Private Room

Ethan felt the room adjust. Priya's knee was inches from his under the table. Nora's warning moved through his memory: Marcus does not invite people. He collects them. "Trust," Ethan said. Marcus raised an eyebrow. "Not chips?" "Chips are a bottleneck everyone can see. Energy, fiber, cooling, permitting, talent, capital. All real. All modeled. Trust is harder. Enterprises don't trust model companies with data. Model companies don't trust clouds on pricing. Clouds don't trust startups on commitments. Investors don't trust founders with discipline. Founders don't trust investors with control. The company that becomes the trust layer for AI compute owns the toll road." Priya did not look at him, but he felt her attention sharpen.