# Technology adoption takes longer when it needs capital

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/technology-adoption-takes-longer-when-it-needs-capital/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Eric Schmidt](https://realalpha.app/people/eric-schmidt/) · Eric Schmidt is CEO and chair of Relativity Space, former Google CEO. · Scaled Google as CEO through 2011, now runs rocket maker Relativity Space and co-founded Schmidt Sciences.
- Host: [Christine Anderson](https://realalpha.app/people/christine-anderson/) · Global Head of Corporate Affairs, Blackstone
- Show: Inside Blackstone
- Episode: [Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt: The Road to Superintelligence](https://realalpha.app/v/PSbUom-p1hU/), Sep 29, 2026
- Moment: 9:57 to 12:10 of the episode (2 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/technology-adoption-takes-longer-when-it-needs-capital/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/PSbUom-p1hU/?t=597

## Quote

> “So, the **diffusion rate is different** from the invention rate.”
> — [Eric Schmidt](https://realalpha.app/people/eric-schmidt/) at [11:19](https://realalpha.app/v/PSbUom-p1hU/?t=679) · Inside Blackstone

## Takeaways

1. Self-driving cars were being designed in the 1990s.
2. Broad adoption can lag invention by decades.
3. Capital needs help explain why some technologies diffuse slowly.

## About this segment

Eric Schmidt distinguishes the pace of invention from the pace of adoption, using self-driving cars as an example. Capital-intensive technologies take longer to spread than connectivity-based ones.

From “Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt: The Road to Superintelligence”, Sep 29, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/PSbUom-p1hU/)

## Transcript

From the transcript Inside Blackstone publishes with the episode.

[10:03](https://realalpha.app/v/PSbUom-p1hU/?t=603) we sort of take for granted. Let's go back to the internet, because I think it's so interesting. You've been around the rise of the internet and other platform, you know, shifts, the rise at enterprise software, search, cloud computing, mobile, all of these major technological innovations. Why does this moment feel different to you? It's not different, it's just bigger. Bigger. The internet felt exactly the same as this.

[10:27](https://realalpha.app/v/PSbUom-p1hU/?t=627) I started with mainframes, so that's how long I've been in this field. I've doing tech for 55 years, and when the PC revolution came along, everyone said, oh my god, this is this huge wave. It created Microsoft and Apple and so on and so on. This was 40 years ago, 45 years ago. So, these things take a while, and I think what, another example. Let's look at self-driving cars. Did you arrive at work today in a self-driving car?

[10:55](https://realalpha.app/v/PSbUom-p1hU/?t=655) I did not. I suspect not, nor did I. And so, what do we think about that? When do you think we will? Well, it's beginning. Now self-driving cars… When do you think New York City? New York City will be one of the last ones. Okay. But it'll come. It’ll come. But it's coming in the different cities, including obviously Waymo and other competitors. But why do I mention self-driving cars? They were largely, they were designed in the 90s.

[11:19](https://realalpha.app/v/PSbUom-p1hU/?t=679) The first real test of self-driving cars was 2004. So that's 22 years and going. So, the diffusion rate is different from the invention rate. So, the faster the diffusion rate, the sort of broad adoption, the quicker the societal change. Why does it occur in what I do first? It's because we're already connected, right? It's essentially a softer problem. It's just connectivity. The marginal cost of connectivity, given we're so connected, is very low.

[11:50](https://realalpha.app/v/PSbUom-p1hU/?t=710) The incremental cost of connecting you and me is essentially zero. Boom, it just happens. It's straightforward economics. Whereas getting self-driving cars is a great deal of capital. It's hard, and so forth. People are working on it. Why 20 years versus zero years, and that's the answer.