Martin Casado of a16z joins Theo Jaffe and Sophia Dew to analyze recent $60 billion acquisitions of Cursor and OpenRouter, arguing that AI has fundamentally shifted venture economics by allowing small teams to productively deploy massive capital. Casado debates whether frontier labs will dominate the market or if open-source and application layers will fragment value, emphasizing that strategic control points matter more than near-term margins. He highlights how AI creates direct capital-to-usage conversion, enabling unprecedented growth and making the current era the biggest wealth unlock …
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