This what Ted's thinking, AI, fundamentals, valuation, and the next allocator dilemma,

takes on a high-level assessment of AI companies as late-stage private winners prepare to go public,

and the next big challenge allocators face as a result.

I'm sitting in my classroom in disbelief.

Five years of training and value investing, and a year and a half at business school,

led me to a class called Managing the Market Space.

The old marketplace of revenues, margins, and cash flow driving shareholder value

had suddenly been replaced by clicks and eyeballs. Shortly thereafter, I attended a wedding

and sat next to someone working at a technology company. The business had just gone public,

sporting a $3 billion market cap and $3 million in revenue.

The more questions I asked, the more confused I became with the answers.

Eventually, that recent Warden graduate turned to me in frustration and said,

You just don't get it.

He was right.

I couldn't see the future or understand the present.

It was the spring of 2000. A few months later, the dot-com valuation bubble burst, but the internet-powered economy roared on. Maybe I was proven right, or maybe I was early and wrong. That's what made the period

so difficult to navigate. The enthusiasts were right about the technology, and the skeptics were

right about prices. Here we are again with AI. AI is the next revolutionary technology and the centerpiece of every investment conversation.

I won't pretend to know how the technology, business models, or capital markets will play out,

but it's hard not to think about AI these days.

I tend to see the world through probabilities rather than certainties.

Consistent with that thread, I see two sides of the AI discussion see the world through probabilities rather than certainties. Consistent with that thread,

...