a16z Podcast Dylan Patel: GPT-5, NVIDIA, Intel, Meta, Apple
1436 snips
Aug 18, 2025 
Dylan Patel, Founder & CEO of SemiAnalysis, dives into the highly competitive world of AI hardware and chips. He explains why merely mimicking NVIDIA won't suffice for challengers. The discussion touches on the potential of custom silicon from tech giants reshaping the landscape and the Economics of AI model launches driving a shift toward efficiency. Patel also highlights the rise of AI silicon startups amid geopolitical tensions and offers insights for leaders in big tech as they navigate this rapidly evolving industry.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Model Routing Trades Compute For Scale
- GPT-5 reduced average thinking time and uses routing to allocate compute per query.
- This lets OpenAI steer users to cheaper or more powerful models dynamically to control costs.
Monetize Free Users Via Agents
- OpenAI can monetize free users by routing them to paid capabilities and agentic flows.
- High-value tasks (bookings, shopping) justify expensive compute because the model can take transaction cuts.
Cost Becomes A Core Model Benchmark
- The GPT-5 launch emphasized cost efficiency as a headline metric, not just raw capability.
- Model competitiveness now balances performance with token cost and latency.