00:35:02 · Nikhil Kamath, Mati Staniszewski
[00:35:02] S1: As somebody not in the Valley, my day job as an investor, what do you think of you've raised a lot of money yourself I think like $300 $400,000,000 Your company is worth a few billions today. What do you think of AI valuations in the Valley today? These huge companies with a revenue number that doesn't historically warrant the market cap numbers that they have. Do you feel like there's a bubble brewing there? [00:35:39] S0: And did you say you you invest into companies not in Silicon Valley, or you said did you invest in companies in Silicon Valley? [00:35:46] S1: Some in Silicon Valley, but largely companies out of India.
00:35:46 · Nikhil Kamath, Mati Staniszewski
[00:35:46] S1: Some in Silicon Valley, but largely companies out of India. [00:35:50] S0: That's what I thought. And and first of all, I think that's great. I... It's like, similarly, as we think... Like, it's so cool to see more companies. And and India, we care so much about companies brewing, and I'm from Poland and Poland Mhmm. In in in UK, of course. So... And and, like, as you think about our team today, most of the recent engineering is from Europe, and they are, like, some of the most motivated, passionate people about space. Like, hopefully, a lot more of that innovation comes across from from Asia, from Europe, internationally for the global companies. And I think the the valuations in Silicon Valley, you know, like, don't think that the bubble is brewing. I think there's, like... What I think is a very different part as I compare it to to to other cycles, I think there's a clear value, clear revenue numbers for a lot of the the companies. I do... You know, there are some pockets where I'm, like, a little bit skeptic of, like, does it make sense? You know, not to just... Like, to maybe give a concrete example is all the, like, GPU providers that are built on top of NVIDIA that, like, help you get effectively inference capacity. [00:37:05] S1: Mhmm.
00:37:05 · Nikhil Kamath, Mati Staniszewski
[00:37:05] S1: Mhmm. [00:37:05] S0: Like, I'm a little bit skeptic on some evaluations there, but, you know, like, for a lot of others, it's very clear. It's, like, high risk, high reward type thing. So I understand the bets, but they are probably higher risk than higher high reward. I do think AI is is in this in this in this trickier space where where if you win, you can win in a in a significant way, in a significant impactful way. Like, we'll work with a lot of the customers around the world if you are a good company. So I I kind of understand why, like, in the early stages of the companies, companies get such a high valuation. I mean, you... I'm sure you are referring also to a lot of the research companies being formed. Here here, it's, like, almost the way I kind of see it is there's like research is still so incredibly important and will be that like that multiple still makes sense like you you those people like if they invent one incredible thing, it... It's already worth it. Well, but I hope I hope companies around the world will get the same valuations soon. And if we... It's like, if they build globally, they should. Yeah.
00:38:10 · Nikhil Kamath, Mati Staniszewski
[00:38:10] S1: The way I'm looking at it with all the geopolitical stuff going on, if I were to wager a guess, I would think at some point in the future we will all live in a more multipolar world where we individually countries go down the path of Russia and China where most large countries have their versions, their own little version of these products which have global reach today. Different countries will have their own social media, they'll have their own voice companies, they'll have their own most interactions with technology even their own data centers. The country's data I think will sit in that country. So I feel like when that happens in the world these companies which have large scale today take a WhatsApp which is a chatting service. I don't think it is a unique enough of a product that can't be disrupted or I will make the switch from a WhatsApp to another chatting service given a very small incentive. I think the reasons for Indians to use WhatsApp might go away when the world becomes more geopolitically confused. And I feel like it's going in that direction. [00:39:29] S0: Don't you think... Let... Let's take WhatsApp, there's, like, a network effect of just so many users already using WhatsApp where it just it just convenience of being on the same platform?
00:39:29 · Mati Staniszewski, Nikhil Kamath
[00:39:29] S0: Don't you think... Let... Let's take WhatsApp, there's, like, a network effect of just so many users already using WhatsApp where it just it just convenience of being on the same platform? [00:39:39] S1: I would have thought that but when I look at what's happening in China and Russia and they have their own versions, it seems to be just fine. And also in a way when there is evidence of these global tools being weaponized by governments in one way or another. I think the world will be a lot more skeptical in using a product just for the network benefit. You know what I mean?
00:40:06 · Mati Staniszewski
[00:40:06] S0: I I do I do know what you mean. Although, I do I do disagree. I think it's all partly disagree. I I, like, I agree. Data, residency, yes. 100% should be in a in a specific countries. Also, I agree that, like, the the the the the... Sorry. The product shape will will, like, kind of evolve, so, like, every country will use their own own proprietary data to create their variations of the product. Mhmm. But my... Like, you know, I don't know if that's optimist or or, like, the the the kind of the value part, but I do think there's, like, a global component of of a lot of infrastructure or software still being international, like, let's take building foundational AI models, I think the the the kind of the the base will be pre trained by few companies in the world, just given the resources required, they'll be open source. And and and, of course, offerings in that in that bucket. But then, probably, must have been thinking about the government space or companies in all of the sectors, they will use those to fine tune it based on their data. And it's still huge advantages Mhmm. But just just not, like, entirely built into... Independently. On the product, there's a very, mean, interesting interesting that you think... I I can see, like, how creating software is becoming so easy that you could, like, imagine creating that on the on the fly everywhere. I just I just think the network effect of having people on the same place Mhmm. Is compounding in many ways. Mhmm. Like, almost like as, you know, like, as I think about... Yeah. It's not the same, but in in our case, we have a voice marketplace in ElevenLabs where people create a voice. They can... We authenticate it, then we can share it, and then the moment the the AI voice is used, you earn money. Now we have 10,000 voices created this way, and we paid back over $11,000,000, coincidentally, back to that community. And it definitely helps. They have, like, so much styles, accents, and it's a... You know, of course, you could replicate at scale, but you won't have that same community mechanism of paying back and making sure people can trust that software. So I do think there's some element of trust that that is embedded. So maybe network and trust.