The Quantum City Show

Welcome to The Quantum City Pod, the show where cities meet supercomputing.Hosted by Greg Gomer and Chase Garbarino, co-founders of HqO, we explore the boldest ideas and real-world breakthroughs at the intersection of AI, urban innovation, real estate, and public policy. Cities have always been civilization’s greatest supercomputers, concentrating talent, accelerating innovation, and scaling human potential.Now, it’s time for the next leap.Each week, we break down how Quantum Cities (intelligent, experience-driven urban systems) are reshaping how we live, work, and thrive. Through expert interviews, case studies, and grounded frameworks, we uncover how smart buildings, data-driven infrastructure, and civic design can transform complexity into clarity.If you’re building, governing, investing in, or simply curious about the cities of tomorrow, you’re in the right place.The Quantum City Pod is powered by HqO and the Quantum City Initiative. Subscribe and join the mission to build a m

The Quantum City Show is a business podcast hosted by HqO, with 38 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

HqO hosts The Quantum City Show, a business show with 38 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #37

  Why "Permission" Is Now America's Most Valuable Currency | QCI Show, Ep 37

  Aug 11, 202650 min

  The federal government just became a landlord for artificial intelligence. Last week it handed a shuttered Cold War uranium plant, ground lease and all, over to Brookfield and NextEra. $100 billion committed. A 1.2 gigawatt data center on the way. No tenant named yet, which might be the smartest part of the whole deal. Meanwhile, two bridges connecting Massachusetts to Cape Cod need $4.5 billion and more than a decade to rebuild. The math doesn't math. Elon Musk can stand up a data center in 60 days. The same country can't fix a bridge built in 1937 without a fight over eminent domain and thirteen homes standing in the way of 35 million cars a year. That's the story underneath every story this week. Power isn't the bottleneck anymore. Permission is. We get into why entitlement has become the real currency in American development, why abandoned infrastructure (a dead uranium plant, a retired coal reservoir) is suddenly buried treasure, and why a data center with no name attached might travel faster through zoning than one with Zuckerberg's on it. We also cover the hidden money in office rooftops, a rough month for CMBS delinquencies, a surprise jobs report that complicates the Fed's next move, Chicago's office-to-residential conversions, Musk's 100 million square foot chip plant in Texas, and Microsoft quietly stretching the useful life of its data centers from 15 to 25 years on the books. In this episode: Why "permission" has replaced power as the scarcest resource in real estate and infrastructure The government's move to hand AI developers a Cold War uranium site, and why no tenant has been named Rooftops as a hidden seven-figure revenue line for landlords Why Cape Cod's bridges will take 10 years and $4.5 billion, and what eminent domain means for the 13 families in the way CMBS delinquencies jump 8%, multifamily leads the slide, and what it means for rents A surprise July jobs loss and what it does to the Fed's September decision Chicago's 26 office-to-residential conversions, and why they barely dent a 100,000-unit housing gap Elon Musk's 100 million square foot chip plant in Texas, built to fuel orbital data centers Microsoft's quiet accounting shift on data center depreciation, and the AI bubble debate it reignited Why hotel and motel construction is spiking 150% in data center markets, and whether that economy sticks around The thread running through all of it: the companies and governments that figure out how to move fast on permission, not just capital, are the ones who'll win this next build cycle. Everyone else is still waiting in line. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Hot Mic Banter 00:25 Golf, Influencers, and Small Talk 01:26 Government Becomes an AI Data Center Landlord 02:49 Why Permission Is the New Currency in Real Estate 04:57 AI Politics: Entitlements and Party Divides 07:45 No Named Tenant: The PR Play Behind Data Centers 09:29 Zuckerberg's Bunker and Hawaii Detour 11:08 Rooftop Amenities Turned Revenue Machines 14:08 Dynamic Space and the Utilization Shift 17:37 Cape Cod Bridges: A $4.5B, 10-Year Fix 20:26 Eminent Domain: 13 Homes vs. 35 Million Drivers 25:29 CMBS Delinquencies and Fed Rate Pressure 27:35 Rising Rates, Rising Rents 28:42 Office Market Winners vs. Losers 29:19 Class B Buildings: The Next Value Play 30:27 Chicago's Office-to-Residential Conversions 31:56 Housing Math: Permission vs. Progress 34:36 Elon Musk's Terafab and Orbital Data Centers 39:36 Microsoft's Data Center Depreciation Shift 43:35 Hotels and Motels Follow the Data Center Boom 47:17 Ted Lasso Talk and Show Wrap Hosts: Greg Gomer: Co-founder & Chief Customer Officer, HqO Chase Garbarino: Co-founder & CEO, HqO More from the Quantum City Initiative The future of cities begins now → https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ Listen to every episode → https://thequantumcityinitiativeshow.podbean.com/ Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6KBhGHqQUblkyOcTAJlJdF?si=522551611b294a67 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-quantum-city-show/id1830288682 Hosted by Greg Gomer and Chase Garbarino, co-founders of HqO. The Quantum City Show is presented by HqO. Join the Quantum City Initiative: qci.hqo.com Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-quantum-city-show/id1830288682 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6KBhGHqQUblkyOcTAJlJdF?si=b961bd6046704fe7 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HqOinc Produced in partnership with OBEY Creative, building podcast-driven content engines for B2B founders. Learn more at https://obeycreative.com/ Let's Go!

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  Episode #36

  Bring Your Own Power: PJM's Warning to Data Centers | QCI Show, Ep 36

  Aug 4, 202656 min

  PJM Interconnection (the grid operator serving 67 million people across 13 states) went to market to buy power for 2028 and couldn't buy enough. So it did something no grid operator in America has done before: it told data centers in writing that if they don't bring their own power supply, it reserves the right to unplug them. Greg Gomer and Chase Garbarino unpack what that single sentence does to commercial real estate underwriting, why powered land just split into two different asset classes, and what a 6.5-gigawatt buildout is actually buying El Paso, Texas. Plus: how a 24-year-old's $45 billion AI fund got margin-called out of existence in 24 hours, and why eBay just wrote a Massachusetts couple a check for $55.7 million. What you'll learn Why PJM's "bring your own power" letter is a repricing event, not a policy announcement The difference between firm land and interruptible land What one gigawatt actually costs and produces: ~$10B of investment, ~4,000 construction jobs, ~300 permanent jobs, and enough power for ~750,000 homes How Meta and BlackRock structured a $14B data center so the capex stays off Meta's balance sheet — and why Blue Owl's $27B Hyperion deal proves it's now a repeatable playbook Why a $500,000 check to a school district isn't a community benefit agreement, and what one with teeth would actually contain The QCI scorecard applied to El Paso and why the November 3 city council election is the real verdict How a correct thesis and 4x leverage still equals a margin call Why the FIFA World Cup was the largest building-technology pilot ever run, and what edge compute in a stadium teaches you about a tower Why US office net absorption just posted its strongest quarter in seven years and why "the recovery" is a K curve, not a line TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — Cold open 00:55 — Anchor: PJM tells data centers to bring their own power 02:26 — Infrastructure as a political football 06:54 — What "bring your own power" does to cap rates 09:08 — Firm vs. interruptible: powered land splits in two 09:58 — Bringing your own power at the household level 11:02 — The QCI tension: system efficiency vs. city compute 12:57 — Who's talking their book on open source 14:16 — Quantum Review: El Paso, Texas 16:24 — What one gigawatt actually buys 18:19 — The BlackRock deal and the off-balance-sheet playbook 19:50 — The civic fight: tax breaks, special use permits, "vote them out" 22:05 — The QCI scorecard for El Paso 24:44 — Why $500K to a school isn't a community benefit 27:24 — What a community benefit agreement with teeth looks like 28:43 — Why November 3 is the real verdict 29:34 — Quick Hits 29:58 — Situational Awareness: $45B, 4,439%, margin-called 33:22 — Right thesis, wrong structure 37:39 — Travis Kalanick's Atoms raises $1.7B 38:29 — The proptech TAM problem: your market is not the AUM 44:06 — The World Cup as the biggest building-tech pilot ever run 46:11 — Controlling the vertical stack, from arrival to seat 48:29 — Inside the Meta–BlackRock deal structure 50:23 — DoorDash Air gets FAA Part 135 certification 51:36 — Office absorption rips: "I got this one wrong" 54:36 — One More Thing: eBay's $55.7M cyberstalking settlement 58:20 — Wrap Hosts: Greg Gomer: Co-founder & Chief Customer Officer, HqO Chase Garbarino: Co-founder & CEO, HqO More from the Quantum City Initiative The future of cities begins now → https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ Subscribe on Apple Podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-quantum-city-show/id1830288682 Produced in partnership with OBEY Creative, building podcast-driven content engines for B2B founders. Learn more at https://obeycreative.com/ Let's Go!

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  Episode #35

  Dubai Just Built a Digital Twin of the Entire City. Why Can't America? | QCI Ep. 35

  Jul 28, 20261 hour

  Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ Dubai just launched a live digital twin of the entire city - 195,000 buildings, 1,500 geospatial data layers, and a real operating system running underneath it all. So why isn't every city doing this? In the dog days of summer, Greg and Chase dig into the widening gap between cities that build and cities that block. The anchor: Brookfield and CPP Investments are taking LXP Industrial Trust private in a $5.2 billion all-cash deal, paying a nearly 20% premium for pure-play industrial at a moment when office CMBS delinquencies are pushing toward 18%. The bifurcation isn't just trophy-versus-legacy anymore -- it's turning regional, market by market, tracking business climate and regulatory drag as much as building quality. That sets up the big one. Dubai's new digital twin isn't a gimmicky 3D flyover -- it's the foundation of a city operating system, and Chase breaks down why it looks like Apple's tightly controlled model while other cities will inevitably go open-source. The conversation runs from Phoenix's semiconductor boom and car-dependent sprawl to what an autonomous-vehicle city actually looks like when AV stations replace subway stops. Then Google's earnings land: $44.9 billion in CapEx in a single quarter, the first negative free cash flow since Alphabet's 2004 IPO, and a live debate on the horizon of ROI when the hyperscalers are set to spend north of $600 billion on AI infrastructure. In this episode: Why Brookfield paid a nearly 20% premium to take LXP Industrial private, and what public-vs-private pricing gaps signal for CRE The K-curve goes regional: how business policy and regulation now drive occupancy market by market Phoenix as a rising Quantum City -- semiconductors, no state income tax, and the heat-and-transit problem What a city's transit backbone looks like when autonomous vehicles leapfrog rail Dubai's digital twin: 195,000 buildings, a city operating system, and the Apple-vs-open-source future of urban tech Google's first-ever negative free cash flow, founder mode, and the "follow the CapEx" thesis on power land Why the New York data center moratorium looks like a missed opportunity Quantum computing as an emerging CRE asset class, plus the movie-theater and mall comeback The throughline: the cities and companies willing to build the infrastructure (physical and digital) are pulling away from the ones stuck reworking legacy. Everything else is just sorting. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Cold open: World Cup hangover 01:11 Anchor: Brookfield and CPP take LXP Industrial private for $5.2B 02:14 Chase's read: the 20% premium and pure-play industrial 03:29 Office CMBS delinquencies and the supply squeeze 04:10 Does private capital keep taking REITs private? 05:14 Quantum Review: Phoenix 06:42 No state income tax, semiconductors, and "fast to yes" 07:34 Car dependency, heat, and the transit gap 08:48 Do transit scores matter once AVs arrive? 14:07 eVTOLs, flying cars, and the Middle East head start 16:52 Data center backlash and permitting gridlock 18:44 The 24-month bet: bearish gateways, bullish Sun Belt 23:20 What a digital twin actually is 24:18 Dubai's digital twin: 1,500 data layers, 195,000 buildings 28:36 Dubai Live and Dubai Here: the city operating system 30:36 Why isn't every city doing this? 34:07 AI, surveillance, and competition as the real check 39:27 Quick Hits: CPI, rate hikes, and sticky inflation 43:30 The $70B quantum computing CRE boom 46:42 CMBS delinquencies split market by market 49:46 Google's $45B quarter and the founder-mode CapEx bet 54:56 The dark fiber counterargument 56:57 One More Thing: movie theaters and malls are back Sponsored by HqO - the leading tenant experience platform for commercial real estate.

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  Episode #34

  Follow the Power: Where CRE Money Is Really Going | QCI Ep 34

  Jul 14, 202658 min

  Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cit... Greg and Chase just got back from HqO's EMEA customer advisory board, and the money in commercial real estate is telling on itself. Last week Digital Realty bought Blackstone's stake in three Northern Virginia data centers for three and a half billion dollars. This episode follows that power, from Miami's record office rents to the 200 buildings a top Manhattan landlord studied before deciding only 11 could actually convert. What you'll learn Why capital keeps flowing to power and compute, and what the Blackstone data center exit really signals How underwriting has to change, and why below-trophy office starts to look like hospitality Miami by the numbers, and where it wins and loses against the five principles of the Quantum City The office-to-residential conversion math, and why "just convert it" breaks down at scale What the June jobs miss and a stuck 10-year mean for refinancing Chapters 00:00 Episode Kickoff 00:45 Customer Advisory Board Recap 02:06 US vs Europe AI Adoption 06:56 The Collection’s Hospitality Model 11:50 AI Cheating in Higher Education 14:49 Data Centers and the Power Boom 20:26 Office Underwriting Must Change 25:42 Miami’s Office Market Strength 32:43 Commercial Real Estate Quick Hits 32:59 Interest Rates Stay High 34:39 Fed Policy and Inflation Risk 37:01 Money Supply and US Debt 38:26 Gold Repricing Theory 41:03 Office-to-Residential Conversions 44:19 Office Demolition and Adaptive Reuse 47:41 Starwood Avoids Office Investments 49:53 Taylor Swift Wedding Strategy 51:41 FIFA and World Cup Politics 53:44 Tilly Norwood, the AI Actress 57:03 Final Takeaways and What’s Next Hosted by Greg Gomer and Chase Garbarino, co-founders of HqO. The Quantum City Show is presented by HqO. Join the Quantum City Initiative: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cit... Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-quantum-city-show/id1830288682 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6KBhGHqQUblkyOcTAJlJdF?si=b961bd6046704fe7 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HqOinc Let's Go!

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  Episode #33

  The 3 Levels of AI Maturity in CRE | QCI Ep 33

  Jun 23, 202650 min

  Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ AI in commercial real estate has moved from “we should probably look at this” to “why don’t we have a plan yet?” That was the feeling coming out of our CAB in Los Angeles. We had owners, operators, and executives from LPC, Hines, LBA, ARE, Piedmont, Swig, MetLife, and Hudson Pacific in the room. Closed-door conversations. A few dinners. A World Cup match at SoFi. And somewhere between the meetings and the traffic leaving the stadium, one thing became pretty obvious. CRE is splitting into three groups. Some companies still don’t have an AI strategy. Some are paying for ChatGPT, Claude, or Copilot and hoping experiments turn into a plan. A smaller group gets it: the real advantage will come from operations, building-level data, and the people who know how the work actually gets done. We’re still figuring out the cleanest way to describe this. But “buy more tools” is not the answer. In this episode, we talk through the 3 steps we think every CRE company needs to take: find the operational experts, identify the AI-curious people already testing things, and create incentives so adoption doesn’t feel like a threat. Because if the person who knows the building best thinks AI is coming for their job, you’ve already lost. We also get into China’s $300 billion AI compute plan, why land with energy, water, and fiber may be wildly underpriced, how export controls could change data center underwriting, KKR’s $10 billion Helix platform, Manhattan hitting 4.2 million square feet of office leasing in May, and why hospitality may be turning into infrastructure. In this episode: Why CRE is falling into 3 stages of AI maturity The 3 steps we’d take before buying another AI tool Why building-level data is becoming the constraint How operators and AI-curious employees can build the internal engine Why incentives matter more than most teams want to admit China’s $300 billion compute plan and the U.S. permitting problem Why energy, water, and fiber are becoming real estate’s AI premium How model risk could show up in data center underwriting KKR’s $10 billion Helix bet on AI infrastructure Why 4.2 million square feet of Manhattan leasing doesn’t mean every office building is back The thread running through all of it: AI will reward the companies that know their buildings, know their data, and can turn all that messy operational knowledge into systems. Not someday. Now. Sponsored by HqO, the leading tenant experience platform for commercial real estate. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Intro + CAB in Los Angeles 03:30 What CRE leaders are actually saying about AI 09:30 The 3 stages of AI maturity in commercial real estate 18:30 How to build a real AI strategy inside a CRE organization 23:00 China’s $300B AI compute plan 27:00 Why energy, water, and fiber are becoming AI’s real estate premium 30:00 Fed rates, inflation, and energy risk 33:30 Anthropic, export controls, and data center underwriting risk 37:30 SpaceX, Cursor, and the speed gap in infrastructure 40:30 KKR Helix and AI infrastructure as a service 43:00 Manhattan office leasing and the K-curve 45:30 Hospitality as infrastructure 47:00 World Cup 2026 as an infrastructure stress test 48:45 Meta morale, snacks, and leadership misses

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