Latest Interviews

Tech Comeback Ahead?

Peter Callahan, Mike Washington

In 2026, the technology sector is experiencing a 3% to 4% year-to-date decline and lagging the broader market for the first time in 15 years as investor focus shifts from generative AI infrastructure builds to commercial implementation and revenue verification. Despite "best-in-class" earnings growth across the Mag Seven cohort, equity valuations remain suppressed because companies face intense pressure to convert massive capital expenditures into immediate top-line growth within the next 6 to 24 months. Analysts maintain a constructive outlook on clean tech valuations but anticipate high volatility in the coming weeks as the market transitions from sector-wide moves to stock-specific differentiation.

AI for Government

Despite the private sector's rapid adoption of AI for form processing, government agencies still rely on manual systems, creating a critical need for automated solutions to manage surging application volumes. This event addresses the unique challenges and high-value rewards of penetrating the public sector, where successful vendors gain sticky long-term contracts that can expand significantly after initial acquisition. The speaker specifically invites skilled developers to join the effort of building specialized AI tools that bridge this digital divide and replicate global efficiency benchmarks within government operations.

Which Equity Markets Will Outperform?

Kunal Shah, Chris Hussey

Goldman Sachs Co-CEO Kunal Shah outlined a robust 2026 U.S. economic outlook featuring 2.8% GDP growth driven by AI-fueled capex and easing financial conditions, while warning of elevated leverage and political risks to central bank independence. The firm forecasts balanced returns across U.S., European, and Asian markets despite divergent drivers, noting that excess savings in non-U.S. regions are shifting toward domestic spending rather than external deficits. In strategic asset allocation, the firm highlights Treasury bonds for diversification if labor markets weaken and recommends gold as a hedge against de-dollarization, though it cautions against shorting credit spreads due to their historically tight levels.

Four stories to watch out for in 2026

In 2026, the United States will deepen its military competition by deploying the "Golden Dome" defense shield and relying on SpaceX's Starship to maintain orbital dominance amid rising tensions with Russia and China. Domestically, President Trump will challenge central bank independence by nominating a successor to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell who supports lower interest rates, echoing global political pressures on monetary policy. Simultaneously, the nation will grapple with ideological division over its semi-quincentennial as rival commissions organize conflicting celebrations that juxtapose official historical archives with a politicized "America First" agenda, while Las Vegas hosts the controversial Enhanced Games to normalize human performance enhancement.

Leading the Next Era of Health | Future of Health Summit 2025

Bertha Coombs, Joe Daly, Jeremy David, Shane Jacobson, Sarah London, Baligh Yehia, Esther Krofa

Hosted by the Milken Institute in Washington, the 2025 Future of Health Summit convened over 200 speakers to address urgent systemic challenges including rising costs, stagnant life expectancy, and a 10-point decline in public trust. The event highlighted critical interventions such as Dr. Jill Biden's new Women's Health Network, Centene's food-as-medicine data initiatives, and Jefferson Health's AI-driven physician support programs, while launching nine strategic publications on biomedical research. Key participants navigated complex tensions regarding AI's role in workflows, the need for new financing models for expensive therapies, and the precarious status of Affordable Care Act tax credits, ultimately urging leaders to leverage micro-level patient-clinician trust for future reform.

How will Japan's prime minister change her country?

Noah Sneider, Rosie Blau, Rosie Bloor

Sanae Takaichi has become Japan's first female Prime Minister, marking a strategic rightward pivot for the Liberal Democratic Party that has already fractured its long-standing coalition with Komeito. Her agenda combines aggressive defense spending, a revival of "Abenomics," and strict social conservatism, while navigating delicate tensions with the United States and historical disputes with Asian neighbors. Although her administration aims to address domestic inflation, the survival of her government faces significant uncertainty due to internal party fractures and public skepticism regarding her right-wing populist appeal.

Reinventing Delivery with Instant Drone Transport ft Zipline's Keller Cliffton -

Keller Cliffton, Roelof Botha, Keenan Wyrobek, Ryan Oxenhorn, Maggie Jim, Alfred Lin

Zipline CEO Keller Clifton transformed his company from a failed consumer robotics venture into the world's largest autonomous logistics network by pivoting to medical supply delivery in Rwanda, where a partnership with the government addressed critical health crises caused by poor infrastructure. After securing NASA collaboration and achieving a historic U.S. regulatory milestone for nationwide Beyond Visual Line of Sight flights, the organization scaled to serve over 5,000 facilities globally while introducing a novel string-based urban delivery system. This evolution, driven by the founders' persistence through early investor skepticism and technical failures, established a resilient infrastructure that now connects remote hospitals and urban centers alike.

A Contrarian Call on Europe

Mark Wilson, Chris Hussey

Despite a historic six-month equity rally, professional investors maintain a constructive stance with deployed capital levels indicating the market remains unsretched. The event highlights a divergence where European value stocks and small caps outperform US large-cap growth, while specific opportunities arise in Chinese AI and German domestic beneficiaries driven by defense spending. Participants further examine strategies to capitalize on compressed index volatility and persistent single-stock dispersion amidst upcoming inflation data and month-end rebalancing pressures.

Early Decision for Students

Y Combinator is launching an "Early Decision" track specifically for graduating seniors to apply during their final year of study, securing guaranteed funding and a spot in the Summer 2026 batch. This program eliminates the immediate pressure to interview for traditional employment by providing financial support and a committed place in a future cohort before graduation. By allowing founders to receive capital and enrollment immediately, the initiative enables students to focus entirely on building their startups while completing their degrees.

The Healthcare Outlook: Macro Challenges and Biotech Innovations

Asad Haider, Amit Sinha, Allison Nathan

Following five years of underperformance driven by capital rotation into artificial intelligence and regulatory uncertainty regarding drug pricing, the U.S. healthcare sector is undergoing a structural correction characterized by a declining S&P 500 weighting and a shift in early-stage capital formation toward private markets. Despite these macro headwinds, specific innovation cycles in oral obesity treatments, oncology, and cardiovascular therapeutics are creating idiosyncratic opportunities, particularly within the mid-cap biotech space where investors are beginning to recognize potential for outsized returns on revenue. While large pharmaceutical firms report initial AI-driven cost savings, market participants remain cautious, awaiting tangible earnings improvements before fully re-rating assets in an environment defined by a looming patent cliff and reduced federal research funding.

Using LLMs Instead of Government Consulting

With the U.S. government spending hundreds of billions annually on consulting, rising political pressure and the maturation of Large Language Models are driving a shift away from reliance on major vendors like Deloitte and Accenture. Investors are now targeting startups that streamline FedRAMP compliance and utilize AI to validate policy legality, creating a strategic avenue to displace traditional consulting work. This market evolution presents a clear opportunity to fund LLM-based solutions that replace outsourced labor with automated, cost-effective government operations.

AI Native Enterprise Software

Top-tier enterprise vendors Salesforce and ServiceNow established dominant market positions by pioneering cloud-native solutions, a disruption pattern now emerging in the generational shift toward AI-native systems. This transition promises to transform enterprise software from passive record-keeping into active assistants for sales, HR, and accounting, creating a structural opening for new startups to challenge incumbent architectures. Founders and builders interested in developing these next-generation AI tools are invited to connect to capitalize on this competitive window.

Winning the AI Race Part 5: President Trump on the AI Action Plan

President Trump, Chamath, Friedberg, Donald J. Trump, Nat, Jason Calacanis, Jacob Helberg, Doug Burgum, Howard Lutnik, Chris Wright, Lee Zeldin, Ted Cruz, David McCormick, Jensen Wong, Lisa Sue, Jeff Sprecher, Suzy Weil, Marco Rubio

The administration has secured major international trade and defense agreements with Japan, the EU, and NATO allies while establishing a universal tariff framework to pressure non-compliant nations. Domestically, the executive branch is accelerating energy dominance and AI development through the termination of the Green New Deal, the repeal of export restrictions, and the implementation of a federal standard that permits AI training on public data without creator consent. With key appointments led by David Sacks and the EPA, the government aims to achieve zero illegal border entries, trigger $17 trillion in private investment, and reclaim global manufacturing supremacy by 2026.

Is a US fiscal crisis ahead?

Kenneth Rogoff, Niall Ferguson, Allison Nathan, Ken Rogoff, Neil Ferguson

Economists Ken Rogoff and Niall Ferguson argue that the United States faces an unsustainable fiscal trajectory driven by rising global interest rates and a critical threshold where sovereign debt servicing costs have surpassed defense spending. They warn that without political reforms or productivity breakthroughs from artificial intelligence, the nation risks a rapid financial crisis involving inflation or a permanent erosion of the dollar's reserve currency status. This convergence of historical parallels and modern geopolitical fragmentation suggests the U.S. must navigate a difficult choice between austerity, higher inflation, or diminished global influence within the coming years.

What You Missed in AI This Week (Google, Apple, ChatGPT)

Justine, Olivia Moore

Google's VO3 model and recent updates to ChatGPT voice and Apple Intelligence are driving a rapid shift toward autonomous video and narrative creation, allowing users to generate consistent multi-character scenes and human-like dialogue from single text prompts. These technological leaps, alongside Eleven Labs' emotion-tagging capabilities and data showing a doubling of consumer AI startup revenue, are establishing a "faceless" creator economy where entrepreneurs can build full-stack brands using AI-generated assets. While current limitations in character consistency and high inference costs persist, the industry is rapidly moving from experimental novelty to a dominant force in social media and professional workflows.