VCs Would Bet on Open-Source AI Over OpenAI and Anthropic | E2341
September 23, 2026
AI Summary
5 min read“I’m the founding partner, which means nothing, which means I can do whatever the fuck I want,” said Jeff Clavier near the end of this episode of This Week in Startups. After 21 years running Uncork Capital, he’s stepping back, moving to Walla Walla, Washington, and launching a winery with wines named “Liquidity” and “Carried Interest.” That moment of personal transition framed a wide-ranging panel discussion about whether the venture capital industry’s current obsessions—frontier AI models, billion-dollar seed rounds, and FOMO-driven valuations—are actually sustainable.
The panel included Clavier, Jenny Fielding (Everywhere VC), and Dave McClure (Practical Venture Capital), hosted by Jason Calacanis. The throughline: the VC market is bifurcated between a handful of hyper-valued, capital-intensive bets and a vast middle market of companies that cannot get funded or liquidated. The panel explored where the real opportunity lies and why so many investors are looking in the wrong places.
The AI Token War and the Open-Source Shift
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:46) **Panel Introduction & VC History** - Jason introduces Jeff Clavier (Uncork Capital), Jenny Fielding (Everywhere VC), and Dave McClure (Practical VC). They discuss the early days of seed investing, super angels, and micro-VC funds.
- 2 (11:56) **AI Risk and "P(doom)" Debate** - The panel debates the existential risk of AI, with Jeff citing a near-miss military incident and Jason warning about human brain atrophy from over-reliance on AI tools.
- 3 (23:11) **Instinct AI's Meteoric Valuation** - The panel analyzes the AI assistant Instinct, which is reportedly raising $1B at a $10B valuation with only 100k users, drawing parallels to the Clubhouse hype cycle.
- 4 (40:06) **Shifting AI Tool Usage** - Jason reveals his team abandoned OpenAI's tools in favor of alternatives like Claude Code, Perplexity, and Lovable, citing ease of use and faster delivery.
- 5 (43:39) **OpenAI vs. Anthropic Price War & Open-Source Threat** - Both companies cut prices significantly, but the panel argues this is a "race to the bottom" that favors open-source models, which now handle 78% of token volume.
- 6 (49:38) **Valuations and the Public Market** - The panel discusses the insane valuations of private AI companies (OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX) and whether they can deliver returns for public market investors.
- 7 (60:10) **The IPO Drought and Secondary Market** - Companies are staying private longer, waiting for $10B in revenue before IPO, leaving thousands of "stuck" companies in the middle.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
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Today’s show:
Anthropic and OpenAI released cheaper models on the same day with Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6, and these VCs would still bet on open source. Jason brings on Dave McClure of Practical Venture Capital, Jeff Clavier of Uncork Capital, and Jenny Fielding of Everywhere Ventures to discuss the argument for open-weight models over the frontier labs.
Learn why median seed valuations have more than tripled since 2017. Why does Dave say it's a buyer's market for secondaries right now? PLUS, does Meta's Muse leave any room for Instinct, and why are fintech and healthcare suddenly out of favor?
Guests:
Dave McClure on X: https://x.com/davemcclure?lang=en Practical Venture Capital: https://practicalvc.com/
Jeff Clavier on X: https://x.com/jeff Uncorked Capital: https://uncorkcapital.com/
Jenny Fiedling on X: https://x.com/jefielding Everywhere Ventures: https://www.everywhere.vc/
Relevant Links:
Instinct reportedly seeking $1B at a $10B valuation (report via The Information) → https://cryptobriefing.com/ai-assistant-startup-instinct-targets-10b-valuation-in-new-funding-talks-report/
Meta's Muse, the agent the panel sees as Instinct's biggest threat, now on Mac → https://aiweekly.co/alerts/meta-ships-muse-for-mac-agent-now-acts-in-native-macos-apps
Trump calls Jensen Huang onstage at the All-In Summit → https://thenextweb.com/news/trump-phoned-jensen-huang-onstage-at-the-all-in-summit-to-call-ai-fear-a-hoax
AI-assisted intel error nearly triggered a US intercept of a Chinese ship (CNN via gCaptain) → https://gcaptain.com/ai-error-nearly-triggered-u-s-intercept-of-chinese-ship-cnn-reports