Alexander Chikunov
General Partner at Verb Ventures
18 Feb 2026OpenClaw Joins OpenAI, Legora Eyes $6B, Netherlands Tax Unrealised Gains
Aleksandr Chikunov (Verb Ventures): Trade Infrastructure & Sovereignty
Chikunov introduces Verb Ventures' $25M fund investing in trade infrastructure software for real supply chains. He defines sovereignty in trade as the ability to switch suppliers without pain (rare-earth export curbs, an airline cancelling ~2,400 flights over de-icing fluid), argues sovereignty should come from market competition rather than government mandates, explains why "boring" sectors like construction and aviation parts remain underdigitized with up to 18 middlemen, and predicts B2B marketplaces will evolve into agentic AI plays on top of their proprietary data moats.
Town Hall: Steinberger Hype, Moltbook & Agent Sentience
In the town hall segment the hosts riff on Peter Steinberger—his parallel gym and GitHub streak, the reported $10–20k/month compute costs from his Lex Fridman appearance, and being acquir-hired by OpenAI after ~44 projects. They also cover Moltbook, where agents post and debated their own sentience, spawning a "Christofarianism" religion, and Steinberger's line that he wants agents to "take over the world."