Why Partner Leaders Must Master the AI Landscape to Win Hyperscaler Partnerships with Alan Chhabra

AI partnerships are no longer won by managing a channel or securing a marketplace listing. Leaders must understand how countries, power, cooling, chip fabrication, hyperscalers, model providers, software companies, and enterprise risk fit together before they can build an effective partner strategy. Returning to Revenue Builders, Alan Chhabra explains how Cerebras navigated the technical and political realities of working with AWS, why successful partner leaders need more than relationships, and how sovereignty is changing infrastructure, model selection, and cloud decisions. He also examines why software companies are moving aggressively on AI while traditional enterprises remain more cautious. Alan Chhabra is the Executive Vice President of Worldwide Partnerships at Cerebras Systems, where he leads global partner expansion across hyperscalers and the broader AI ecosystem. He previously spent nearly a decade building MongoDB’s global partner network and held senior leadership roles at BMC Software. Connect with Alan: LinkedIn Other Revenue Builders episodes with Alan: The Ideal Partnership with Alan Chhabra Key takeaways from this episode:  00:00 - Why the infrastructure behind AI may matter more than the applications built on top of it. 12:26 - What the shift from data to AI changes about how partner leaders map the market. 16:06 - Why understanding the full AI stack is a prerequisite for building the right partnerships. 27:48 - A look inside what it really takes to navigate the politics of a hyperscaler partnership. 36:00 - The four capabilities CEOs should test before hiring an AI partner leader. 48:34 - What leaders often overlook about the role of sovereignty in shaping AI infrastructure decisions. 56:25 - Why software companies and traditional enterprises are moving at very different speeds on AI adoption. Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management