Hill & Valley Forum preview: biotech, national security, and international expansion coming March 24

something uh more. They they should build the entire ad in lovable dog food the product. Uh, we have Christian Garrett and Delian Aspu in the reream waiting room. We will bring them in to the TVPN Ultra. Delian, Christian, how are you doing? How are you feeling?

There they are. What's going on?

Way to go, baby. Live from New York.

You guys look fantastic.

Boys, great. Thank you guys.

Take us through the news. Break it down for us. This is year four, correct?

Year.

Year five.

Year five.

Third year of doing the daytime forum. We started it back in the day just as like a small dinner series and then 3 years ago kind of experimented with daytime forum. That went great. Um and then this could be our third time doing it.

Okay. What's special about this time? Who's on the lineup?

You want to start? I'll start. Um I mean obviously the 250th is uh is great timing um for us to have another event here. Um we're very excited about that. I think the key focus this year outside of continuing to build on what the forum has always been about which is building bridges between technology and government technology sector and government uh is going to be increased focus not just on technological leadership but industrial leadership um and then as well as looking at having leadership among our allies. So I think this year you'll see a bigger expansion of the industries where technology is having an impact and playing a critical role and you'll see leaders from companies that are leaders in those industries and you'll also see a lot of folks coming from abroad and participating as well. And so I think you're just seeing that the relationship of the bridge between technology and government is actually a key framework for building deep relationships between the US and our allies as well as building deep relationships and strengthening other industries. And we didn't say it, but uh March 24th, Washington DC. Uh for now, we've only announced some of like the private uh you know, basically speakers. We haven't announced any of the gov speakers yet, but it's folks like Trey Stevens from Ander Founders Fund, Venode Kosa from Kosla Ventures, uh Brad Litecap from OpenAI, Sham Sankar from Palunteer, a bunch more that we'll start to, you know, basically release. But yeah, what I like about this year is we're also going to start to expand themes a little bit. there's going to be a strong basically biotechnology you sort of focus and some folks both within the administration within private industry talking about basically how we need to make sure that we don't lose that entire like supply chain and industry to China the same way that we have with like consumer electronics or humanoids you're starting to see some like early signs towards that and there'll even be some joint policy put out that HVF will be you know sort of endorsing and so what's been cool is as the like forum has been around for several years we're now not just like acting as a gathering place but it's even a place for people to start to think about you know not just meeting but even like publishing policy together that align sort of like private and public incentives in a way that is like best for the nation and then throughout all this you know we like I said we started this 5 years ago obviously under the Biden administration continuing to maintain I think you know true bipartisanship you know venode coal obviously has a certain set of you know sort of thoughts about you know sort of policies regulations etc I may not necessarily agree with all them but we try to throughout both the you know sort of forum the events that we host everything is pretty consistently you know sort of you know even and across the aisle and we try and stick with you know sort of centrists on you know sort of both sides that can actually you know sort of reach across the aisle on, you know, you know, produce productive policy together. You know, you won't see a ton of the, you know, sort of extremists from either, you know, either party there.

That's great. Uh, I noticed Younglu from, uh, Fox Con is attending. Uh, interesting company. Obviously, everyone's very familiar. Uh, uh, do you think there's going to be more energy about let's bring more Foxcon manufacturing to America or just startups trying to work with Foxcon? There was this leak that uh that uh OpenAI might be working with Foxcon on the new Sweet Pea earbuds and it feels like uh more and more companies as they think about hardware, they're going to be wanting to establish relationship with Foxcon. That's sort of the beauty of this at least from the business side. What what what's interesting about Foxcon? Uh why is he important to the conference?

Well, I think first off, you know, you have Foxcon, Qualcomm. Um you'll have some other uh names that will be announced uh across these other kind of categories of companies that have maybe been in industries that weren't viewed as technology industries but now increasingly are. Um and I think a lot of the leaders that are coming there uh are really just representing a trend that you've seen which is once again technology industry is a great way to build deepening relationships and partnerships uh with our allies and to your point it works both ways right yes you'll see just like TSMC who's made a huge investment in the state of Arizona and you're seeing that from other companies as well here domestically you're also seeing companies abroad continue to invest in other countries and scale there through partnerships like these uh an example in another country you know we've seen and for example invest heavily and is a portfolio company for founders fund and 137 for us respectively and invest heavily in countries like the UK Australia and Japan just recently uh opening their office there um Japan is another country as well as many others like South Korea and Europe that are increasingly opening their doors to become manufacturing hubs for the reinstation here in the US as well as supporting their own reinstation efforts and I think you know you're going to have to see many companies like Foxcon play a critical role as the West tries to shift off of reliance on Chinese capacity across critical industries.

We as much as possible obviously try to make it so that it's sort of bipartisan uh uh from the you know elected officials and you know sort of congress but we do try to as much as possible whichever administration basically is in office try to reflect some of their priorities and what you've obviously seen under this administration is you know them leaning into you know making sure that our allies are you know sort of contributing their fair share but also reestablishing their own re-industrialization efforts. And so I think a you know significant theme of this year's forum is going to be having a lot more international presence and there to both you know sort of learn from how the US is re-industrializing but also partner with some of these companies to bring those technologies locally partner with some of their local you know sort of primes and reindustrialization efforts to accelerate those in some ways these trends that you're seeing in the US. The United States is much better off if France if Germany if the United Kingdom if Australia if Japan are mimicking basically those same you know technological patterns and so that's definitely going to be a major you know sort of topic of this year's forum. Yeah, I know you haven't announced the uh government attendees, but is there a desire to have international leaders uh attend as well? Is this going to be the next Davos in a couple years or or do you want to keep it focused on uh domestic policy makers, US policy makers, senators, uh representatives?

I mean, obviously the event being in DC and the core focus is on the technology sector and the government sector in the US. Uh but the event's always been international. Um, you know, from the beginnings, we've had foreign ambassadors from other countries attend. We had the VP of Taiwan speak multiple times. I think you will see a lot more international leadership attend as well. Um, I think it's reflective to Dellian's point that this really is about the west being successful and um, you know, the concept of it's not US alone, right? And so I think yes, you will see that represented. Um, most of the leadership of course is still going to be heavily uh, domestic, right? And so leaders from Congress, leaders from the administration, etc. Um, but you will definitely see a lot more leadership from from countries abroad and our allies and that's going to be very exciting and that's going to be from the Middle East, uh, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan, and Europe.

Yeah,

I think you you'll see like in the long term, I think the way that like this will always break it down is it'll probably be like 85% 90% domestic focus, but there'll always be like a twinge of international. And so, I think that's what it's been probably historically on the attendee side of things. And this year for the first time there will be a few more sort of like internationally focused panels but it's not going to quite go to like Davos level which is like kind of global elite in some ways. This is always going to be primarily sort of United States focus with a twinge of international.

What are all the ways that people can participate uh view you know watch from home be a part of it whether as a sponsor all that stuff.

Yeah. Um so the you know event is invite only uh to participate uh during the day in Washington DC. um uh but you know it is going to be about a thousand people so it's a relatively you know sort of broad audience that we'll be you know sort of bringing in there um we'll also be live streaming uh all of the panels um on our YouTube um you know and X accounts uh and then there will be you know a couple media groups that are live streaming from there um some traditional ones like Bloomberg uh and some super exciting novel ones like TVPN on site you know uh there so there'll be a variety of different live streams to tune into that I think will give you a feel of the event both the official panels as well as obviously the side conversations that you guys will be doing. Yeah, that's great. Uh, what is this business structure of Hillen Valley now? Is it its own nonprofit?

How is

We are officially a 501c3. So, this is the first year ever. We are uh welcome to the board of the Hill Valley Forum Foundation. Yeah. 501c3. You know,

are you guys just being mimedic with OpenAI?

Yeah. Are you considering a for-profit conversion? Because I feel like the ads really we could do a lot with each other here. [laughter]

There's a lot more to be announced. like Delian said. So, uh, just stay tuned.

Yeah, but we do have full-time staff, which is really exciting. So, yeah, you know, Chris and I were starting to get a little too stretched thin between, uh, you know, both of us having too many jobs. So, it is nice finally

and we lost a key leader as well. So, we really stretched

the, you know, Yeah, I believe now the youngest under secretary in United States history. So,

handsome

and most handsome. God damn some of those photos on the official Max. [laughter]

Damn, I wish I would like that.

Yeah. Yeah, it's true. Uh,

maybe I'd be under secretary then. is the he is under secretary.

So yeah, talk talk more broadly about the 2026 calendar, 2027 calendar. Uh people know the annual event in DC. There was that oneoff event with All-In that was a special hill and valley sort of collab. Is there a plan to do a quarterly series, have other dinners uh go off the hill and have something in the valley? What are you thinking?

Yeah, I I think it's something that we're open to opportunistically. Um it's not something we're committed to or it's part of the plan. We very much are focused on the main event every year. But absolutely, you know, we actually just did something recently with FII who is also they do an incredible job. Their conference is right after the Hill Valley. So I recommend most people, which a lot of us are, will end up flying straight to that right after. [snorts] Um and you know, Richot has done an incredible job really gathering a lot of world leaders and running an incredible event in Saudi. Um and they've done events globally. Uh we did a collab there and brought a lot of Silicon Valley leadership. You know, Ruth Porat from Google attended. uh Sriram right from the White House and the administration attended and spoke um and a bunch of other folks and so I think you know we we'll look at these opportunities where we can try to help bring more of really Silicon Valley uh to these other events internationally particularly you know when it aligns with uh countries that are our allies and their focus on building deep bridges between technology and government and so you know I think you'll see some of those maybe internationally or potentially obviously domestically the the one-off event with the all-in guys with with Jay Cow Chimoth and and Freeberg and and Sachs obviously in his role organizing that along ong with Jacob. That was incredible. We would love to do more things like this. It's just opportunistic. So, if it happens multiple times in a year, great. If it doesn't happen, also great.

Yeah.

I think one of the ambitions that I have for the event is um starting to become, you know, sort of more deep in particular sectors like, you know, this year very intentionally trying to go a bit, you know, sort of deeper into biotech. I could imagine eventually where you know you have the marquee event you know on a particular day of the week but there may be some like subsector tracks you know over time where we do like Hillen Valley space hill valley biotech hill valley you know industrialization hill valley rare earths and those be like subtracts and again with the goal of this being like I don't want to just gather people for gathering people's sake like maybe that's what they do in Davos but like you know the goal is like I would like to actually make sure that like policy

I thought you were I thought your whole brand was I'm the networking guy here's here's 20 here's a 20 point thread on how to how to network [laughter] Yeah. Yeah. This is a mastermind, right? We should reband this as a mastermind.

Neither neither of us were at Davos, so that

Okay. Yeah.

Look, my favorite types of venture investing to do is just follow the heat. That is how you generate return. You just identify the heat and invest into the hottest deals and other people are marking it up. You just got to mark it up even faster at higher prices and chase momentum.

Well, speaking of exciting deals, Bridget Mendler was on the show yesterday. The chat, we just want to relay this. The chat is pulling for a Bridget Mendler attendance, a speaking, an an invite, something like that. We'd love to see her there. Uh

well, Bridges Bridge is a vet. He's been there.

Oh, fantastic. A lot of fun. I mean, Kevin Whale also I have to shout him out. He's been a veteran. I know he's coming on later. He's been he's attended every single forum. Um and has been an incredible partner for us and obviously now, you know, alongside opening up great partners. Um and so, you know, the stuff that he's working on on science, by the way, is awesome. I'm very glad he gets to talk more about that later. So, yeah, it's it's Bridget's actually a veteran. So, um we need to find a poll for someone that has not attended before. I know. What I like is like there's some pretty we have like a just a really solid veteran squad. It's like Alex Carp been there every single year. Node Kla been there every single year. Trey Stevens I think went to the second one coming back this year to speak. And so um I think what's nice

that's a big deal for Trey.

I know Trey is hard to uh you know

and to be social and travel is not easy.

Exactly. I just peer pressured him a lot this year thankfully. So you know got him up there.

Yeah. You mentioned a bunch of different categories. Is energy top of mind for you? How are you thinking about uh the all the work that's going on? We see a lot of energy or a lot of excitement around nuclear uh been tracking a little bit less in solar but who are you interested in? What conversations are you excited about in energy?

Yeah, I think there'll be like two major areas that you'll see um energy come up at the forum. The first is there is going to be like a nuclear you know sort of focus panel. haven't announced those you know sort of you know panelists yet but um you know let's just say there may be one that's

a general y

um uh as one of the panelists and then other one I think where you'll see an angle on it is a little bit in relation to basically like the build out of the physical infrastructure behind AI and how much of you know energy is limitation there so those would be kind of the two you know topic areas that we focus on there and again with both those trying to make sure that by the time we get to the forum there's particular you know sort of policy and things that you're coming out of those panels that aren't just discussions but you know ideally legislation that's going to be passed so we always try and make sure the forum forum is in a week where both Senate and the House are in session. Um and so you know in some ways Congress basically chooses the dates of the forum more so than we do but as much as possible try and make it so that you know sort of policy immediately you know sort of comes out of it and sometimes we also react live right you know in one of the forums years it was the you know the uh you know main event was the day before the Tik Tok CEO's uh basically um you know uh what's called briefing in front of Congress and so obviously there was a lot of discussion you know that year and you know policy papers and recommendations from that you know sort of group around you know what needs to be done uh with Tik Tok.

Yeah. dress code. I mean,

dress code. Should should people wear different colored shoes? Delian, suit, what what what do you guys recommend?

T-shirt and jeans.

Uh, it is DC, so you know, probably not full Silicon Valley casual. Maybe more business casual. Um, or suit and tie. Definitely.

Yeah. No, it's the best dressed. It's the best dressed event in tech on the tech circuit. It's the best dressed one. It's fantastic.

Yeah, we were like, are you guys the best dressed people in it? It is the best dressed event in tech. It is fantastic. [laughter]

I have been told that uh my head of the head of comms at Hill Valley is unhappy with the fact that I keep wearing the same damn gray suit every single year. And so

he's making me shopping uh you know later today.

It's also the same. You also wore the shirt last time you came on the show.

Oh, [laughter] I don't know if you know I actually wear this specific quarter zip every single time I'm on TV.

I know. It's the green. It's the green. It's the green. I make sure that it's washed every single week so that I make sure that I can wear it.

Fantastic. Well, we appreciate it.

Thank you so much for coming. Can't wait to wait for it. Congrats on on the list. Everyone will be staying tuned to the new guest, boys. See you there.

See you later. Goodbye.

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