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20VC: Reid Hoffman on The Trump Administration | Elon Musk and DOGE | The US Defence Budget, NATO and The War in Ukraine | China, Tariffs and TikTok | The Future of Chips, Nuclear Energy, Quantum Computing and Climate
Mon, 16 Dec 2024
Reid Hoffman is one of the most impactful people in technology and startups. As a Founder he founded Paypal and Linkedin before moving to the investing side where he has led deals in Facebook, Airbnb and more. In Today’s Episode with Reid Hoffman We Discuss: 1. China and Tariffs: Should the US ban Tiktok and other Chinese companies, given China banning US companies presence in their country? How does Reid evaluate the rise of the Chinese car industry? What are his concerns? How does Reid hope Trump uses tariffs to advantage the US position? What is Reid concerned about what Trump could do with tariffs? What would be bad? 2. Elon Musk and DOGE: What impact will Elon Musk have on the future of AI in America? Why does Reid believe that it is impossible for DOGE to achieve it’s targets? What should Elon must be given credit for? What does he not deserve credit for? What are Elon’s greatest strengths? What are his greatest weaknesses? 3. The US Defence Budget and Ukraine: Why does Reid believe that the US should reduce their defence budget? Does Reid believe the US should continue to finance the war in Ukraine? Should the US continue to subsidise NATO’s lack of defence spending? 4. NVIDIA and The Future of Chips: Will NVIDIA be able to sustain their monopoly? What is the biggest threat to their position? Should both the US and Europe have their own chip sovereignty? How does Reid evaluate potential conflict between China and Taiwan impacting chip supply? 5. Nuclear, Quantum and Climate: Why does Reid believe nuclear fusion can solve climate change? Does Reid believe that with the rise of global conflict and AI, the importance of climate change is reduced in the attention of the world? Why does Reid believe that AI does more to help than harm climate change? Why is Reid so excited for a future with quantum computing? What are the biggest dangers of quantum that we need to be mindful of?
Full Episode
The trade wars will create a massive drop in prosperity in the US. There is next to zero chance that the missions that they have declared will be successful because the only way to get $2 trillion out of the budget would be to massively reduce the deficit and reduce defense spending. We're not reaching the upper end of LLM.
The next large LLM that's trained with a larger computer will still have new magic in it. The scale game is still playing.
This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and today Reid Hoffman joins me in the studio for what is the most wide-ranging discussion I think we've ever done on 20VC. We discussed the future of tariffs, cryptocurrency, Elon Musk, the war in Ukraine, defense spending, quantum computing, TikTok, nuclear energy, Chinese cars, climate change.
I don't think there's ever been such a broad discussion with so much value in one show. That I can promise you. Huge thanks to Reid for being such an amazing guest today. But before we dive in today,
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