Onward, a Fundrise Production

52: How will AI impact the economy?

Let's move past the tired “Is AI a bubble?” debate and ask the bigger question: What happens after the buildout—when trillions of dollars of AI data centers translate into real economic output. Co-hosts Ben Miller and Cardiff Garcia frame AI as a new kind of factory—massive capex producing tokens that can be converted into real white-collar work. Then Ben grounds it with concrete Fundrise examples—AI handling a large share of customer support, strengthening cybersecurity workflows, reshaping marketing/copywriting, and boosting engineering productivity—before zooming out to the macro implications: faster growth, disinflationary pressure, shifting labor vs. capital dynamics, and the possibility of lower rates if productivity wins out. They also wrestle with the messy part—how adoption, politics, and policy could determine whether AI becomes a broad-based win, a lopsided win-lose, or a stagnation-inducing backlash—and close on practical ideas for adaptation, especially for younger workers. — For a deeper dive into these insights and more, be sure to listen to the full episode of the Onward podcast. Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.  Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise. Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.  About Fundrise  With over 2 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.  Please see fundrise.com/oc for more information on all of the Fundrise-sponsored investment funds and products, including each fund’s offering document(s).  Want to see the specific assets that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets.

51: Inside Justice: How the System Really Works, with Hallie Hoffman

Hallie Hoffman is a career federal prosecutor, former General Counsel of the DEA and Criminal Chief of the Northern District of California. She knows how the justice system really works behind the scenes. Hallie explains why justice moves slowly, what breaks when massive institutions have to scale, and how individual agents and prosecutors drive the most meaningful cases. She shares lessons from prosecuting everything from the largest corporations to a prime minister of Ukraine, reflects on her leap into biotech entrepreneurship, and offers a clear-eyed view of the crime and public safety challenges ahead. Despite decades spent confronting the worst human behavior, Hallie remains an optimist — grounded in the extraordinary public servants who continue to protect and serve. — For a deeper dive into these insights and more, be sure to listen to the full episode of the Onward podcast. Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at  Onward@Fundrise.com. Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise. Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada. About Fundrise  With over 2 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.  Please see fundrise.com/oc for more information on all of the Fundrise-sponsored investment funds and products, including each fund’s offering document(s).  Want to see the specific assets that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets.

50: The guy behind the guy, with Scott Plank of Under Armour

Scott Plank—who helped build Under Armour from the ground up, was the largest angel investor in WeWork, and is a seed investor in Fundrise—joins us to share what it really feels like to bet everything, lose big, win bigger, and keep moving forward. In this conversation, Scott traces his path from building homes as a carpenter and selling bracelets in Guatemala to helping Under Armour grow from a family startup into a billion-dollar public company. He explains the financing strategies that kept the company alive in its early days, the lessons of scaling operations under intense pressure, and why he believes Under Armour couldn’t be founded the way they did in today’s world. Scott also shares his experience as the largest angel investor in WeWork, unpacking why he saw value where others didn’t, and how he navigated both the spectacular rise and fall of the company. Along the way, he reflects on risk—when to push all in, when to shut things down, and how entrepreneurship is often about knowing when the world has changed. Finally, he discusses his ongoing work in real estate and technology, including data centers and community development, and offers advice for the next generation of entrepreneurs. For Scott, the throughline is clear: success depends not just on grit, but on aligning values, timing, and the willingness to evolve when circumstances demand it. — For a deeper dive into these insights and more, be sure to listen to the full episode of the Onward podcast. Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.  Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise. Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.  About Fundrise  With over 2 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.  Please see fundrise.com/oc for more information on all of the Fundrise-sponsored investment funds and products, including each fund’s offering document(s).  Want to see the specific assets that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets.

49: Data centers will be the largest investment in US history, with Kervin Pillay, former CTO of Cisco

Data-center veteran Kervin Pillay walks us through the coming AI infrastructure boom. Pillay argues the U.S. is about to sink 10x the capital it took to create the Interstate Highway System into new data center capacity, racing toward “hundreds of gigawatts” of compute—each gigawatt-scale campus drawing more power than a major city.  — For a deeper dive into these insights and more, be sure to listen to the full episode of the Onward podcast. Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.  Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise. Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.  About Fundrise  With over 2 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.  Please see fundrise.com/oc for more information on all of the Fundrise-sponsored investment funds and products, including each fund’s offering document(s).  Want to see the specific assets that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets.

48: Will AI Surpass Us? with Robert Nishihara, co-founder of AnyScale

Rob Nishihara is the co-creator of Ray, the open-source software now used by OpenAI, Amazon, DeepSeek, and Nvidia as part of the essential stack for building AI at scale. Rob offers a rare insider’s view of the bottlenecks, breakthroughs, and practical limits shaping AI today. The discussion ranges from the philosophical to the technical—covering synthetic data, future policy, career resilience, and how AI might ultimately make us think better, not just faster. — For a deeper dive into these insights and more, be sure to listen to the full episode of the Onward podcast. Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.  Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise. Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.  About Fundrise  With over 2 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.  Please see fundrise.com/oc for more information on all of the Fundrise-sponsored investment funds and products, including each fund’s offering document(s).  Want to see the specific assets that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets.