Prediction certainty 3/5 debate potential 3/5

Staniszewski: Only a few global companies will pre-train foundational AI models

Mati Staniszewski · The $11B Bet That Voice Will Replace Everything | Mati Staniszewski x Nikhil Kamath | WTF Online · Nikhil Kamath · Mar 11, 2026 · at 40:48

ElevenLabs CEO Mati Staniszewski explains why foundational AI infrastructure will remain concentrated among a few global players despite data localization.

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“Like let's take building foundational AI models. I think the kind of, the base will be pre-trained by few companies in the world, just given the resources required. They'll be open source of course offerings in that bucket. But then Probably, as I think about the government space or companies in all of the sectors, they will use those to fine tune it based on their data.”

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 →

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