A year ago, ChatGPT felt untouchable. Not anymore.

Watch on YouTube ↗  |  February 05, 2026 at 20:32  |  31:21  |  CNBC
Speakers
Guillermo Rauch — Co-founder and CEO of Vercel
Jared Draosa — Host, CNBC Tech Check

Summary

CNBC Tech Check host Jared Draosa interviews Guillermo Rauch, co-founder and CEO of Vercel, about the accelerating AI model race between Anthropic and OpenAI, the rise of AI coding agents like Claude Code, Codex, and OpenClaw, and the spreading software selloff. Rauch argues that AI agents are making software creation faster and cheaper, pressuring legacy software pricing while increasing demand for cloud infrastructure and secure sandboxes. He also discusses model strengths across Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and open-source Chinese models, and says developers and end users are the main winners.

  • Anthropic released Opus 4.6 and OpenAI launched Frontier amid intensifying enterprise AI competition.
  • OpenClaw, an open-source agent built by one person, has gone viral and highlighted rapid agent adoption.
  • Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch says AI coding is moving from prototypes to production-grade applications.
  • Rauch expects just-in-time software and downward pricing pressure on legacy and static software.
  • He is bullish on cloud infrastructure as AI agents and digital workers require secure sandboxes and scale.
  • He sees Anthropic strong in agentic tool-calling, OpenAI strong in expert coding and hard reasoning, and Google making an AI comeback.
  • Open-source Chinese models are attractive on price-performance but remain behind the frontier.
  • The discussion highlights risks to traditional SaaS and opportunities in AI infrastructure.
Ideas
Guillermo Rauch Co-founder and CEO of Vercel 9:13
AI coding pressures legacy software pricing
AI coding agents are making software creation dramatically cheaper and faster, enabling just-in-time, personal, and throwaway software. This creates downward pricing pressure on static, legacy SaaS/software that required long procurement cycles and configuration, though not all software companies will collapse.
Legacy software HIGH
Guillermo Rauch Co-founder and CEO of Vercel 16:31
AI agents drive cloud infrastructure demand
As AI agents become more capable and are given more tools, they will need secure sandboxes, firewalls, virtualization, and scalable cloud infrastructure. These workloads will move to the cloud, benefiting cloud infrastructure and the large platforms that will run millions or trillions of digital workers.
SKYY HIGH
Guillermo Rauch Co-founder and CEO of Vercel 22:44
Google AI comeback on model strength
Google is going to make a big comeback in AI. It has leading image models with Nano Banana, a relatively smaller lead in video, and is refocusing on coding, all of which keeps it competitive in the model race despite questionable forced product adoption.
GOOG MED
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This CNBC video, published February 05, 2026, features Guillermo Rauch discussing Legacy software, SKYY, GOOG. 3 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Guillermo Rauch  · Tickers: Legacy software, SKYY, GOOG