Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Over 70% of people in China are optimistic about AI and kind of less than 30% in America were optimistic about AI.
We have placed the largest bet in American history on the proposition that this country will win the next century of technology.
We won the Industrial Revolution and we did that because we had superior technology and here we are. On the dawn of a new technological revolution, the AI revolution, every interesting company that gets started is a technology company now. America does give everybody a chance, and entrepreneurs can really count on that.
If America loses its technology edge and its dominance, the entire world will lose as well. What makes the American system irreplaceable for the world at large?
Everybody's in the same game, but the rules of the game have changed.
And what I mean by that is... What does it mean to lead an industry at a moment of technological change? For decades, venture capital has been about funding companies.
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Chapter 2: How does America plan to maintain its technological leadership?
But at a certain scale, it becomes something else, shaping industries, influencing policy, and helping determine which technologies define the future. Today, that responsibility is growing. As AI and other frontier technologies reshape the global landscape, the question is no longer just what to build, but how to ensure those systems strengthen the broader society around them.
The states extend beyond any single company or sector. They reach into how countries compete, how innovation spreads, and who gets the opportunity to contribute. A16Z co-founder Ben Horowitz speaks with general partner David Yulevich about betting on America and building for the next century.
So we've had a lot of excellent discussions. We've talked a lot about policy, but we're actually going to start this more on the venture capital and technology side. You recently shared a blog post of the firm has raised over $15 billion in a new fundraising set of funds for the firm, the largest in A16Z history. What do you think are the new obligations that come with that kind of scale?
Chapter 3: What responsibilities come with leading the technology industry?
We are the largest venture capital firm in the world. And how does that tie into the mission?
Yeah, so it's interesting. My old mentor, Andy Grove, said to me, he said, Ben, when you're a leader in an industry, then the whole industry, the size of it, the ethics of it, the morality of it kind of depends on you. And I remember thinking when he said that to me, he was running Intel at the time.
I thought, wow, I'm glad I'm never going to be the leader of an industry because that's a lot of responsibility. But here I am, here we are. And I think for us, you have to take a step back and say, okay, for the technology industry, and particularly for kind of new technology companies, what does it need to be? And you have to think about it on a large scale.
And the way we've been thinking about it is, well, if you go all the way back to humanity, like what's important for humanity?
Chapter 4: How is venture capital evolving in the current landscape?
What advances humanity? And it really kind of comes down to, do people have a chance to contribute? Because when people have a chance to contribute, then they can have an impact and then they can kind of advance the state of things for everybody. And there's really been no country in the world that comes close to America at giving people a shot, giving them a chance to succeed. And it's not
a completely equal chance, some people are born rich, some people are born poor, some people have better genetics, some people live in dysfunctional families and so forth, but a chance. And most countries, people don't have a chance, or they have a very small chance, a very slim chance. And so that ends up being really important.
And then if you think about why does America have the influence it has today from a military standpoint, from an economic standpoint, from a cultural standpoint, it comes back to, well, we won the Industrial Revolution. And we did that because we had superior technology.
Chapter 5: What role does optimism play in technology's future?
And here we are today. on the dawn of a new technological revolution, the AI revolution, and are we gonna win? And are we gonna have that influence? And are we gonna be able to give people a shot and kind of continue to advance humanity? And I think that's an open question right now. And so when I think about our role in the industry, it's what can we do to help America win technologically?
And that's everything from what we invest in to how we integrate into the government and make it accessible to all the citizens and integrate with our allies and so forth. And so it's a big mission. It's a lot of work. And, you know, it's why we American Dynamism and a conference and everything.
Chapter 6: How can technology support national security innovation?
Yeah. You have said that the American way, you know, giving people a shot, that if we lose this technology race, if America loses its technology edge and its dominance, that the entire world will lose as well. What makes the American system irreplaceable? Why is our technological dominance not just good for America, but actually good for the world at large?
Yes, I think a lot of things go into it. But to me, it always comes back to there's a line in the Declaration of Independence that is very well known, but also underrated, which is, we hold these truths to be self-evident. And what does that mean? Well, it means that these truths didn't come from us. They're truths. They are self-evident.
Chapter 7: What are the implications of AI integration with government?
They came from a higher thing. They came from God. We didn't make these rules. We didn't give you these rights. We didn't give you this freedom. It came from something else. And that's really, really important because it means if I'm the president, if I'm Congress, no matter who I am, I can't change it. no matter how much I want to change it.
And there are many who would like to change some things, who think they know better than these truths. Yeah, and that is a thing.
Chapter 8: How can American dynamism be exported to other countries?
But because of that, the freedoms that you have in America are really, really protected to a degree that they're not in any other country And they're very hard to lose. And we've seen this. There's just a great talk about free speech. We've seen this with free speech where countries are like, well, maybe that's not such a good idea anymore.
But if it can't be taken, if it didn't come from people, it can't be taken away from people. And that's been very, very powerful and very persistent, I think, over the entire history of the country. And it's really unique. There aren't other countries who have quite as strong a version of that.
Absolutely. You've seen since we've launched, you know, it's now been four plus years since we launched the American Dynamism Practice. We're on our second fund. You and Mark have been incredible supporters of this effort of investing in the national interest at the intersection of advanced software and hardware.
rebuilding not just the defense industrial base, but manufacturing and all the precursors that go along with it. What's been most surprising to you that you've learned about investing at these intersections of national security and venture capital? Along with it came a big presence in Washington. What's been the most surprising? What do you think the biggest learning has been?
You know, it's been interesting because if you go back to kind of pre-ChatGPT, the conventional wisdom was China had this big AI lead on us. And then ChatGPT comes out and says, oh, well, maybe, no, we have a lead on them. And then things will evolve from there. But the thing that was true about the kind of old incorrect idea was that
They were way ahead of us in integrating their AI technology with their government on a kind of military basis, on a bureaucracy basis, and all facets. And so when we started, we were coming from, I would say, very far behind, you know, in that idea. The thing that's been surprising, though, is like how fast we've been catching up.
And I think that that's been really kind of heartening from both the number of entrepreneurs that want to help and then the willingness of the U.S. government to say, hey, We're interested in these new technologies. We're interested in these new companies. We're not stuck in our ways. We'll change the rules if we have to. And that's been amazingly fruitful.
And I think that, you know, we're seeing it in the kind of current conflicts that we have. And it gives me great hope that if we keep at it, that we'll be very strong going forward.
Yeah, I agree. I think this is a moment of optimism to see just how quickly things can shift when there's a sense of urgency and a sense of change makers. I want to talk about AI and policy. We had Emile Michael earlier, the Undersecretary of War for Research and Development, CTO of the Department of War here.
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