Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
"The main question is, is this going to be a kind of five to ten year thing? In some ways it probably will, to get built into every enterprise workflow."
Village Global Luminary LP Mark Zuckerberg on the bubble question and what the timeline for AI actually looks like:
"The big question is, to what extent are we in a bubble versus to what extent is this going to be a big thing soon?"
"Even if it is a bubble and it takes a bit longer to build out, that's not necessarily the end of the world, although it will be expensive. When you're spending $65 to $70 billion in CapEx a year, you'd like it to come."
"The more that we work on this, it actually seems like all the things that we think are going to happen happen sooner. Being even more ambitious has been more predictive over the last few years about where things are likely going to be in the industry.”
"The main question is, is this going to be a kind of five to ten year thing? In some ways it probably will, to get built into every enterprise workflow."
Village Global Luminary LP Mark Zuckerberg on the bubble question and what the timeline for AI actually looks like:
"The big question is, to what extent are we in a bubble versus to what extent is this going to be a big thing soon?"
"Even if it is a bubble and it takes a bit longer to build out, that's not necessarily the end of the world, although it will be expensive. When you're spending $65 to $70 billion in CapEx a year, you'd like it to come."
"The more that we work on this, it actually seems like all the things that we think are going to happen happen sooner. Being even more ambitious has been more predictive over the last few years about where things are likely going to be in the industry.”










![Inside the Math That Decides Which VCs Write Billion-Dollar Checks | Michael Hochberg (Periplous)
Michael Hochberg is a semiconductor entrepreneur, Caltech-trained physicist, and network investor with Village Global. Hes founder and president of Periplous LLC, and has built and scaled hardware and deep tech companies through multiple market cycles. Max Kilberg is an Investment Partner at Village Global.
In this excerpt, Michael breaks down the bifurcation happening in venture right now, mega funds like Thrive, Andreessen, and Sequoia raising massive quantums of capital to chase billion-dollar checks, while early-stage investing stays as artisanal and relationship-driven as ever. He and Max dig into why every stage of investing has effectively compressed into seed-style decision-making, how mega funds justify writing both billion-dollar and hundred-million-dollar checks inside the same firm, and why the exit math VCs are chasing has shifted from a few-hundred-X outcome to hunting for hundred-billion-dollar companies. The conversation closes on Michaels contrarian belief that most traditional startup moats, like customer lock-in and data flywheels, are eroding fast, and that speed and talent are becoming the only defensibility that still holds up.
This is an excerpt from our full conversation with Max Kilberg and Michael Hochberg. Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/LTfrV4tEdms
[00:00] Whats happening in venture that isnt obvious from outside
[01:22] The compression of every stage into seed investing
[02:13] How mega funds bridge billion-dollar and early-stage deals
[03:19] The exodus of young investors into operating roles
[04:29] Why founders used to avoid capital-intensive ideas
[05:21] Why capital intensity has become the dominant narrative
[06:57] From hundred-X outcomes to hundred-billion-dollar hunting
[08:17] Why bigger funds need bigger outcomes
[09:59] Im a no-moats-exist believer
[10:41] Do brand, scale, and network-effect moats still exist?
[11:54] Closing thoughts Inside the Math That Decides Which VCs Write Billion-Dollar Checks | Michael Hochberg (Periplous)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WwNxs0mC0GY/mqdefault.jpg)