A panel discussion hosted by Vision for Wellington on the future of the city and how tech and innovation can help reinvigorate the city's fortunes - featuring Rod Drury, Brooke Roberts, Serge van Dam, and Stephen Cummings.

A panel discussion hosted by Vision for Wellington on the future of the city and how tech and innovation can help reinvigorate the city's fortunes - featuring Rod Drury, Brooke Roberts, Serge van Dam, and Stephen Cummings.

The Business of Tech, hosted by leading tech journalist Peter Griffin. Every week they take a deep dive into emerging technology and news from the sector to help guide the important decisions all Business leaders make.

Issues such as cybersecurity, retaining trust after a cyberattack, business IT needs, purchasing SaaS tools and more.

New Episodes out every Thursday. Follow or subscribe to get it delivered straight to your favourite podcatcher.

@petergnz

@businessdesk_nz

Proudly sponsored by 2degrees Business!

 

The Business of Tech, hosted by leading tech journalist Peter Griffin. Every week they take a deep dive into emerging technology and news from the sector to help guide the important decisions all Business leaders make.
Issues such as cybersecurity, retaining trust after a cyberattack, business IT needs, purchasing SaaS tools and more.
New Episodes out every Thursday. Follow or subscribe to get it delivered straight to your favourite podcatcher.
@petergnz
@businessdesk_nz
Proudly sponsored by 2degrees Business!
&nbsp;

The Business of Tech

Vision for Wellington - tech and innovation panel May 2025

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/3341fbca-9182-4fd6-9d75-b2f1017b7d7b/transcript

When global giants argue about which AI models are safest, smartest and ready for prime time, a New Zealander in Redmond, Washington is one of the people making the call.

Steve Sweetman leads the team at Microsoft's global headquarters deciding which AI models make it onto Microsoft Foundry – the platform that now offers more than 10,000 models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, DeepSeek, Microsoft’s own labs and others, to customers around the world. 

Sweetman studied architecture at Unitec in Auckland and fell in love with technology as the industry shifted from manual drawing to computer-assisted design. Stints at Wang and Telecom led to Microsoft New Zealand, then on to Redmond, where he’s spent over two decades at the coalface of new tech: HoloLens, early chatbots, and the shift from narrow AI tools to today’s generative AI platforms.

Setting the responsible AI rules

He helped set up Microsoft’s Office of Responsible AI, turning high‑minded principles into practical policies and tools. That experience now shapes how Foundry works. Before any third‑party model is switched on for customers, Microsoft runs its own evaluations and has, Sweetman reveals, rejected popular models that didn’t meet its safety bar. 

Sweetman explains why the real value is no longer “just the model” but the data, governance and agent frameworks wrapped around it. We talk through concrete use cases from Alaska Airlines using generative AI to personalise travel planning, to CVS Health applying models to cancer research, and tiny Australian startup Lyrebird building multilingual tools to close gaps between patients and clinicians.

For New Zealand, where AI adoption is lagging and talent is thin on the ground, Sweetman is bullish. You don’t need to build your own foundational model, he argues. You can plug into powerful platforms like Foundry, understand the safety guardrails, and start experimenting.

If you want an insider’s view of how Microsoft is curating the world’s AI models – and a Kiwi’s take on what that means for local businesses – this is an episode worth queuing up. Streaming on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks to our sponsor 2degrees and to Microsoft for hosting me in Redmond.

When global giants argue about which AI models are safest, smartest and ready for prime time, a New Zealander in Redmond, Washington is one of the people making the call.
Steve Sweetman leads the team at Microsoft's global headquarters deciding which AI models make it onto Microsoft Foundry &ndash; the platform that now offers more than 10,000 models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, DeepSeek, Microsoft&rsquo;s own labs and others, to customers around the world.&nbsp;
Sweetman studied architecture at Unitec in Auckland and fell in love with technology as the industry shifted from manual drawing to computer-assisted design. Stints at Wang and Telecom led to Microsoft New Zealand, then on to Redmond, where he&rsquo;s spent over two decades at the coalface of new tech: HoloLens, early chatbots, and the shift from narrow AI tools to today&rsquo;s generative AI platforms.
Setting the responsible AI rules
He helped set up Microsoft&rsquo;s Office of Responsible AI, turning high‑minded principles into practical policies and tools. That experience now shapes how Foundry works. Before any third‑party model is switched on for customers, Microsoft runs its own evaluations and has, Sweetman reveals, rejected popular models that didn&rsquo;t meet its safety bar.&nbsp;
Sweetman explains why the real value is no longer &ldquo;just the model&rdquo; but the data, governance and agent frameworks wrapped around it. We talk through concrete use cases from Alaska Airlines using generative AI to personalise travel planning, to CVS Health applying models to cancer research, and tiny Australian startup Lyrebird building multilingual tools to close gaps between patients and clinicians.
For New Zealand, where AI adoption is lagging and talent is thin on the ground, Sweetman is bullish. You don&rsquo;t need to build your own foundational model, he argues. You can plug into powerful platforms like Foundry, understand the safety guardrails, and start experimenting.
If you want an insider&rsquo;s view of how Microsoft is curating the world&rsquo;s AI models &ndash; and a Kiwi&rsquo;s take on what that means for local businesses &ndash; this is an episode worth queuing up. Streaming on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks to our sponsor 2degrees and to Microsoft for hosting me in Redmond.

AI’s Kiwi gatekeeper inside Microsoft

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/0caf3db3-3b0d-42e8-8b92-b40a0017a0f4/transcript

This week on The Business of Tech, I talk to Neara co‑founder Jack Curtis about how a “physics-based digital twin” of electricity grids is changing the way we plan, build and protect electricity infrastructure – from Taranaki to Texas. 

Neara has just raised A$90 million in a Series D round led by US investment firm Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), which also invested in Netflix, Spotify, Facebook and Xero. That takes total funding in Neara to about A$180 million, as some of the world’s most exposed utilities rush to digitise their networks in the face of extreme weather and the clean‑energy transition.

Neara’s origin story isn’t very corporate. Software engineer and Neara co-founder, Daniel Danilatos, hacked together a better power line design tool over a weekend for his wife, a line designer frustrated with clunky legacy software. The prototype spread “organically” in an industry notorious for moving slowly.

Within a few years, it had become the basis for a company now modelling around 90% of Australia’s electricity networks and working with most major utilities in Texas and California, and with a roster of New Zealand clients.

Predicting when things break

Most “digital twins” in utilities have been glorified 3D maps – pretty visualisations that don’t give asset owners enough confidence to make high‑stakes decisions. Neara instead builds behavioural models where every pole, line and substation is infused with real‑world physics: how it bends in a storm, heats up as load rises, or fails when gusts hit a certain speed. 

As Jack puts it, if you look at the pole outside your house in a gale, it should behave exactly the same way in Neara’s model – right up to the moment it snaps.

We also look at how physics‑based models help solve “good problems” like renewables congestion. Neara simulates how much extra power can safely be pushed through existing lines, where new wind or solar should connect, and how different mixes of generation and load will behave over 10–30 years. 

That’s crucial for countries like New Zealand, which sprinted to 80–90% renewable electricity without fully modelling system‑wide side‑effects such as dry‑year risk and fossil‑fuel fallback.

I found this chat fascinating and I’m sure you will too if you are interested in how evidence-based digital twins can transform industries. 

Streaming on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks to our sponsor 2degrees.​

This week on The Business of Tech, I talk to Neara co‑founder Jack Curtis about how a &ldquo;physics-based digital twin&rdquo; of electricity grids is changing the way we plan, build and protect electricity infrastructure &ndash; from Taranaki to Texas.&nbsp;
Neara has just raised A$90 million in a Series D round led by US investment firm Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), which also invested in Netflix, Spotify, Facebook and Xero. That takes total funding in Neara to about A$180 million, as some of the world&rsquo;s most exposed utilities rush to digitise their networks in the face of extreme weather and the clean‑energy transition.
Neara&rsquo;s origin story isn&rsquo;t very corporate. Software engineer and Neara co-founder, Daniel Danilatos, hacked together a better power line design tool over a weekend for his wife, a line designer frustrated with clunky legacy software. The prototype spread &ldquo;organically&rdquo; in an industry notorious for moving slowly.
Within a few years, it had become the basis for a company now modelling around 90% of Australia&rsquo;s electricity networks and working with most major utilities in Texas and California, and with a roster of New Zealand clients.
Predicting when things break
Most &ldquo;digital twins&rdquo; in utilities have been glorified 3D maps &ndash; pretty visualisations that don&rsquo;t give asset owners enough confidence to make high‑stakes decisions. Neara instead builds behavioural models where every pole, line and substation is infused with real‑world physics: how it bends in a storm, heats up as load rises, or fails when gusts hit a certain speed.&nbsp;
As Jack puts it, if you look at the pole outside your house in a gale, it should behave exactly the same way in Neara&rsquo;s model &ndash; right up to the moment it snaps.
We also look at how physics‑based models help solve &ldquo;good problems&rdquo; like renewables congestion. Neara simulates how much extra power can safely be pushed through existing lines, where new wind or solar should connect, and how different mixes of generation and load will behave over 10&ndash;30 years.&nbsp;
That&rsquo;s crucial for countries like New Zealand, which sprinted to 80&ndash;90% renewable electricity without fully modelling system‑wide side‑effects such as dry‑year risk and fossil‑fuel fallback.
I found this chat fascinating and I&rsquo;m sure you will too if you are interested in how evidence-based digital twins can transform industries.&nbsp;
Streaming on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks to our sponsor 2degrees.​

Australia's new unicorn and its digital twins

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/5d53abb8-7a69-444e-90ad-b402006feb76/transcript

A half-tonne metal “donut” silently floating in a vacuum chamber in Wellington might sound like science fiction. But as you’ll hear in the latest episode of The Business of Tech, it’s very real – and it could reshape New Zealand’s role in the global race for nuclear fusion.

This week, I sit down with BusinessDesk journalist Greg Hurrell to unpack OpenStar’s dramatic new milestone: levitating a superconducting dipole in a near-perfect vacuum and firing superheated plasma around it. 

It’s a key proof point for the Wellington startup’s radically different approach to fusion, one that flips the dominant tokamak design inside out. Instead of surrounding the plasma with giant magnets, OpenStar suspends a powerful magnet in the centre of the chamber and uses Earth-like magnetic fields to confine the plasma.

​Big ambitions, big interest

Greg and I were in the room at Open Star last week as Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones, Infrastructure minister Chris Bishop, investors, scientists and even a representative from the United Arab Emirates watched the demonstration. 

For a company that has only raised a modest $10 million Series A round, hitting this milestone matters. it shows OpenStar can deliver on ambitious engineering promises, exactly what global venture capital wants to see. The government has granted OpenStar a $35 million loan via the Rural Infrastructure Fund to build a bigger prototype – Tahi.

Shane Jones, Chris Bishop, and Christopher Luxon listen to OpenStar CEO and co-founder Ratu Mataira explain the plasma firing experiment.

Inside-out design

We dig into why this “inside-out” design could be simpler to build and maintain than giant international projects, how New Zealand-grown intellectual property in high‑temperature superconductors and flux pumps gives OpenStar a potential edge, and what comes next with its larger Tahi and Maui machines aimed at real fusion and, eventually, commercial-scale power. 

We also tackle the hard questions: tritium supply, neutron damage to reactor components, and whether a relatively small team in Wellington can compete with well-funded overseas rivals and decades of tokamak momentum.

If you are interested in energy, climate, deeptech or New Zealand’s science system, this episode goes deep on a genuine moonshot as it crosses from lab experiment into serious industrial ambition. 

Streaming on Spotify, Apple, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks to our sponsor 2degrees.

Show notes

OpenStar Plasma Showcase Event - Youtube

OpenStar completes critical step on nuclear fusion path - BusinessDesk

Openstar says $35m Government loan will help it stay in NZ - BusinessDesk

New Zealand fusion startup claims major advance in New Zealand trial - Bloomberg

Nuclear fusion seems hot right now — but how close is fusion power? - CBC

Chinese nuclear fusion reactor pushes plasma past crucial limit: what happens next - Nature

A half-tonne metal &ldquo;donut&rdquo; silently floating in a vacuum chamber in Wellington might sound like science fiction. But as you&rsquo;ll hear in the latest episode of The Business of Tech, it&rsquo;s very real &ndash; and it could reshape New Zealand&rsquo;s role in the global race for nuclear fusion.
This week, I sit down with BusinessDesk journalist <a href="https://businessdesk.co.nz/journalist/greg-hurrell">Greg Hurrell</a> to unpack <a href="https://www.openstar.tech/">OpenStar</a>&rsquo;s dramatic new milestone: levitating a superconducting dipole in a near-perfect vacuum and firing superheated plasma around it.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s a key proof point for the Wellington startup&rsquo;s radically different approach to fusion, one that flips the dominant tokamak design inside out. Instead of surrounding the plasma with giant magnets, OpenStar suspends a powerful magnet in the centre of the chamber and uses Earth-like magnetic fields to confine the plasma.
​Big ambitions, big interest
Greg and I were in the room at Open Star last week as Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones, Infrastructure minister Chris Bishop, investors, scientists and even a representative from the United Arab Emirates watched the demonstration.&nbsp;
For a company that has only raised a modest $10 million Series A round, hitting this milestone matters. it shows OpenStar can deliver on ambitious engineering promises, exactly what global venture capital wants to see. The government has granted OpenStar a $35 million loan via the Rural Infrastructure Fund to build a bigger prototype &ndash; Tahi.
Shane Jones, Chris Bishop, and Christopher Luxon listen to OpenStar CEO and co-founder Ratu Mataira explain the plasma firing experiment.
Inside-out design
We dig into why this &ldquo;inside-out&rdquo; design could be simpler to build and maintain than giant international projects, how New Zealand-grown intellectual property in high‑temperature superconductors and flux pumps gives OpenStar a potential edge, and what comes next with its larger Tahi and Maui machines aimed at real fusion and, eventually, commercial-scale power.&nbsp;
We also tackle the hard questions: tritium supply, neutron damage to reactor components, and whether a relatively small team in Wellington can compete with well-funded overseas rivals and decades of tokamak momentum.
If you are interested in energy, climate, deeptech or New Zealand&rsquo;s science system, this episode goes deep on a genuine moonshot as it crosses from lab experiment into serious industrial ambition.&nbsp;
Streaming on Spotify, Apple, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks to our sponsor 2degrees.
Show notes
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOllOhBMQVQ&amp;t=8180s">OpenStar Plasma Showcase Event</a> - Youtube
<a href="https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/energy/openstar-completes-critical-step-on-nuclear-fusion-path">OpenStar completes critical step on nuclear fusion path</a> - BusinessDesk
<a href="https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/policy/openstar-says-35m-government-loan-will-help-it-stay-in-nz">Openstar says $35m Government loan will help it stay in NZ</a> - BusinessDesk
<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-17/nuclear-fusion-startup-claims-major-advance-in-new-zealand-trial?embedded-checkout=true">New Zealand fusion startup claims major advance in New Zealand trial</a> - Bloomberg
<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/fusion-startups-9.7045784">Nuclear fusion seems hot right now &mdash; but how close is fusion power?</a> - CBC
<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00063-4">Chinese nuclear fusion reactor pushes plasma past crucial limit: what happens next</a> - Nature

Inside the levitation lab: OpenStar’s quest for energy’s Holy Grail 

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/b4210035-915e-4400-8c20-b3fb0165669c/transcript

Vision for Wellington - tech and innovation panel May 2025

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