AOL co-founder Steve Case says 'smart cities' are the next big thing

AOL co-founder and former CEO Steve Case told FOX Business on Wednesday the next big opportunity is in the third wave of the internet.

“The third wave is now happening. It’s really integrating the internet in seamless ways throughout health care and energy, food, agriculture, transportation [and] smart cities,” Case told Maria Bartiromo on “Mornings with Maria.”

In his opinion, “we are kind of peak Silicon Valley,” and despite “some tough big brother privacy issues surrounded around cyber terrorism bringing down some of these smart cities,” a more inclusive innovation economy will begin to emerge.

“[There’re] more cities that are rising, the brain drain of cities are slowing. There’s a boomerang of talent. We just need to follow with that venture capital anything we can do to get more capital in the hands of more entrepreneurs doing more interesting things in this third wave will result in a much more inclusive innovation economy. We will have a country where everybody will feel more optimistic about the future, not fearful,” he said.

Case, now the CEO of investment firm Revolution, said while technology and software still play a big role, a different approach to entrepreneurship will be required.

“It’s about partnering with other companies,” he said, adding that big tech companies such as General Electric (NYSE:GE) and IBM (NYSE:IBM) have already partnered with startups to capitalize on the new wave.

“It’s going to be really dealing with some of the most fundamental aspects of our lives. How we stay healthy. How we move around the cities and partnerships with other companies and understanding the growing importance of policies and how you have to interact and engage with governments,” Case said.