Summary
David Ondrej gives his read on the state of AI from San Francisco, covering the model race, the market, and what it means for builders. He discusses the expected releases of Fable 5.5 and GPT 6.2 Astra, along with Google’s Gemini, and explains why he sees Anthropic as well positioned thanks to its compute, market cap, and the popularity of the 5.5 model family.
Ondrej describes his own workflow: Opus 5.5 handles roughly 95% of his sessions, with OpenAI models used for reviewing larger changes. He argues that speed is the only durable moat in a fast-changing market, noting that companies must adapt products, marketing and security patching in hours or days rather than months, and that nobody can credibly plan a 12-month roadmap in AI.
The conversation also touches on the Anthropic IPO, layoffs, stock market jitters, and the case for building in the United States rather than Europe. Ondrej also shares observations on San Francisco, including self-driving cars and housing constraints.
📺 Source: David Ondrej · Published November 03, 2026
🏷️ Format: Interview
