This Tech Founder's $1.3 Billion Company Is Taking On Apple and Samsung

Bold Names

The Wall Street Journal

Technology

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Can a startup beat Apple and Samsung on their own turf? Carl Pei, the founder and CEO of Nothing, is betting on it. Growing up in Sweden, Pei was captivated by American gadgets like Apple’s first iPod. But over time, he says, those products lost their edge. On the latest episode of Bold Names, Pei joins WSJ’s Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins to explain why he believes his electronics company, Nothing, which is valued at $1.3 billion, can challenge Apple and Samsung. Pei believes that artificial intelligence and a new generation of design-savvy users will set Nothing apart. To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes: Reid Hoffman Says AI Isn’t an ‘Arms Race,’ but America Needs to Win The Google Exec Reinventing Search in the AI Era Why This Tesla Pioneer Says the Cheap EV Market 'Sucks' Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected] Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column. Read Tim Higgins’s column. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Brought to you by the Remax Collection. Visit remax.com slash luxury. Each office independently owned and
0:06.4	operated. Which science fiction story most resembles the future you want to build with technology.
0:14.0	Keep walking. So in the movie, her, the main character has earbuds, has a phone in their shirt pocket
0:22.6	with a camera that's looking at the world.
0:25.6	They can speak to their AI assistant that's hyper-personalized to them.
0:30.6	I figured you were hungry.
0:32.6	Oh, thanks.
0:33.6	So something like that is fully doable in the next couple of years.
0:39.2	I think I can say anything to you.
0:40.3	That's nice.
0:46.3	Today, dear listener, on bold names, Carl Pay, CEO of nothing.
0:48.0	It's not a non-thing.
0:53.5	It's an actual startup worth more than a billion dollars taking on Apple and Samsung on their own turf.
0:54.9	Yeah, that's right, Mims.
1:00.1	He thinks that these big tech companies are boring, that they have lost the plot when it comes to smartphones.
1:01.6	We're also going to get into whether or not the phone really is the do-everything gadget
1:05.9	of the future and what might come after.
1:08.8	All that and more on today's episode with Carl Pay.
1:12.5	From the Wall Street Journal, I'm Christopher Mims.
1:15.6	And I'm Tim Higgins.
1:16.7	This is Bold Names,
1:18.0	where you'll hear from the leaders of the bold name companies
	...

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