(London) Can AI Agent Startups Survive Corporate Capture: Prof Ramesh Raskar, MIT
Friday August 21, 2026
10:00–Noon PM
London UK
The AI-agent ecosystem is entering a decisive period.
Today, the foundational layers of the Agentic Web—discovery, identity, trust, payments, memory, coordination, and interoperability—remain open for invention. But this window may not remain open for long.
Over the next 18 months, major technology companies will attempt to turn their clouds, models, protocols, marketplaces, and agent frameworks into closed ecosystems. Startups that build directly on top of these platforms may gain early distribution—but risk becoming features, dependencies, or lowball acquisition targets once the market consolidates.
This session asks a practical question:
How can startups build enduring companies before the Agentic Web is captured by a handful of corporations?
Hear from Prof. Ramesh Raskar, founder of Project NANDA at MIT and a pioneering architect of the Internet of AI Agents. For more than a decade, his work at MIT has explored the foundational technologies required for open, distributed, and trustworthy intelligent systems.
Prof. Raskar will share a strategic framework for founders navigating the coming infrastructure war.
What We Will Discuss
Why the next 18 months may determine who controls the Agentic Web
How corporate capture and ecosystem lock-in are likely to unfold
Why the protocol war may be a distraction from the infrastructure war
Which startup categories are most vulnerable to being commoditized
The danger of becoming a thin wrapper around a model, cloud, or agent framework
When partnering with a hyperscaler helps—and when it becomes a trap
Why agents must eventually operate across companies, clouds, models, and networks
Where open infrastructure can create durable startup opportunities
How startups can own trust, coordination, discovery, governance, and transaction layers
Why the long tail of specialized agents may ultimately be more valuable than a few universal assistants
How NANDA is an antidote to walled gardens (https://projectnanda.org)
Who Should Attend
This gathering is designed for:
Founders/Developers building AI-agent companies
Investors evaluating the emerging agent stack
Researchers working on multi-agent systems and the Agentic Web
Product and engineering leaders developing agent infrastructure
Entrepreneurs deciding where durable opportunities will emerge
Builders concerned about platform dependency and corporate lock-in
Schedule
10:00AM –10:30 AM — Arrival and Networking
10:30AM – 11:15 AM — The 18-Month Window
Talk by Prof. Ramesh Raskar
11:15 AM – 11:30 AM — Discussion and Q&A
11:30 AM –12:00 PM — Networking
The Agentic Web can become an open ecosystem resembling the early internet—or a collection of corporate intranets controlled by a few dominant companies.
The architecture is being decided now.
Join us in London to discuss what startups should build before the window closes.