Elad Gil

Venture capitalist, multi-stage investor, and co-founder of AI company Branko.

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Key positions and views

The most effective defensive strategy for AI companies is to build a multi-product bundle, creating a wide surface area and becoming integral to customer workflows.

Future AI development will be constrained by energy availability, leading to a geographic concentration of training data centers in regions with the cheapest, densest energy sources, such as the Gulf states.

Many technology markets naturally consolidate into oligopolies with a few large players, rather than true monopolies, a pattern visible in sectors like payments and payroll services.

State-level AI regulations and increased federal scrutiny of M&A activity pose significant threats to the U.S. tech ecosystem by curtailing innovation and limiting startup exit opportunities.

The narrative that open-source AI is inherently dangerous is a form of regulatory capture promoted by large, closed-source model providers to stifle competition.

Podcast consensus on Gil

Points of consensus

▶Elad Gil is a prominent investor and thought leader in the 'AI roll-up' thesis, where AI is used to modernize and consolidate traditional businesses, a view echoed by other market observers like Mark Bhargava.Apr 2026

▶He is a significant, multi-stage investor in major technology companies, with documented participation in funding rounds for Anduril, Rippling, Applied Intuition, and Base.Apr 2026

▶Gil is a co-founder of Branko, a new venture created with Jared Kushner and Eric Wu specifically to help large enterprises and governments adopt artificial intelligence.Apr 2026

▶He is a vocal proponent of the idea that Applied Intuition is a highly successful and capital-efficient company, noting it has been profitable since inception and generates hundreds of millions in revenue.Mar–Apr 2026

Points of debate

▶There is a tension between Gil's view that enterprise adoption of new technology is a slow, decade-long process and his observation that AI labs are growing revenue at an unprecedented, explosive rate, raising questions about which force will dominate.

▶Gil acknowledges the market narrative of a 'SaaS-pocalypse' where AI tools replace per-seat software, but he simultaneously argues that large enterprises are unlikely to replace core systems and that hardware-integrated companies remain defensible.

▶He identifies a trend of marquee companies like Stripe and SpaceX remaining 'forever private,' but also predicts this will be a limited phenomenon, contrasting with the widespread IPO boom of the dot-com era.

▶Gil advocates for a contrarian investment approach, such as backing defense tech like Anduril when it was unpopular, yet his current focus on generative AI and AI roll-ups aligns with a major, mainstream venture capital trend.Apr 2026

Key themes

▶AI-Centric Investment and Company BuildingApr 2026

Gil's activities are centered on a thesis-driven approach to AI investment, spanning from early-stage generative AI companies to the 'AI roll-up' strategy of modernizing traditional businesses. He is not just a passive investor but an active company builder, co-founding Branko to directly address the enterprise and government AI adoption challenge.

Gil's strategy indicates a belief that the primary value capture in the current AI wave will come from both foundational model creation and, more significantly, the application layer that transforms legacy industries, suggesting a dual focus on high-tech innovation and practical, large-scale implementation.

▶Macroeconomic Analysis of the AI Boom

Gil frequently analyzes the economic impact of AI, comparing the current market to the dot-com boom and highlighting the unprecedented speed of revenue growth for AI labs. He predicts the technology sector's share of U.S. GDP could more than double by 2035, driven by AI's integration into the broader economy.

His focus on metrics like revenue growth rates, token cost reduction, and GDP share provides a quantitative framework for justifying high valuations in the AI sector, positioning the current moment as a fundamental economic shift rather than a speculative bubble.

▶The Geopolitics of Technology and EnergyApr 2026

Gil connects the future of AI development directly to global energy policy and geopolitical competition. He argues that high energy costs are making Europe uncompetitive for AI data centers and predicts a shift towards energy-rich regions like the Gulf states, while also noting China's competitive advancements in robotics and drones.

This perspective suggests that investors and analysts should consider physical infrastructure, national energy strategies, and international relations as critical, and potentially limiting, factors for AI's growth, moving beyond a purely software-focused analysis.

▶Pragmatic Business Strategy and DefensibilityApr 2026

Despite the transformative potential of AI, Gil's advice to founders is grounded in classic business principles. He emphasizes building multi-product bundles as a key defensive strategy, asserts that 'winning' is the core of a strong company culture, and recognizes that markets often consolidate into defensible oligopolies rather than winner-take-all monopolies.

Gil's framework implies that technological superiority alone is insufficient for long-term success; durable companies must build strong business moats through product strategy, market structure, and a relentless focus on execution.

Source episodes

Sentiment over time

Mar 2026

2 bullish, 1 neutral(3 claims)

The American AI Action Plan contains approximately 90 different actions for fede...

Apr 2026

13 bullish, 1 bearish, 3 neutral(17 claims)

Mark Bhargava identifies Elad Gil, Thrive Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz as ot...

Changes over time

2016-2017

Began investing heavily in the crypto sector, with early investments including Coinbase.

Contrarian Period

Made a contrarian investment with Founders Fund in defense technology company Anduril at a time when backing weapons companies was unpopular in Silicon Valley.

2021-2022

Shifted focus to investing in the generative AI sector, making early investments in companies like Perplexity, Harvey, Decagon, and Abridge.

Present

Co-founded Branko with Jared Kushner and Eric Wu to build an AI platform for large enterprises and governments, marking a move from investor to active founder in the AI space.

Present

Gil's fund now operates across all investment stages, from incubation to pre-IPO, and has led multiple financing rounds valued at over $500 million each.

Suggested prompts

How does Elad Gil's 'AI roll-up' thesis differ from traditional private equity strategies, and what are its potential long-term risks? &nearr;Analyze the tension in Gil's views between the slow pace of enterprise adoption and the explosive growth of AI foundation models. Which force is likely to dominate in the next five years? &nearr;Evaluate Gil's prediction that AI data centers will concentrate in the Gulf. What are the geopolitical and supply chain implications of this potential shift? &nearr;To what extent does Gil's focus on 'winning' as the core of company culture overlook other critical factors for long-term organizational health and innovation? &nearr;

Key concepts

AI Investment Strategy 5 ep Market Dynamics & Valuations 2 ep Enterprise AI & SaaS 2 ep Company Building & Culture 1 ep Energy Policy & AI Infrastructure 1 ep Geopolitics & Regulation 2 ep Specific Company Analysis (Anduril, Applied Intuition, Branko) 4 ep Venture Capital Operations 1 ep Economic History (Dot-Com Boom) 1 ep

Notable quotes

“So all the training will probably go to places that have the cheapest, densest energy... That's probably the Gulf.”

Elad Gil · Elad Gil on the 2000 Dot-Com Crash & the Coming AI Shakeout

“The best way to defend against this is to build a bundle. So it's to build a multi-product surface area for your company so that you cross all multiple things into the same organization and you become a default part of the workflow.”

Elad Gil · The AI Code Slop: Risk or Opportunity?

“sometimes founders ask me, what's the biggest way to create a good culture? And the answer is winning.”

Elad Gil · Incubating Brain Co: Elad Gil’s AI Bet with Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners

“basically in 21 months, it went from like 37 bucks for a million tokens to 25 cents. And so, you know, pricing dropped by 150 X in 21 months.”

Elad Gil · The AI Code Slop: Risk or Opportunity?

Report last updated: Apr 21, 2026

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