Latest Interviews
Showing 271–285 of 9,926 transcripts.
Clear all filtersLeo Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness Blows Up | Moonshot AI Raises $3.5B at $35B
Leo Aschenbrenner, Nikesh Arora, Jason Lemkin, Rory O'Driscoll, Harry Stebbings
Bending Spoons acquired Airtable for $1.285 billion at a significant discount to its peak valuation, while Procore purchased DroneDeploy for $900 million to aggressively expand into physical-world construction AI. Concurrently, hedge fund manager Leo Ashenbrenner suffered a catastrophic capital wipeout due to high-leverage Forex strategies, even as Anthropic demonstrated that AI agents can bypass traditional cybersecurity defenses in seconds. These financial and security shifts underscore a broader market transformation where compute scarcity and energy constraints drive infrastructure investment, and enterprise success increasingly depends on proprietary data context rather than base model intelligence.
- a16z46 min
How Open Source Became AI's Backbone | Inferact with a16z
Elena Burger, Matt Bornstein, Simon Mo
VLLM serves as a critical inference engine for over half a million GPUs, bridging the gap between research and production by collaborating with hardware vendors and model labs to ensure day-zero compatibility for over 1,000 architectures. The platform addresses the industry's shift toward open-weight models by providing granular control over performance tiers, data retention, and guardrails that proprietary APIs often restrict. Looking forward, VLLM advocates for an ecosystem where open and frontier models become indistinguishable in capability, with infrastructure innovation focusing on optimization speed and algorithmic efficiency rather than mere data sourcing.
- The Economist6 min
Who’s really running Iran? | The Economist
David Rennie, Dr Sanam Vakil, Sir Simon Gass
Following a decapitation campaign by U.S. and Israeli forces that eliminated Iran's supreme leader and three layers of military command, the regime is navigating an existential survival war under the succession of the ailing Mojtaba Khamenei. Despite the loss of key figures like Ali Larijani, a consensus-based vote by 12 of 13 Supreme National Security Council members in June confirmed a unified commitment to signing a new MOU driven by rational forward defense rather than irrational hatred. Although the IRGC currently holds increased influence, the system faces critical uncertainty regarding Mojtaba's ability to replicate his predecessor's patronage network while managing severe health issues and a shifting political balance.
- Goldman Sachs16 min
Energy Disruptions Are Here to Stay
Amid escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and Russia, the oil market has stabilized around $80–$85 for Q3 as investors focus on fundamental product deficits rather than headline volatility. While crude supply shocks have been partially mitigated by Russian export growth and strategic stockpiles, severe tightness in diesel and heating oil inventories threatens to sustain elevated prices through winter. Market analysts project a potential price dip to the $70s in Q4 if diplomatic progress occurs, though a significant supply response is unlikely before 2027 due to the long timeline required to rebuild global inventories.
- 1h 20m
2027年3月期 第1四半期 決算説明会 アーカイブ動画（2026年8月6日開催）ソフトバンクグループ株式会社
Goto, Kimiwata, Mark Agni, Jason Child, Suga, Murai, Miyajima, MJ, Kimura, Yagi, Araoka
SoftBank Group reported a record Net Asset Value of 72.3 trillion yen for Q1 Fiscal 2027 while aggressively advancing AI infrastructure through new 5GW French facilities and 10GW US projects. The company executed a $20 billion investment tranche in OpenAI and achieved record financial results for its ARM Holdings subsidiary, which is launching specialized AI chips despite supply constraints. CEO Masayoshi Son reinforced his leadership tenure and dismissed bubble concerns, highlighting a strategic focus on opportunistic capital deployment across robotics, payments, and semiconductors.
- The Diary Of A CEO1h 40m
Man Who Owns 4% Of All Bitcoin: His Final WARNING To Everyone Who Doesn't Own It | Michael Saylor
The speaker leveraged artificial intelligence to engineer a novel financial instrument that secured $15 billion in capital, enabling their company to acquire 847,000 Bitcoin while navigating saturated traditional equity markets. By framing Bitcoin as a sovereign asset immune to government seizure and contrasting its 33% annual appreciation against the historical depreciation of fiat currency, the presentation advocates for a shift toward scarce digital resources in an era where AI and robotics promise abundance in utilitarian goods. Strategic guidance emphasizes investing in technologies on the steep growth phase of the S-curve, utilizing AI to solve unique problems, and prioritizing applied statistics and history to build long-term resilience against economic volatility.
- Goldman Sachs23 min
Demond Martin on Purpose, Community, and Giving What You Have
Damon Martin, co-founder of the inclusive capitalism venture Well With All, launched the company to address health disparities after a personal crisis revealed how lack of resources could have led to tragedy for his younger self. Drawing on his 21-year investment career and deep mentorship under Erskine Bowles, Martin now argues that "friends of the good" form the essential foundation for overcoming the epidemic of loneliness described in his new book. He advocates for rejecting the "self-made" myth in favor of building vulnerable, value-driven communities to drive both personal success and societal healing.
- Goldman Sachs1 min
Goldman Sachs’ Zach Ablon on the credit risks to watch in the AI buildout
Analysts project that a slowdown in AI capital expenditure could trigger a credit rally and tighten spreads even as hyperscalers face equity market volatility. Current data indicates severe market stress, evidenced by new deal concessions widening from 2 to 3 basis points to 20 basis points following large hyperscaler issuances. Future hyperscaler offerings will serve as a critical barometer to determine whether the market can digest the sector's valuation or if asymmetric risks will emerge.
- Goldman Sachs1 min
GS’ Zach Ablon on how hyperscalers are also turning to the high yield markets for financing
Recent market analysis reveals that AI-driven investment-grade supply has reached 18%, mirroring high-yield composition while hyperscaler spreads widen and 17 of 23 data center joint venture deals trade above their originated yields. Investors are increasingly scrutinizing emerging data center deals with investment-grade wrappers that trade significantly wider than the double-B benchmark, which itself screens as very rich at approximately 165 basis points over Treasuries. Furthermore, projections indicate that chip financing will carry a lower duration compared to existing data center structures, reflecting shifting valuation concerns within the high-yield spectrum.
- Goldman Sachs1 min
Goldman Sachs' Amanda Lynam on why the debt markets will play a larger role in the AI buildout
Hyperscalers have issued $194 billion in debt this year, with direct supply projections reaching $250 billion by 2026 to offset monetization delays that are pushing debt financing to roughly 33% of capital expenditures. As supply peaks in 2027, converging capital spending and operating cash flows will further elevate debt reliance to 35% of CapEx, signaling a structural shift where debt markets are anticipated to play a significantly larger role in financing future industry investments.
- Goldman Sachs26 min
How AI Debt Is Reshaping Credit Markets
Amanda Lynam, Zach Ablon, Allison Nathan
Global credit markets have shifted as AI-driven debt issuance from hyperscalers and the broader ecosystem now dominates supply, reaching nearly $500 billion year-to-date in 2026 alone. This unprecedented concentration is reshaping the Investment Grade landscape by skewing duration weight toward tech giants like Amazon and Google, while simultaneously testing market absorption limits and driving spread widening among insurance investors. As traditional US IG capacity approaches a $510 billion ceiling, the financing void is forcing a structural pivot toward private capital, non-USD jurisdictions, and alternative vehicles like project finance to sustain the multi-trillion-dollar AI investment cycle.
- Milken Institute55 min
The Tech Supercycle: Where Capital Meets Innovation | Global Conference 2026
Daniel Koffmann, Marlene Garayzar, Scott Sobel, Francis Suarez, André Vellozo, Marlena Górezar, Andre Veoso
Scott Sobel of Valor Capital Group and Marlena Górezar of Story analyze the Latin American venture landscape, highlighting a rebound in investment driven by deep talent pools and resilient fintech unicorns that achieve profitability through proprietary AI models. Former Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Andre Veoso of Drumwave discuss how physical safety, regulatory deregulation like Brazil's Pix system, and renewable energy infrastructure are establishing the region as a secure hub for reverse innovation and AI sovereignty. Together, the speakers illustrate a strategic pivot toward capital efficiency and data ownership, positioning Latin American firms to capitalize on valuation arbitrage as they expand globally.
- Y Combinator36 min
The Case For Data Centers In Space
Philip Johnston, Mark Mandelmann
Founded by Philip Johnston in 2024 and backed by a $170 million Series A from Benchmark, StarCloud has emerged as YC's fastest-growing unicorn by pioneering orbital data centers to bypass terrestrial energy constraints. The company successfully launched its first satellite in November 2025, deploying custom-modified GPU hardware and thermal management systems to run AI models like Gemini while utilizing automotive-grade components to mitigate radiation risks. With plans to scale to 88,000 satellites by 2028 and deploy high-bandwidth compute for government and hyperscale customers, StarCloud aims to eventually generate terawatts of processing capacity through partnerships with SpaceX and NVIDIA.
- a16z10 min
The Ocean Company - Ulysses | a16z American Dynamism
Will O'Brien, Akhil Voorakkara, Jamie Wedderburn
Ulysses has pivoted from a demand-constrained startup to a supply-limited entity capitalizing on the global E-AI super cycle to build a 24/7 autonomous robot network comparable to satellite constellations. The company leverages its modular vehicle architecture and in-house manufacturing to deliver cost-effective solutions for critical sectors including offshore restoration, defense mine countermeasures, and undersea infrastructure security. With a strategic vision to dominate the ocean domain within 15 years, Ulysses directly addresses the inadequacy of traditional military investments by deploying asymmetric, autonomous systems against threats ranging from naval mines to cable sabotage.
- a16z9 min
The Future is Metal - Mariana Minerals | a16z American Dynamism
Founded by former Tesla executive Turner Caldwell, Mariana Minerals is deploying a vertically integrated, software-first strategy to reclaim Western control over critical mineral supply chains dominated by Chinese refineries. The company recently entered the Utah copper market by acquiring the struggling Copper One asset, where it rapidly implemented autonomous haul trucks and replaced legacy manual processes with its proprietary Mariana OS to validate operational efficiency in just 150 days. This approach aims to revitalize San Juan County while establishing a scalable model for future resource extraction on Earth, the Moon, and beyond.