Rory O'Driscoll is a General Partner at Scale Venture Partners. He is discussing financial pressure on cloud providers building AI infrastructure.
Assertion Open · timeframe Dec 2031
O'Driscoll: Nearly all 2020–2021 venture investments will yield 1x or less
“Because if you think everything in 20, 21 was either priced wrong and makes a one X or early and just totally wrong and makes, you know, less than one X, let's just say, right? Other than a few companies that were the early precursors of AI”
Opinion
O'Driscoll: AI reverse acqui-hires are regulatory shams leaving dead target companies
“We actually, in both of those cases, that's a pure pretense to get the government off of us, right? Everyone knows both of these companies are toast because in the case of Scale AI, in theory, Meta owns 50% of it, and in theory, their business is selling to ev…”
Prediction Held up
O'Driscoll: OpenAI misses next year's revenue target by 40% if growth matches Google
“If all OpenAI is, Is just as good as Google, then it's going to miss its number next year by about 40%.”
Insight
O'Driscoll: Displacing Overeducated Young Elites Triggers Major Political Instability
“You can have dispossessed urban poor forever, and nothing happens, but if you piss off the twenty-something-year-old middle class, the overeducated elites, they tend to cause trouble.”
Prediction Open · timeframe Nov 2026
O'Driscoll: Anthropic Will Pass OpenAI in Scale and Profitability Shortly
“Within a couple of quarters, Anthropic will be visibly and obviously ahead. Profitable, growing more quickly, and bigger.”
Opinion
O'Driscoll: AI replacing blue-collar drivers is happening faster than white-collar displacement
“I mean, you know, people talk about AI displacement of white collar workers. I think it's a bullshit discussion. AI displacement of blue collar drivers is coming at us in real time. This is the biggest isn't the four or five million drivers in the US. This is …”