Latest Interviews
Showing 256–270 of 1,930 interview transcripts.
Clear all filtersTrae Stephens on Anduril’s Origin, Peter Thiel, & Palantir DNA
Trae Stephens, Peter Thiel, Molly O'Shea, Sam
Founded in 2017 by Jack Altman and former Palantir executives, Anduril Industries has transformed from a Silicon Valley outlier into a leading defense contractor by applying a software-defined hardware model to multi-domain autonomous systems. The company is rapidly scaling production through its new Arsenal One manufacturing campus in Ohio and a hybrid supply chain strategy designed to secure U.S. magazine inventory advantages against strategic competitors. By integrating Just War Theory into its operations and rejecting traditional industry advisory practices, Anduril aims to re-industrialize American defense capabilities while attracting top talent from consumer technology sectors.
Full Anduril R&D Tour: Matt Grimm, Co-Founder & COO
Matt Grimm, Palmer Luckey, Brian Schimpf, Trae Stephens, Molly O'Shea
Founded in 2017, Anduril has rapidly scaled to a global workforce of 7,000 employees operating across 35 offices to manufacture autonomous defense systems like the Ghost Shark submarine and Fury aerial vehicle. The company leverages an iterative R&D model and dedicated facilities in Rhode Island and Sydney to transition from rapid prototyping to mass production of AI-enabled battlefield ecosystems. Led by CEO Brian and co-founder Palmer Luckey, Anduril focuses on building a cohesive command network that integrates ground, air, and soldier-borne compute nodes to execute large-scale military contracts.
Anduril CEO Brian Schimpf on $1B+ Revenue & Still Doubling
Anduril, now a $30 billion company employing 7,000 people, is capitalizing on a shifting global security landscape by deploying its Lattice software platform to manufacture autonomous systems at commercial scales for land, air, and sea domains. Through a meritocratic culture that rejects legacy cost-plus contracting, leadership prioritizes fixed-price deals and localized supply chains to accelerate the delivery of affordable, high-volume technologies like the "Ghost Shark" drone in Australia. With US procurement spending lagging behind historic defense needs, the firm is positioning itself as a primary engine for the international transition toward rapid industrial production and software-driven warfare.
- Sequoia Capital38 min
Why the Next AI Revolution Will Happen Off-Screen: Samsara CEO Sanjit Biswas
Sanjit Biswas, Sonya Huang, Pat Grady
Samsara leverages its 90-billion-mile fleet dataset to drive a "third shift" in autonomous logistics and physical AI, prioritizing edge-computed safety and behavioral coaching over full automation replacement. With $3 billion reinvested into R&D, the company transforms legacy operations across trucking, construction, and public sector transit by integrating sensor telemetry with cloud-based video language models. This strategy aims to unlock 24/7 productivity while mitigating risk through distributed architectures that balance real-time inference with scalable digital workflow modernization.
Inside Anduril: Exclusive HQ Tour w/ Palmer Luckey, Brian Schimpf, Matt Grimm & Trae Stephens
Palmer Luckey, Brian Schimpf, Matt Grimm, Trae Stephens, Molly O'Shea
Anduril is rapidly scaling its autonomous defense capabilities through massive manufacturing expansions in Ohio and globally, driven by a strategic shift toward industrial speed and affordability over traditional technological edge. Key programs like the Fury autonomous fighter and Ghost Shark underwater vehicle demonstrate the company's ability to outpace legacy contractors such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin while addressing critical capability gaps for allies like Australia. By redefining the defense industry as a product-focused enterprise, the firm aims to transform the U.S. production base into a decisive wartime asset capable of mass-producing systems that integrate AI, optical camouflage, and distributed command structures.
- Milken Institute21 min
Conversation with UAE's Minister of State for AI & Digital Economy | Middle East & Africa Summit
Omar Sultan Al Olama, Dan Murphy
The UAE leverages an eight-year strategy and over 500 billion dirhams in investment to rank as a global leader in AI talent retention and deployment, recently securing U.S. authorization to export advanced NVIDIA chips for its massive "Stargate" infrastructure project. This initiative aims to eventually build a 5-gigawatt facility capable of producing 60 trillion AI tokens annually, distinguishing the nation's long-term approach from short-term market hype while explicitly prioritizing ethical frameworks to mitigate job displacement through targeted reskilling and retirement programs.
Inside the Myths: Emil Michael on Palantir, SpaceX, Anduril & the Modern DoW
Under Secretary of War Michael, formerly of Uber, is leading a $1 trillion budget restructuring to establish five new defense technology companies and streamline the Department's focus into six critical areas: Applied AI, hypersonics, directed energy, contested logistics, information dominance, and biomanufacturing. This aggressive modernization strategy aims to close the capability gap with China by accelerating domestic supply chains, securing energy infrastructure, and fostering a competitive market that challenges established primes through rapid startup integration. By framing the current geopolitical climate as a "1938 moment," the Department prioritizes immediate deployment of drone arsenals and autonomous systems while leveraging political disruption under Secretary Pete Hegseth to eliminate bureaucratic inefficiencies.
- Goldman Sachs28 min
The US-China Tech Race
Mark Kennedy, Paul Triolo, Allison Nathan
The US-China technological rivalry spans four strategic arenas, with Washington retaining dominance in fundamental innovation and China leading in application, infrastructure deployment, and self-sufficiency efforts. While US export controls have stalled China's access to advanced EUV lithography and high-end GPUs, these restrictions are simultaneously accelerating Beijing's parallel development of domestic chip manufacturing and open-source AI models. This dynamic creates a potential future where the US owns core design standards while China controls physical hardware and global markets, though US leadership ultimately hinges on resolving domestic energy grid constraints and sustaining its talent pipelines.
- Y Combinator39 min
From Pivot Hell To $1.4 Billion Unicorn
PostHog has secured a $75 million Series E round at a $1.4 billion valuation to fuel aggressive workforce expansion from 70 to 200 employees and accelerate its AI-driven shift toward automating customer data workflows. Under founders James Hawkins and his co-founder, the company abandoned traditional sales-led growth in favor of an open-source, product-first strategy that now serves 300,000 users with a suite of 17 products. This capital deployment enables PostHog to pursue an ambitious vision of an "automated product manager" while maintaining radical transparency and a polarizing brand identity built on building in public.
- a16z30 min
The Chip That Could Unlock AGI.
Former Databricks AI head Naveen Rao founded Unconventional AI at NeurIPS to develop first-principles hardware that utilizes physical circuit dynamics rather than traditional digital logic, aiming to resolve the impending 400-gigawatt energy shortfall in data centers. Partnering with TSMC for manufacturing, the startup targets the creation of large-scale analog chips optimized for time-dynamic workloads like diffusion and energy-based models to accelerate the path toward Artificial General Intelligence. This initiative seeks to replace the binary computing paradigm with substrates capable of replicating biological efficiency, positioning Rao's team to bridge the gap between theoretical dynamical systems and scalable engineering.
- Goldman Sachs30 min
From Assets to Alpha: David Kostin on US Equities
Goldman Sachs Chief U.S. Equity Strategist David Koston forecasts a 20%+ return for U.S. stocks in 2026 based on economic stability and earnings growth, while distinguishing between the fundamentally grounded public AI market and a potentially bubble-ridden private sector driven by reflexive capital inflows. Despite projecting long-term annualized returns of 6.5% over the next decade, Koston identifies immediate opportunities in undervalued healthcare, stable middle-income consumer sectors, and AI-driven revenue generators as institutional funds struggle to outperform benchmarks. As Koston transitions from the Chief U.S. Equity Strategist role to an Advisory Director position in 2026, his successor Ben Snyder will inherit a market characterized by high concentration risk and shifting investor behavior from asset accumulation to alpha generation.
- Goldman Sachs27 min
Managing the World’s Largest Publicly Traded Hedge Fund: Man Group CEO Robyn Grew
Under CEO Robin Grew, Man Group has scaled its assets under management to $193 billion by leveraging a three-generation AI evolution that augments human judgment with agentic systems while strictly enforcing cultural alignment in acquisitions. The firm simultaneously decouples operational scale from staffing costs to expand into credit strategies and US wealth markets, targeting long-term legacy talent rather than offering industry-standard upfront payouts. Looking ahead, Grew anticipates opportunities in resurging credit and bifurcated global economies, positioning the firm's work as essential financial security for healthcare, education, and retirement stability.
- Y Combinator44 min
How Amplitude Went From Skeptics to “All In” on AI
Amplitude initiated a strategic pivot to AI-native development in late 2024 following the acquisition of Command AI and the hiring of Wade Chambers, aiming to replace traditional SaaS workflows with a "technology-first" product philosophy. The company has already launched AI feedback and visibility tools while preparing a global chat interface for January 2025 that Spencer Skates predicts will reinvent the analytics industry by becoming a "Cursor for Analytics." This transformation involved restructuring leadership to prioritize AI-native thinking and retaining key talent through a commitment to fund future ventures, positioning Amplitude to capitalize on legacy competitors' slowness in the emerging market.
- Goldman Sachs23 min
The Future of Global Travel: Trip.com Group CEO Jane Sun
Under the leadership of CEO Jane Sun, Trip.com Group has expanded from a domestic flight and hotel provider into a global platform generating over $40 billion in market capitalization with international revenue now comprising 40% of the total. During the pandemic, the company executed a massive crisis response involving $20 billion in borrowings and significant executive salary reductions to ensure immediate customer refunds and sustain its supply chain ecosystem. Looking forward, Trip.com is driving growth through aggressive AI integration, a "one-stop shopping" service model, and strategic initiatives targeting events, the senior demographic, and emerging markets to capture long-tail travel demand.
- Sequoia Capital40 min
Why IDEs Won't Die in the Age of AI Coding: Zed Founder Nathan Sobo
Nathan Sobo, Sonya Huang, Pat Grady
Nathan Sobo, founder of the Rust-based IDE Zed, argues against the impending obsolescence of visual editors by asserting that source code requires human-readable contexts for effective AI-driven code review. He introduces the open Agent Client Protocol to standardize interactions between diverse AI agents and Zed, aiming to replace ephemeral chat windows with a unified interface where conversations permanently anchor to specific code lines. With 170,000 active users, the platform prioritizes high-performance, real-time collaboration to support "vibe coding" workflows while maintaining critical human oversight for complex architectural decisions.