Ep19. State of Venture, AI Scaling, Elections | BG2 w/ Bill Gurley, Brad Gerstner, & Jamin Ball
Open Source bi-weekly convo w/ Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner on all things tech, markets, investing & capitalism. This week they are joined by Jamin Ball (Partner at Altimeter) to discuss the state of venture capital and incentives, implications of overcapitalization, the future of power law returns, AI’s impact on investment strategies, the future of AI and CapEx, the market’s reactions to the 2024 election, the evolution of search and AI integration, Nasa, SpaceX, & more. Enjoy another episode of BG2.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(00:52) Bill’s Dad | from Nasa to SpaceX
(06:20) State of VC and Incentives w/ Jamin Ball
(12:31) Implications of Overcapitalization
(25:08) The Future of Power Law Returns
(38:28) The Impact of AI on Investment Strategies
(46:00) Future of AI and Capital Expenditure
(52:21) Market Reactions to 2024 Election
(01:00:45) Evolution of Search and AI Integration
Available on Apple, Spotify, www.bg2pod.com
Follow:
Brad Gerstner @altcap
Bill Gurley @bgurley
BG2 Pod @bg2pod
Jamin Ball @jaminball
Shownotes
Clouded Judgement Substack
#BillGurley #BradGerstner #Bg2Pod
Open Source bi-weekly convo w/ Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner on all things tech, markets, investing & capitalism. This week, joined by Sunny Madra (Groq) they discuss Jensen Huang’s recent appearance on the podcast, including scaling intelligence towards AGI, NVIDIA's strategic positioning, the role of CUDA in the developer ecosystem, the future of inference workloads, systems-level thinking, Elon Musk's influence on AI development, the future of AI assistants, open vs closed AI models, safety and security in AI development, & more. Enjoy another episode of BG2.
Chapters
(00:00) Introduction and Initial Reactions to Jensen
(04:32) NVIDIA's Position in Accelerated Compute
(05:11) CUDA and NVIDIA’s Competitive Moat
(12:53) Challenges to NVIDIA’s Competitive Advantage
(18:22) Future Outlook on Inference
(24:46) The Insatiable Demand for AI and Hardware
(27:12) Elon Musk' and X.ai
(31:47) Scaling AI Models and Clusters
(34:17) Economic Models and Funding in AI
(39:08) The Future of AI Pricing and Consumption Models
(42:25) Memory, Actions, and Intelligent Agents
(47:08) The Role of AI in Business Productivity
(51:03) Open vs Closed Models in AI Development
#jensenhuang #nvidia #bradgerstner #billgurley #clarktang #xai #memphiscluster #elonmusk #noambrown #openai #gptstrawberry
Open Source bi-weekly convo w/ Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner on all things tech, markets, investing & capitalism. This week, Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, makes a guest appearance. In Bill’s absence, Brad is joined by Clark Tang (Partner at Altimeter) as they discuss with Jensen scaling intelligence towards AGI, the acceleration of machine learning, NVIDIA's competitive advantages, the significance of inference alongside training, future market dynamics in the AI landscape, the impact of AI on various industries, the future of work, inference time reasoning, AI’s potential to enhance productivity, the balance between open source and closed source, Elon’s Memphis Supercluster, X.ai, OpenAI, the safe development of AI, & more. Enjoy another episode of BG2.
Chapters
(00:00) Introduction
(1:50) The Evolution of AGI and Personal Assistants
(06:03) NVIDIA's Competitive Moat
(15:51 ) The Future of Inference and Training in AI
(19:01) Building the AI Infrastructure
(31:35) Inventing a New Market in an AI Future
(38:40) The Impact of OpenAI
(43:25) The Future of AI Models
(46.44) X.ai and Memphis Supercluster
(51:21) Distributed Computing and Inference Scaling
(55:54) Inference Time Reasoning and Its Importance
(01:00:46) AI's Role in Growing Business and Improving Productivity
(01:08:00) Ensuring Safe AI Development
(01:12:31) The Balance of Open Source and Closed Source AI
#jensenhuang #nvidia #bradgerstner #billgurley #clarktang #xai #memphiscluster #elonmusk #noambrown #openai #gptstrawberry
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1:21:13
Ep16. Nuclear Update, AI Fast & Furious, State of VC | BG2 w/ Bill Gurley & Brad Gerstner
Open Source bi-weekly convo w/ Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner on all things tech, markets, investing & capitalism. This week they discuss private sector interest in nuclear energy, AI supply and demand, OpenAI Strawberry o1,inference constraints, the evolution of AI models, the state of VC, zombiecorns, & more. Enjoy another episode of BG2.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(00:36) The U.S. Nuclear Renaissance
(08:15) AI Fast and Furious
(11:19) OpenAI Strawberry o1
(17:15) Inference Constraints
(20:18) Open AI Breaking Out
(35:00) State of VC
(43:52) “Quasi-Public Companies”
(48:32) Liquidity / IPOs
(58:41) Tech Market Check
Available on Apple, Spotify, www.bg2pod.com
Follow:
Brad Gerstner @altcap
Bill Gurley @bgurley
BG2 Pod @bg2pod
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1:06:06
Ep15: Inside Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant | BG2 w/ Bill Gurley & Brad Gerstner
Open Source bi-weekly convo w/ Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner on all things tech, markets, investing & capitalism. This week they sit down with Maureen Zawalick (Vice President at Diablo Canyon Power Plant) to discuss the importance of nuclear power, the history and future of Diablo Canyon Power Plant, the role of AI in the nuclear industry, the cost differential of nuclear energy in the US and China, Gen 4 reactors, regulation, litigation, & more. Enjoy another episode of BG2.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(04:14) Maureen Zawalick | VP at Diablo Canyon
(06:13) The Need for Diablo
(10:07) The Importance of Nuclear Power
(15:50) License Renewal and the Future of Diablo
(18:39) Hope for Expanding Nuclear Power
(25:22) Nuclear Waste
(30:29) Cost Differential: US vs China
(38:56) Factors Contributing to Cost Differential
(45:07) Implications of China’s Nuclear Leadership
(47:42) Nuclear Energy and AI Supremacy
(50:58) The Innovation Gap and Gen 4 Reactors
(57:27) Overcoming Challenges
(01:03:45) A Call for Government Support
Available on Apple, Spotify, www.bg2pod.com
Follow:
Brad Gerstner @altcap https://x.com/altcap
Bill Gurley @bgurley https://x.com/bgurley
BG2 Pod @bg2pod https://x.com/BG2Pod
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Shownotes:
US Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program 2020
ITIF.org - How Innovative Is China in Nuclear Power
NYTimes - Nuclear Power Can Save the World
Reuters - Constellation talking to Pennsylvania on Three Mile Island restart
Julie Dewahl - Nuclear Past Present Future
Breakthrough Institute - China’s Impressive Rate of Nuclear Construction
Next Big Future - US Nuclear Cost 5-10x More Than China
Energy.gov - Newly Signed Bill to Boost Nuclear
Advanced Nuclear - Nuclear Commercial Liftoff
LA Times - Loan to keep Diablo Canyon nuclear plant open
South Korea Builds Nuclear Plants Quickly and Cheaply
Nuclear Power in South Korea
Westinghouse Electric's Chinese 'Trojan Horse'
Friends of the Earth sues DOE over Billion Dollar Award to Diablo Canyon
Revitalizing America’s Nuclear Energy Supply Chain
Idaho Natl Laboratory - Recommendations to Improve the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Reactor Licensing and Approval Process
5 charts to explain why nuclear power is making a comeback
Podcast - The cost of nuclear - Catalyst w/ Shayle Kann
RIC 2024 Opening Session - Remarks by NRC Chair Christopher T. Hanson
A One-on-One with NRC Chair Christopher Hanson
Bill Gates on Bipartisan Support for Nuclear Power
Podcast w/ PG&E CEO Patricia Poppe
Germany Reacts to Trump's UNGA Speech
#BillGurley #BradGerstner #Bg2Pod