The a16z Show

The a16z Show

byAndreessen Horowitz

BusinessEntrepreneurshipScienceTechnology

The a16z Show discusses tech and culture trends, news, and the future – especially as ‘software eats the world’. It features industry experts, business leaders, and other interesting thinkers and voices from around the world. This show is produced by Andreessen Horowitz (aka “a16z”), a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm. Multiple episodes are released every week; visit a16z.com for more details and to sign up for our newsletters and other content as well!

Episodes(40 episodes)

Episode 1044
When Giants Don’t Go Public: Inside the $5 Trillion Private Tech Market
Bloomberg's Odd Lots hosts Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway speak with David George, general partner at a16z and head of the firm's growth fund, about why $5 trillion in tech market cap now sits in the private markets, how that figure has grown 10x in a decade, and what it means for founders, employees, and investors. They also cover SPVs, tender offers, the collapse of legacy software valuations, and why AI companies may be speed-running the path to public markets. This episode originally aired on Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast.   Resources: Follow Joe Weisenthal: h...
Published: Feb 26, 2026Duration: 47m 1s
Episode 1043
Ben Horowitz: RSI, Crypto as AI Money, & Classified Physics
Moonshots host Peter Diamandis speaks with Ben Horowitz, cofounder and general partner at a16z, alongside regular cohosts Salim Ismail, Dave Blundin, and Dr. Alexander Wissner-Gross, about whether AI can or should be paused, what happened when Horowitz told a Biden administration official that regulating AI means regulating math, why crypto is the natural money for AI agents, and why the gap between AI capability and societal adoption may be wider than people think. This episode originally aired on Peter Diamandis's Moonshots podcast.   Follow Peter H. Diamandis on X: https://x.com/PeterDiamandis F...
Published: Feb 23, 2026Duration: 1h 48m 0s
Episode 1042
Patrick Collison on Stripe’s Early Choices, Smalltalk, and What Comes After Coding
Michael Truell, CEO of Cursor, sits down with Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe and an investor in Anysphere, to talk about Collison's history with Smalltalk and Lisp, the MongoDB and Ruby decisions Stripe still lives with 15 years later, why he'd spend even more time on API design if he could do it over, and whether AI is actually showing up in economic productivity data. This episode originally aired on Cursor's podcast.   Resources:  Follow Patrick Collison on X:   https://twitter.com/patrickc Follow Michael Truell on X: https://twitter.com/mntruell Fo...
Published: Feb 20, 2026Duration: 52m 53s
Episode 1041
Capital, Compute, and the Fight for AI Dominance
a16z's Martin Casado and Sarah Wang join Latent Space hosts Alessio Fanelli and Swyx to discuss what makes this AI investment cycle unlike anything in the history of venture capital. They cover why the lines between venture and growth, apps and infrastructure are blurring, how frontier model companies can raise more than the aggregate of everyone built on top of them, and why the industry-wide gap between perception and reality has never been wider.   Stay Updated:Find a16z on YouTube: YouTubeFind a16z on XF...
Published: Feb 19, 2026Duration: 57m 52s
Episode 1040
From Copilots to Agents: Rebuilding the Company Around AI
a16z's Angela Strange and Gabriel Vasquez speak with Carlos García Ottati, founder and CEO of Kavak, about building Latin America's largest online used car marketplace across Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and the Middle East. They discuss why building in emerging markets means constructing four businesses underneath your business, how Kavak replaced copilot tools with AI agents handling 90 to 95% of customer interactions, and what it took to go flat for a year during the transition before growing four times on the other side.   Stay Updated:Find a16z on You...
Published: Feb 18, 2026Duration: 59m 53s
Episode 1039
WSJ x a16z: The Next 25 Years of Defense Innovation
In this episode from WSJ Invest Live, Andy Serwer speaks with Katherine Boyle, general partner at a16z, about the American Dynamism practice she helped launch four years ago. They discuss why saying "America" out loud stunned Silicon Valley in 2022, how Russia's invasion of Ukraine changed everything, and what it means to invest in companies that support the national interest.   Stay Updated:Find a16z on YouTube: YouTubeFind a16z on XFind a16z on LinkedInListen to the a16z Show on...
Published: Feb 17, 2026Duration: 30m 33s
Episode 1038
Novartis CEO Vasant Narasimhan on Transforming a 250-Year-Old Company
a16z general partner Jorge Conde talks with Vasant Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis International, about transforming a 250-year-old conglomerate into a pure play medicines company and unlocking $180 billion of value in the process. They cover Novartis's platform technologies: cell and gene therapies, RNA medicines, and radioligand therapies. They also discuss AI in drug discovery, the rise of China as a biotech competitor, and what Vasant looks for when evaluating startup partnerships, including his advice on the killer experiments and CMC work that can make or break a deal. Resources: Follow Vasant Narasimhan on X...
Published: Feb 16, 2026Duration: 58m 12s
Episode 1037
Balaji and Dan Wang: The Engineering State vs Lawyerly State
Balaji Srinivasan speaks with Dan Wang, author of Breakneck, about China's industrial rise, America's competing strengths in software and finance, and what happens when an engineering state and a lawyerly state collide. The conversation covers manufacturing dominance, the future of the dollar, why both superpowers keep making costly mistakes, and where builders fit into what comes next. Resources:Follow Dan Wang on X: https://twitter.com/danwwangFollow Balaji on X: https://twitter.com/balajisSubscribe to Network State Podcast:  https://www.youtube.com/@nspodcast Stay Up...
Published: Feb 13, 2026Duration: 1h 3m 46s
Episode 1036
Anish Acharya: Is SaaS Dead in a World of AI?
In this episode from 20VC, Harry Stebbings talks with Anish Acharya, general partner at a16z, about the future of SaaS in an AI world. Anish argues that software is completely oversold and that the general story about vibe coding everything is flat wrong. They discuss why SaaS switching costs are actually going down thanks to coding agents, where startups versus incumbents will win, and whether the apps layer or foundation models will capture more value. They also cover agent overhype, the changing UI paradigm, what defensibility looks like now, and why boring wins versus weird wins in this...
Published: Feb 12, 2026Duration: 1h 21m 34s
Episode 1035
How Magic Johnson Built a Billion-Dollar Portfolio in 30 Years
a16z’s Chris Lyons speaks with Earvin "Magic" Johnson about his 30-year journey from athlete to billionaire businessman. They cover the art of deal-making, lessons from mentors Michael Ovitz and Dr. Jerry Buss, why boring businesses often make the best investments, and Magic's sports ownership portfolio, from the Dodgers to the Commanders to the Sparks. They also discuss what the next generation of athletes and entertainers should know about equity, building teams, and taking risks. Resources:Follow Magic Johnson on X:  https://twitter.com/MagicJohnsonFollow Chris Lyons on X: http...
Published: Feb 11, 2026Duration: 1h 5m 35s
Episode 1034
Marc Andreessen: Who Runs the World’s AI?
Cisco president and CPO Jeetu Patel speaks with a16z cofounder Marc Andreessen about why AI may finally break a 50-year productivity slump—and what's at stake if America doesn't win the race. They discuss where value will accrue in the AI stack, why open source complicates the US-China competition, and what's blowing Andreessen's mind right now. Resources:Follow Marc Andreessen on X:  https://twitter.com/pmarcaFollow Jeetu Patel on X: https://twitter.com/jpatel41 Stay Updated:If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to li...
Published: Feb 10, 2026Duration: 26m 24s
Episode 1033
The State of Markets
a16z Head of Investor Relations Jen Kha speaks with general partner David George about the state of AI and private technology markets. David shares data on why AI companies are growing 2.5x faster than traditional software while spending significantly less on sales and marketing, driven by massive market pull and record-breaking ARR per employee. They discuss the rise of Model Busters, which are companies that grow faster and longer than anyone would have modeled, like the iPhone. They also highlight real-world adoption at Chime and Rocket Mortgage alongside portfolio breakouts like Harvey, Abridge, and ElevenLabs. <p...
Published: Feb 9, 2026Duration: 47m 59s
Episode 1032
Balaji & Benedict Evans: When Tech Breaks Industries
This episode originally appeared on the Network State Podcast. Balaji Srinivasan and Benedict Evans sit down in Singapore for a wide-ranging conversation on the mechanics of disruption. Evans, a former Andreessen Horowitz partner who now writes one of tech's most-read newsletters, argues that the conversation about any technology peaks during the transition—not at 0% or 100% adoption. They cover AI's real capabilities and limits, the politics of technological disruption, why crypto's killer metric is block space, and what smart glasses, elevator attendants, and the elephant graph reveal about how change works.  Resources:Follow Benedict Evan...
Published: Feb 6, 2026Duration: 2h 6m 25s
Episode 1031
Why This Isn't the Dot-Com Bubble | Martin Casado on WSJ's BOLD NAMES
Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins of the Wall Street Journal sit down with a16z General Partner Martin Casado on WSJ’s Bold Names to ask whether the AI spending boom is a bubble waiting to burst. Martin explains why the fundamentals differ dramatically from the dot-com era—when WorldCom had $40 billion in debt versus today's tech giants with hundreds of billions on their balance sheets—and why a speculative valuation correction shouldn't be confused with systemic collapse. They also discuss where a16z sees opportunity in the "long tail" of AI companies beyond the state-of-the-art large language models.F...
Published: Feb 5, 2026Duration: 29m 29s
Episode 1030
Why America’s Health Crisis Is an Incentive Problem
a16z general partner Erik Torenberg speaks with Justin Mares, founder and CEO of TrueMed. They discuss why American health outcomes are so poor compared to the rest of the developed world, how crop subsidies created a food system that "systematically outputs unhealthy people," and what it would take to treat the chronic disease crisis as a national security issue. Mares explains how TrueMed allows people to spend tax-free HSA and FSA dollars on lifestyle interventions like gym memberships, sleep aids, and healthier food—and why he believes this could redirect hundreds of billions of dollars toward prevention. They al...
Published: Feb 4, 2026Duration: 41m 58s
Episode 1029
Palmer Luckey on Hardware, Building, and the Next Frontiers of Innovation
Recorded live at our Founders Summit, a16z general partner Chris Dixon speaks with Palmer Luckey, founder of Anduril and Oculus VR. They talk about what it takes to build hardware at scale, where the biggest technological bottlenecks are today, and why optimism is still warranted despite geopolitical turmoil and regulatory constraints. They also cover crypto, stablecoins, modern warfare, the U.S.–China technology race, AI and manufacturing, and frontiers like fusion and quantum computing—plus lessons from Oculus, the founding of Anduril, and how to build mission-driven teams. Resources:Follow Palmer Luckey on X...
Published: Feb 3, 2026Duration: 1h 2m 20s
Episode 1028
David Solomon & Ben Horowitz on Building Organizational Resilience & Navigating Macro Uncertainty
a16z general partner David Haber spoke with Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz on the current macro environment, enterprise AI adoption, and crypto and AI policy. Solomon describes what he calls the "sweetest spot" he's seen in 40 years and explains Goldman's "One GS 3.0" initiative to reimagine core processes with AI. Horowitz discusses why "leads aren't what they once were" in AI and how a16z grew from a startup VC to capturing 18% of all US venture capital. Resources: Follow David Solomon on X: https://twitter.com/DavidSolomon...
Published: Feb 2, 2026Duration: 36m 49s
Episode 1019
“Anyone Can Code Now” - Netlify CEO Talks AI Agents
Netlify's CEO, Matt Biilmann, reveals a seismic shift nobody saw coming: 16,000 daily signups—five times last year's rate—and 96% aren't coming from AI coding tools. They're everyday people accidentally building React apps through ChatGPT, then discovering they need somewhere to deploy them. The addressable market for developer tools just exploded from 17 million JavaScript developers to 3 billion spreadsheet users, but only if your product speaks fluent AI—which is why Netlify's founder now submits pull requests he built entirely through prompting, never touching code himself, and why 25% of users immediately copy error messages to LLMs instead of debugging manually. The web is...
Published: Jan 30, 2026Duration: 57m 59s
Episode 1027
Marc Andreessen on Why This Is the Most Important Moment in Tech History
Recently, Marc Andreessen joined Lenny Rachitsky on Lenny's Podcast. They talked about why 2025 may be the most significant year in tech history, how AI is reshaping the future of product managers, designers, and engineers, and what founders need to understand about building in this moment—from where moats actually exist in AI to what the most AI-native companies are doing differently to the skills Marc is teaching his own kids to thrive in what comes next. Resources:Follow Marc Andreessen on X: https://twitter.com/pmarcaFollow Lenny Rachitsky on X: htt...
Published: Jan 29, 2026Duration: 1h 41m 13s
Episode 1026
Ben Horowitz and Balaji Srinivasan on Netscape and Network States
Can a country be built from the internet up? Not as a metaphor or an online community, but as a system that replaces institutions we usually think of as fixed, money, law, and governance.In this conversation taken from The Network State Podcast, a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz joins Balaji Srinivasan to explore how internet native institutions are beginning to mirror and challenge traditional state structures. Drawing parallels to China’s early special economic zones, they discuss how constrained experiments like Shenzhen tested new rules without rewriting the entire system, and why similar experimentation is now happening on...
Published: Jan 28, 2026Duration: 42m 59s