Former Reddit CEO Yishan Wong posits that AI safety debates conflate two distinct dangers: existential risk from uncontrollable superintelligence and human misuse of powerful AI. He argues remedies for each are diametrically opposed; distributing AI widely to mitigate misuse exacerbates existential risk, while restricting development to prevent existential threats concentrates power, increasing misuse potential. This fundamental split explains why investors are simultaneously backing controlled AI development, like Anthropic, and open-source models, such as Mistral, effectively hedging their bets. While some critics suggest accumulated misuse could lead to existential outcomes, Wong's framework clarifies the persistent disconnect in AI policy discussions and investment strategies, where vast capital supports conflicting approaches. READ MORE
Mike Vernal Says Software Moats Are Dying And Founders Must Do It All
Venture capitalist Mike Vernal argues AI is dismantling traditional software moats, like switching costs, as engineering costs approach zero. He predicts a "barbell" market: dominant AI-native platforms will own entire enterprise buying centers, exemplified by companies like Rippling and Clay, forming the top tier. Conversely, a vast long tail of small, often lifestyle-oriented software, built on platforms such as Lovable, will emerge at the bottom. Vernal warns that the middle market of point solutions faces obsolescence. He cites AI agents automating integrations and rapid code generation as key drivers. While some dispute the immediate impact due to embedded systems, Vernal advises founders to focus on owning complete buying centers and prioritizing shipping velocity. The ultimate platform for the long tail remains an open question. READ MORE
Family offices are clamoring for AI investments
For the wealthy families who manage their own money through a family office, the math right now is simple, according to Djoann Fal, a family office advisor and investor at the private wealth platform Atlas Capital in San Francisco.
A family office might want to put money into something like green energy for the long haul. But in the current environment, if a fund manager offers a deal that could triple an investor’s money over three years, and another deal could triple it in three months, the choice is easy. As Fal put it: If they have one deal that has the chance to make them 3x in three years, and another deal that could make them 3x in one quarter, “they’re just going to invest in the AI deal that does 3x in three months.” READ MORE
A startup that builds other startups raised $100M and is all-in on physical AI
Four years ago, a startup lab launched that wasn’t quite an incubator, accelerator program, or venture firm. UP.Labs, as it was called then, built startups designed to solve problems for corporate customers such as Alaska Airlines and Porsche, as well as for the outside world.
The firm still has the same mission — albeit with a critical addition to its approach, a new name, and a $100 million investment from Silversmith Capital Partners. Vantora, as the firm is now called, continues to work with its corporate customers, including some new ones in industrial manufacturing that it declined to name, and in the oil and gas sector. READ MORE
Billion-Dollar Rounds Are Rewriting the Startup Playbook — Is Your Company Ready?
Forget what you thought you knew about startup funding. According to Crunchbase, billion-dollar rounds have moved from anomaly to expectation. In the first half of 2026, 60% of global startup funding flowed to rounds of $1 billion or more — and in the U.S., that figure jumped to a staggering 73%.
This isn’t a blip. Before 2026, billion-dollar rounds were the exception, not the rule—with only Q1 2025 standing out, according to Crunchbase. But the data tells a clear story: these mega-rounds aren’t just getting bigger; they’re becoming routine, with 23 rounds of $1 billion or more closing in H1 2026 alone. READ MORE
Scaling a corporate venture unit: how to survive the move from startup to expansion phase
After the first three years, corporate venture units come under pressure to demonstrate tangible value. Here's where contacts in the business, investing in portfolio management, internal messaging and pacing become critical. READ MORE
Venture Capital Paper Gains Aren’t Real But Still Feel Great Anyway
Historically, I've viewed stocks as funny money. It's not real until it's converted into something you can use.
Given the lack of utility for stocks, I've long preferred owning real estate. Being able to touch, see, and enjoy your investment without experiencing daily volatility is a huge win. And the feel good wealth effect of a neighbor's house selling for way more than you paid feels more impactful than a stock going up by the same percentage.
When you can enjoy your asset AND make money, it feels like you got something for free. We all like free, so real estate wins. READ MORE
AI is making people work harder, not less: ‘I worked a 26-hour day’
Lucy Guo is no stranger to the always-on culture that defines Silicon Valley startups. In fact, it was partly this mentality that made her a billionaire by the time she turned 30, having made a fortune from the sale of her startup Scale AI to Meta.
Yet, at a time when AI and autonomous agents have promised to make every worker’s life easier, Guo says, for some, it’s doing the opposite.
“I think AI is making people work harder actually because you have to be awake for your agents to be running,” Guo said in an interview on the Fortune Daily Show this week. “I think it was last week I worked a 26-hour day because I refused to go to sleep.” READ MORE
Rethinking venture capital and innovation in emerging markets
Before arriving in Mexico over the summer, my first year as a student at Cornell’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management pushed me to think about emerging markets through the language of capital, incentives and growth. Even so, I assumed venture capital worked the same everywhere. Banks operate differently across countries, but the fundamentals are largely universal. I expected venture capital to follow a similar pattern. Instead, I learned that every entrepreneurial ecosystem reflects the realities of the economy it serves, and understanding those differences is far more useful than comparing markets to Silicon Valley. READ MORE
I Don’t Look Like the Typical Private Equity Founder
When people hear I run a private equity firm, they usually make a few assumptions before we’ve ever met.
They picture an Ivy League education. A Wall Street résumé. An institutional pedigree. Maybe a family office background, or decades spent climbing the ranks of a major investment bank. READ MORE
How Private Debt Went from Niche to a $2 Trillion Industry
Private debt began as a niche financing approach, but has ballooned into a $2 trillion industry over the past 15 years, funding everything from local home-repair shops to AI data centers.
Regulators and investors are taking note. Earlier this year, private debt evergreen funds that give retail investors a flexible way to back private companies made headlines for limiting withdrawals. And the Federal Reserve has cited increased pressure on the industry’s private credit segment as a risk that could “result in a tightening of credit conditions that could spill over into broader credit markets.” READ MORE
Getting Past the AI Value Paradox in Private Equity
It’s still early days for AI adoption, but one thing is already evident: While AI activity is everywhere in private equity, meaningful value creation isn’t. Let’s call it the AI Value Paradox.
This isn’t unique to private equity, either: Bain & Company’s most recent CEO survey finds that roughly 80% of chief executives across the economy are unhappy with the pace of their AI transformation programs despite frenetic activity. READ MORE
Control capital for growth. Where venture ends and buyouts begin.
Growth equity sits between venture capital and the buyout. It is a large check, often for control, that does three things at once. It funds growth. It pays cash to founders and early investors. And it builds the scale to sell the company later. It uses little or no debt. That matters this year, because debt is expensive and lenders are picky. READ MORE
5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed: Floating Nuclear Power, Robot Report Cards And Voice AI For Farmers
From putting nuclear reactors on barges to grading how well AI models can control robots, this month’s crop of interesting startup deals takes AI and other emerging technologies well beyond the conventional software stack.
Other companies that caught our eye are applying automation to the decidedly old-school worlds of building-material procurement, commercial property maintenance and farm recordkeeping. Let’s take a closer look. READ MORE
OpenAI Eyes $1.2 Trillion New Round While Sam Altman Delays 2026 IPO, Calling it an ‘Ill-Advised Moment’
OpenAI has held early talks with investors about a new private funding round that could value the ChatGPT maker at more than $1.2 trillion. This new raise comes six months after the company completed a $122 billion deal in March, which set an $852 billion value backed by major tech investors like Amazon AMZN +2.28% ▲ and Nvidia NVDA +2.61% ▲ . If completed, the new deal would serve as a final private funding step before an initial public offering. READ MORE
Has AI broken the old VC model?
Venture capital has always been a feast-or-famine industry, where most of the gains are concentrated in a small number of investments and a handful of funds. But amid the spate of mega-initial public offerings triggered by the AI boom, this is being stretched to an extreme. The question is whether this is just the latest manifestation of an old dynamic, or whether it will break the old way of doing business altogether. READ MORE
Private equity faces existential crisis in US as unsold companies pile up
Retail stalwarts Saks and Eddie Bauer filed for bankruptcy. Kmart and JoAnn Fabrics are gone for good, a trail of layoffs and disappointed customers in their wake. Hospital giant Steward Health Care collapsed, costing thousands of jobs and leaving several communities without a local hospital.
These once-trusted US companies have one thing in common: they were owned by private equity investors, who load companies with debt when they buy them and squeeze out profits as they restructure. READ MORE
How 94% Of Billion-Dollar Founders Saw Through The System
Start with an idea. Build a pitch deck. Find angels. Raise seed capital. Raise Series A, B and C. Scale rapidly. Then celebrate the IPO or billion-dollar valuation.
Venture capital is often presented as the indispensable fuel of high-growth entrepreneurship. Without it, the narrative suggests, entrepreneurs cannot build world-class companies. READ MORE
The New Measure Of Value In Private Equity
Most of my time is spent with operating partners and portfolio company CEOs. Many are still holding a company that was on target to sell two years ago. While the business may be performing, leadership can’t easily prove why.
For years, private equity value creation followed a familiar playbook: improve margins, grow EBITDA, complete strategic acquisitions and exit when timing is right. READ MORE
Private Equity Faces Growing Leadership Succession Risks
Leadership continuity is becoming a more significant consideration for private equity firms as demographic pressures tighten the market for experienced executives. A new report from Cowen Partners finds that aging CEO and CFO populations are creating succession risks that can intersect directly with a fund’s hold-and-exit timeline. For executive search firms, the trend is increasing the importance of building leadership pipelines well before a critical transition becomes urgent. READ MORE
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