The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Thomas Sohmers is the co-founder and chairman of Positron AI, building chips to make running AI dramatically cheaper and more energy-efficient. The company recently announced an $875 million Series C at a $5 billion valuation, backed by investors including Gavin Baker's Atreides Management, NEA, Valor Equity Partners and Netscape co-founder Jim Clark.
AGENDA:
04:30 Why Does AI Inference Need Different Hardware from Training?
10:25 What Is Nobody Telling You About AI's Token Economics?
13:10 Should We Really Slow Down the AI Frontier?
16:55 What Happens If America Slows Down—and China Doesn't?
19:30 Should We Restrict China's Access to AI Chips?
20:15 Why Aren't Zuckerberg and Jensen Backing an AI Slowdown?
21:25 Are We Being Misled About Data Centers?
23:25 Can the West Beat China While Drowning in Regulation?
26:20 How Many Planned Data Centers Will Actually Get Built?
27:15 Data Centers in Space: Real Opportunity or Elon Hype?
28:10 Is Energy AI's Biggest Bottleneck?
29:55 Could the Debt Boom Derail AI?
31:25 What Is KV Caching—and Why Does It Change AI Economics?
35:25 Does Compressing AI's Memory Make It Less Intelligent?
41:05 How Do We Solve AI's Exploding Memory Demands?
43:45 Will Every Company Own Its Own AI Model?
47:10 Why Bet on Ever-Bigger Models?
48:20 If We Already Have AGI, What Comes Next?
53:25 What Happens When Every AI Lab Builds Its Own Chips?
57:30 If DeepSeek Can Slash Costs with Software, Why Build New Hardware?
59:50 How Cheap Will AI Tokens Be by 2028?
1:03:15 What Would Be the First Warning Sign of an AI Bust?
1:03:55 Could Open Models Break OpenAI and Anthropic's Growth?
1:05:55 Could Mercor and Surge Become $200 Billion Companies?

AGENDA:
03:40 Dario Calls to "Pace the Frontier"
11:30 Why the Fed Will Raid Anthropic if Needed 
21:50 Meta Launches Muse to Take On Instinct
28:30 Instinct Raising $1BN at $10BN—Would You Invest?
39:55 Miro Sells for $1.35BN After a $17.5BN Valuation
47:45 Could Sam Bankman-Fried Win His Freedom?
51:25 WordPress Power Struggle: Matt Mullenweg Ousted, Then Returns
1:01:20 Mistral Raises €3BN in Europe's Biggest-Ever Tech Round
1:05:00 Adobe's New CEO & Canva's Slowing Growth: SaaS Giants Under Pressure

David Morehead is one of the most respected CIOs in the endowment fund world as Chief Investment Officer at Baylor University, overseeing its $2.6BN endowment. Before joining Baylor in 2011, he was a senior portfolio manager at several Chicago hedge funds, investing across corporate securities, distressed debt and public and private energy.
AGENDA:
04:00 The Portfolio Construction of a $2.6 Billion University Endowment?
09:00 Why We Spend More Time on Porfolio Construction Than Manager Selection?
14:00 Should LPs Back VC's Biggest Names or Find the Next Breakout Manager?
21:00 How Baylor Made Millions in the SaaSpocalypse?
26:00 Are Public Markets a Casino or Are Private Valuations the Real Fiction?
34:00 How Do You Buy a Market Crash Without Catching a Falling Knife?
49:00 Would You Fire a Fund Manager Who's Making You Money?
57:00 Could the Backlash Against Data Centres Derail the AI Boom?
01:02:00 Which Asset Class Is Overhyped—and Where Is the Next Big Opportunity?

AGENDA: 
04:30 How Do You Hire Exceptional People in the AI Era?
08:00 What Actually Works in Growth—and Why Can't You Trust Meta's Numbers?
17:00 How to Run Hundreds of Millions in Marketing with Zero Employees 
19:30 "Our Engineers Stopped Coding": What Stack Does Eight Sleep Use?
24:00 Is China Leaving the Rest of the World Behind?
35:00 How Do You Turn Superstar Athletes into Investors and Brand Ambassadors?
43:00 What Happens When Your Co-Founder Is Also Your Wife?
51:30 Should You Match Anthropic's Salaries—or Let Your Best People Leave?
59:30 Will Children Born Today Ever Need to Work?
01:05:00 What Drives You to Succeed—and Why Can't You Ever Switch Off?

AGENDA: 
00:00 Jensen Huang Declares AGI Has Arrived 04:05 Instinct and GrokBot Ignite the AI Assistant War 13:32 OpenAI's GPT Astra Redefines What AGI Means 26:00 GPT Astra and Fable 5.1 Accelerate the Model Race 30:38 OpenAI's Chief Scientist Calls for Enforced AI Safety Limits 40:50 Tesla Launches Cybercabs as Travis Kalanick Returns to Robotaxis 45:55 Index Pulls Out of Town Deal Following Instinct Conflict 49:45 Anthropic Abandons $6BN Descartes Acquisition After Due Diligence 56:18 Robinhood Earns First Underwriting Role in Oura IPO 01:00:28 Wonderful Doubles to $5BN and Approves $170M in Secondaries 01:09:02 Thinking Machines Targets $40BN Valuation in $6BN Funding Round