Descriptions:
Dave Munichiello, managing partner at GV (formerly Google Ventures), joins Bloomberg Tech to explain why Silicon Valley remains the center of gravity for AI investment and why his firm — which manages $13 billion across offices in London, New York, Cambridge, and the Bay Area — is actively pushing non-Bay Area partners to spend more time in San Francisco.
The conversation anchors on GV’s early bet on Modular, the CUDA-alternative software layer co-founded by Chris Latner and Tim Davis. Munichiello recounts how Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon personally flew to San Francisco to recruit Latner, painting a vision of using Qualcomm’s chip portfolio to disrupt NVIDIA’s CUDA dominance over the next decade. He reflects on the M&A calculus for founders, arguing the right exit vehicle is whatever best serves the company’s core technology vision — whether that’s IPO, acquisition, or, as in Slack’s case, both sequentially.
Munichiello also discusses GV’s strategy of writing first checks into AI companies — including Samba Nova Systems alongside Modular — and addresses the challenge of valuing private AI companies as the IPO pipeline builds. He argues that exponentially rising valuations are largely justified given the scale of TAM being unlocked, though he acknowledges the venture frenzy this creates at the early stage. The interview offers a grounded institutional investor’s read on where money is flowing and why geography still matters in the AI era.
📺 Source: Bloomberg Tech · Published August 18, 2026
🏷️ Format: Interview
