Robinhood’s CEO on letting AI trade your money

@vladtenev on Robinhood’s new agent bet and the AI ownership inequality problem.

Robinhood wants to put an AI hedge fund in your pocket. CEO Vlad Tenev tells me how Robinhood Agents brings AI trading into the app, and why he expects agents to generate a growing share of individual investors’ trading activity.

We discuss how much control to give an AI that can trade your money, why Robinhood keeps agents in separate accounts, and where investors will find an edge when everyone has access to powerful models. He also explains his push for every Robinhood employee to have agents working while they sleep.

Tenev argues that the AI backlash is partly an ownership problem: most people can’t invest in the companies driving it. We get into Robinhood’s push to open private markets to everyday investors, the coming AI IPOs, and his response to criticism of tokenized stocks. We also discuss prediction markets and why he objects to AI labs keeping their most powerful tools to themselves.

Timestamps:
03:06 Making AI trading accessible
06:10 Trading safeguards and approvals
09:02 The future of AI trading
14:52 Finding an edge with AI
23:15 How Vlad uses agents
27:13 AI inequality and retail access
35:40 Robinhood's IPO ambitions
38:23 Markets, inflation and AI
41:28 Ownership and Trump accounts
44:42 Why tokenize stocks?
52:17 The future of prediction markets
55:40 Who should control AI?

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2hOx5Oqmt5dY6CManSwC4I?si=41uDIZKBS2SghYWbkZNocg
YouTube: https://youtu.be/rkTMQ3oHzFE
Substack: https://sources.news/p/robinhood-ceo-ai-trading?r=89hgxm
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/robinhoods-ceo-on-letting-ai-trade-your-money/id1840154537?i=1000796203565

Thanks to the show’s premiere sponsors: @Atlassian, @meetgranola, and @mercury.(Historical earnings: For 2026Q1 (period ended 2026-03-31), Robinhood Markets reported revenue of USD 1.067 billion, net income of USD 0.350 billion, and EPS of 0.39 basic and 0.38 diluted. In the prior-year period (2025Q1), revenue was USD 0.927 billion, net income was USD 0.336 billion, and EPS was 0.38 basic and 0.37 diluted. For full-year 2025, revenue was USD 4.473 billion, net income was USD 1.883 billion, and EPS was 2.12 basic and 2.05 diluted. Consensus expectations: For 2026Q3, consensus expects EPS of 0.5344 and revenue of USD 1.415 billion.)