Property Play: How the CEO of mortgage tech firm Blend revived his business after disaster

Watch on YouTube ↗  |  September 08, 2026 at 12:29  |  32:45  |  CNBC
Speakers
Nima Ghamsari — Co-Founder and CEO, Blend Labs

Summary

CNBC's Diana Olick interviews Blend co-founder and CEO Nima Ghamsari about Blend's origin, its boom-and-bust after the 2021 mortgage peak, and its pivot to profitability and AI. Ghamsari explains Blend's agentic AI product Autopilot for mortgage processing, expects mortgage production costs to collapse, and says mortgage rates will likely stay high for another year before a demand wave. He also names robotics-enabled physical infrastructure as the next big opportunity.

  • Blend digitized mortgage paperwork after the financial crisis and rode the 2021 mortgage/refinance boom to a $3.8 billion valuation.
  • After the 2022 rate shock, Blend cut non-core businesses, refocused on origination software, and became profitable in 2024.
  • Ghamsari sees Blend's lender relationships and mortgage data as an edge for its new agentic AI Autopilot product.
  • Autopilot can give borrowers real-time loan feedback and compress mortgage processing from weeks to minutes.
  • He expects mortgage rates to stay high for about another year, then falling rates could unlock housing demand.
  • He argues AI will cut mortgage production costs from about $10,000 to $1,000, saving roughly $50 billion annually.
  • He names robotics and AI-enabled physical infrastructure as the next great play and remains broadly bullish on AI.
Ideas
Nima Ghamsari Co-Founder and CEO, Blend Labs 9:48
Blend's AI turnaround is undervalued.
Blend rode the post-crisis mortgage digitization wave to a rich 2021 listing but overexpanded and was hit by rising rates, the mortgage volume collapse, and small-cap neglect. After cutting non-core businesses, refocusing on mortgage origination software, and reaching profitability in 2024, Ghamsari says Blend's large lender customer base and proprietary mortgage data give it an unfair advantage for agentic AI. Its Autopilot product can compress mortgage processing from weeks to minutes, and he views the weak stock as an opportunity while expecting increasing profitability.
BLND HIGH
Nima Ghamsari Co-Founder and CEO, Blend Labs 24:33
Robotics is the next infrastructure play.
Asked for the next great play outside Blend, Ghamsari points to physical infrastructure built with robotics and AI. He argues robotics can collapse the cost of solar energy, clean water, and housing by orders of magnitude and help drive a 2030s infrastructure boom and broader prosperity.
ROBO MED
Nima Ghamsari Co-Founder and CEO, Blend Labs 26:04
Low-cost mortgage lenders will win.
Ghamsari argues AI will collapse mortgage production costs from roughly $10,000 to about $1,000 per loan, unlocking around $50 billion annually in US real estate finance. Lenders with the lowest-cost, best process and products will be huge winners, and the industry will consolidate.
Mortgage lenders MED
Nima Ghamsari Co-Founder and CEO, Blend Labs 28:41
Practical AI applications will transform finance.
Ghamsari says he is willing to bet everything on AI because he has seen its practical implications. The current trough of disillusionment comes from raw AI tools being used for impractical things, but practical agentic AI applications such as real-time mortgage document review and lower underwriting costs will transform financial services and the broader economy.
Artificial Intelligence HIGH
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This CNBC video, published September 08, 2026, features Nima Ghamsari discussing BLND, ROBO, Mortgage lenders, Artificial Intelligence. 4 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Nima Ghamsari  · Tickers: BLND, ROBO, Mortgage lenders, Artificial Intelligence