Gavin Baker - AI, Semiconductors, and the Robotic Frontier - [Invest Like the Best, EP.385]

My guest this week is Gavin Baker. Gavin is the managing partner and CIO of Atreides Management, and he has been on the show many times before. He is one of my favorite investors to talk to and this may be my favorite conversation with him. Gavin first started covering Nvidia as an investor at the turn of the millennium, making him the perfect guest to discuss all things AI and investing. There is so much detail in this discussion and I’m incredibly grateful to Gavin for sharing his wisdom with us again. Please enjoy this fantastic conversation with Gavin Baker.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).

Show Notes:

(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best

(00:04:42) The Magnificent Seven and Tech Competition

(00:06:29) Generative AI and Scaling Laws

(00:08:36) Challenges in AI Infrastructure

(00:15:02) The Future of AI and Data Centers

(00:17:51) Efficiency in AI Models

(00:35:14) Synthetic Data and AI Training

(00:42:37) Inference and the Role of Smartphones

(00:48:35) Investment Implications in AI

(00:49:09) Opportunities for New Companies

(00:51:20) Challenges at the Application Layer

(00:52:25) AI's Impact on Advertising

(00:53:40) AI ROI Debate

(00:54:39) SaaS Metrics and AI Disruption

(00:55:59) AI-First Application Companies

(01:00:50) The Future of Robotics

(01:14:01) Leadership in Tech Giants

(01:24:05) The Evolution of Investing