Max Levchin

Founder, Chief Executive Officer & Chairman, Affirm Holdings

Search every verified Max Levchin interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Max Levchin, the founder and CEO of Affirm, has been discussing the company's growth and its approach to consumer credit. He stated that Affirm's gross merchandise volume grew 35% in the most recent quarter to $11.6 billion, marking the tenth consecutive quarter of 30% or higher growth. Levchin described the Affirm consumer as "doing great," attributing this to full employment and the company's use of AI and machine learning to underwrite transactions. He contrasted Affirm's model with traditional credit cards and payday lending, which he described as products with "exponential" interest curves and confusing terms, saying Affirm's core value is "no fine print" and that the company aims to provide "extreme transparency" with a clear payment schedule. Levchin has also spoken about his views on socialism and capitalism, drawing on his experience growing up in the Soviet Union. He said the ideas of socialism are "seductive" but argued they are "a surefire way of getting to no progress at all." He stated that "the best recipe we've discovered as humanity is capitalism." Regarding AI, Levchin noted that approximately 70% of the code Affirm pushes to production is written by AI, and he expressed the view that the opportunity is not to replace engineers but to accelerate their output. He also commented on the current state of the technology industry, saying that some leaders are using AI as a "fig leaf" for poor hiring decisions.