The a16z Show

Latest Episodes:

H20s to China + 15% with Chris Miller and Lennart Heim Aug 14, 2025

Show notes

We’re sharing an episode from ChinaTalk that dives into one of the biggest recent reversals in U.S. tech policy.

The U.S. banned Nvidia’s H20 AI chips to China in April. Now, just months later, they’re being sold—with a 15% export fee. What happened? Why the reversal? And what does it mean for the future of AI competition between the U.S. and China?

Chris Miller—author of Chip War—and Lennart Heim from RAND join ChinaTalk host Jordan Schneider to unpack the policy flip-flop, why China is publicly downplaying interest in the H20, and why high-bandwidth memory and semiconductor manufacturing tools may be even more important than the Nvidia chips themselves.

Resources:

Listen to more from ChinaTalk: https://link.chtbl.com/chinatalk

Check out the Horizon Fellowship to work in DC on emerging tech policy issues like AI chip export controls: https://horizonpublicservice.org/applications-open-for-2026-horizon-fellowship-cohort/

Outro Music: It's a Shame, The Spinners, 1970

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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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Grok, Genie 3, GPT-5 & the Rise of Vibe Coding Aug 13, 2025

Show notes

a16z partners Olivia and Justine Moore unpack the latest in consumer AI including:

- Grok’s “Imagine” and its instant, social-first creative tools

- Google’s Genie 3 and the future of 3D worlds

- GPT-5: what’s new, what’s missing, and why some want their old chatbot back

- AI-generated music from ElevenLabs

- Olivia’s vibecoded Jensen Huang selfie app

Timecodes:

0:00 Introduction & This Week's Topics

0:24 Grok Imagine: Social AI Image & Video Generation

4:48 GPT-5 Release & GPT-4 Deprecation

5:36 Comparing GPT-5 and GPT-4: Coding vs. Personality

9:13 AI for Mental Health: Illinois Law & Industry Impact

12:29 Genie 3: Interactive World Models from Google

16:53 ElevenLabs Music Model: Licensed AI Music Generation

19:16 Vibecoding: Consumer Experiments & Platform Evolution

24:14 The Future of Vibecoding & AI Tools

27:05 Conclusions

Resources:

Find Olivia on X: https://x.com/omooretweets

Find Justine on X: https://x.com/venturetwins

Read Anish and Justine’s vibecoding post: https://a16z.com/specialized-app-gen-platforms/

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Alex Danco on Speechwriting, Blogging, and Giving Founders Power Aug 13, 2025

Show notes

Fresh off the announcement of his move from Shopify to a16z, Alex Danco joins TBPN to talk about the “trade deal” that brought him here and his mission to make the firm’s written content truly world class.

He discusses why he believes writing still matters in the age of AI, how great prose can act as “power transfer technology” for founders, and why he’s betting on the overlooked art of speechwriting. Alex also reflects on his years as a founder, investor, and longtime blogger, and shares the formats he’s most excited to explore, from deal memos to launch speeches.

Timecodes:

0:00 Joining a16z

0:41 The Power of Writing & Speechwriting

2:45 Reflections on Blogging & Communication

5:10 Writing as Power Transfer Technology

6:46 Formats & Content at a16z

8:09 The Underrated Art of Speechwriting

11:21 The Evolution of Blogging & Audience

12:23 Looking Forward: Brand & Legacy

Resources:

Find Alex on X: https://x.com/Alex_Danco

Watch TBPN: https://www.tbpn.com/

Follow TBPN on X: https://x.com/tbpn

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Steven Sinofsky & Balaji Srinivasan on the Future of AI, Tech, & the Global World Order Aug 11, 2025

Show notes

There’s been a wave of M&A deals lately - Meta and Scale, Windsurf and Google - and a lot of it points to something bigger: how regulation, capital, and innovation are colliding in 2025.

In this episode Erik Torenberg brings together Steven Sinofsky, former Microsoft Executive and Balaji Srinivasan, founder of the Network School, and author of the Network State to break it all down.

From acquihires to “acquifires,” from FTC crackdowns to the deeper battle between the state and the network, this is a sharp conversation on the future of tech and power.

Resources

Find Balaji on X: https://x.com/balajis

Find Steven on X: https://x.com/stevesi

Learn more about The Network State: https://thenetworkstate.com

Learn more about The Network School: https://ns.com

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Marc Andreessen: Why Perfect Products Become Obsolete Aug 08, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Marc Andreessen joins TBPN for an unfiltered conversation spanning everything from ads in LLMs to why Apple’s AI strategy may be risky for anyone not named Apple.

Marc breaks down the current state of AI: why open source is resurging, how foundational research is (or isn’t) turning into product, and whether we’ve hit the moment when phones start to fade as dominant platforms. He also shares his candid thoughts on Meta’s wearable wins, Vision Pro’s imperfections, and how humor and deep research are his two favorite use cases for AI today.

Timecodes:

0:00 Intro

2:41 The Pace of AI and Technology Cycles

4:03 Research vs. Productization in AI Companies

5:15 Apple’s Strategy: Last Mover Advantage

7:09 The Future Beyond Smartphones

10:23 Open Source AI: Progress and Challenges

13:49 Ads in AI: Business Models and User Experience

15:52 Legal Frameworks for AI and Data

17:53 Lightning Round: How Mark Uses AI

19:01 Breaking into Venture Capital in 2025

20:34 M&A, Survivorship Bias, and Company Resilience

Resources

Watch TBPN: https://www.tbpn.com/

Marc on X: https://x.com/pmarca

Marc’s Substack: https://pmarca.substack.com/

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GPT-5 and Agents Breakdown – w/ OpenAI Researchers Isa Fulford & Christina Kim Aug 08, 2025

Show notes

ChatGPT-5 just launched, marking a major milestone for OpenAI and the entire AI ecosystem.

Fresh off the live stream, Erik Torenberg was joined in the studio by three people who played key roles in making this model a reality:

Christina Kim, Researcher at OpenAI, who leads the core models team on post-training
Isa Fulford, Researcher at OpenAI, who leads deep research and the ChatGPT agent team on post-training
Sarah Wang, General Partner at a16z, who helped lead our investment in OpenAI since 2021

They discuss what’s actually new in ChatGPT-5—from major leaps in reasoning, coding, and creative writing to meaningful improvements in trustworthiness, behavior, and post-training techniques.

We also discuss:

How GPT-5 was trained, including RL environments and why data quality matters more than ever
The shift toward agentic workflows—what “agents” really are, why async matters, and how it’s empowering a new golden age of the “ideas guy”
What GPT-5 means for builders, startups, and the broader AI ecosystem going forward

Whether you're an AI researcher, founder, or curious user, this is the deep-dive conversation you won't want to miss.

Timecodes:

0:00 ChatGPT Origins

1:57 Model Capabilities & Coding Improvements

4:00 Model Behaviors & Sycophancy

6:15 Usage, Pricing & Startup Opportunities

8:03 Broader Impact & AGI Discourse

16:56 Creative Writing & Model Progress

32:37 Training, Data & Reflections

36:21 Company Growth & Culture

41:39 Closing Thoughts & Mission

Resources

Find Christina on X: https://x.com/christinahkim

Find Isa on X: https://x.com/isafulf

Find Sarah on X: https://x.com/sarahdingwang

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How to Build a Successful Company in an Era of Disruption Aug 06, 2025

Show notes

What happens when a startup becomes a giant—and then has to reinvent itself all over again?

In this episode, Martin Casado sits down with Raghu Raghuram (former CEO of VMware) and Jeetu Patel (President and CPO at Cisco) for a deep, tactical conversation on scaling, disruption, and navigating transformation from the inside. They share hard-won lessons from leading two of the most iconic infrastructure companies in tech—through waves like virtualization, cloud, containers, and now AI.

They cover:

How to keep innovation alive inside large companies
Why the best companies operate with a founder’s mindset, even without founders
The difference between selling to buyers vs. practitioners
Why the story is the strategy, and how to tell it at scale
How Cisco is rebuilding its startup DNA in the age of AI

If you're building or leading through a major tech wave, this episode is a playbook.

Timecodes:

0:00 Introduction

2:02 Weapons of Mass Disruption: Abstractions, Business Models, and Cloud

5:57 Cisco’s Missed Cloud Wave & Resetting for Innovation

6:39 Operating Like a Startup: Speed, Scale, and Leadership

10:00 Go-to-Market Challenges: Fencing Off Innovation

11:04 Organic vs. Inorganic Growth: Lessons from VMware

12:04 The 10x Rule and Competing with Incumbents

14:39 Structuring for Disruption: Two-Pizza Teams and Ideal Customer Profiles

18:43 Storytelling as Strategy: Galvanizing Large Organizations

19:42 The AI Wave: Consumerization and Infrastructure Demands

25:34 Founders vs. Operators: Leading Transformations

31:47 Product-Led Organizations: From Sales to Product Focus

34:35 The Future of Infrastructure: AI, Market Size, and Vertical Integration

39:34 Timing, Market, Team, Product, Brand, and Scale

41:19 Authenticity, Opportunity, and Final Thoughts

Resources:

Find Martin on X: https://x.com/martin_casado

Find Raghu on X: https://x.com/raghuraghuram

Find Jeetu on X: https://x.com/jpatel41

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Dwarkesh and Noah Smith on AGI and the Economy Aug 04, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Erik Torenberg is joined in the studio by Dwarkesh Patel and Noah Smith to explore one of the biggest questions in tech: what exactly is artificial general intelligence (AGI), and how close are we to achieving it?

They break down:

Competing definitions of AGI — economic vs. cognitive vs. “godlike”
Why reasoning alone isn’t enough — and what capabilities models still lack
The debate over substitution vs. complementarity between AI and human labor
What an AI-saturated economy might look like — from growth projections to UBI, sovereign wealth funds, and galaxy-colonizing robots
How AGI could reshape global power, geopolitics, and the future of work

Along the way, they tackle failed predictions, surprising AI limitations, and the philosophical and economic consequences of building machines that think, and perhaps one day, act, like us.

Timecodes:

0:00 Intro

0:33 Defining AGI and General Intelligence

2:38 Human and AI Capabilities Compared

7:00 AI Replacing Jobs and Shifting Employment

15:00 Economic Growth Trajectories After AGI

17:15 Consumer Demand in an AI-Driven Economy

31:00 Redistribution, UBI, and the Future of Income

31:58 Human Roles and the Evolving Meaning of Work

41:21 Technology, Society, and the Human Future

45:43 AGI Timelines and Forecasting Horizons

54:04 The Challenge of Predicting AI's Path

57:37 Nationalization, Geopolitics, and the Global AI Race

1:07:10 Brand and Network Effects in AI Dominance

1:09:31 Final Thoughts

Resources:

Find Dwarkesh on X: https://x.com/dwarkesh_sp

Find Dwarkesh on YT: https://www.youtube.com/c/DwarkeshPatel

Subscribe to Dwarkesh’s Substack: https://www.dwarkesh.com/

Find Noah on X: https://x.com/noahpinion

Subscribe to Noah’s Substack: https://www.noahpinion.blog/

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Balaji on How Tech Truly Wins Media Aug 01, 2025

Show notes

What really caused the breakdown between tech and media—and what comes next?

Erik Torenberg sits down with Balaji Srinivasan (entrepreneur, investor, and author of The Network State) to explore the long-building conflict between Silicon Valley and legacy journalism. Balaji explains how the collapse of traditional media business models gave rise to political capture, clickbait, and adversarial coverage of the tech industry.

They discuss why “going direct” is no longer optional, how tech became the villain in establishment narratives, and what it would take to build a new truth infrastructure - from decentralized content creation to cryptographic verification.

This episode covers power, distribution, and the future of media, with a signature mix of historical insight, social analysis, and Balaji’s forward-looking frameworks.

Timecodes:

0:00 Introduction

1:26 The Media vs. Tech Conflict

2:11 The Collapse of Journalism Revenue

2:39 Rise of Wokeness and Political Realignment

6:50 State vs. Network: A New Framework

9:00 The Power Structure of Media Institutions

19:25 The Role of Distribution and the Internet

29:20 The Social War: Red vs. Blue America

30:05 X Day and the Shift in Social Media Power

42:56 Strategies for Technologists: Go Direct

48:36 The Importance of Individual Creators

1:10:00 Decentralized Truth and the Ledger of Record

1:36:00 The Future of Media, Democracy, and Equality

1:37:08 Conclusion & Final Thoughts

Resources

Find Balaji on X: https://x.com/balajis

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AI Content and the War for Your Attention Jul 30, 2025

Show notes

What happens when AI starts generating content for everyone—and no one wants to watch it?

In this episode, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and ad tech veteran Antonio García Martínez join a16z General Partner, Erik Torenberg to unpack the shifting economics of attention: from the rise of “AI slop” and spammy feeds to the difference between what we want to pay attention to and what platforms push on us.

They explore: