Bloomberg Tech · Oct 9, 2026 · 16m · 5m saved
With Ilya Fushman, Partner at Kleiner Perkins
Venture investors put just over $400 billion into startups through June, by Ilya Fushman's estimate, and more than 80% of it went to late-stage deals.
The market spent the week arguing over how OpenAI and Anthropic count their revenue. Fushman said the accounting detail matters far less than the speed at which those companies are growing.
"But the more important picture is that we've never seen companies grow this big, this fast, in the history of technology." — Ilya Fushman
Ilya Fushman, a partner at Kleiner Perkins, on Bloomberg Tech, invests for the firm that backed Amazon and Google, now holds stakes in Anthropic and Waymo, and raised $3.5 billion earlier this year to invest in AI.
The full segment is covered here so you can skip it. 16 minutes of audio, 11 minutes of reading.
Here are the 10 takeaways that matter.
Key Takeaways
No companies in tech history have grown as big, as fast as Anthropic, OpenAI, Waymo and Databricks, Fushman said
The cost of AI output is falling on average, because buyers mix older models with newer ones
Agents that complete tasks for consumers are the first big step past ChatGPT, he said
He has one order pizza for his kids and text him when it is done
Kleiner's $3.5 billion is split $1 billion early-stage and $2.5 billion late-stage
More than 80% of the venture money invested through June went to late-stage deals
Physical AI is going after trillion-dollar industries such as transportation, supply chains, factories and cars
The next wave includes lab automation, drug discovery and robots in the home
Old-line software companies are buying AI startups to get the talent, as Salesforce did with Fin and ServiceNow did with Moveworks
1. Growth Never Seen Before
The host opened by noting that Kleiner Perkins is an investor in Anthropic, and that both Anthropic and OpenAI have filed confidentially to go public, which limits what can be discussed. He asked why annualized revenue run rate, or ARR, the yearly revenue a company would book if it kept selling at its current pace, matters to a venture or public market investor.
Fushman said ARR helps show how predictable and lasting the revenue is. The bigger point, he said, is the scale of revenue at Anthropic, OpenAI, Waymo and Databricks and how fast it is compounding.
He said no technology companies have ever grown this large this quickly
"But the more important picture is that we've never seen companies grow this big, this fast, in the history of technology." — Ilya Fushman
"And that points to something truly foundational in what they're solving." — Ilya Fushman
