Latest Interviews
Showing 436–450 of 5,336 transcripts.
Clear all filters- Milken Institute1h 3m
Credit Outlook | Global Conference 2025
Michael Milken, Lee Kruter, Drew McKnight, Purnima Puri, James Reynolds, Christian Stracke
Driven by the 2023 banking retrenchment and rising institutional demand for yield, major asset managers including PIMCO, Fortress, and Goldman Sachs are shifting capital from traditional lending to non-investment-grade private credit and alternative financing structures. Panelists identify significant growth opportunities in undervalued asset-based credit, data center infrastructure, and expanding markets in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, while emphasizing defensive strategies focused on recovery rates rather than default probabilities. Despite regulatory uncertainties and untested default cycles, experts project the sector will scale significantly to fill the void left by contracting bank balance sheets.
- All-In Podcast1h 21m
SpaceX IPO, Iran War Fallout, Quantum Bitcoin Hack, The Space Opportunity
SpaceX targets a historic $75 billion IPO to achieve a $1.75 trillion valuation while anticipating a future merger with Tesla that would create a $3.1 trillion global entity. The discussion frames this financial milestone against broader risks, including geopolitical instability in the Middle East that threatens global fertilizer supplies and quantum computing advances that could soon compromise current encryption standards. Additionally, the event explores accelerating AI adoption in corporate governance and logistics, alongside a crowded 2026 IPO pipeline featuring potential valuations for OpenAI and Anthropic.
- 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.
- The Economist9 min
Is a private-credit meltdown the next financial crisis? | The Economist
Private credit, a non-bank lending sector estimated at $1.5 to $3 trillion, surged following post-2008 regulatory shifts and a 2010s boom in private equity buyouts. Despite attracting institutional investors through high illiquidity premiums, recent redemption crises at major firms like Blue Owl Capital and Blackstone have exposed governance weaknesses and asset quality concerns. While experts predict a prolonged economic impact rather than a sudden systemic collapse, the sector faces ongoing scrutiny over the viability of its semi-liquid business model.
- 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.
How Roblox Turned Game Developers Into $1.3M+ Earners
Last year, Roblox generated $6.8 billion in bookings and facilitated $1.5 billion in creator earnings across 35 billion hours of usage, targeting a significant expansion of the global gaming market. The company distinguishes its platform as an immersive "human co-experience" supported by proprietary AI models and a "4D" physics architecture designed to lower development barriers and enhance real-time social interaction. Looking forward, leadership plans to leverage this unique data and technology to drive augmented reality integration while maintaining strict safety protocols and a culture that prioritizes on-site collaboration and metabolic health.
- 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 Economist9 min
Peptides are not a miracle drug | The Economist
Natasha Loder, Tim Cross, Jason Palmer
Driven by high-profile endorsements and internet culture, the unregulated global market for peptides bypasses clinical trials to offer performance-enhancing substances riddled with purity risks and unknown long-term health effects. Regulatory bodies in the United States and United Kingdom are attempting to address this crisis through compounding pharmacy oversight and vendor crackdowns, yet enforcement struggles against the speed of online sales and social media promotion. Experts warn that without rigorous scientific validation, the current environment prioritizes profit and self-experimentation over the biological safety required to distinguish beneficial compounds from dangerous contaminants.