# Dwarkesh Patel

> Dwarkesh Patel is a 25-year-old Indian-American podcaster, writer, and emerging intellectual force in Silicon Valley. Through the Dwarkesh Podcast - launched from a college dorm room in 2020 - he has become the go-to long-form interviewer for AI leaders, economists, and historians, landing everyone from Elon Musk and Jensen Huang to Terence Tao. Named to TIME's 100 Most Influential People in AI in 2024, and called Silicon Valley's favourite podcaster by The Economist in 2025, he co-authored The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019-2025 with Stripe Press. With 1.2M+ YouTube subscribers and 76,000+ Substack readers, Patel has built his platform entirely through obsessive preparation and organic growth.

- **Role:** Host at Dwarkesh Podcast
- **Organizations:** Dwarkesh Podcast, Stripe Press (author)
- **From:** Barodhra, Gujarat, India
- **Nationality:** Indian-American
- **Education:** B.S. in Computer Science, University of Texas at Austin
- **Known for:** TIME 100 Most Influential People in AI (2024), Named 'Silicon Valley's favourite podcaster' by The Economist (2025), Co-authored The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019-2025 (Stripe Press, 2025)

## Career timeline

- **2000** — Born in Barodhra, Gujarat, India
- **2008** — Immigrated to the United States with family, settled initially in Bismarck, North Dakota
- **2018** — Enrolled at University of Texas at Austin, studying Computer Science
- **2020** — Launched The Lunar Society podcast from his dorm room during COVID-19 pandemic
- **2021** — Graduated early from UT Austin (December 2021); received $10,000 from entrepreneur Anil Varanasi to continue podcasting
- **2021** — Blog post 'The Mystery of the Miracle Year' went viral; Jeff Bezos publicly praised it
- **2022** — Renamed podcast to Dwarkesh Podcast; received Emergent Ventures grant
- **2023** — Interview with Eliezer Yudkowsky amassed 1M+ views; began interviewing top AI leaders
- **2024** — Named to TIME's 100 Most Influential People in AI
- **2025** — The Economist called him 'Silicon Valley's favourite podcaster'; co-authored The Scaling Era with Stripe Press
- **2025** — Organized factory farming fundraiser raising $2M+ with Patrick Collison, Liv Boeree, Noah Smith
- **2026** — Interviewed Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Dario Amodei, Terence Tao, and others; YouTube surpassed 1.2M subscribers

## Achievements

- TIME 100 Most Influential People in AI (2024)
- Named 'Silicon Valley's favourite podcaster' by The Economist (2025)
- Co-authored The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019-2025 (Stripe Press, 2025)
- 1.2M+ YouTube subscribers (entirely organic growth)
- 76,000+ Substack subscribers
- Emergent Ventures grant recipient
- Jeff Bezos publicly praised his writing on Twitter
- Episode with Dario Amodei entered into congressional record
- Organized factory farming charity fundraiser raising over $2 million (2025)
- First podcast launched with zero audience; grew to #31 Rising in Technology on Substack

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Interviewed Jensen Huang on TPU competition, Nvidia's supply chain moat, and AI chip export policy
- **2026-04** — Interviewed Michael Nielsen on how science actually progresses
- **2026-03** — Interviewed mathematician Terence Tao on mathematical discovery
- **2026-02** — Interviewed Dario Amodei - episode noted Anthropic's ARR grew from $1B (2024) to $9-10B (2025)
- **2026-02** — Interviewed Elon Musk with John Collison over Guinness in Austin; Musk predicted AI compute will move to space in 36 months
- **2025-12** — Published The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019-2025 with Stripe Press
- **2025-08** — Organized factory farming charity drive raising $2M+ with Patrick Collison, Liv Boeree, and Noah Smith

## Links

- Website: https://www.dwarkesh.com
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/dwarkesh_sp
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DwarkeshPatel
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwarkesh/

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/dwarkesh-patel
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-27