Insight certainty 3/5 debate potential 2/5

Wang: AI uniquely translates R&D capital directly into capability and demand

Sarah Wang · Inside AI’s $10B+ Capital Flywheel — Martin Casado & Sarah Wang of a16z · Feb 19, 2026 · at 4:30

a16z Growth Partner Sarah Wang explains why AI compute investment differs from traditional software sales and marketing spend.

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“This is probably also a unique time in that for the first time you can actually trace dollars to outcomes, right? Provided that scaling laws are holding and capabilities are actually moving forward. Because if you can put translate dollars into capabilities capability improvement, there's demand there to Martine's point.”

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