Latest Interviews

What stocks should you buy during an oil shock? | The Economist

Joshua Roberts, Rosie Blau

The ongoing war in Iran has disrupted global oil supplies, causing high-quality assets within the S&P 500 and MSCI World Index to underperform as rising energy costs strain long-term valuation models while boosting near-term earnings for low-quality energy stocks. This inversion of traditional flight-to-quality dynamics stems from the fact that speculative, high-multiple valuations are highly sensitive to geopolitical uncertainty, whereas lower-multiple firms possess a valuation buffer that supports performance during volatility. Analysts warn that while market trends currently favor low-quality stocks due to fear, a rapid reversal of this pattern is only anticipated if the Strait of Hormuz opens to restore free oil flow.

Untangling Signals of Market Stress

John Flood, Chris Hussey

Markets are navigating extreme volatility driven by unresolved geopolitical conflicts, evidenced by a VIX spike to 30, oil approaching $100 per barrel, and S&P 500 futures depth collapsing to $3.8 million from historical averages. Institutional investors are executing heavy macro hedges and shorting broad products while rotating capital into U.S. equities as a safe haven, despite record trading volumes and degraded liquidity quality. The near-term market trajectory hinges on consecutive negative jobs data potentially destabilizing retail sentiment, though a return to geopolitical clarity is expected to trigger a rapid unwinding of macro shorts and a rotation back into Asian and European assets.

Inside a16z Growth: Waymo, Stripe, ElevenLabs, Revolut, Coinbase, Kalshi

Alex Immerman, Molly O'Shea

a16z's growth fund focuses on market leaders demonstrating extreme velocity and defensibility, exemplified by strategic investments in Waymo's autonomous scaling, 11 Labs' voice AI dominance, and Kalshi's regulatory-first prediction market. While the firm accepts currently compressed gross margins in AI sectors, it prioritizes companies with proprietary data, high retention, and clear paths to $10 billion valuations over generic growth narratives. This approach targets a "productive oligopoly" where top-tier players capture vast market share, with a future outlook projecting multiple trillionaires emerging from AI and fintech sectors within a decade.

Startup School is coming to India! 🇮🇳

Harshil Mathur, Vidit Aatrey, Lalit Keshre, Mukund Jha

Y Combinator is hosting its inaugural one-day Startup School in Bangalore on April 18th to connect the next generation of Indian founders with industry leaders. The event convenes prominent founders from YC-backed companies such as Razorpay, Meesho, Grow, and Emergent to discuss the latest developments in technology and startups. This gathering aims to foster a community among top Indian builders and hackers by facilitating direct engagement with successful entrepreneurs.

Anthropic vs The Pentagon: Who Wins? | The Data Center Arms Race | The Ultimate Stock Picks

Jason Lemkin, Rory O'Driscoll, Harry Stebbings

Anthropic has filed federal lawsuits against the U.S. government in California and Washington D.C. to contest its "supply chain risk" designation, challenging the procedural overreach that threatens roughly $200 million in Department of Defense contracts. While analysts predict an immediate legal victory on procedural grounds, the dispute has introduced B2B sales friction and empowered competitors like OpenAI and Google to capitalize on perceived regulatory safety. Ultimately, the company is expected to navigate administrative requirements without halting its $1.5 billion annualized run rate or $1 trillion valuation trajectory.

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 Founder Mode CEO Working Today Isn’t the Founder: Opendoor’s Kaz Nejatian

Kaz Nejatian

Kaz Nejatian executes a "refounding" of Opendoor by securing a private financing deal with his entire net worth, replacing the incumbent board to prioritize outcomes over processes, and adopting aggressive AI integration strategies that default all operations to automated tools. Distinguishing himself from traditional executives, he rejects short-term market distractions and quarterly metrics in favor of a binary time horizon, while restructuring compensation to align exclusively with long-term shareholder value through performance stock units. This approach marks a deliberate shift from "management mode" to "founder mode," leveraging his immigrant entrepreneur thesis to rebuild the company's core business on high-margin services rather than its original logistics model.

The Iran War Expert: I Simulated The Iran War for 20 Years. Here’s What Happens Next

Robert Pape, Professor Robert Pape, Stephen

Four decades of military strategy research by Professor Robert Pape warns that the ongoing conflict with Iran has already progressed to a strategic failure, where the dispersal of nuclear materials has removed guardrails against proliferation and increased the risk of a ground deployment triggering direct retaliation. The analysis highlights that U.S. depletion of precision munitions and the acceleration of Chinese hegemony are compounded by a volatile domestic political landscape that Pape predicts will see a surge in internal violence. To avert catastrophic escalation and geopolitical loss, Pape advocates for the immediate reinstatement of the previously rejected diplomatic deal to freeze Iran's nuclear program rather than pursuing regime change through force.

Jeff Kaplan: World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Blizzard, and Future of Gaming | Lex Fridman Podcast #493

Jeff Kaplan, Lex Fridman

Former Blizzard Creative Director Jeff Kaplan details his transition from a depressed creative writer to the architect of *World of Warcraft* and *Overwatch*, revealing the internal pressures and design failures that led to his 2021 departure. Kaplan now leads his own studio, Kintsugiyama, to develop *The Legend of California*, a voxel-based open-world game that prioritizes player agency and imperfection over corporate revenue targets. Through his narrative, he critiques the modern industry's reliance on financial mandates while advocating for a return to creative-led development where the most engaging path remains the path of least resistance.

They're Opening the Stock Market to Everyone. Here's What That Actually Means

Jason, Paul Atkins, Michael Selig, Chamath Palihapitiya

SEC Chair Paul Atkins and CFTC regulators outlined a comprehensive agenda to reverse the decline of public capital markets by slashing compliance burdens, redefining accredited investor status, and reducing quarterly reporting requirements. The agencies are simultaneously drafting a harmonized framework for digital assets and AI trading agents to foster innovation while establishing strict guardrails against systemic risk and predatory speculation. These reforms aim to preserve U.S. global competitiveness by balancing reduced regulatory friction for companies with enhanced protections for retail investors against emerging market hazards.

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.

Wiz: $6M Seed → $32B Exit | Inside the Biggest Cybersecurity Deal Ever

Gili Raanan, Molly O'Shea, Assaf, Doug Leone, Mike Moritz

CyberStarts founder Gili Shlomo highlights Wiz's $32 billion valuation as a pivotal moment while warning that the coming decade will usher in autonomous agent warfare that renders traditional human-in-the-loop security measures obsolete. His firm distinguishes itself through a people-first investment thesis that prioritizes founder grit and emotional intelligence over technical pedigree, recently mentoring thirty seed-stage companies toward becoming billion-dollar enterprises. Shlomo projects that this strategy will produce ten new unicorns by year-end, even as he forecasts a volatile interim period where over-provisioned systems and human error create critical vulnerabilities against self-aware threat actors.

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.

Can Software Survive AI?

Gabriela Borges, Allison Nathan

Goldman Sachs and industry analysts report a market sentiment shift in the software sector, where investor concerns over AI-driven existential risks have triggered significant sell-offs by challenging the defensibility of incumbent technology moats. In response, major players like Salesforce and Microsoft are executing strategic replatforming, targeted M&A, and granular monetization tactics to validate that their integrated AI solutions outperform third-party alternatives. Despite slowed revenue growth rates, the sector is showing signs of stabilization as companies demonstrate improved free cash flow margins and attract value-oriented investors seeking GAAP profitability over unchecked stock-based compensation.

Should you pay off your student loan? | The Economist

Joshua Roberts, Jason Palmer

The current student debt system in England and Wales operates as a regressive loan mechanism where graduates repay 9% of earnings above a frozen threshold until the balance is cleared or 30 years elapse, a structure critics argue penalizes lower earners through extended duration rather than total cost. Historical fee hikes from £1,000 in 1998 to £9,000 in 2012, combined with eroding wage premiums and high interest rates, have left most graduates paying a significant portion of their income into their fifties without the possibility of early loan forgiveness. With government fiscal constraints limiting options to either maintaining current repayment terms or implementing a blanket tax increase to write off debt, the debate centers on whether this evolving financial burden constitutes a fair contribution or a punitive tax on a generation of graduates.