate Capital: Investing in the Tools for a Regenerative Future (Wiley, Feb 2026).
Timestamps:
(00:00) - Why Tom Chi left AI and robotics to focus on climate change.
(00:32) - Disagreeing with Bill Gates' "green premium" concept.
(01:09) - Introduction to Tom Chi's background and AtOne Ventures.
(02:54) - Tom Chi on his career and the mission of AtOne Ventures.
(03:58) - The personal story of watching a coral reef die and how it changed his career path.
(08:00) - Using physics to predict the rise in climate volatility a decade ago.
(10:45) - The realization that climate change is a time-sensitive problem that can't be delayed.
(12:38) - Discussing global inaction and the influence of the fossil fuel industry on geopolitics.
(14:32) - Contrasting the US's fossil fuel policy with China's dominance in green technology.
(18:25) - Why climate change is a physics problem, not a political debate.
(20:47) - The thesis that green technology must be cheaper, not more expensive, to scale.
(21:54) - The investment framework: Using physics to find economic advantages in green tech.
(26:08) - How green energy can compete against the policy influence of the cash-rich oil industry.
(29:15) - The difference between "sustainable" and "net positive."
(31:52) - Is freshwater scarcity a real and urgent global risk?
(32:11) - Reframing the water crisis as a mismanagement of hydrological cycles, not a scarcity issue.
(36:08) - The real choice: Deciding the level of human misery, not "saving the planet."
(39:34) - Rapid-fire round: Investment sectors and regions.
(41:19) - Typical stage and check size of investments.
(42:23) - How to get in touch with Tom Chi and AtOne Ventures.
(43:16) - Final thoughts on the "category error" of treating scientific truth as a political debate.
🎧 Also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts — links below.
LINKS
Website: atoneventures.com
Social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thegoodtomchi/
Prashant Choubey - https://www.linkedin.com/in/choubeysahab
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