Podcast
Equity
Hosted by TechCrunch, Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, Sean O'Kane, Theresa Loconsolo · EN
The intersection of technology, startups, and venture capital touches everything now. That’s why Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast, digs into the business of startups for entrepreneurs and enthusiasts alike. Every Wednesday and Friday, TechCrunch reporters keep you up-to-date on the world of business, technology, and venture capital. Equity is ranked the No.2 podcast in the Top 100 Venture Capital All time leaderboard on Goodpods—As well as No.17 for the Top 100 Finance All time chart and No.32 for the Top 100 Business News All time chart.
56episodes
Episodes
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OpenAI's Jalapeño chip is Big Tech's spiciest move away from Nvidia yet
6d ago00:36:25Summary readyNvidia has dominated the AI chip market for years, but the era of total dependence might be ending. OpenAI just shared its plans to spice things up with Jalapeño, its custom inference chip built with Broadcom, joining Google, Apple, and SpaceX in a growing list of companies building their way out of single-supplier risk. The goal isn't a clean break so much as a hedge. Custom silicon means more control, hardware tuned to specific needs, and the kind of performance gains Apple unlocked when it ditched Intel. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into what the custom chip trend means for the industry and a few deals of the week worth watching. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: How Groq’s $650M raise after Nvidia swept away its top talent might be the comeback story of the year AI agents getting loopy and why Claude Code creator Boris Cherny thinks these loops are “just as important and as big a step” as the leap from source code to agents Whether the public markets are warming up to humanoid robots as Agility Robotics plans to go public via SPAC A24 taking investment from Google DeepMind to develop a new AI toolkit for filmmakers Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
SummaryWhat if the AI giants are building the roads, not the destinations? Chi-Hua Chien thinks he knows who wins
1w ago00:43:17Summary readyIn this episode, TechCrunch Editor in Chief Connie Loizos talks with Goodwater Capital co-founder Chi-Hua Chien, whose career spans some of Silicon Valley’s biggest technology shifts, from helping source Accel’s investment in Facebook as a young associate to backing a new generation of consumer and AI startups. While much of the venture world is focused on models, chips, and infrastructure, Chi-Hua argues that history suggests the biggest long-term winners of the AI era may be the application companies built on top of them. They talk about why AI startups are reaching unprecedented revenue levels with remarkably small teams, what’s driving today’s soaring valuations, and why he believes many infrastructure businesses will eventually face the same commoditization pressures seen in previous technology cycles. He also shares what he’s seeing inside consumer AI, from hyper-personalized entertainment and women’s health platforms to new products built around voice, agents, and individualized experiences. And they discuss the increasingly public tensions between founders and VCs, why some of the most interesting fintech innovation is happening outside the U.S., and why Chi-Hua believes one of the biggest opportunities in consumer technology may be helping people reconnect in the real world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
SummaryThe US banned Anthropic's Fable 5 release, but the numbers don't seem to care
2w ago00:32:42Tap to summarizeJust as last week was ending, the US government forced Anthropic to pull its two newest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing national security concerns after Amazon researchers allegedly found a way to bypass Fable 5's guardrails. Cybersecurity researchers have since signed an open letter calling the move dangerous, and Anthropic itself noted the same jailbreaks exist in other models. So is this a genuine security concern, or just the latest chapter in a messy relationship between Anthropic and the Trump administration? On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Anthony Ha, Sean O'Kane, and Rebecca Bellan unpack what the ban means for developers building on Anthropic's platform and for anyone watching the IPO, why it might accidentally be good for the company, and more of the week’s headlines. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: Why the UK's social media ban for users under 16 might be the lesser of two evils What the SpaceX-Cursor acquisition tells us about xAI's strategy (and its gaps) Jeff Bezos's $12B bet on physical AI with Prometheus, the startup trying to build an "artificial engineer" Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →NEA's Tiffany Luck on AI IPOs, personal agents, and the ROI reckoning
2w ago00:35:11Summary readyTokenmaxxing was the hottest trend in Silicon Valley earlier this year, with CEOs encouraging employees to push AI usage as far as it would go. Then the bill came due. Uber reportedly blew through its annual AI budget in a few months, some companies cut Claude licenses for parts of their org, and Meta killed its internal leaderboard. This tension between hype and ROI is exactly where NEA partner Tiffany Luck lives these days. She got her start convincing companies that e-commerce was the future, and now she's all in on AI, especially when it comes to the possibilities for "magic moments" in the consumer business. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Luck joins Rebecca Bellan to talk about the future of personal agents, her thoughts on this year's AI IPOs, and how startups are stepping in to help enterprises track return on AI spend. Listen to the full episode to hear: What the tokenmaxxing-to-ROI shift means for how companies measure AI spend. Why forward deployed engineers are becoming a "Trojan horse" for AI adoption. How enterprises are mixing and matching models instead of committing to one provider. Why Tiffany thinks value is being created at every layer of the AI stack, not just at the model layer. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:51 Tiffany Luck's path from Lot18 to Amazon to VC 3:45 Magic moments: Waymo, healthcare, and the gap in personal agents 7:36 Privacy, security, and trusting AI with your life 10:39 IPO outlook: Anthropic vs. OpenAI on public markets 13:58 Compute, infrastructure, and where the value sits 15:41 What’s the ROI on tokenmaxxing? 27:07 Forward deployed engineers as a ‘Trojan horse’ 32:49 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
SummaryThe SpaceX IPO has finally arrived
3w ago00:20:02Tap to summarizeThe biggest IPO in history dropped this morning on the Nasdaq — a debut so big, our team thought it deserved its own bonus Equity podcast episode. On this special bonus episode, Senior Reporter Sean O'Kane called up our AI Editor Russell Brandom to help him break down the $2 trillion valuation, Elon Musk becoming the world's first trillionaire, and what it all means for Anthropic and OpenAI still waiting in the wings. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You can also follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →It’s hot IPO summer, and the MANGOS are ripe
3w ago00:33:30Tap to summarizeThe IPO market is back, and it's not the same companies leading the charge. FAANG had a good run, but a new acronym is taking over: MANGOS — Meta (or Microsoft, depending on who you ask), Anthropic, Nvidia, Google, OpenAI, and SpaceX. Half of that bunch is heading to public markets in the same window, and it's a stress test for investors, for valuations, and for what we can even expect from a public tech company in 2026. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane break down what this IPO moment actually means beyond the headline numbers, and who stands to benefit. Listen to the full episode to hear: Why Apple's biggest WWDC announcement might matter less than how they showed it, and what a $250M settlement had to do with the change How Waymo just turned Apple's abandoned self-driving dream into its next big proving ground What a $920 million-per-month compute deal between Google and SpaceX says about who's leading the AI infrastructure race How Sam Bankman-Fried's pardon request and a new Zuckerberg biopic somehow ended with the Equity team getting cast by ChatGPT Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →Andrew Yang on Noble Mobile, UBI, and why he's done waiting for policy to catch up
3w ago00:29:25Tap to summarizeAndrew Yang’s 2020 presidential campaign was based on a warning that automation and AI would hollow out the labor market and concentrate wealth in the hands of a few. At the time, ideas like Universal Basic Income felt fringe. Now Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Bernie Sanders are all saying versions of the same thing. An entrepreneur at heart, Yang has found a new way to put money back into the hands of the people — one phone bill at a time. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan talks to Yang about his startup Noble Mobile, which pays you to use your phone less, ways to combat the “attention economy,” and what startups can do when the government won't move. Listen to the full episode to hear: Why Yang thinks the $100 billion gap between what Americans and Europeans pay for wireless is a startup opportunity. How a partnership with the Light Phone fits into the growing "together tech" movement, and why Yang has been throwing no-phone parties in LA and NYC. What he actually thinks of Bernie Sanders' proposed AI sovereign wealth fund, and why he's skeptical the money should flow through government at all. Why UBI isn't a salary replacement but a "landing pad,” and what Noble Mobile's $600-a-year savings has to do with it. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →The 'together tech' wave might be the most intriguing startup bet of 2026
4w ago00:33:48Tap to summarizeWhile the AI fundraising machine keeps breaking its own records, some founders are building in the other direction. Mirror founder Brynn Putnam just raised money for Board, a startup focused on bringing people together through in-person games and social experiences. Cyberdeck creators are going viral crafting whimsical DIY computers that literally encourage users to touch grass. Unlike the AI-free browser crowd, this doesn't just feel like backlash, but also people genuinely gravitating toward things that feel a little more human. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into the week's headlines, from the "together tech" wave to what Anthropic's confidential IPO filing means against the backdrop of Alphabet's $80 billion AI raise, and whether the money is all flowing back to the big guys anyway. Listen to the full episode to hear: Why ex-Meta CTO Mike Schroepfer raised $250 million for climate tech specifically, at a moment when almost nobody else is How rocket engine startup Impulse raised $500 million — and is loudly emphasizing that those funds will be spent on people, not AI A look inside Anthropic's S-1, and what the team is looking forward to once we can finally compare the AI labs' financials What two YouTube directors cracking the box office tells us about creator economy power Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:45 YouTubers are taking over the box office 02:46 Everyone's fleeing climate tech — except this $250M fund 07:03 Impulse Space raises $500M and is hiring humans 13:03 Anthropic quietly files for IPO as Alphabet drops $85B on AI 21:52 The token bubble is starting to burst 26:08 From Board games to DIY cyberdecks, founders are betting on IRL 33:09 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →Every defense startup wants to be the next Anduril. Here's what one of its earliest backers is looking for now.
4w ago00:38:48Tap to summarizeDefense tech is red hot right now, with a proposed 40% increase to the federal defense budget, Anduril doubling its valuation to $61 billion, and a wave of startups chasing government contracts. But according to Ross Fubini, the venture investor who wrote Anduril's first check, most of them won't make it. The valley of death between a prototype contract and a real production deal is about to claim a lot of companies. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan asks Fubini — the founder and managing partner of XYZ Venture Capital, built on the Palantir alumni network and now approaching $2B AUM — what separates the survivors from the rest. Listen to the full episode to hear: Why Ukraine and Iran have become live testing grounds for US defense startups, and which companies are getting in the field How other countries are building their own defense tech ecosystems, and what that means for where startups build and sell The sustainment problem nobody wants to talk about, and why autonomous logistics is the real moat Where Fubini is writing checks next, from AI-driven US manufacturing to government software for health and human services Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →Does your CEO have AI psychosis? Aaron Levie thinks most of them do.
May 2900:38:02Tap to summarizeThe people deciding that AI can replace your job are also the ones least likely to understand what your job truly involves, according to Box founder Aaron Levie, who pointed to this as an example of "AI psychosis.” Indeed, ClickUp recently cut 22% of its workforcefor AI agents, tech layoffs in 2026 are already nearly matching all of 2025, and DuckDuckGo installs are climbing from users who want Google to stop forcing AI into search and just give them links. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into what happens when the AI-pilled and the AI-skeptical are both right at the same time, plus three deals worth knowing about and Waymo's new robotaxi hitting the road. Listen to the full episode to hear: Kirsten's first look at Waymo's new Ojai robotaxi in Phoenix, and the crew's thoughts on the company's path to profitability Cloud data storage giant Snowflake’s $6 billion five-year agreement with AWS Why Stord, the "anti-Amazon" fulfillment startup, just raised $250 million at a $3 billion valuation What OpenRouter's $113 million raise says about the picks-and-shovels layer, and how long that interest lasts How the AI agent wave is actually reshaping hiring, not just headcount Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:18 Waymo's new Ojai robotaxi 06:41 Stord raises $250M to take on Amazon fulfillment 12:46 Snowflake signs $6B deal with AWS 15:39 OpenRouter raises $113M Series B 20:07 The AI divide & anti-AI backlash 27:31 AI psychosis & how AI is reshaping headcount and hiring 37:04 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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