Hoffman: Late-stage AI rounds do not require 10x returns to succeed
Reid Hoffman · Reid Hoffman: Why The AI Investment Will Pay Off · Jan 29, 2025 · at 6:13
Reid Hoffman addresses whether OpenAI's multi-billion dollar fundraising round requires a 10x return to generate real profits for investors.
0:00 / 0:29exact quote · 29.5s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“The investment that investors made last year is kind of more of a growth venture round relative to, it doesn't necessarily require a 10 X. I mean, you know, we have trillion dollar companies now, so, you know, trillion dollar companies are definitely within feasibility but it doesn't require a trillion dollar company to make real money because part of what happens, 10 X is when you expect zero as a possibility. Lower multiples are fine when you know that you already have a baseline massive value that you're building on top of.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Reid Hoffman
Hoffman: OpenAI meant open API access, not open source models
“In terms of being open, there's lots of different parameters of open, and open AI has been, you know, working to have, like, open, you know, kind of you know, with, obviously, identity and registration for safety, but open AI, API access. It wasn't called open…”
Hoffman: Elon Musk approved OpenAI's closed-model strategy as co-CEO
“Elon was part of that decision for you know, as kind of co-CEO in terms of making that decision. And so that's how open AI has always operated.”
Hoffman: FTC Chair Lina Khan's tech M&A crackdown concentrates Big Tech power
“You know, she misunderstands, like, kind of the role of how to stop the aggregation of power in large tech companies, because she says, well, if she stops large tech companies from buying small startups, what that means is venture capitalists, like myself, and…”
Hoffman: Current AI investments will seem small in retrospect
“When you think about what AI is going to bring to the transformation of human life and human work, the investments will, I think, seem small. In retrospect”
Hoffman: Silicon Valley dominates by ignoring traditional DCF analysis
“This is actually one of the reasons why Silicon Valley tends to create so many of the technology companies that dominate the globe, because if you take an overly kind of classic DCF analysis, business school prof analysis, et cetera, which many, much of the wo…”