Latest Interviews

Inside The $100M Bet on the Future of Space | Northwood CEO on a16z

Bridgit Mendler, Erik Torenberg

Northwood, founded by CEO Bridget, delivers end-to-end ground infrastructure solutions that bridge the critical lag between accelerating satellite proliferation and outdated data capture capabilities. By vertically integrating hardware, software, and site development into deployable shipping container units, the company compresses deployment timelines from three years to just three months to serve commercial and government clients like the Space Force. With a team of 75 expanding globally to support resilient, high-frequency data throughput, Northwood aims to transform ground stations from single-satellite bottlenecks into a proliferated "United Nations" of orbital connectivity.

Global Overview: Capital in a Changing World | Global Investors' Symposium 2026

Chery Kang, Aaron Costello, Christopher Ganis, Kevin Lu, Hoi Tung

A panel of global investment leaders, including Hoi Han-Wee and Kevin Schneider, reassessed portfolio strategies by pivoting away from heavy U.S. exposure toward ASEAN and China amidst geopolitical volatility and a thaw in investment sentiment. The discussion highlighted structural opportunities in China's advanced manufacturing and biotechnology sectors while warning that Middle East tensions and AI market corrections require a shift toward energy security, infrastructure, and diversified private credit assets. Ultimately, the group consensus points to a long-term deployment of capital into raw material proximity and regional supply chains to mitigate geopolitical fragmentation and capture returns in "boring" but predictable sectors.

Prediction Markets: New Players, New Rules | Future of Finance 2026

Lydia Beyoud, Keli Callaghan, JB Mackenzie, Sean Patrick Maloney, Patrick McHenry

Panelists and regulators discussed the 300x growth of prediction markets as a mainstream tool replacing traditional polls, emphasizing the need for a unified federal framework under the CFTC to prevent a fragmented regulatory landscape. While addressing consumer protection and recent geopolitical contract controversies, the industry advocated for treating event contracts as financial products rather than gambling and supported legislation like Congressman Richie Torres' bill to ban insider trading by government officials. Future developments are projected to shift from binary betting toward AI-driven non-binary liquidity pools and global expansion, driven by technological convergence and a focus on hedging for small businesses rather than sports wagering.

The Genius Effect: Stablecoins Take the Stage | Future of Finance 2026

Daniel Gorfine, Lauren Belive, Robin Cook, Michael Greenwald, Eugene Ludwig, Caroline D. Pham, Carol Engfam

The recent panel explored the intersection of the newly enacted "Genius Act," which establishes a prudential stablecoin framework while restricting direct issuer interest, and emerging market dynamics where institutions are increasingly adopting stablecoins for settlement and collateral. Speakers including Robin Cook of Coinbase and Michael Greenwald from AWS highlighted how AI-driven agentic payments and secure cloud infrastructure are driving a projected $1 trillion market by 2030, while simultaneously positioning tokenized dollars as a geopolitical tool for global reserve status. Despite consensus on the integration of digital assets into traditional finance, experts diverged on regulatory timelines, with some predicting amendments to allow issuer interest by 2027 while others remained skeptical of immediate legislative shifts.

Global Economic Outlook: A Conversation with Dan Katz | Future of Finance 2026

Dan Katz, Greg Ip

The IMF warns that escalating Gulf conflict introduces significant inflation and growth risks by disrupting energy markets and straining fragile economies, necessitating cautious monetary responses based on the duration of the instability. Simultaneously, the Fund highlights excessive global external imbalances, specifically criticizing the United States' large current account deficit and China's reliance on weak domestic consumption, while urging structural shifts to reduce trade tensions. In parallel, the IMF addresses the emerging stablecoin ecosystem, noting its potential for financial inclusion alongside risks of banking disintermediation, and reaffirms the US dollar's enduring central role in the international monetary system despite recent market deleveraging.

Greetings, Earthlings: Philip Johnston of Starcloud on Data Centers in Space

Philip Johnston, Sonya Huang, Pat Grady

StarCloud founder Philip Johnson is deploying a Low Earth Orbit constellation designed to host data centers that will eventually outpace terrestrial alternatives in cost and scale, aiming for 50% of new AI compute capacity to be space-based within a decade. Leveraging SpaceX Starship launches, the company plans to deliver 10-megawatt satellite clusters by 2028 that prioritize thermal management over radiation shielding to support high-density inference workloads for hyperscalers and government clients. This infrastructure model targets critical market gaps in edge computing and downlink bandwidth while positioning space-based hardware as a neutral, scalable alternative to traditional cloud providers.

AI Is Unlocking Millions Of New Builders

Mukund, Madhav Jha

Led by twins Mukund and Madhav Jar, Emergent is a YC Summer 2024-funded platform that empowers non-technical users to generate production-ready software through AI agents, having already built seven million apps across 190 countries. The company differentiates itself by utilizing a custom Kubernetes infrastructure and multi-agent architecture to solve the "it works on my machine" problem, while its core team achieved top-tier status on the SWE-bench benchmark within two months. By pivoting from automated testing to full-stack application development, Emergent has democratized software creation, allowing solopreneurs to launch functional products for thousands of dollars instead of the traditional half-million-dollar cost.

Europe’s Opportunity, AI, and Market Volatility with Goldman Sachs International's Co-CEOs

Anthony Gutman, Kunal Shah, Allison Nathan

Goldman Sachs navigates Middle East geopolitical instability while reinforcing its regional foothold through a new Riyadh wealth license and a $25 billion partnership with the Qatar Investment Authority. Strategically, the firm capitalizes on resilient Asian markets and European growth pockets in Spain and Poland, targeting infrastructure financing and private wealth expansion despite short-term currency volatility. Driven by robust corporate balance sheets and AI-fueled efficiency, leaders maintain a positive long-term economic outlook and anticipate continued M&A activity and capital market issuance as markets differentiate between structural trends and event-driven shocks.

Emil Michael: The Department of War Is Moving Faster Than Silicon Valley on AI | The a16z Show

Emil Michael, David Ulevitch

The Department of War has consolidated its strategic priorities to six key areas, designating artificial intelligence as the top focus to counter China's military build-up and address domestic supply chain vulnerabilities. To accelerate deployment, leadership reorganized the Chief Digital and AI Office under direct CTO oversight, shifting procurement toward firm fixed-price contracts and removing vendor-imposed restrictions that previously hindered kinetic operations. This reform agenda aims to replace legacy "peacetime speed" with a culture of rapid iteration, enabling the military to integrate commercial innovation while securing a self-reliant industrial base for national defense.

Powering Economic Opportunities: Energy at the Core | Future of Finance 2026

Leslie Kaufman, Benton Arnett, Rachel Halfaker, Stephen Propper, Nidhi Thakar

Driven by surging AI data center demand and corporate carbon-free procurement commitments, the U.S. energy sector is pivoting toward flexible nuclear power models and advanced grid modernization to address critical reliability and affordability gaps. Independent developers and community lenders are leveraging innovative financing structures alongside artificial intelligence to accelerate permitting and scale distributed energy resources despite persistent regulatory bottlenecks. Concurrently, geopolitical shifts and targeted federal incentives are fueling investment in onshored supply chains and transmission infrastructure, positioning clean firm technologies as essential components of national energy security.

Palantir CEO on Iran, AI Weapons and American Domination | a16z American Dynamism Summit

Alex Karp, Dr. Karp

Palantir CEO Alex Karp outlines a new global reality defined by the U.S. victory in Operation Epic Fury and the subsequent death of Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei, framing the conflict as a binary struggle where American success relies on integrating AI and software into warfighting technology. Karp warns Silicon Valley that prioritizing job automation over national defense could trigger government nationalization of the tech sector, urging the industry to align with Palantir's meritocratic, anti-surveillance philosophy to avoid state intervention. Ultimately, he asserts that preserving American liberties requires a cultural shift where tech leaders and the public recognize the existential stakes of the AI race and fully support the military institution.

The most important question nobody's asking about AI.

Following Anthropic's refusal to permit its AI models for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons, the Department of Defense has designated the company a "supply chain risk" and threatened coercive measures under the Defense Production Act to force compliance. With AI projected to automate 99% of the workforce within two decades, legal loopholes in the Fourth Amendment and plummeting surveillance costs create an imminent environment where the government could leverage its purchasing power to dismantle corporate moral boundaries. Although some predict a 74% chance the restrictions will be overturned, the analysis suggests that without new political norms explicitly banning state-led AI surveillance, the technology's diffusion will eventually allow the government to achieve universal monitoring regardless of individual vendor resistance.

Building Economic Prosperity: Conversation with US Senator Angela Alsobrooks | Future of Finance

Angela Alsobrooks, Rachel Reilly

Freshman Senator Alison Brooks leverages her executive background to champion bipartisan legislation like the Genius Act and the Tariffs Transparency Act, addressing digital asset regulation and economic uncertainty. Her agenda targets generational wealth through housing reforms, targeted small business tax credits, and sustained funding for Maryland's HBCUs. By bridging ideological divides to overcome gridlock, Brooks aims to mitigate structural barriers to economic mobility for the sandwich generation and future workforce.

Inside a16z’s Top 100 AI Apps Report with Olivia Moore

Olivia Moore, Anish Acharya

The 2024 Top 100 AI Report, the sixth edition of its series, documents exponential market growth and the integration of AI into non-native products like Canva and Notion while noting that global weekly active usage remains at only 10%. ChatGPT retains a dominant market position with usage significantly outpacing competitors, yet the ecosystem is bifurcating as specialized players like Claude target enterprise coding and Gemini focuses on creative tools. The report further highlights a strategic shift toward autonomous agents, desktop-local workflows, and voice interfaces, predicting that future utility will depend on a platform's ability to leverage personalized memory and cross-application identity.

Physics Gets a Vote: Nominal Cofounders on Hardware Development in an AI World

Cameron McCord, Jason Hoch, Bryce Strauss, Alfred Lin, Sonya Huang

Nominal is positioning itself as a central platform for hardware engineering data, addressing industry-wide fragmentation by enabling defense primes and defense-focused startups to version control validation logic and integrate real-world sensor telemetry. The company leverages a "wedge" strategy focused on testing to deploy AI-driven verification agents and natural language analysis tools, thereby compressing development timelines in response to a sector-wide re-industrialization trend. By collaborating with DARPA on the CIPHER project, Nominal is establishing a "system of record" that creates a closed-loop environment where physical AI agents optimize test vectors, aiming to evolve hardware companies into "Physical AI" entities with superior design flexibility.