The a16z Show

Nick Bostrom joins Theo Jaffee and Sofia Puccini on MTS to revisit the ideas about superintelligence and existential risk that he helped bring into the mainstream, now that increasingly capable AI systems actually exist.
Nick discusses why reinforcement learning may be pushing models toward more goal-seeking behavior, what recent agent experiments tell us about instrumental convergence, and why he favors preserving the ability to slow frontier development rather than committing now to a broad or indefinite AI pause. He also makes the case that the risks of AI need to be weighed alongside its potential upside, from advances in medicine and longer lifespans to entirely new ways of being human.
They also get into whether today's models could already have some form of consciousness, the tradeoffs of open-source AI, whether machines can do original philosophy, mind uploading, and what the simulation hypothesis might mean for the superintelligence we create.

Resources:
Nick Bostrom / Macrostrategy Research Initiative: https://nickbostrom.com/
Follow Theo Jaffee on X: https://x.com/theojaffee
Follow Sofia Puccini on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiapuccini/

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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a16z co-founder and General Partner Ben Horowitz joins James Norman on the inaugural episode of Vintage x Vintage for a conversation spanning entrepreneurship, investing, hip-hop, and what changes when AI makes building dramatically easier.
Ben reflects on going from Netscape to becoming a first-time CEO, why every founder eventually hits a “we’re fucked, it’s over” moment, and what he learned from building a16z around the needs of entrepreneurs. He explains why great investors should look for world-class strengths rather than an absence of weaknesses, and why expanding the ways we recognize talent can raise the bar rather than lower it.
They also look at the current AI cycle, why Ben believes it is bigger than the internet, how AI changes who can become a builder, and why the infrastructure beneath today’s models may need to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Resources:
Follow Ben Horowitz on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz
Follow James Norman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/motown/
Learn more about Paid in Full: https://paidinfullfoundation.org

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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a16z's Raghu Raghuram and Guido Appenzeller sit down with Playground Global General Partner and former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger to discuss the next wave of semiconductor innovation and the physical constraints shaping the AI buildout.
Drawing on his experience designing Intel's 386 and 486 processors, Pat explains how AI could transform chip design, but also why faster design alone won't solve the industry's biggest problems. They examine the bottlenecks in manufacturing, memory bandwidth, advanced packaging, and power, and why today's explosion of specialized AI chips may eventually consolidate around a smaller number of architectures.
They also discuss the potential for new memory technologies, the shift from copper to optical networking, and why energy capacity could become a major constraint on AI growth. Finally, they revisit Pat's VMware years to ask what virtualization might look like when infrastructure is built for agents rather than humans.

Resources:
Follow Pat Gelsinger on X: https://x.com/PGelsinger
Follow Raghu Raghuram on X: https://x.com/RaghuRaghuram
Follow Guido Appenzeller: https://x.com/appenz

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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a16z’s Raghu Raghuram sits down with AWS CEO Matt Garman to discuss how AI is reshaping the cloud, from the needs of AI-native startups to infrastructure increasingly designed for agents.
Matt explains how AWS is adapting as agents write code and manage infrastructure, why it’s reserving scarce GPU capacity for startups, and where custom chips like Trainium and Graviton fit into the AI stack.
They also discuss Amazon's $220 billion capital investment, the shifting bottlenecks in the infrastructure buildout, what enterprises need to trust autonomous agents, and how AWS's own teams are building with agents.

Resources:
Follow Matt Garman on X: https://x.com/mattsgarman
Follow Matt Garman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattgarman
Follow Raghu Raghuram on X: https://x.com/RaghuRaghuram
Learn more about AWS: https://aws.amazon.com/

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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a16z General Partner Angela Strange sits down with Valon’s Andrew Wang and Linda Du to unpack what it takes to rebuild the infrastructure underneath a $13 trillion mortgage market that still relies heavily on systems designed before the internet.
Linda and Andrew explain why Valon chose the hardest path: becoming a regulated mortgage servicer, translating decades of federal and state regulation into software, and proving the platform on its own loans before selling it to the industry. That foundation made Valon roughly three times as efficient as traditional servicing and created the system of record it is now using to bring AI into complex mortgage workflows. They also discuss what AI makes possible on top of that infrastructure, from agents handling long-tail servicing tasks to voice interfaces and more personalized customer experiences. And they explain why deploying the technology into large regulated enterprises is ultimately as much a change-management challenge as a technical one.

Resources:
Follow Angela Strange: https://x.com/astrange
Follow Andrew Wang: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wangandrewd
Follow Linda Du: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xlindadu/
Learn more about Valon: https://valon.com

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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