00:00Look, you've got $1 billion dedicated to what is your 22nd early-stage fund.
00:05You then got $2.5 billion going in the growth areas.
00:08Just tell us about what excites you.
00:09Why this amount of money?
00:11Why now?
00:12Well, we're really at the early innings of probably the biggest transformation of technology
00:17that any of us have witnessed.
00:19We see companies growing at big scale faster than ever before.
00:23We see AI penetrate all facets of our lives,
00:26whether it's on the consumer side with search, media.
00:30We have video models that are still on the come.
00:33And then on the work side, we see companies fully transform how they operate,
00:37whether it's across legal and professional services with Harvey,
00:40healthcare with open evidence, transportation and autonomy with Waymo.
00:46And we're still very much in the early innings of all of this.
00:49If we look at how some of the leading AI-forward companies operate
00:54and we compare that to the more traditional companies,
00:57the opportunity to penetrate the enterprise with AI is just infinite from where we sit.
01:03And that's reflected in the funds.
01:06Where excites you the most?
01:08Is it putting the money into fresh new startups that haven't even been designed now?
01:11Or is it backing, say, a star performer,
01:14Anthropic we know is looking to be IPO-ing?
01:17You've got standout names like SpaceX on the books as well.
01:21But where are you thinking about where you can follow on your capital?
01:25So our model is pretty simple.
01:27We try to back companies as early as possible out of our venture funds.
01:30And as they hit inflection, as they hit escape velocity,
01:33to really concentrate and double down with our growth funds.
01:37Sometimes we see things a little bit later.
01:39And so we come in with a very high conviction, big check out of our growth funds straight away.
01:43But the really exciting thing we're seeing in the market today is that as companies hit really large scale,
01:50like in the case of Anthropic, that we've really never seen before,
01:53the opportunity to back these as they progress to escape velocity is near infinite.
01:58And so that really is reflected in the fund structure.
02:01So the venture fund, we're looking for application layer companies.
02:04We're looking for infrastructure companies.
02:06We're looking for autonomy and as models, cheaper and more performant.
02:12The physical economy becomes an opportunity.
02:14But as these companies then hit scale, hit growth, we really concentrate with our growth funds.
02:20Ilya, we see extremes at both ends of the spectrum.
02:24wrote a few weeks ago about the seed round now being more like the coconut round,
02:30the avocado seed round, where you are putting huge checks into a collective of a few individuals.
02:37And you're basically betting on their intellectual power.
02:41What are you seeing in that early stage?
02:42I'm really interested.
02:43You've dedicated those funds to that part of the market.
02:47Well, what we're really seeing is just the opportunity, again,
02:50to transform industries with AI business models is, again, near infinite.
02:55I mean, everything is really up for grabs.
02:58We're kind of past the what I would call the hype buying part of the cycle where folks just wanted
03:03AI.
03:04And we've seen companies like Harvey, for example, in market with customers with data around engagement
03:11and growth and performance to inform how we should think about these opportunities at the early stage.
03:16There is a novel case of structure of companies where you have sort of the formation of next generation labs,
03:23which could be the next inflection in AI itself.
03:26And those are very interesting.
03:27But then you have really runaway successes that are helping people do their work better,
03:34that are helping consumers get answers around health care.
03:37And so we try to balance our investing across all of those because there is another frontier to be unlocked
03:43here.
03:44And those are the model companies of the future.
03:47But then you have the model companies of today, like Anthropic,
03:50which are growing faster at a scale that's never been seen before.
03:54And I think that's still early in their trajectory.
03:58At the other end of the spectrum, Bloomberg also reporting today that SpaceX could seek to raise $75 billion
04:06in an IPO, confidential filing this week, targeting June, the valuation, $1.75 trillion to $2 trillion.
04:15Kleiner Perkins has participated in some prior SpaceX rounds.
04:20What's going to happen?
04:21How is that going to impact the world?
04:23Space is a domain that you want to go after in the new funds that you've raised.
04:29I think we want to go after many domains.
04:31Space is a really good example of bringing communication to the world.
04:34And that's incredible connectivity that lifts everything if you think about technology.
04:38The Internet was the big unlock.
04:41And getting more of connectivity throughout the world is important.
04:44But it's also a testament to the fact that you now can build companies that are truly transformational
04:49when it comes to both the physical world and the digital world.
04:52And that's something that we will focus on quite a bit.
04:55And that's autonomy.
04:56That's autonomy maybe in the defense tech sector.
04:59That's also autonomy on the consumer side.
05:01We have a position in Waymo as well.
05:03And so we just see a really, really large-scale opportunity across everything.
05:11Ilya, according to people familiar, I'm told that you managed to raise this amount of money pretty fast.
05:17And it was oversubscribed.
05:18And I imagine LPs were excited because of the opportunity and the delivery of liquidity,
05:24unlike a lot of other funds that you've delivered when it comes to the Figma IPO.
05:28We saw the Winsurf acquisition.
05:30We might see enormous returns if SpaceX and indeed Anthropic and maybe even a Databricks or Awayme do go public.
05:38Is that what locked in the LP base?
05:40How do you think about the need for the markets to open in 2026?
05:45We're very fortunate to have an incredibly supportive LP base.
05:47We're very thankful for that.
05:49And ultimately, it's all a testament to the entrepreneurs that we back because they're the ones building these incredible companies.
05:54But if you look at the public markets and if you look at what's really driving value, it's technology companies.
05:59And if you look at the private markets, there's a public market Mag 7.
06:03And there's probably a future private market Mag 7 that's on the come.
06:07And that's really the interest that we're seeing from limited partners because these companies are getting to, again, revenue scales
06:14that we've never seen before faster and compounding at those scales faster than ever before.
06:19And there's probably a next level of the future, future Mag 7.
06:23And these could be the application companies like at Harvey, like in Open Evidence, which are then going to be
06:29the next generation.
06:30It's really just a testament to the fact that tech is driving pretty much most of the value you see
06:35today.
06:36LPs recognize that.
06:37We recognize that.
06:38And we think that's the really big opportunity here.
06:41Ilya, we've talked about this, but public market sentiment might be at an all-time high for tech.
06:47Public sentiment is not, certainly when it comes to AI.
06:51They're fearful.
06:52They're worried about jobs.
06:53They're worried about energy prices.
06:55And from your portfolio companies, are you trying to get across the opportunity here?
07:00You talk about the infinite possibilities, but for many listening at home, it feels like infinite worries and concerns.
07:06Well, I think one byproduct which will be pretty straightforward is quality of life will improve for everyone, right?
07:11We will have better access to information, better access to health care, better access to services, better, more performant world
07:19around us, really.
07:20If you think about Waymo, the ability to have very safe transportation on demand is incredible.
07:27On the flip side, there is a very clear worry because these changes are happening on a timescale that's faster
07:34than ever before.
07:35And one of the things we do think about quite a bit is how do we help folks upskill?
07:39How do we help folks learn and transition into this world?
07:43It's going to be a world of abundance, but what we have to be thoughtful of is, I think, the
07:47industry is making sure that the abundance is accessible and distributed.
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