How AppLovin Built a $100B Ad Machine

Adam Foroughi, Co-Founder & CEO of AppLovin, and Giovanni Ge, CTO of AppLovin, join Sourcery from AppLovin’s Palo Alto headquarters for a deep dive into the technology and strategy behind its advertising business.

Gio joined AppLovin in late 2022, when the company was worth roughly $5.5 billion, and helped architect Axon 2, the recommendation engine that became central to AppLovin’s transformation. The new architecture improved predictions and advertiser returns, helping drive the company’s expansion beyond mobile gaming into e-commerce ads and its recovery from a 92% post-IPO decline to a $100B+ company.

Adam and Gio break down how Axon works, how AppLovin scales with a remarkably lean engineering team, how AI is changing the way they build, why knowing what not to build matters, and what it would take for AppLovin to eventually become a trillion-dollar company.

We also cover AppLovin’s expansion into e-commerce, the future of advertising across LLMs and connected TV, engineering culture, and how they think about building for the next five to ten years.

Adam Foroughi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamforoughi/

Giovanni Ge: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xiaochuan-giovanni-ge/

Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea

Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy

𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊

YouTube: https://youtu.be/IZHwulZQixQ

𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒

• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery

• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery

• VCX—VCX is the public ticker for private tech, allowing investors of all sizes to invest in venture capital. View The Portfolio at http://GetVCX.com

• Deel—Deel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery

• Public–Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. With Generated Assets, you can build, backtest, refine, and invest in any thesis with AI. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all ETFs. https://public.com/sourcery

Follow Sourcery for the latest updates!

https://www.sourcery.vc

Disclosure

Paid Endorsement. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC-registered adviser. Crypto trading provided by Zero Hash LLC, licensed by the NYSDFS. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time.

𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒

(00:00) Adam Foroughi, Co-Founder & CEO and Giovanni Ge, CTO at AppLovin

(00:52) Gio's first impression of AppLovin

(03:38) Joining AppLovin after a 30% stock drop

(09:59) How Axon 2 actually got built

(20:23) Why AppLovin never needed a sales team

(21:59) From gaming ads to e-commerce

(24:47) From a napkin drawing to a real product

(30:54) The onboarding mistake most companies make

(34:37) What "AI-Native" actually means

(36:37) Should new engineers still learn to code?

(41:41) UGC vs. traditional ads: what's winning?

(47:56) Adapting to AI without rebuilding from scratch

(54:50) Gio's daily tech stack

(1:02:17) AppLovin's path to a trillion-dollar valuation

(1:06:19) Recovering from a 90% stock drop

(1:09:47) What's next for AppLovin?

(1:13:44) What happens when AI takes over?

(1:15:48) Adam and Gio's hottest takes

(1:19:50) How to actually stay locked in