For decades one law held: a small team with a three-year head start was untouchable, because Google was never going to hire 2,000 engineers to catch them.
Ben Horowitz just declared that law dead.
Three things follow: money now replicates talent, scarcity collapsed to roughly 40 people on earth, and half of what investors still price as a moat is worthless.
That’s the thesis Ben Horowitz has
In this issue you'll find:
Why the market is wrong that incumbents are finished, even as AI products grow revenue faster than anything before
The old law that just died: you could never hire your way past a three-year head start
Why Elon catching the frontier models proves money now replicates talent
The new scarcity: roughly 40 people on earth can build a frontier model, and schools can't make more
AI is the greatest equalizer of opportunity we've seen, and crypto already showed how the little guy wins
The job-destruction bet almost no one is pricing correctly
The IPO bar moved from $50M to $1B, and it changed what you fund before exit
The trade Horowitz calls a really good business idea: AI-powered PE roll-ups, and why a16z won't run it
👋 Just a quick note before you continue!
If you are serious about building or investing in AI, you can subscribe here:
Here’s a good place to start:
↳Alex Karp’s Playbook for Which AI Companies Survive
↳19 great new details about Cursor’s rise
↳Perplexity’s CEO 2026 AI Pitch
↳The First 48 Hours of Claude Fable 5
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