> I don't know why Jony Ive is seen to be worth billions, but he's obviously not.

Agreed. If it was the only option it would have been worth it to Apple to pay him billions to _leave_. His last 5-10 years at Apple were marked by him ruining a number of products.

VCs don’t have a ton of capital on hand right now, interest rates are high, investments are way down

Broadly, you're right, but again, there is an incredible amount of inequality at the moment, so while 90% of VCs might be strapped for cash, ther other 10% have so much that they are struggling to find worthy investment vehicles that can grow their money-pile. Its a dillema they are in because nothing can justify the volume of investment enough without a sufficiant potential for growth, so any venture that even hints at big enough return, will find itself flush with cash it wont realistically know what to do with.

I've spoken to a small handful of investors who are all saying they have capital to deploy but don't know where. One of them in particular stepped away from AI but they were seeing OTT valuations for AI startups based on what other VCs were doing.