Latest Interviews

Global Overview: Innovation, Partnerships, and Growth | Middle East & Africa Summit 2025

Hadley Gamble, His Excellency Jasem Al Budaiwi, Her Excellency Mariam bint Mohammed AlMheiri, Yasseen Mansour, Michael Milken, Yassine Mansour, Jasem Al Budaiwi, Mariam bint Mohammed AlMheiri

The 46th GCC Summit united regional leaders to prioritize collective defense following recent security threats while accelerating economic diversification, evidenced by non-oil GDP reaching 76% and the UAE becoming the global top destination for millionaires. Strategic investments totaling $150 billion target Africa's demographic growth and energy sectors, complemented by a joint AI strategy designed to transform government services and healthcare across the region. Positioned as a neutral mediator in global affairs, the bloc combines regulatory stability with massive infrastructure projects to attract capital flows and challenge traditional economic centers like Europe and the United States.

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.

How is Russia testing the West?

Gordon Corera, David Rennie

Russia currently perceives itself under a continuum of low-intensity conflict with the West, interpreting Ukrainian strikes as direct aggression while employing hybrid tactics to destabilize Western democracies and undermine the existing international order. While Moscow retains high risk tolerance born of this siege mentality, recent escalations appear tempered by the fear of triggering an all-out war that would contradict its strategic goal of dismantling Western dominance. Simultaneously, China maintains a cautious distance from Russian recklessness to preserve its own economic stability, creating a complex dynamic where global powers calibrate responses to deter adversary activities without sparking accidental escalation.

The Unicorn Founder Who Delegated Everything.

Jonathan Swanson, Erik Torenberg

Jonathan frames time as the most critical asset for founders, advocating for aggressive delegation through a "ladder of leverage" that transitions from human assistants to AI agents to compound ambition. His methodology combines specialized frameworks like algorithm-based task exports and voice-first communication with a rigorous hiring philosophy focused on weakness-based references and trial periods. These strategies enable leaders to reclaim bandwidth for high-value decisions while navigating existential risks through structured support systems and adaptive organizational structures.

From Pivot Hell To $1.4 Billion Unicorn

James Hawkins, Brad Flora

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.

Vision, Velocity, Victory: The Sports Investment Playbook | Middle East & Africa Summit 2025

Dhani Jones, Ben Harburg, Jamie Salter, Danny Townsend, Susie Wolff

Over $60 billion in capital from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds is reshaping the global sports landscape by transforming the region into a neutral hub for investment comparable to Silicon Valley. This influx drives a strategic shift from traditional linear broadcasting to digital direct-to-consumer models while supporting economic diversification under Crown Prince vision, alongside landmark investments in the PFL, PGA Tour, and Saudi Pro League. Concurrently, the sector is leveraging high-quality content like "Drive to Survive" to fuel a projected $1 trillion women's sports market by 2030 and identifying Africa and India as the next major growth engines for talent and commerce.

Why Syria might face another uprising

Gareth Browne, Rosie Blau

President Ahmad al-Shara has secured significant international diplomatic gains and sanctions relief while simultaneously centralizing power through shadow institutions that marginalize the Alawite and Druze communities. This governance strategy has exacerbated sectarian tensions, triggering over 1,500 deaths in recent violence and driving 25,000 former regime affiliates to flee as they organize new insurgencies. Despite restoring civil liberties and dismantling the Assad-era secret police, the administration's failure to provide transitional justice or economic stability threatens to destabilize the state and negate its diplomatic achievements.

The Chip That Could Unlock AGI.

Naveen Rao, Matt Bornstein

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.

OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

David Sacks

OpenAI has issued a "Code Red" directive requiring full-time office presence to address a sharp drop in market share from over 90% to 68% amid intensifying competition from Google's Gemini, Anthropic's Claude, and xAI's Grok. Simultaneously, the episode scrutinizes David Sacks' ethics controversy after New York Times allegations of conflicts of interest were dismissed by the Office of Government Ethics, with critics labeling the report a political hit job. The discussion further analyzes shifting economic dynamics, including state-level fiscal risks from wealth taxes and a predicted pivot toward multimodal, agentic AI models that threaten traditional subscription revenue models.

Why doesn’t the UK become closer to the EU?

Zanny Minton Beddoes, Edward Carr

Analysts predict Prime Minister Starmer will gradually pivot to a pro-EU stance by 2028–2029, driven by strong public support for closer ties that has outlasted the domestic political trauma of Brexit. Concurrently, the government has successfully reduced net migration to approximately 200,000 annually through stricter visa rules, though rising asylum claims continue to fuel a public perception of failing border control. This stabilization of migration figures may enable a political shift toward accepting free movement with the EU within three years, provided internal European instability does not undermine cooperation.

Finding Opportunity in Outdated Rules

Emerging companies frequently capitalize on legal ambiguities, such as OpenAI's copyright challenges or Lyft's initial fear of criminal liability, to launch disruptive models before regulations adapt. These ventures often succeed because legal frameworks evolve post-launch to accommodate high-value consumer innovations, creating a window where outdated statutes fail to align with modern technological realities. Consequently, identifying and exploiting these gray areas becomes a strategic pathway for market entry, as the substantial value delivered to consumers eventually forces the superseding of obsolete laws.

Why the Dollar Could Drop

Brian Dunne, Chris Hussey

Goldman Sachs analysts project a 5% to 10% depreciation of the U.S. dollar in the first half of next year driven by shifting fiscal concerns and the resumption of economic data releases. Market expectations for an immediate Federal Reserve rate cut and the upcoming announcement of the Trump administration's Fed Chair nominee are anticipated to accelerate a rebalancing of global allocations away from hard dollar assets. Consequently, trading strategies are increasingly favoring high-yielding emerging market currencies in Brazil and Mexico over developed market alternatives, while betting on long-term Chinese currency appreciation amid historically low volatility.

Inside General Catalyst’s $1.5B AI Roll-Up Machine

Marc Bhargava, Molly O'Shea

General Catalyst has evolved into an operating company deploying a $1.5 billion "Creation" strategy to incubate and acquire applied AI ventures across 70 service industries. By executing an "AI-enabled roll-up" model that automates 30–50% of repetitive tasks, the firm targets doubling EBITDA margins in fragmented markets while building "AI-native compounders" with a 7–10 year hold horizon. This approach distinguishes itself from traditional private equity by prioritizing operational transformation and founder retention, with the firm currently winning eight of nine acquisition targets to establish a dominant position in the sector.

The Story Economy: Hits, Talents, & the Forces that Shape Culture | Middle East & Africa Summit 2025

Camila Cabello, Jane Millichip, Louise Tabbiner

Camila Cabello and Jane Tranter discussed the evolving landscape of global storytelling, highlighting how diverse narratives from films like *Roma* and *Sing Sing* can drive tangible social change through the emerging role of the "Impact Producer." The dialogue examined industry trends where Gen Z demonstrates sustained attention for quality content while AI and deepfakes necessitate stricter media literacy and ethical copyright protections. Ultimately, the speakers urged investors and creators to prioritize authentic, human-led storytelling that maximizes cultural bridges and secures measurable real-world outcomes in a sector valued at £125 billion.

From Assets to Alpha: David Kostin on US Equities

David Kostin, Allison Nathan

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.