Ben Horowitz on the Next Technology Era
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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 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, then 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. 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
So we've had a lot of excellent discussions. We've talked a lot about policy, but we're actually gonna start this more on the venture capital and technology side. You recently shared a blog post of the firm has raised over $15,000,000,000 in a new fundraising set of funds for the firm, largest in a 16 Z history. What do you think are the new obligations that come with that kind of scale? 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 gonna 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
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. 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 Congr
Absolutely. You've seen since we've launched, you know, it's now been four plus years since we launched the American Dynamism practi
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