Sebastian Mallaby

Sebastian Mallaby is a distinguished author and economist who decodes the forces shaping global finance, technology, and power for audiences worldwide. As Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, he has authored six acclaimed books, including the New York Times bestseller More Money Than God and his latest work, The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence, which chronicles the pursuit of artificial general intelligence and its profound implications for society. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and former Washington Post columnist, Mallaby equips leaders and organisations with the insight to navigate technological disruption, understand emerging economic paradigms, and make informed decisions in an era of unprecedented change.

Over five years, Sebastian Mallaby secured unlimited access to Alan Greenspan, the most powerful central banker of modern times, to produce a definitive biography that would become a New York Times bestseller and cement his reputation as one of the world's leading chroniclers of economic power. That same rigorous approach to understanding the architects of change has since taken him inside DeepMind, where his latest book, The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence, explores the pursuit of artificial general intelligence and its profound implications for society. Released in March 2025, the book has been described by the Financial Times as doing "full justice to his kaleidoscopically interesting subject" and has positioned Mallaby at the forefront of the conversation about AI's transformative potential. As Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, he now co-hosts The Spillover, a weekly podcast examining how global events ripple across policy, geopolitics, economics, technology, and financial markets.

Mallaby's career spans three decades of making sense of the forces that shape economies and societies. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, he has authored six books that have become essential reading for leaders navigating complex systems. More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite won the 2011 Loeb Prize and was hailed by the New York Times' David Brooks as "superb", whilst The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future has joined it as an investment classic. His earlier works include The World's Banker, a portrait of the World Bank that the Financial Times called "the most hilarious depiction of a big organisation and its controversial boss since Michael Lewis's Liar's Poker", and After Apartheid, named a Notable Book by the New York Times. Before joining the Washington Post as a staff columnist and editorial board member, Mallaby spent thirteen years with the Economist, covering Nelson Mandela's release, Japan's economic collapse, and serving as Washington bureau chief. He is also a contributing columnist for the Washington Post, and his writing has appeared in the Atlantic and Financial Times, where he spent two years as a contributing editor.

Audiences working through the implications of artificial intelligence, economic disruption, and shifting global power gain clarity from Mallaby's ability to decode complexity without oversimplification. Whether speaking about the governance challenges posed by frontier AI models, the economic consequences of technological acceleration, or the lessons from financial history, he equips leaders with the context and insight needed to make informed decisions. His work translates cutting-edge developments in technology and economics into frameworks that organisations can apply, helping them anticipate change rather than simply react to it. Educated at Oxford with a first-class degree in modern history, Mallaby lives in London with his wife, Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of the Economist, and continues to shape how leaders understand the systems transforming our world.