Big Ideas 2026: New Infrastructure Primitives

The a16z Show

2025/12/26

Overview Shownote Highlights Transcript Chapters Pins

Shownote

New infrastructure primitives are creating entirely new rails for building. In this episode of Big Ideas 2026, we explore three foundational shifts that unlock new markets and workflows, not through incremental upgrades, but through primitives that compou...

Highlights

Emerging infrastructure primitives are reshaping how industries operate, not by improving existing systems, but by creating entirely new foundations for innovation. These shifts go beyond technology upgrades—they represent fundamental changes in how value is created, discovered, and distributed across ecosystems.

00:00

Stablecoins are just the beginning; on-chain credit origination is the next frontier.

09:46

Fully self-driving science is a long-term goal, with current work laying the foundations.

15:45

The Greenfield Strategy involves selling AI tools to startups at formation to win long-term distribution.

Chapters

How is programmable money redefining financial infrastructure?

00:00

Can AI and robots run labs better than humans?

06:09

What happens when startups build science automation from day one?

13:21

Why selling to startups at birth changes everything

16:26

Transcript

James da Costa: Incumbents struggle to sell to startups because they're bound by the rules of P&L. Guy Willette: I think taking a more crypto-native approach is actually better, regardless of whether you want to offer the product to a crypto-native audien...