Ben Horowitz rejects the idea that the internet has already made Silicon Valley 'global' by default, arguing that deep differences in national laws, policy, and governance still prevent other countries from replicating it. ✦ AI generated
Ben Horowitz · a16z Podcast · 2026-07-03 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 37:16
“The number one question we often get when we're visiting different countries is how do you recreate Silicon Valley locally... there's also the proposition, what if the internet is actually Silicon Valley, or the actual Silicon Valley just distributed?”
I don't think that's true, by the way. And like they think that's a happy talk. If you you know like one thing you learn when you go to different countries is they're very different. Like the laws are different, the policies are different, the governance are different. And that's why you know America has continued to be special.
verbatim transcript · starts at 37:16
37:16actually Silicon Valley or this the the actual Silicon Valley just distributed. So >> yeah. Yeah. >> I don't think that's true, by the way. And like they think that's a happy talk. If you you know like one thing you learn when you go to different countries is they're very different. Like the laws are different, the policies are different, the governance are different. And that's why you know America has
37:38continued to be special. We've had the internet now for quite a long time and like that's absolutely not the case. >> Uh so like so what is going on? And and by the way, I wish we could bring uh some of our own uh policy makers on those trips so they could hear people say we want Silicon Valley before they keep trying to wreck us. Not all of many of our policy makers are
38:00outstanding, but some really don't like the fact that we have a technology industry. Um, so I think that like as we've traveled around there's a kind of a a combination of ingredients and and they are a little bit the combination that makes Silicon Valley special and then you know America itself special. So the first is um you do need the talent and uh talent is kind of easily kind of most
38:30easily seen in like is there a great technical university um that graduates people who know how to build things. Uh that that that's kind of like an essential thing. And like by the way many countries have that that don't have a Silicon Valley. Um and what are they missing? They're missing the other two components. The second is do you have a set of laws and policies that uh facilitate entrepreneurship are
38:57essentially good for business? Like can you create a company easily? Can you hire people easily? Um can you fire people easily? Is there a tax incentive structure that's not ownorous? Can you um own and this is a big one lately which uh you know California is kind of moving against but can you own an illquid asset that has value um >> or will it get seized uh and so I think