South by Southwest starts tomorrow. Here’s what to watch

As South by Southwest returns to Austin from March 7-15, 2025, the festival once again promises to be the nexus of technology, creativity, and cultural transformation. This year’s edition feels particularly significant as conversations around sustainability, AI ethics, and the future of mobility take center stage — themes aligned with presenting sponsor Rivian’s (RIVN-3.72%) vision of adventure-ready sustainability.

To help you navigate the overwhelming SXSW schedule, we’ve curated this list of seven panels that represent the cutting edge of innovation and thought leadership. Whether you’re attending in person or following along with the conversation online, these are the ideas that will define the next wave of cultural and technological evolution.

The Lunar gold rush: Private enterprise takes the lead

When and where: March 10 at 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. CST; Austin Marriott Downtown, Waterloo Ballroom 1-2

This panel, provocatively titled “A Fast and Furious Return to the Moon,” examines the rapidly evolving business ecosystem of commercial lunar ventures. With Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost spacecraft recently becoming the second private vessel to successfully land on the lunar surface just this week — delivering 10 NASA payloads to the Mare Crisium region — we’re witnessing the birth of an entirely new market category.

Tech giants pivot to energy: The new strategic battlefield

When and where: March 7, 2025, 11:30am – 12:30pm CT; Hilton Austin Downtown, Salon H

In this featured session “Powering Tomorrow,” Amazon’s (AMZN-3.68%) head of sustainability Kara Hurst joins energy industry heavyweights to dissect how Big Tech’s massive capital reserves are being strategically redeployed into energy infrastructure. What began as corporate sustainability initiatives has evolved into a full-scale competitive battleground, with tech giants now positioning themselves as central players in nuclear innovation, advanced battery storage, and AI-optimized grid management. For investors, this convergence signals a fundamental reshaping of the energy sector’s competitive landscape, with traditional utilities facing unprecedented disruption from cash-rich tech competitors.

Digital privacy as competitive advantage: Signal’s market disruption strategy

When and where: March 7, 2025, 1:00pm – 2:00pm CT; Austin Convention Center, Ballroom D

This keynote conversation features Meredith Whittaker, the influential AI ethics researcher and former Google employee who now serves as President of Signal, the privacy-focused messaging platform that has become a case study in converting ethical positioning into market differentiation. Whittaker, who previously co-founded the AI Now Institute and led labor organizing efforts at Google, brings a unique perspective on how Signal’s business model deliberately counters the surveillance capitalism dominating the tech industry.

Crypto’s regulatory inflection point: Market implications of new oversight

When and where: March 7, 2025, 4:00pm – 5:00pm CT; Hilton Austin Downtown, Salon H

In this featured session, Molly White—the software engineer whose “Web3 Is Going Just Great” project has become required reading for institutional investors navigating the cryptocurrency sector—delivers a market-focused assessment of the industry’s regulatory challenges. As crypto lobbying expenditures reach record levels and the industry faces potentially existential regulatory decisions, White offers a data-driven perspective on which business models will survive increased scrutiny — information particularly valuable for venture capital firms recalibrating their fintech portfolios and financial institutions developing their digital asset strategies.

Beyond Meta: The race to bring AI into healthcare

When and where: March 12, 2025, 2:30pm – 3:30pm CT; Austin Convention Center, Ballroom EF

While her husband focuses on Meta’s (META-4.02%) consumer AI applications, physician and entrepreneur Dr. Priscilla Chan is charting her own course as she leverages AI to transform her native healthcare industry. In this featured session, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) co-founder and co-CEO will detail CZI’s ambitious development of “virtual cells” — AI models that could fundamentally disrupt pharmaceutical R&D timelines and economics. As a medical doctor by training, Chan brings a unique clinical perspective to AI deployment that distinguishes CZI’s approach from competing initiatives at Alphabet’s (GOOGL-0.42%) DeepMind and Amazon’s healthcare division. Her investment in one of the largest nonprofit AI computing clusters signals a distinctive strategy for addressing the $7 trillion healthcare marketplace.

Berners-Lee’s second act: Web creator weighs in on robotics revolution

When and where: March 11, 2025, 2:30pm – 3:30pm CT; Hilton Austin Downtown, Salon H

In this must-attend session, Sir Tim Berners-Lee — whose World Wide Web creation transformed the global economy thirty years ago — brings his unique historical perspective to what is happening in robotics today. Having witnessed how his original invention evolved in unexpected ways, Berners-Lee offers rare insight on the market forces likely to shape physical AI’s commercial trajectory.

The longevity economy: Bryan Johnson’s high-stakes bet on aging

When and where: March 13, 2025, 4:00pm – 5:00pm CT; Austin Convention Center, Ballroom D

Few tech entrepreneurs have sparked as much investor interest in the longevity market as Bryan Johnson. The Braintree (PYPL-1.92%) founder who sold his payment company to PayPal for $800 million has since poured millions into his controversial Blueprint protocol — an anti-aging regimen that includes over 100 daily supplements, constant monitoring, and experimental treatments. In this keynote, Johnson will likely address how his company Blueprint is commercializing his methodologies into what market analysts project could be a $610 billion “longevity” industry by 2030.