a16z Podcast: Mike Volpi on Why AI Infrastructure Will Outlast the Hype Cycle
a16z · youtube · 2026-11-11
a16z's podcast hosts Raghu Raghuram and Guido Appenzeller talk with Mike Volpi, who shaped Cisco's strategy during the internet buildout, about lessons for today's AI infrastructure investment.
Key topics
- Fiber boom of the late 1990s vs GPU/data center/power buildout today: why infrastructure can stay valuable even if the market corrects — the internet era built bandwidth, the AI era is building intelligence
- Financing the buildout and why GPUs outlive their depreciation schedules
- Cisco's M&A playbook and advice for NVIDIA: making acquisitions actually integrate, when founders should sell
- Competitive AI silicon and custom chips
- Rethinking data center networking for AI workloads
- Why Volpi thinks this cycle could be even more consequential than the last, and why now is the best time to invest
1 hour with full timestamps.
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