Latest Interviews
Showing 1171–1185 of 9,947 transcripts.
Clear all filters- Goldman Sachs8 min
New Worries
Josh Schiffrin, Chris Hussey, Josh Shiprin
Goldman Sachs Chief Strategy Officer Josh Shiprin highlighted that geopolitical instability and surging oil prices have overshadowed recent payrolls data, creating a complex stagflationary environment that complicates the Federal Reserve's outlook. While maintaining confidence in an impending rate cut, Shiprin warned that the duration of the conflict could alter the timing of reductions and urged investors to adopt a long-term strategy focused on a steepening U.S. 2s10s yield curve amidst heightened market uncertainty.
- The Economist7 min
Anthropic’s CEO explains why he took on the Pentagon
Zanny Minton Beddoes, Dario Amodei
A technology executive highlights a strategic conflict with the Pentagon over negotiating a new, broader AI contract that includes restrictions on fully autonomous weapon deployment due to current safety limitations and the risk of a normative oversight vacuum. While the speaker asserts 99% alignment with government goals on non-autonomous capabilities, the dispute centers on the Pentagon's rejection of operational constraints, which the executive warns could force the effective nationalization of private AI firms. This tension is framed as a long-term challenge where both private companies and state actors possess unprecedented power that requires balanced oversight to prevent abuse or overreach.
- Dwarkesh Patel2h 2m
Why Leonardo was a saboteur, Gutenberg went broke, and Florence was weird – Ada Palmer
Leonardo, Gutenberg, Ada Palmer
The dissolution of the Western Roman Empire forced Italian city-states to develop distinct republican or monarchical structures, with Florence establishing a unique merchant-led oligarchy that leveraged the Medici family's banking network to manipulate political outcomes. Concurrently, an educational movement attempting to forge virtuous "philosopher princes" through classical texts failed, prompting Niccolò Machiavelli and later Francis Bacon to replace character imitation with a pragmatic political science focused on analyzing specific historical decisions. This intellectual shift coincided with the maturation of paper and printing technologies, which dismantled medieval knowledge scarcity and enabled the rapid dissemination of information necessary for the scientific method to emerge from artisanal practices into a systematic engine for anthropogenic progress.
- 80,000 Hours31 min
Can AI make society and government smarter? (article by Zershaaneh Qureshi)
Amidst the accelerating stakes of AGI deployment, a strategic proposal advocates for the rapid development of specialized AI decision-making tools to correct systemic human flaws in epistemology and coordination. This approach targets a critical market gap by deploying specific applications like automated fact-checkers and negotiation agents months ahead of dangerous general capabilities, offering a differential technology development pathway to mitigate existential risks. To achieve this, approximately 300 highly judgmental entrepreneurs are urged to build, benchmark, and integrate these safety-promoting instruments into global institutions before catastrophic failures occur.
- a16z54 min
Atlassian CEO on the SaaS Apocalypse, AI Agents & What Comes Next
Alex Rampell, Erik Torenberg, Mike Cannon-Brookes
The presentation distinguishes between SaaS models based on whether their value is tied to outcomes, processes, or a hybrid of both, noting that AI agents threaten seat-based revenue streams by performing work autonomously rather than merely storing data. It argues against replacing core business systems with "vibe coding," instead advocating for AI that serves as extensible front-ends to established "systems of record" while preserving decades of embedded logic and governance. Finally, the discussion highlights Atlassian's strategy of embedding AI directly into existing workflows like Jira to ensure human oversight and iterative refinement, prioritizing predictable value delivery over uncontrolled consumption-based pricing.
Thomas Laffont, Coatue - Anthropic, Citrini Paper, AI Volatility & Next Mag 7
Thomas Lafont and the Kotu firm, managing over $100 billion in assets, predict that private AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic will dominate the next major market indices as SaaS valuations face re-rating pressures from decelerating growth. While anticipating significant IPOs within 24 months and a shift toward "Big Fucking Ideas" that expand total addressable markets, Lafont argues that AI will enhance engineering productivity rather than reduce headcount, following a historical model of market expansion similar to the introduction of ATMs. The firm actively applies these insights by integrating coding-first AI tools into their due diligence while advocating for democratized access to private equity to capture the exponential growth of early adopters like Clock Code.
- All-In Podcast1h 23m
War with Iran + Pentagon vs Anthropic with Under Secretary of War Emil Michael
Emil Michael, Jason, Friedberg, Chamath Palihapitiya, David Sacks
The United States and Israel launched "Operation Epic Fury" against Iran, resulting in the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the elimination of key regime officials, an operation explicitly framed by the Trump administration as a strategic strike to dismantle nuclear capabilities rather than a regime change effort. This military campaign leveraged a vast arsenal of AI-driven autonomous drones and relaxed rules of engagement to neutralize Iranian defenses while simultaneously severing China's access to vital oil supplies to create maximal leverage for an anticipated trade deal. Concurrently, the Pentagon restructured its defense industrial base by canceling contracts with firms like Anthropic over ideological constraints, prioritizing unfiltered AI providers such as Grok, and deploying a $200 billion lending facility to domesticate critical supply chains for future conflict.
- Y Combinator1 min
Startup School 2026
Jensen Huang, Sam Altman, Alexandr Wang, Jeff Dean
On July 25th and 26th, 2026, Y Combinator will host a two-day Startup School in San Francisco for hand-selected undergraduate and graduate technical builders. The event features confirmed keynote addresses from industry leaders Jensen Huang, Sam Altman, Alexander Wang, and Jeff Dean alongside exclusive access to YC partners and alumni. Given that over 100 attendees from the previous cohort founded YC-backed companies, this limited-capacity gathering serves as a critical accelerator for the next generation of industry-defining enterprises.
Anthropic vs The Pentagon: Who Wins? | Cursor Hits $2BN in ARR | Block's 40% Headcount Reduction
Jason Lemkin, Rory O'Driscoll, Harry Stebbings
Following Anthropic's termination of a $200 million Department of War contract over safety constraints, the Pentagon awarded the agreement to OpenAI, which simultaneously secured a historic $110 billion valuation round including a $50 billion commitment from Amazon. While these AI giants navigate intense capital infusion and potential IPOs, Block Inc. executed a drastic 40% workforce reduction to pivot from growth metrics to immediate profitability, signaling a broader market correction where SaaS valuations compress as traditional revenue models fail against AI-driven efficiency. This industry bifurcation highlights a shift from labor-dominated high-skill AI teams to capital-controlled legacy firms, fundamentally altering investment strategies by prioritizing architectural moats over initial product demonstrations.
Nominal Hits $1B as Founders Fund Leads $80M B-2 Acceleration Round
Cameron McCord, Trae Stephens, Molly O'Shea
Following a breakout year, Nominal has secured an $80 million Series C led by Founders Fund to scale its workforce from 125 to over 220 employees and accelerate product development in the software-defined hardware sector. The company leverages this capital to pursue strategic acquisitions and expand partnerships with four of the five largest defense prime contractors, aiming to replace legacy manual workflows with agentic AI that reduces testing costs by up to 60%. Positioned by investors as essential infrastructure comparable to GitHub's impact on software, Nominal seeks to disrupt entrenched industrial vendors by modernizing government procurement cycles and transitioning toward a 1-to-1 human-to-hardware operational ratio.
- Milken Institute20 min
American Dream Investing: Conversation with HUD Secretary Scott Turner | Future of Finance 2026
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed a rule change mandating work requirements for able-bodied public housing recipients, aiming to assist 79,000 families in achieving self-sufficiency while generating a projected $501 million income increase. Under Secretary Benson's leadership, the agency is simultaneously streamlining regulations by removing federal zoning overreach to empower local jurisdictions and revitalizing the Opportunity Zones program, which has already facilitated $100 billion in private investment and lifted 1 million people from poverty. These initiatives reflect a strategic shift toward leveraging private sector innovation and emphasizing personal responsibility to address root causes of homelessness and expand housing affordability.
- Goldman Sachs13 min
$120 Oil Ahead?
Goldman Sachs' Jerome Dortmans warns that the Iran conflict has disrupted 20% of global oil and LNG output, creating unhedgeable supply shortages that could deplete strategic reserves within days. He forecasts prices will surge toward $100–$120 per barrel if the disruption persists beyond three days, with diesel and jet fuel facing the most severe immediate constraints. Dortmans cautions that market complacency is dangerous, predicting material inflationary impacts that will primarily affect major importers like China and India as geopolitical priorities shift away from Western refining systems.
- The Diary Of A CEO2h 17m
WW3 Threat Assessment: Trump Bombing Iran Makes WW3 More Likely!
Trump, Andrew Bustamante, Annie Jacobsen, Benjamin Radd, Stephen
Following a controversial U.S. decapitation strike against the Iranian Supreme Leadership, a panel analysis predicts a violent shift to a proxy war of attrition involving regional militias and an accelerated global risk of nuclear escalation. Critics argue the operation, driven by an administration prioritizing unilateral "strongman" tactics over traditional intelligence, violates international sovereignty norms and undermines key alliances like the UK. The discussion concludes that these events signal the onset of a "dark decade" where AI-driven warfare, eroded democratic norms, and a fragmented multipolar order threaten to replace the established rules-based system.
- Goldman Sachs31 min
Lloyd Blankfein on His Memoir, Risk Management and Leadership
Lloyd Blankfein, David Solomon
Former Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein details his tenure from 2006 to 2018, contrasting the firm's unique partnership culture with post-IPO public market pressures while outlining specific strategies that enabled survival during the 2007–2008 financial crisis. He attributes this resilience to rigorous mark-to-market accounting and a proactive risk-management focus on tail events, rather than predictive foresight, alongside a leadership philosophy centered on "managing down" to foster collective ownership. Blankfein's memoir, "Streetwise," further examines his journey from Brooklyn public housing to Wall Street, the firm's expansion into philanthropy through 10,000 Women, and the deliberate preservation of Goldman Sachs' distinctive internal culture amidst structural evolution.
- Milken Institute27 min
Conversation with SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and CFTC Chairman Michael Selig | Future of Finance 2026
Paul Atkins, Michael Selig, Michael Piwowar
SEC Chairman Atkins and CFTC Chairman Selig are dismantling a fragmented regulatory landscape by establishing a joint taxonomy and "truce" to clearly distinguish tokenized securities from digital commodities while preventing duplicative enforcement. The agencies are simultaneously modernizing capital formation through disclosure streamlining, approving perpetual crypto futures, and accelerating on-chain settlement to reverse declining IPO trends. These collaborative initiatives aim to provide statutory durability in a post-Loper Bright environment by fostering a single primary regulator framework that retains global liquidity and innovation.