Qasar Younis, co-founder of Applied Intuition, discusses AI spending cycles and company cost structures at the RAISE Summit in Paris.
Opinion
Younis: Most Bay Area startups are hobby projects, not serious businesses
“I think most companies in the Bay Area are, you know, are more hobby projects than they are, like, earnest, serious businesses, and it's kind of like, we'll take a swing on this, and I don't mean to disrespect my own, you know, my co, I'm in the fraternity of …”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Younis: Applied Intuition will likely never operate in China
“China's the only country that I think we probably won't be in maybe ever, but certainly anytime soon.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Younis: Physical AI will outshine early LLMs over the next 25 years
“I think the physical world and AI going into that is, I think when we look back, I think that's going to be the bigger story. And then look back 25 years from now.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Younis: Waymo closed trucking because old AV architectures required discrete systems
“Waymo used to be in self-driving trucks, and then they closed that team down because the old way of building self-driving, those are two almost discrete systems. Different sensor placement, you know, different vehicle type was enough To make it actually just d…”
Disclosure
Younis: Applied Intuition does not use raised capital for payroll
“Yeah, we use some for M&A, but then we make money, and it kind of, like, that's the, you know, but yeah, roughly, that's roughly the truth, and we're not using our capital to, like, pay payroll and things like that.”
Insight
Younis: The belief that defense tech requires years of planning is false
“I think this view that everything's gonna take a long, long, long time, and it requires, you know, many, many years of planning is, this is false. And I think, especially within the reality of today, This technology needs to get out there faster and faster and…”