Val Zlatev, Portfolio Manager and Senior Partner at hard tech specialist hedge fund Analog Century Capital Management joins Other People’s Money to discuss what he thinks investors still fail to appreciate about the secular growth of AI and semiconductors. He also discusses why DeepSeek was so misunderstood, other aspects of the AI supply chain, the state of the analog chip cycle, running long/short and market neutral strategies and garnering interest from the large multi-manager platforms.
Learn More About Analog Century Capital Management: https://www.analogcm.com/
Follow Max on X: https://x.com/maxwiethe
Follow Other People’s Money on:
Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1M
Spotify https://bit.ly/3Yhaazi
YouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXR
X https://x.com/opmpod
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:15 What is Hard Tech?
02:41 The Evolution of the Hard Tech Sector From the 90s to Now
05:04 Investors Are Underweight Hard Tech
11:09 The Massive Impact of the End of Moore's Law
16:59 New Investment in Semiconductor Capacity
18:08 Why AI Should Be Compared to Cloud, Not Fiber
22:55 What Investors Got Wrong About DeepSeek
25:41 The US Government's Impact on AI & Chips
33:04 The Chinese Government’s Involvement in AI & Chips
35:13 Dominant Players in Chinese Semiconductor Market
39:12 The AI Supply Chain Beyond Semiconductors
43:53 Analog Semiconductors & Power Management
49:55 Winners, Losers, and Fakers in AI
57:03 Research Process for Hard Tech
01:01:25 Dispersion in Hard Tech Returns
01:03:31 Trading and Portfolio Construction at Analog Century
01:08:13 Market Neutral & Garnering Interest From Multi-Manager Platforms
01:12:20 Market Neutral vs Long/Short Investors
01:14:51 The Value of Partners and Team Continuity
01:16:42 Conclusion
