No Priors: Artificial Intelligence

Securing AI dominance requires more than just semiconductors; it demands a complete overhaul of how the West manages everything that goes into them, from rare earth minerals to actuators. Enter: Pax Silica. Sarah Guo and Elad Gil sit down with US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg to discuss the launch and expansion of Pax Silica, a 14-country economic security coalition designed to secure the entire AI supply chain. Jacob talks about the creation of a forward-deployed industrial base in the Philippines, where 4,000 acres will be developed into an “economic security zone.” He also compares and contrasts Pax Silica with China’s Belt and Road initiative, explains how the US plans to reindustrialize through automation and robotics, and explores how the Trump administration envisions making these policies durable across future presidencies. Plus, we hear why Jacob believes America to be a “global underdog.” Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @jacobhelberg | @UnderSecE Chapters: 00:00 – Cold Open 00:41 – Jacob Helberg Introduction 01:02 – Pax Silica’s Mission 03:51 – Investing in AI Chip Supply Chains 05:43 – Comparing Pax Silica to China’s Belt and Road Initiative 12:38 – Pax Silica’s Value Proposition 14:38 – US vs. Partnered Manufacturing 19:10 – Rare Earth Mineral Pricing 22:16 – Role of Venture Capital in Pax Silica 24:50 – Near vs. Long-Term Priorities 27:09 – Making AI Policy Durable 28:09 – How Policies Impact Entrepreneurs 31:00 – Trump’s Entrepreneurial Administration 33:00 – Why America is a Global Underdog 38:00 – Conclusion

The world’s first AI-take-private just proved that AI can revolutionize the real economy. Long Lake Management co-founder and CEO Alexander Taubman joins Elad Gil to discuss his firm’s agreement to acquire the legacy platform American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) in a deal valued at $6.3 billion. Alexander explains the mechanics of AI-driven roll-ups, and why Long Lake chooses to acquire and transform businesses rather than simply selling them software. He also talks about how Long Lake’s horizontal AI platform, Nexus, automates workflows across diverse verticals, and how automation through AI not only powers growth for their portfolio companies, but results in both satisfied customers and employees. Plus, they explore Alexander’s vision of Amex GBT as a multi-decade compounding machine.  Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @alextaubman | @amexgbt  Chapters: 00:00 – Alexander Taubman Introduction 00:30 – Long Lake’s Nexus Platform 03:35 – Retention and Talent Flywheel 05:01 – Acquisition vs. Offering Software 06:57 – Building Long Lake’s Founding Team 10:37 – Taking American Express Global Business Travel Private 13:36 – Taking Berkshire Hathaway’s Approach to Management 16:37 – How AI Strategy Makes Long Lake Stand Out  19:32 – AI Makes Services Scale 22:00 – Conclusion

Baseten CEO and co-founder Tuhin Srivastava sits down with Sarah Guo and Elad Gil to discuss the rapid growth of AI inference demand, Baseten’s 30x growth, and why inference is becoming the strategic “last market.” Tuhin Srivastava argues the application layer will persist because companies with unique user signals can encode value into workflows and post-train specialized models, citing examples like Abridge and support workflows. The conversation covers GPU capacity constraints, Baseten’s multi-cloud fabric across 18 clouds and 90 clusters, long-term contracting dynamics, the importance of the software layer for stickiness, evolving workloads, multichip possibilities, and operational lessons at scale. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @Tuhinone   Chapters: 00:31 Baseten growth 01:55 Why the app layer wins 05:57 Serving frontier customers 07:55 Open source model mix 09:21 Chinese models and geopolitics 13:07 Custom inference dominates 14:22 Post training acquisition 17:10 When to invest in custom models 18:35 Supply crunch and data centerse 22:25 Longer GPU Contracts 24:09 What Makes a Winner 26:07 Multi Chip Future 28:19 Runtime Roadmap 31:08 Scaling Edge Cases 33:48 Hiring and Leadership 36:44 Operations Pager Culture 38:19 Efficiency Drives Demand 40:41 Concierge Everything Future 42:34 Conclusion

More than fifty years ago, the modern idea of the standard enterprise software was birthed at SAP. Now, after managing companies through technological shifts from the mainframe to mobile, SAP is at the forefront of closing the AI adoption gap for their customers. SAP Chief Technology Officer Philipp Herzig joins Sarah Guo to talk about how SAP has remained a durable end-to-end “operating system” for its more than 400,000 customers from finance to supply chain. Philipp argues that the AI transition in businesses should focus on customer outcomes, UI changes, business processes, and the data layer. He also explains the challenges in enterprise AI adoption, including security, scaling, and data fragmentation, as well as the importance of evals and verifiability. They also discuss SAP’s suite of AI products, limitations of predictive tabular models, how SAP is shifting its pricing models in the AI era, and Philipp’s interest in quantum computing optimization. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @pheartig | @SAP Chapters: 00:00 – Cold Open 00:42 – Philipp Herzig Introduction 01:18 – What SAP Does 02:51 – Why SAP Endures 06:53 – CTO Priorities and AI Push 12:14 – Scaling AI in Enterprise 17:06 – Verifiability and Agent Mining 20:42 – Tool Calling vs. Computer Use 22:11 – Domains Where Agents Deliver Value 24:58 – Limitations of Predictive Tabular Models 29:07 – Barriers to Enterprise Adoption 31:54 – How AI Will ‘Uplevels’ Work 34:03 – How AI Changes SAP’s Pricing Model 36:41 – What Makes a Winner in the AI Era 38:53 – Day in the Life of a CTO 40:08 – Customer Challenges 42:36 – Business Problem of Quantum Computing 46:21 – Conclusion

Few teens are business owners, but by age 16, Bill McDermott had purchased and was running a local deli. Now he runs leading global technology powerhouse ServiceNow, a company that is defining how the world’s largest organizations transform for the digital age. Sarah Guo sits down with ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott to discuss his journey from child entrepreneur to CEO, and how he navigates his role as a leader in the age of AI. Bill argues that human connection is still a vital part of being a successful leader, and as such, AI must be used to serve people rather than substitute for ambition. He breaks down the mechanics of hyper-growth, and the art of staying customer-centric at a global scale. They also discuss the future of enterprise software, how generative AI is fundamentally reshaping the labor market, and what founders need to know about building a resilient company culture that survives economic and technological shifts. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @BillRMcDermott | @ServiceNow Chapters: 00:00 – Cold Open 00:50 – Bill McDermott Introduction 01:14 – Lesson from Buying a Deli 07:35 – Leadership in the AI Era 09:41 – How Bill Got Hired at Xerox 15:47 – Can Agency Be Taught? 18:40 – Seeing Change as Opportunity 25:18 – ServiceNow as an AI Control Tower 30:30 – Which SaaS Gets Disrupted? 32:22 – Defining a Platform Business 36:25 – Does AI Decrease Implementation Time? 39:06 – Agents Will Reshape the Workforce 40:59 – Success Signals at ServiceNow 44:07 – Enterprise Attitudes About AI 48:41 – How AI Has Changed Customer Conversations 50:48 – Bill’s Curiosity Beyond ServiceNow 52:29 – Day in the Life of a CEO 57:27 – Conclusion