The a16z Show

E1176 - Martin Casado on Where the Value Is Going in AI

Published: August 22, 2026

Duration: 42:01

Martin Casado joins MTS hosts Theo Jaffee and Sophia Dew to unpack where value is actually accruing in AI, why this technology cycle looks fundamentally different from previous waves, and whether the frontier labs will ultimately capture most of the market.

Martin explains why AI has turned venture into a scale-up capital game, where small teams can productively deploy extraordinary amounts of money, and why the relationship between capital, innovation, and growth has never been tighter. He lays out the case both for and against the frontier labs dominating AI, the role of open-source and specialist models...