Josh Wolfe on AI and the Breaking of Silicon Valley's Social Contract

Odd Lots

Bloomberg

News, Investing, Business, News Commentary, Business News

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One day it's so over. The next day we're so back. This is what it feels like gauging the AI boom right now. Everyone's looking for signs of some kind of slowdown and that investments aren't going pan out, but mostly, the dollar signs just keep piling up. And the AI winners like Nvidia, OpenAI, and Anthropic just keep seeing their market valuations rise. In the meantime, other AI players are seeing weird outcomes. Some promising startups aren't being sold, but rather their top talent is walking out the door, leaving other workers potentially in the lurch, while creating risk for venture capital bagholders. On this episode we speak with Josh Wolfe, co-founder and managing partner at the firm Lux Capital, which invests in a range of startups, many of which are in the AI space. He talks about the challenge of aligning incentives, what's overrated, what's underrated, why he thinks Nvidia may have run its course, and the threats to Silicon Valley's "social contract.”

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1:21.0	I'm Joe Wisenthall.
1:22.2	And I'm Tracy Allaway.
1:23.8	You know, sometimes with the whole AI thing, it feels like the, are we back? Is it over?
1:29.0	There's been a few moments in the last year, whatever. It was like, is the bubble burst in? Is there a bubble? I don't know what this week is. We're recording the September 3rd. There's a little, I don't know, there's some tremors. I can't tell what's real or not. I feel like the hype cycles get shorter and shorter and more compressed.
1:45.0	But you're right.
1:46.0	I think there are maybe some more... it's real or not. I feel like the hype cycles get shorter and shorter and more compressed.
1:45.1	But you're right. I think there are maybe some more jitters than there have been previously.
1:50.4	Like maybe. Only maybe, though. It's hard to tell. It's hard to tell. But I think even if we're not there
1:56.6	yet, we are getting maybe to that point where like the rubber needs to meet the road in terms
	...

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