Opinion
Khachab: Europe lacks AI sovereignty because it misses chips, energy, and models
“In Europe today, We're not producing the chips. We're not producing the energy. We don't have the foundational layer models. So in that sense, these countries that don't possess those three elements are not really sovereign countries when it comes to AI.”
Opinion
Khachab: Europe should subsidize TSMC and NVIDIA instead of Intel
“First of all, Intel is the wrong company to fund. So the first step you ask me is like, put it to the right company. Put it to Taiwan Semiconductor. Put it to NVIDIA. People that can actually produce GPUs.”
Opinion
Khachab: European regulation does not hold back most SaaS or marketplace startups
“Look, there's certain heavily regulated industries, and I don't know them very well, but I'm sure eventually they're at a disadvantage. But that doesn't hold, for example, for most of SaaS, and also neither for most of marketplaces.”
Opinion
Khachab: Investors should short Europe under the current government status quo
“So I think status quo, we have to be short. Government is just, yeah.”
Insight
Khachab: Reaching a $1B valuation weakens startup urgency and attracts safe players
“Now the real downside to me is that it's at one billion mark, because once we become unicorn and people think, oh, we've made it. Like we've done, we, we're great now. Kind of people get less hungry. And then you get applications of people who look for a safe …”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Khachab: AI will replicate years of proprietary software development by 2028
“This thing is going to learn how to code in no time. And maybe not now, maybe not next year, maybe 27, maybe in 28, like where's our technological mode is going to be? Like it might just be gone, like anyone maybe able to replicate what we have built over year…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Khachab: Future software companies will sell virtual AI employees, not features
“But in the future, we are more or less selling an employee. And like, you know, here's a very highly competent employee that is, that has specific skills, sorry, to perform in your company.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Khachab: AI adoption will be faster in traditional industries than in tech
“So the adoption curve is going to be way faster. Like AI is the perfect tool for traditional industries. Much more actually than for kind of like startups and tech, because those are people that are tech first, they know how to work with interfaces and stuff l…”
Opinion
Khachab: Anthropic is a better investment than OpenAI due to higher revenue
“So I'm not sure if these numbers are right, but I recently read that Anthropic is more or less doing 60% of the revenue of OpenAI, and they do this with less customers, so they kind of achieve a higher price point, probably. Plus the recent release of computer…”
Disclosure
Khachab: Choco automated large parts of customer care and account management
“We also automate a large part of our customer care, large part of our kind of more account management can kind of work and replace it with AI.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Khachab: Foreign governments offer to pay top AI talent salaries for years
“Like the most extreme offers that you get is like people are going to pay Sell it like government is going to pay salaries for three to five years. For your top AI talent. Like, they're gonna do that.”
Opinion
Khachab: The concept of work-life balance is bullshit
“I think it's bullshit.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Khachab: Only companies with majority AI revenue will win in the market
“I do believe only AI first companies will win. And by AI first, I mean that a majority of your total revenue or of your new revenue, which will lead into a majority of total revenue, Has to come from an AI product.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Khachab: AI automation will enable 10-person unicorn companies
“I think one thing that became very clear is that, you know, great to me, great companies, at least from headcount perspective, get smaller and not bigger. And the reason is, is like you have to automate as much as possible and with AI that is fairly possible. …”
Assertion Contradicted
Khachab: Eliminating food waste has 5x the CO2 impact of eliminating cars
“Reducing food waste. And I'm not saying, you know, alternative foods. I'm not saying eat less meat. I'm not, I'm just saying don't produce that waste. That's the only thing. Has five X the impact as if all cars would be gone, not electrified, but gone. Five X …”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Khachab: Tech workers without AI building skills will become obsolete
“If you were to leave Joko tomorrow and you would not have the skills On how to build a FAI, then your skillset will be obsolete.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Khachab: Choco's AI API costs dropped 80% in six months despite growth
“We literally had to do nothing, and our price is now 80% lower than six months ago, despite probably having five or six extra transactions.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Khachab: AI will not enable enterprises to replace Salesforce with internal tools
“I don't think so. Because, okay, like AI today, like even the best LLM won't enable you to build something like Salesforce fairly quickly. There's so much code, so much customization in there. And then plus, even if it would, then you would have to maintain it…”
Prediction Held up
Khachab: Europe will receive AI products last due to regulatory friction
“I'm not sure if we're not gonna get it, I think we're just gonna get it last. It's gonna just, it's just gonna take longer.”
Opinion
Khachab: Europe should not rely on nuclear power for AI energy needs
“I'm personally not, not, not a big fan of nuclear, just because I think it puts a lot of responsibility on future generations for problems that we haven't solved yet.”
Disclosure
Khachab: Giving employees a week off during COVID was a mistake
“First week of COVID, everyone gets a week off. And I said, okay, it might be great. Everyone can adjust the new situation. Like the opposite was the case. Like purpose was gone. So I think that was a mistake.”
Insight
Khachab: Skunkworks teams are a flawed approach to driving company innovation
“And I think today I'm convinced that that that's the wrong way to think about company building. Actually this AI would be another example. Like we could give it like to a special project kind of skunk works kind of team. You figure out AI and then you give it …”
What-if
Khachab: Choco should have tripled its burn rate in its first years
“I wish you would have, you know, spent double the amount of money, have tripled the amount of burn probably in the first 24 months of our company.”
Assertion Contradicted
Khachab: France and Italy ban German trains due to extreme delays
“French and I believe even Italian railway system doesn't let German trains anymore enter their countries because they're just too fucking late all the time.”
