Chris Larsen

Things Chris Says on Podcasts

Chris Larsen co-founded Ripple and serves as its executive chairman, after earlier founding E-Loan and Prosper. He's spent the last several years fighting the SEC's case against Ripple over XRP and, outside the company, spending heavily on politics: campaign donations to Democrats including Kamala Harris and Josh Shapiro, and funding a Flock camera surveillance system for the San Francisco Police Department that drew criticism from civil liberties groups. He shows up on podcasts mainly to talk about crypto regulation and how his money moves through politics. Kara Swisher has had him on "On with Kara Swisher" twice, once after Ripple's 2023 SEC ruling and again in 2026 on surveillance, AI risk, and California's billionaire tax measure. Forbes and The Block track him as a recurring name in crypto wealth and influence.

Where to Find Them

Chris Larsen has been a guest on On with Kara Swisher (2 times) , Wall Street Week , Barefoot Innovation Podcast , Open Circuit and The Pomp Podcast .

Recently: “Why This Crypto Billionaire Wants to Slow Down the AI Arms Race” on On with Kara Swisher (September 2026); “Crypto’s bare-knuckle politics come to climate” on Open Circuit (May 2026); “Bloomberg Wall Street Week - October 11th, 2024” on Wall Street Week (October 2024); “The Crypto Founder Who Won a “Landmark Victory” Against the SEC” on On with Kara Swisher (July 2023); “#892 Bitcoin & Climate Change w/ Chris Larsen” on The Pomp Podcast (March 2022); “Remaking the Financial Rails: Ripple CEO Chris Larsen” on Barefoot Innovation Podcast (November 2016).

What They Said

“There is an AI arms race that's completely out of control. It's all gas, no brake, no steering.” — Chris Larsen, On with Kara Swisher

Kara Swisher has just asked why anyone should believe the tech industry when it promises something is beneficial. Larsen's answer separates tech generally from AI specifically, and he goes on to name what bothers him: companies warning that the technology is dangerous and then shipping a more powerful model twenty minutes later.

On with Kara Swisher · 2026-09-07 Permalink → Listen →
On with Kara Swisher Around 21:04 into the episode
Chris Larsen

Yeah.

Kara Swisher

Rejected it. So there's no amount of money or promises were believed in any way. So why should we believe you? Not you, but why should we believe tech at this point when that happens when there's things that are beneficial, like you're talking about?

Chris Larsen

Yeah, I'd almost separate tech from the AI arms race. There is an AI arms race that's completely out of control. It's all gas, no brake, no steering. And of course, that's going to end badly. And I would say that's AI insanity, yet it continues. And when you have companies, I mean, there's So wealthy. But when you have them telling you, hey, we invented fire, we invented nuclear energy, and this is really dangerous and it's going to destroy jobs and it's going to hurt kids and take over humanity. And then 20 minutes later, they're releasing the new super powerful model. I just don't know how you reconcile that. And I think everybody understands that's not good. So I think the data center opposition, which is staggering, maybe that's healthy. That's the way to sort of stop it, slow it down, or force regulation in that industry. Because the other thing the industry is doing is they sort of tried to take a reverse page out of the crypto industry, setting up super PACs, but to crush anybody that dared come up with any guardrails. And you saw this in the Alex Boris race, right? That doesn't make any sense, right? So you actually need people now to be really leaders, to be smart and to be working on these guardrails and maybe even slowing it down.

Kara Swisher

I mean, Donald Trump told people they were stupid and poor if they didn't go along with it. Howard Luttnick said no water would be involved. He's such a moron.

Chris Larsen

Well, the weird thing about that is, which I don't get, is the MAGA movement is actually pretty aligned on this.

Kara Swisher

They are.

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