Building the backbone of AI with Mahdi Yahya, Co-Founder @ Radiant on Compute, Power and the Future of Infrastructure

In this episode of Riding Unicorns, host Hector interviews Mahdi Yahya, Co-Founder and CEO of Radiant (formerly Ori), about the foundational role of AI infrastructure in the global tech transformation. Yahya traces his journey from building a telecoms business in his early 20s—gaining deep experience in data centers and global infrastructure—to founding Ori, a company that evolved from a vision of future-ready distributed computing into a leader in AI infrastructure. The conversation explores how Ori’s early bet on AI infrastructure, long before mainstream adoption, positioned it for success as large language models surged. Yahya details the strategic merger with Brookfield to form Radiant, combining Ori’s software and compute expertise with Brookfield’s $100 billion AI Infrastructure Fund, access to power, and global data center assets. He emphasizes that AI is becoming critical infrastructure—akin to electricity—and that sovereignty over AI systems requires control over the underlying hardware and software stack, not necessarily building models from scratch. The episode closes with Yahya’s reflections on resilience, strategic risks, and long-term thinking, including his vision of connecting past, present, and future through lineage. The discussion underscores that the next phase of economic growth will be powered by physical infrastructure, and the winners will be those who vertically integrate across capital, power, compute, and software. Key takeaways include: (1) AI infrastructure is the new critical backbone of civilization, requiring massive capital and physical build-out; (2) Sovereign AI means controlling the infrastructure stack, not necessarily building models in-house; (3) Vertical integration across capital, power, compute, and software creates a sustainable competitive edge; (4) Founders must prioritize survival over short-term logic, making counterintuitive moves to stay alive and scale; (5) The future of value capture will shift from applications back to infrastructure, but eventually return to the application layer; (6) Strategic risks—like acquiring a team or investing in CapEx early—are essential for long-term dominance; (7) The most impactful innovations emerge from merging traditional infrastructure investing with cutting-edge tech; (8) Long-term thinking, legacy, and lineage are powerful frameworks for decision-making in high-stakes ventures.