X, The Moonshot Factory

🪦 Our annual “Tales from the Crypt” Halloween tradition was a grave success! Each year, X’s Design Kitchen gets transformed into a “crypt” and our team comes together to share stories of moonshots past. By resurrecting moonshot ghosts and sharing lessons learned, we hope to build even better projects in the future.  Everyone brought their most killer looks for the costume contest—including Biscuit the dog, who took a ride around the factory in his “Paw-mo”. Check out some highlights:

Really looking forward to joining Jeff Nelson on stage at  #AfroTech25 in a few hours time to talk about moonshots, innovation and entrepreneurship! If you’re at the conference please join us at the Innovation Stage at 2:45 CT. If you’re watching at home you can tune into the livestream here: https://lnkd.in/gJ3Yi-3q

“If you don’t have really high audacity, you won’t start on these really unlikely journeys. But if you have anything less than really high humility, you’ll go ruinously far down that unlikely journey.” X’s Captain of Moonshots Astro Teller shared more about the process of creating moonshots on the main stage of TechCrunch Disrupt yesterday. Get the scoop from reporter Aisha Malik: https://lnkd.in/gAWEwdxT

  🏗️ Introducing Anori, X’s moonshot for building and development. Anori is developing a new AI platform to help real estate developers, the architecture and construction industries, and cities untangle the complexities of new building projects. Nearly 3 billion people may lack adequate housing by 2030. As the demand for new housing and commercial development projects soars, our ability to meet this demand is bottlenecked, in part, because our current systems don’t work together. By aligning developers, architects, and cities on a single platform from day one, Anori’s vision is to transform siloed work into shared, buildable projects. The goal is to make the process of building dramatically faster, less costly and more efficient. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gbe9cRtW

🐒 Monkeys, compost and c**p. 💩 Unique words and phrases play a really important role in our culture and process. That’s because we believe that well-chosen words don’t just describe innovation — they enable it. Hear Astro Teller, John "Ivo" Stivoric, Julia Ling and Joseph Sargent break down some of our favorites in this behind-the-scenes video from our course on innovation, launching with MasterClass today: https://lnkd.in/gdVrsRs9

🎧 You tuned in, they took notice—The Moonshot Podcast just picked up two silver Signal Awards for Best Editing and Best Science & Education podcasts! Big thanks to our listeners for voting and for joining us to hear how self-driving cars, laser-beamed internet, drone delivery and more went from being science fiction ideas to real world technologies and businesses.  Thanks also to the team at Blanchard House who helped create the series. To check out some of the other winners and find your next great listen, check out the Signal awards gallery: https://lnkd.in/gDrvuxG9

Tapestry was named one of Fast Company’s 2025 Next Big Things in Tech! “There is currently no working map of the world’s electric grid. Tapestry…is working to change that,” writes Executive Editor Morgan Clendaniel. “Its two products use machine learning to help quickly inspect grids and solve problems and plan for future grid expansion.” 🎉 Congratulations to the Tapestry team! Read more: https://lnkd.in/gcC4nzA8 #fctechawards

In honor of Ada Lovelace Day, we’re spotlighting AIDA, an X graduate named for the world’s first computer programmer. Project AIDA’s moonshot was to create code that could write and rewrite itself. After graduating from X in 2023, the team’s code generation foundational model, Codey, went on to accelerate software development across a range of Google products. For more on AIDA’s journey, tune into Episode 3 of The Moonshot Podcast, “Machines That Think,” and hear from AIDA Project Lead Olivia Hatalsky and VP of Engineering Scott Huffman, who led the team once they moved to Google: https://lnkd.in/gcBTMtvX

“Technology evolves very quickly, but humans don’t.” In the latest episode of The Moonshot Podcast’s Deep Dive video series, X’s Captain of Moonshots Astro Teller sat down with Google design leaders Ivy Ross and Isabelle Olsson, who led the team that created Google Glass, for a conversation about the unexpected challenges they faced designing such a bold new form factor, the surprising ways people ended up wanting to use Glass, and the importance of timing when building new technologies. Check out the full episode: https://lnkd.in/gXw9fMxy #TheMoonshotPodcast

“For decades, the recycling industry has sought ways to keep plastics in circulation rather than throwing them away forever.” Materra, X’s moonshot for circularity, worked with Alterra to demonstrate a groundbreaking technique for transforming plastic waste back into the oil needed to make more plastics. Learn how Materra’s technology was able to help Alterra produce 400,000 pounds of virgin-quality oil derived 100 percent from discarded plastic: https://lnkd.in/grtbATmk #materra