# Event Details - **Event Name**: CITYPERC Seminar - David Kampmann - When Private Became King - **Event Start and End Date**: Wed, 12 Nov, 2025 at 04:30 pm – Wed, 12 Nov, 2025 at 06:00 pm - **Event Description**: When Private became King: Venture Burn, Corporate Control, and how to compete with Big Tech in the Race for Artificial General IntelligenceAbout this EventThe established view on the concentration of corporate power in Tech holds that new start-up entrants become acquired by or subordinated to Big Tech monopolies. Yet, with the entry of AI newcomer firms such as OpenAI and X.AI we observe something different: these privately-held start-up firms raised unparalleled investments from venture capital (VC) firms and other investors who anticipate that generative AI chatbots could be turned into highly profitable monopoly platforms rendering Big Tech’s obsolete and paving the way for artificial general intelligence (AGI). Whether or not this turns out to be true, it points towards changing dynamics of competition in US Tech. This paper argues that the key to understanding these dynamics lies in the transformative changes in US start-up finance after the 2008 global financial crisis. With the emergence and rapid expansion of an opaque and unregulated parallel market for private start-up finance, the model of VC-backed start-ups changed drastically–compared to the dotcom era when the IPO was the main objective of VCs and founders–towards staying privately-held and under the control of founders and insiders for as long as possible. Drawing on secondary literature and financial data, this paper traces the emergence of growth equity, venture debt, and secondary markets for start-up equity and uses OpenAI and X.AI as case studies to demonstrate how these markets enabled the highest valued privately-held AI firms to compete with cash rich yet publicly-listed Big Tech by continuously attracting outside investments to cover massive losses while equity valuations keep increasing–the logic of venture burn. The paper points towards a broader shift from public to private financial markets where the winning tech firms with hectobillion-dollar-equity valuations may reject IPOs and stay privately-held while founders seek to retain total corporate control over AGI technologies.JOIN US: sign up via eventbrite and we will send you a Teams link and the information on how to join in person at City St. George's, University of LondonIn person: City St George's University of London: Rhind Building, St John St, London EC1R 0JD; Room: D427 4th FloorOnline: Join us via teams by clicking this link at the time of the event Join the meeting now Meeting ID: 348 947 531 379Passcode: DZ3cN25BDial in by phone+44 20 3321 5246,,412614811# United Kingdom, City of LondonFind a local numberPhone conference ID: 412 614 811#For organisers: Meeting options | Reset dial-in PINCity, University of LondonOrg help | Privacy and security - **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/london/cityperc-seminar-david-kampmann-when-private-became-king/100001683003882919 - **Event Categories**: business, workshops, meetups, art, contests, sports, fine-arts, literary-art, conferences, artificial-intelligence - **Interested Audience**: - total_interested_count: 0 ## Ticket Details - **Ticket URL**: https://consumer.pxf.io/c/1339408/3151484/39691?partnerpropertyid=1191892&MediaPartnerPropertyId=1191892&svlink=14105511&level=1&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eventbrite.com%2Fe%2Fcityperc-seminar-david-kampmann-when-private-became-king-tickets-1683003882919 - **Ticket Price Range**: min: 0, max: 0, currency: USD ## Event venue details - **city**: London - **state**: EN - **country**: United Kingdom - **location**: Rhind Building - **lat**: 51.5275281 - **long**: -0.1050486 - **full address**: Rhind Building, Saint John Street, London, United Kingdom ## Event Organizer details - **affiliate_id**: 10 - **organizer**: CITYPERC (https://allevents.in/org/cityperc/26843617) ## Event gallery - **Alt text**: banner - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events7/banners/3b506f4f8f36f9a3c9568542d1c5cab5effabbf65c1e5b6c2b2be2db52ca82aa-rimg-w1200-h673-dc161616-gmir.jpg?v=1759410907 - **Alt text**: thumbnail - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events7/banners/fab9953a7f478e6115f2fc8c0c13d187e4413c03958b2be6176afb5282e69da2-rimg-w400-h400-dca8a8a7-gmir.jpg?v=1759410906 ## FAQs - **Q**: When is the event happening? - **A:** Wed, 12 Nov, 2025 at 04:30 pm - **Q**: Where is the event happening? - **A:** Rhind Building, Saint John Street, London, United Kingdom - **Q**: What is the ticket price? - **A:** starting from 0 up to 0 USD - **Q**: Who is organizing the event? - **A:** CITYPERC - **Q**: What type of event is this? - **A:** business, workshops, meetups, art, contests, sports, fine-arts, literary-art, conferences, artificial-intelligence - **Q**: Where can I find ticket details about CITYPERC Seminar - David Kampmann - When Private Became King ? - **A:** You can find ticket details about this event on AllEvents. ## Structured Data (JSON-LD) ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Event", "name": "CITYPERC Seminar - David Kampmann - When Private Became King", "image": "https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events7/banners/3b506f4f8f36f9a3c9568542d1c5cab5effabbf65c1e5b6c2b2be2db52ca82aa-rimg-w1200-h673-dc161616-gmir.jpg?v=1759410907", "startDate": "2025-11-12", "endDate": "2025-11-12", "url": "https://allevents.in/london/cityperc-seminar-david-kampmann-when-private-became-king/100001683003882919", "location": { "@type": "Place", "name": "Rhind Building", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "Saint John Street", "postalCode": "EC1R 0JD", "addressLocality": "London", "addressRegion": "EN", "addressCountry": "GB" }, "geo": { "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": "51.5275281", "longitude": "-0.1050486" } }, "eventAttendanceMode": "https://schema.org/OfflineEventAttendanceMode", "description": "When Private became King: Venture Burn, Corporate Control, and how to compete with Big Tech in the Race for Artificial General Intelligence", "offers": [ { "@type": "AggregateOffer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "USD", "availabilityStarts": "2026-04-05", "availabilityEnds": "2025-11-12", "validFrom": "2026-04-05", "lowPrice": "0.00", "highPrice": "0.00", "price": "0.00", "url": "https://allevents.in/london/cityperc-seminar-david-kampmann-when-private-became-king/100001683003882919" }, { "@type": "Offer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "USD", "availabilityStarts": "2026-04-05", "availabilityEnds": "", "validFrom": "2026-04-05", "url": "https://allevents.in/london/cityperc-seminar-david-kampmann-when-private-became-king/100001683003882919", "price": 0, "name": "General Admission" } ], "organizer": [ { "@type": "Organization", "name": "CITYPERC", "url": "https://allevents.in/org/cityperc/26843617", "description": "The Centre brings together world-leading expertise from academia, public policy, the financial sector and civil society to address key issues and challenges facing global capitalism today.Established in 2012, the Centre has rapidly become a focus for interdisciplinary research across the UK, Europe and beyond. CITYPERC has promoted innovative workshops, conferences and public events on contemporary issues including tax justice, austerity economics, shadow banking and financial regulation.The Centre designed and developed the first BSc degree programme in International Political Economy in the UK, which opened at City St George's Department of International Politics in 2014." } ] } ] ```