Episode summary
Maverick Capital Co-CIOs on Finding the AI Winners
Exchanges (Goldman Sachs)
· · Hosts: Tony Pasquariello · Guests: Ben Silver, David Tykocinski
Summary
Maverick Capital’s co-CIOs describe an investment process built around long-term alpha generation rather than market timing, with deep diligence, close partnership with management teams, and a portfolio-first risk framework. They say that despite decades of change in tools and markets, the core culture has stayed the same, and that recent years have brought Maverick back toward a first-principles approach after a period of heavier near-term valuation focus.
A major theme is AI, which they see as a multi-layered trade that has moved from GPUs into broader hardware, infrastructure, energy, and then increasingly into software, workflows, and enterprise integration. The guests argue the key question is not whether AI matters, but where the economic bottlenecks and terminal value will land as spending shifts from training build-out to applications and productivity gains.
They also highlight healthcare as a potential beneficiary of AI and reshoring, especially life science tools and drug manufacturing equipment, though they say the sector has been starved of capital so far. On risk, they point to U.S. political dysfunction, China, and the possibility that parts of the AI supply chain face commodification and competitive pressure. Their shared role, they say, works because they are similar on commercial instincts but different enough to counterbalance each other.
Key takeaways
- The guests say Maverick’s core edge is still alpha generation from long-term diligence, not sector timing or big index-style bets.
- They see AI as shifting from hardware scarcity to downstream workflow and application bottlenecks, with enterprise integration likely becoming more important.
- They think life science tools could benefit from AI, reshoring, and a coming capex cycle in drug manufacturing equipment.
- They worry that Chinese competition could compress returns in hardware- and materials-heavy parts of the AI stack.
- They say the co-CIO model works because each can act as a counterweight to the other and both are willing to “disagree and commit.”
Notable quotes
“Performance that's driven by alpha, not market timing, not sector exposures, or big sector exposures I should say”
“the first slide of our marketing materials is the same as it's been since inception”
“we are very receptive to just the speed at which facts are changing day by day and adapting accordingly”
“I think in general, to monetize the trade, it's been about following that migration of that bottleneck further upstream”
“we'd disagree and commit”
How the episode opens
Where are the most exciting opportunities in the stock market today? I'm Tony Pasquariello and I'm about to sit down to Ben Silver and David Tykocinski of Maverick Capital. Ben and David are co-CIOs of Maverick s public funds business.
They've had tremendous success at identifying the key drivers of markets and pouncing on the opportunities that crop up as a result. And today, they're going to talk about how they do it. David, Ben, thank you for coming down to see us.
Thanks for being here. Thank you for having us. Yeah, really appreciate it.
Tell us a little bit about how the co-CIO model came together. I presume the transition came from Lee Ainslie? Yeah, right.
So Lee had obviously had a little bit of a sense, right, of our thought process from an investment perspective in terms of our performance when we were sector heads. I think beyond that, though, there was a couple year period where we were beginning to kind of just incubate general ideas and thoughts about, kind of, organization writ large, investment process and philosophy writ large. And so I think even before he executed the transition, he obviously had some degree of conviction in terms of how we think about some of these bigger picture items that would be relevant in the event of a transition.
And so I think by and large he had this view that, one, he already had a sense of our natural chemistry of kind of approaching certain critical decisions together. But I think also just some of the natural similarities and differences between us would provide a degree of interesting counterpoint that I think he thought would be beneficial for the culture and the organization. Let's jump off that point.
In terms of style or areas of expertise, what would you say are the characteristics you two share?
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ai investing
- healthcare investing
- long-term investing
- active stock picking
- manager partnerships
Companies and tickers mentioned
- GS
- Goldman Sachs
- Maverick Capital
Watch the episode
Watch “Maverick Capital Co-CIOs on Finding the AI Winners” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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Exchanges (Goldman Sachs), this episode and its artwork belong to Goldman Sachs. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
