Latest Interviews
Showing 256–270 of 2,499 transcripts.
Clear all filters- Milken Institute17 min
Time to Heal: Bring the Hostages Home Now, A Conversation with Noa Argamani | Global Conference 2025
At the Milken Institute Global Conference, rescued hostage Noam Gamani detailed the lethal conditions and ongoing execution of captives held in Gaza, specifically highlighting the unresolved status of her partner Avi Natan. Gamani, recognized as a 2025 *Time* 100 inductee, urged global leaders to maintain relentless public pressure through visible advocacy to secure a comprehensive negotiation deal for the 59 remaining hostages. She emphasized that the crisis remains an active war zone where daily casualties occur unless immediate diplomatic action addresses the imminent threat of death for those still imprisoned.
- Milken Institute18 min
A Conversation with Fernando Haddad, Minister of Finance of Brazil | Global Conference 2025
Fernando Haddad, Laura Deal Lacey
President Lula's administration projects a sustainable 3% annual economic growth trajectory through structural tax reforms, a new carbon market, and a Vice Presidential-led reindustrialization plan targeting hundreds of billions in private investment. This domestic strategy is reinforced by a dedicated National Data Center Policy promoting green digital infrastructure and solidified international partnerships under the G20 and BRICS frameworks to drive climate governance and the upcoming COP30 summit. With advanced infrastructure concessions and commitments such as a $34 billion corporate investment package, Brazil positions itself as a secure hub for sustainable capital seeking alignment with its 90% clean energy matrix.
- The Economist9 min
Will China be the real winner from the Iran war? | The Economist
Edward Carr, David Rennie, Adam Roberts, Zanny Minton Beddoes, Ed
Chinese strategic leadership now prioritizes establishing new economic chokeholds in pharmaceuticals and chemicals while explicitly exploiting Donald Trump's transactional nature to secure high-end chip access, fearing that his potential political decline would empower hawkish rivals like Marco Rubio. This approach is underpinned by a cynical calculation that the United States is losing global favorability and alliance cohesion, prompting Beijing to cautiously normalize relations with Southeast Asian partners and free-ride on the existing US-led security order. Despite acknowledging the need for systemic adaptation, China's strategy remains paralyzed by an internal contradiction, lacking a viable plan for a destabilized "law of the jungle" environment while simultaneously avoiding the risks required to lead a new global order.
- The Economist9 min
How America is racing China to the Moon | The Economist
The Artemis II crew successfully launched on NASA's largest rocket, marking the first human spaceflight beyond Low Earth Orbit since the Apollo era. Under Administrator Jared Isaacman's leadership, this reconnaissance mission accelerates U.S. lunar ambitions to counter China's 2030 landing plans and establish a permanent lunar presence rather than a temporary visit. The spacecraft is currently executing a unique trajectory designed to culminate in a splashdown near San Diego by mission day ten, paving the way for the eventual Artemis III lunar landing.
- a16z42 min
How Bots, Deepfakes and AI Agents Are Forcing a New Internet Identity Layer | Alex Blania on a16z
Alex Blania, Ben Horowitz, Erik Torenberg
World ID is deploying its Orb hardware and cryptographic protocols to verify unique human individuals against the rising threat of autonomous AI agents and deepfakes. With a strategic pivot targeting the U.S. market contingent on the "Clarity Act," the company aims to scale its 18 million verified users through mobile distribution models and enterprise partnerships like Tinder. This infrastructure seeks to secure democratic processes, financial systems, and social welfare by distinguishing biological humans from algorithmic impersonators.
- Goldman Sachs21 min
AI Exchanges: Power Problems?
Brian Singer, Alison Nathan, George Lee
Goldman Sachs projects a 220% surge in global data center power demand by 2030 as hyperscalers commit over $300 billion to infrastructure, a trajectory comparable to adding the world's sixth-largest power consumer to the grid. This aggressive expansion faces severe bottlenecks in skilled labor and transmission supply, forcing a near-term reliance on natural gas simple-cycle generators while industry leaders navigate regulatory hurdles and "agentic" AI traffic growth. Despite the high capital intensity and a potential $40 per megawatt-hour premium for green energy, major technology firms maintain robust balance sheets to fund these transition costs while seeking to decouple their power expenses from consumer utility rates.
- a16z27 min
How to Reorg After AI Changes Everything | Block's Owen Jennings on the a16z Show
Block reduced its workforce by over 40% with a specific focus on engineering and product roles to transition from a hierarchical model to an agentic, squad-based structure. This strategic pivot leverages proprietary tools like the "Goose" harness and autonomous "Builder Bot" to achieve productivity gains of up to 100x while maintaining P0 reliability and an intact compliance team. The company aims to redefine its competitive moat through deep domain data expertise and generative UI, anticipating a market expansion that offsets the reduction in traditional development headcount.
- Y Combinator31 min
This Startup Catches Fraud at Scale
Jared Friedman, Karine Mellata
Variance has officially exited stealth mode following a $21 million Series A round to commercialize AI agents that automate trust and safety infrastructure for Fortune 500 clients like GoFundMe and IAC. Founded by ex-Apple engineers Karine and Michael, the 12-person team leverages a unique "agentic" architecture to solve complex unstructured data problems in fraud detection and compliance without manual rule updates. Despite a 2024 leadership injury that threatened operations, the company is scaling its full-stack decisioning platform to replace traditional human review workflows with adaptive, self-healing systems designed to trace sophisticated abuse graphs.
- Goldman Sachs37 min
The Business Builder: New Mountain Capital's Steve Klinsky
Steve Klinsky, the CEO of the $60 billion New Mountain Capital, established the firm in 2000 to pursue a "defensive growth" investment strategy focused on operational improvements within non-cyclical sectors like infrastructure and healthcare technology. Under his leadership, the firm has achieved significant milestones including the $8 billion expansion of supply chain software provider Blue Yonder and the creation of over $100 billion in enterprise value through private credit. Klinsky continues to drive the firm's integration of Generative AI to optimize portfolio margins while maintaining active philanthropic leadership through his Modern States Education Alliance and long-term vision for the private equity landscape.
The Public Venture Fund That 9x’d in 3 Days (Fundrise VCX)
Ben Miller, Benjamin Miller, Molly O'Shea
Fundrise's VCX fund has emerged as a novel public venture capital vehicle that democratized access to private tech assets by raising a $700 million valuation and attracting 100,000 investors. Within three days of its listing, the fund's shares appreciated to a $6.5 billion valuation, driven by a 193% weighted average growth in its portfolio which includes major holdings like Anthropic, Databricks, and OpenAI. By leveraging a direct network investing strategy and bypassing traditional fee structures, the fund positions itself as a primary capital bridge that challenges the collapsing IPO exit model while preparing for future expansion into larger check sizes.
- The Economist6 min
Christine Lagarde: “Europe-bashing is vastly excessive” | The Economist
Christine Lagarde, Zanny Minton Beddoes
Despite the European Union's historical success in preventing war, the bloc now faces severe economic stagnation relative to the United States, characterized by a widening GDP gap, declining competitiveness, and growing populist unrest. While former Prime Minister Mario Draghi proposed extensive reforms and external pressures from Donald Trump's administration further exposed European vulnerabilities, progress remains incremental rather than transformative. This deteriorating landscape forces a strategic reckoning as the EU attempts to leverage its superior healthcare and social stability while navigating increasing diplomatic hostility from the US.
- a16z50 min
What Tesla and SpaceX Teach Founders About Building Hardware | a16z
Erin Price-Wright, Chandler Luzsicza, Turner Caldwell
Chandler Lujitsa, former lead propulsion engineer for SpaceX's Starship, and Turner Caldwell, who built a billion-dollar lithium refinery at Tesla, founded Galadai and Mariana Minerals respectively to apply aerospace and automotive efficiency to defense and critical mineral supply chains. Both founders have operationalized flat organizations, aggressive scheduling, and factory-style manufacturing to solve industry-specific bottlenecks, such as underproducing missile systems and lacking software coordination in mining. Their ventures are currently targeting rapid scale-up through vertical integration strategies, autonomous robotics adoption, and aggressive hiring pipelines designed to sustain high-velocity execution in capital-constrained environments.
- Goldman Sachs20 min
Iran Conflict: How Long, and How Bad?
Sanam Vakil, Dennis Ross, Kevin Donegan, Alison Nathan
Entering its fourth week, the Iran conflict has evolved into a regime-survival struggle where Tehran seeks to spread costs widely while the U.S. military targets Iran's missile capabilities and nuclear program. Strategic deadlock persists over the Strait of Hormuz, as limited convoy operations can only restore roughly 20% of normal oil flows despite rehearsed allied defenses. Panelists conclude that resolving this locked-in scenario requires a mediated outcome, though recent political assassinations and the need to rebuild Iran's collapsed economy complicate any immediate return to pre-conflict stability.
Inside Marc Andreessen & Ben Horowitz’s Multi-Family Office
Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Michel Del Buono, Molly O'Shea
Perennial, a multi-family office founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, serves a select group of principals and founders by employing professional investors rather than traditional service-oriented wealth managers. The firm addresses critical gaps in the wealth management industry, such as the misalignment of flat fee structures and the lack of tax optimization for high-tax jurisdictions, by offering customized asset allocation and in-house alternative investment teams. Through rigorous due diligence and strategic guidance on liquidity events like the potential SpaceX IPO, Perennial helps its clients navigate complex tax liabilities, diversify concentrated stock positions, and avoid the pitfalls of reinvesting directly into early-stage ventures without systematic analysis.
- Goldman Sachs10 min
“I’d Rather Be a Bond”
Goldman Sachs Asset Management projects two U.S. interest rate cuts this year, diverging from market expectations that favor holding rates steady through 2026, as the Federal Reserve focuses on core inflation and labor market stability despite an energy shock driven by the Iran conflict. This geopolitical tension has caused bond yields to expand by 50 to 175 basis points, creating attractive entry points for investors who favor fixed income over equities to capitalize on widened credit spreads and rising real yields. Upcoming policy decisions from the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan, the ECB, and the Bank of England in April are expected to clarify rate trajectories and alleviate current market volatility.