Blackstone executive Jas Khaira joins TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 AI agenda
Jas Khaira, global head of Blackstone N1 and Blackstone Growth, will appear at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 to discuss the capital decisions confronting rapidly scaling artificial intelligence companies. His Builders Stage session, “Building the Next Generation of AI Giants,” is scheduled within the event running from October 13 to 15 at Moscone West in San Francisco.
Khaira will address how Blackstone evaluates category-defining businesses, how founders can approach capital while scaling, and which factors can distinguish durable companies from those benefiting from early traction. TechCrunch expects more than 10,000 founders, investors, operators and technology leaders at Disrupt, alongside 250-plus speakers and 300-plus exhibiting startups.
AI growth raises the capital requirement
AI businesses may need to finance far more than product development and customer acquisition. As they grow, compute capacity, data centres and related infrastructure can add substantial capital requirements. That makes financing a strategic issue for founders who may still be hiring, building products, winning customers and testing whether their early advantages can persist.
Blackstone has backed investments across this landscape. The firm and co-investors agreed to invest up to $600 million in primary equity in Indian AI infrastructure company Neysa, which planned to raise a further $600 million in debt financing. In July, Anthropic launched Ode with Anthropic, an AI implementation company backed through a $1.5 billion joint venture involving Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Goldman Sachs and others.
Those commitments illustrate why the question is not limited to the amount of money available. The session is intended to examine where capital is required, which opportunities merit it and what may support a business beyond an initial period of rapid expansion.
Investor perspective on enduring businesses
Khaira joined Blackstone in 2004 and also leads tactical opportunities in the Americas. He founded Blackstone N1, a platform for growth, hybrid and perpetual private equity investing across the AI ecosystem and other next-generation high-growth companies, and serves on several of the firm’s investment committees.
The discussion complements a broader Disrupt programme in which AI scaling discussion with Amazon, Replit and Tether brings Amazon, Replit and Tether into the conversation on scaling AI, while Khaira’s session focuses on the investment lens behind financing expansion. Disrupt will also include roundtables, breakouts, matchmaking, dealmaking and informal networking opportunities.
What founders should take from the session
Early growth can attract customers, employees and investors, but it can also force major financing choices before founders know whether momentum will become a lasting business. Khaira’s appearance is framed around assessing that transition: evaluating traction, funding growth and building with a long-term horizon.
For businesses approaching a period of heavier infrastructure or expansion spending, the practical implication is to treat capital allocation as part of company building rather than as a standalone fundraising milestone.