I just heard a really good joke, I have to tell it.

TechPro stands for technically broken.

You like that, Gary?

I do.

Hi, everyone, from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

This is on with Kara Swisher, and I'm Kara Swisher.

As we talked about on the show last week, the AI boom hasn't slowed down.

According to Pitchbook, AI and machine learning startups took home about half of the venture capital dollars in North America last year.

Globally, it was about a third. It add up to more than $131 billion.

So far this year, AI is still the top sector for venture funding, but a huge chunk of the VC funding in the first quarter of 2025, $40 billion went to Open AI. So the question is, is there still room for smaller, more focused startups

in this AI goal rush, or is everyone just placing their bets on the big guys? My guest today

are two people who have been following the story on the ground, so to speak.

Gary Rivelin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who has been writing about technology

since the mid-1990s. He has written 11 books, including his latest AI Valley, Microsoft Google,

and the trillion-dollar race to cash in on artificial intelligence. It follows the rise of inflection AI and why

despite deep-pocketed funding, much of the team, including leadership, was eventually assimilated

into Microsoft. My second guest, Christy Weiskel, is the senior advisor to the president of

John Hopkins University for innovation and entrepreneurship. She oversees Johns Hopkins

Technology Ventures, where she helps students and researchers launch their academic discoveries

to the private sector through industry partnerships, technology licensing, and startup

company incubation. Our live interview was recorded on April 28th at the Johns Hopkins University of Bloomberg Center as part of their inaugural discovery series.

It was a great conversation. It says a lot about the state of the industry today and where it's going tomorrow. Have a listen. Support comes from ServiceNow.

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