The Trillion-Dollar AI Hardware Opportunity | Navin Chaddha (Managing Partner, Mayfield)

Navin Chaddha has spent three decades at the forefront of innovation—first as a founder, and now as managing partner at Mayfield, one of Silicon Valley’s oldest venture firms. A 17-time member of Forbes’ Midas List, Navin has guided generations of entrepreneurs through waves of technological change, from the dot-com boom to the AI era. At Mayfield, he champions a philosophy rooted in the firm’s founding ethos: investing in people, not markets. That approach has shaped his perspective on what it takes to build enduring companies. In this conversation, Navin shares why $1 trillion in infrastructure spending is fueling a new hardware renaissance, how stealth startups are going from zero to billions in a year, and what it means for the future of innovation.

We explore:
• How “vibe coding” is democratizing technology creation through conversational, collaborative, and cognitive interfaces
• Why Navin believes the “vibe economy” will transform how we work, live, and play
• How Mayfield’s 56-year focus on “backing the jockey, not the racetrack” shapes its investment approach
• The massive opportunity in AI hardware infrastructure
• How stealth AI hardware startups are going from zero to billions in under a year
• How India’s tech ecosystem has evolved and where the real opportunities are today
• How cricket taught Navin crucial lessons about company building

Thank you to the partners who make this possible
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Transcript: https://www.generalist.com/p/the-tril...

Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(04:52) Cricket and its parallels to venture capital
(08:13) Navin’s journey to Silicon Valley
(10:28) Growing up in an entrepreneurial family
(12:00) Early mentors and becoming an “accidental entrepreneur”
(13:46) Navin’s first company and unconventional fundraising approach
(17:35) How Navin moved from founder to venture capitalist
(20:11) What has worked in India’s tech market and what hasn’t yet taken off
(23:31) The future of outsourcing in the AI era
(27:14) How Navin landed at Mayfield
(30:36) How Mayfield’s people-first approach works in practice
(34:50) Why Navin sees AI and vibe coding as the next great wave of innovation
(38:13) Why Navin believes AI will push humans to level up their skills rather than lose them
(44:50) The hardware opportunities that excite Navin and where Mayfield is investing
(48:49) An overview of photonics and why it matters now
(50:06) How Mayfield balances market insight, big ideas, and the people behind them
(52:50) The surprising pace of growth in AI hardware
(54:54) The timeline from idea to product and scale in hardware startups
(56:26) Final meditations

Follow Navin Chaddha
LinkedIn:   / navinchaddha  
X: https://x.com/navinchaddha

Resources and episode mentions
—Books—
• Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity: https://www.amazon.com/Outlive-Longev...
• Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies: https://www.amazon.com/Built-Last-Suc...

—People—
• Vinod Khosla on LinkedIn:   / vinod-khosla-65387416  
• Anoop Gupta on LinkedIn:   / guptaanoop  
• John Hennessy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L....
• Yogen Dalal on LinkedIn:   / yogendalal  
• Tommy Davis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_...

—Other resources—
• Akamai: https://www.akamai.com/
• Qualcomm: https://www.qualcomm.com/
• Matrimony: https://www.matrimony.com/
• Tejas Networks: https://www.tejasnetworks.com/
• Mayfield: https://www.mayfield.com/
• HashiCorp: https://www.hashicorp.com/
• Gigya: https://www.sap.com/products/acquired...
• Moore’s Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%2...
• NVIDIA: https://www.nvidia.com/
• Apple: https://www.apple.com/
• Tesla: https://www.tesla.com/
• Broadcom: https://www.broadcom.com/
• Mayfield AI Garage: https://www.mayfield.com/ai/

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