The whole stack is still moving, the models, the systems that train them, the systems that run them in production. None of it has settled yet.

Most AI events optimize for volume. This one optimizes for depth, a room with the size enough that every conversation starts already past the introductions, built around the open questions speakers are still working through, not the ones they've solved.

🎤 Speaker Lineup

Keynote Speakers

  • Nilesh Shah, VP @ hosted.ai

  • Edward Huang, Partner @ Llama Ventures, Co-founder and CTO of PingCAP- The AI Infrastructure Investment Insights

Lightning Talks

Section 1 - Researchers

  • Tianyi Zhang, AI Researcher @ Together AI- Optimizing LLM Inference Through Training: Faster Speculative Decoding and Better Low-Bit Quantization

  • Harshit Joshi, CS Phd @ Stanford SAIL

  • Yuexing Hao, Researcher @ Microsoft & Postdoc @ MIT & Founder of MatrAIx AI & Xiaomin Li, Senior Research Scientist @ Microsoft- MatrAIx Simulating the World with 8.3 Billion Persona Agents

  • Yash More, Member of Technical Staff @ Cohere

Section 2 - Industries

  • Biwei Huang, Founder @ Aether AI & Assistant Professor @ UC San Diego

  • Dexter Horthy, Founder @HumanLayer (YCF24)- Software Factory Design Patterns

More speakers confirming!

What's Being Debated Across the Stack

  • Compute, training infrastructure

  • Inference, agent infrastructure

  • Reliability, evals, and recursive self improvements

  • Data, security, and enterprise deployment

  • Frontier research shaping what comes next

Why join us:

  • Three keynote-length talks + Eight lightning talks more move fast across two tracks: AI Data / Infra + Researcher Topics

  • Every talk ends with something unresolved. Those open questions carry straight into the salon and the demo floor

  • 100 people, application-only: founders, frontier researchers, enterprise infrastructure leaders, and infra-focused investors

  • An hour and a half on the demo floor, built for the conversations that start after the talks end

Format:

  • Panel Discussion, The future of AI Infra, Agent token-economics and models

  • Keynote Block, 3 companies, extended time to go deep

  • Lightning Talks I, AI Infra & Data (4 companies)

  • Lightning Talks II, Research Topics (4 companies)

  • Technical Salon, researchers, founders, enterprise leaders and investors on what's structurally becoming the bottleneck

  • Demo Floor, booths, food & drinks, direct conversations

Schedule:

  • 2:00 PM, Doors open, coffee & booth preview

  • 3:00 PM, Opening

  • 3:10 PM, Technical panel

  • 3:40 PM, Keynote block

  • 4:20 PM, Lightning Talks I: AI Infrastructure & Data

  • 4:45 PM, Lightning Talks II: Research

  • 5:10 PM, Technical salon

  • 5:45–7:00 PM, Demo floor, food & drinks

Who should apply:

Founders and CTOs building infrastructure, researchers from frontier labs, enterprise leaders deploying AI at scale, and investors focused on infrastructure. This isn't for general AI enthusiasts, it's for people building or deciding at the infrastructure layer.

🔬 Researchers / Technical Builders -= Frontier lab researchers, PhDs, postdocs, and engineers working on AI systems, distributed training, inference, and agent infrastructure.

🤝 Strategic Partners - Sponsors Infrastructure providers, developer platforms, compute and cloud partners, and ecosystem partners looking to connect with a curated pipeline of AI infrastructure founders.

🚀 Founders Startup Teams - AI infrastructure, agent systems, inference & serving, training infrastructure, data & security, and frontier AI application startups.

📈 Investors / VCs - Pre-seed to Series B infrastructure investors, technical VCs, and angels looking for early access to high-quality AI infrastructure companies.

100 spots. Applications reviewed on a rolling basis.

Join as Speakers

11 spots, 3 keynote, 8 lightning talk, across AI infrastructure, data, and frontier research. If you're building or researching at the infrastructure layer and want to present, reach out to the OpenStages team at [email protected].

Join as Strategic Partners

Community Partner · Enterprise · Startups · Investors

Strategic partners get direct access to a curated pipeline of AI infrastructure founders, the researchers and technical builders shaping the space, and structured follow-up after the event. Reach out to the OpenStages team at [email protected].

Why AI Infra Signal

AI infrastructure is moving from research prototypes into production systems, real deployments, real reliability constraints, real scale problems. This gathering brings together the founders, researchers, investors, and strategic partners actively shaping that transition: from lab benchmark to production system, from experimental architecture to infrastructure enterprises depend on.

About the host:

OpenStages is a Bay Area team that plans and hosts curated events for founders and builders: hackathons, salons, and closed-door sessions across AI and tech. LinkedIn · openstagesai.com

About Sponsors:

Llama Ventures

We are where insight and AI shape the future.

Llama Ventures is a Silicon Valley–based early-stage venture firm investing in AI companies from Pre-Seed through Series A. With offices in Sunnyvale and San Francisco, the firm has invested in 60+ companies across AI infrastructure, enterprise software, healthcare, fintech, and deep-tech, and manages $300M+ in direct fund capital alongside a $600M+ fund of funds.

Founded by entrepreneurs and technology leaders, Llama Ventures partners closely with founders, providing strategic support and access to a global network of operators, engineers, customers, and investors.