Ben Horowitz calls AI cloud deals "Rube Goldberg financial machines" on All-In

Filling David Friedberg's seat, the a16z co-founder joins Chamath Palihapitiya's close reading of CoreWeave's borrowing bill.

Channel: All-In Podcast Story of October 18, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 441,570 views a day, 35 times a normal first day on this channel (12,554).

CoreWeave Crash, AI Trade Cracks, Anthropic IPO Red Flags, Bill Gates Doomer

A full All-In episode usually opens to a first day of around 12,000 views. This one went past 440,000 in roughly a day. It starts with a celebration: the hosts mark reaching the top podcast spot, and their stand-in guest plays along. "It's great to be with the number one team," says Ben Horowitz, sitting in for David Friedberg.

The main subject is less festive. CoreWeave, IREN and Nebius, the so-called neoclouds that rent out AI computing power, had a rough week, and CoreWeave's bonds led the slide. Chamath Palihapitiya came with charts. CoreWeave pays about 8.4% on its existing debt but 15.6% on new money, and it still has to borrow between $26 billion and $41 billion to deliver on its contracts. Three customers account for three-quarters of its revenue.

Horowitz brings memory to the argument. In 1999 he co-founded Loudcloud with Marc Andreessen, and he describes what sank cloud hosting back then: "The lack of demand killed it. We don't really have a lack of demand in AI." He still keeps his distance from today's financing, calling the deals "Rube Goldberg financial machines" and adding that his firm has not invested in any neocloud because "that whole thing scares me."

David Sacks reads the selloff as volatility rather than a bubble bursting, and names payback period as the number worth watching. Palihapitiya pushes back on prediction-market odds of a CoreWeave bankruptcy, arguing that its ring-fenced debt structure means the company itself "can't go bankrupt," and later puts the true bottleneck elsewhere: "I think power will be the moat."

The episode then turns to Anthropic's leaked investor-day figures and a possible IPO. Horowitz discloses that a16z holds stakes in both Anthropic and OpenAI.

Under the video, a good part of the comment section works as a glossary, with viewers spelling out neocloud, DPI and ARR for one another. A shorter cut of Palihapitiya's argument, "Chamath Explains the AI Boom's Achilles Heel," is also running well ahead of the channel's usual Shorts.

Published on Trari

Share this story

A ready picture for an Instagram story or a WhatsApp status.

Share the pictureSend the link

×Share the picture

Where next?

More from All-In PodcastVideo taking off 8.1x its usual first dayArvind Krishna puts a quantum deadline on today's encryptionOn All-In, IBM's chief predicts a threat around 2030, while Nikesh Arora argues companies should already be preparing.Channel: All-In Podcast · Story of October 23, 2026 Also in Podcasts and interviewsVideo people are talking about 11x its usual commentsZelenskyy tells Steven Bartlett why he needed "ammunition, not a ride"In a nearly two-hour conversation, Ukraine's president moves from sleepless nights and grieving parents to Bucha, Paddington Bear and the morning the invasion …Channel: The Diary Of A CEO · Story of October 24, 2026 A different discovery todayVideo taking off 26x its usual first dayADÉLA brings "Nicole Kidman" and airborne splits to FallonHer television debut moves from a red-lit ensemble number to a quiet seated finish, and the comment section is crowded with talk of the choreography.Channel: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon · Story of October 24, 2026

Or follow us on Telegram

Is this your channel?For the channel's owners and team: a ready picture, text and badge for your audience

Share the story with your audience. Everything is ready:

For a community post or your channel's description

Ben Horowitz calls AI cloud deals "Rube Goldberg financial machines" on All-In The full story on Trari: https://trari.com/en/story/allin-12559/?from=kit

Copy the text

For your website

You may use the picture, the badge, and link it to this story.

The numbers

A full episode that opened far above the channel's usual first day, with a companion Short also running ahead of its usual pace.

the video's first day

usual first day here

12,554

this video

441,570

subscribers

1,160,000

▲ 10,000 in the last 7 days

total views

216,016,481

views per day

215,199

typical day: 307,891

the video

views

487,287

likes

6,697

comments

756

days online

1

subscribers: this channel and similar channels

Stiff Socks

1,240,000

All-In Podcast

1,160,000

SmoshCast

1,100,000

Hobby Explorer

1,100,000

Unsubscribe Podcast

1,010,000

SuperMega

1,000,000

As of October 18, 2026 · Data source: Trari Social News, Trari Traffic Trends and Ranking Platform, Google YouTube

Subscriber, view, like and comment counts are YouTube's. Rates, usual days, rankings, comparisons and categories are Trari's own calculations.