The New Space Race: Breakfast Fireside Chat with Dr. Leon Alkalai
Every AI breakthrough needs somewhere to live, and we're running out of places to put it. Land is scarce. Power grids are maxed out. Cooling systems guzzle water by the millions of gallons. Dr. Leon Alkalai has a different answer: stop building up, start building out, past the atmosphere. As Founder and CTO of Sophia Space and Founder of Mandala Space Ventures, he's developing solar powered, modular compute "tiles" designed to stack into orbital infrastructure, a new edge layer for AI that skips Earth's constraints entirely.
Join Unlock Venture Partners for a breakfast fireside chat in Downtown Seattle with Dr. Alkalai. We'll get into the real engineering trade offs and economics behind building compute in orbit, then widen the lens to the broader opportunity taking shape across the space economy, from launch to infrastructure to where the smartest capital is headed next. Underneath it all is a bigger question worth sitting with: the next race in tech might not be about who gets to orbit first. It's about who gets to compute there.
Agenda
9:00 AM Arrival and Networking
9:30 AM Welcome & Intros
9:35 AM Fireside Chat with Dr. Leon Alkalai
10:30 AM Closing and Networking
11:00 AM Event Concludes
*Breakfast provided. Space is limited, registration required, approval based.
---Please RSVP by Thursday, July 23rd---
Registration after this date will be accommodated on a space-available basis only.
Presented by Unlock Venture Partners
Unlock Venture Partners is an early stage venture firm investing at the intersection of compute, energy, and physical infrastructure, the layers powering the AI era. Founded by operators and investors Andy Liu and Sanjay Reddy, Unlock has made several early conviction bets across space, energy, and AI infrastructure, including as co-founder and lead investor in Sophia Space.
With support from our event sponsors:
JLL: A global leader in commercial real estate and investment management, JLL helps organizations reimagine spaces and shape the future of work, supporting the innovators building what's next.
Threadline Wealth: A Seattle based independent wealth advisory firm serving executives, founders, and business owners, bringing together investment management, tax strategy, and estate planning, proud to support the future of the space economy.
Baker Tilly: A top 10 advisory, tax, and assurance firm helping organizations across 30+ industries turn performance insights into strategic advantage. With a full range of capabilities spanning risk, tax, and operations, the firm is built to serve the unique needs of the middle market.