3 hours ago
Bokeh Capital Partners founder and CIO Kimberly Forrest and Freedom Capital Markets managing director Paul Meeks discuss the trajectory of the AI trade and when return on investment (ROI) can be expected. This conversation follows Meta Platforms (META) signing a $27 billion AI partnership deal with Nebius (NBIS).
Kimberly Forrest: I have worked at AI companies that didn’t focus on the total addressable market or the technology’s broader impact, especially regarding payback. Often, we would secure one project at our small AI company but fail to get follow-up projects because we didn’t add enough value to the paying company. This is crucial. Paul mentioned earlier that monetization must occur. The large companies currently investing heavily, such as Google, have significant funds to spend. Google, in particular, needs to invest because it sees its core search franchise being challenged by large language models. People no longer want a list of websites; they want to ask questions in plain English and receive direct answers. This dynamic drives the major companies within the Magnificent 7 to continue spending. However, this spending will eventually stop because they need to recoup their investments.
Paul Meeks: I believe this will impact AI infrastructure companies like Nvidia and others. In 2027, we expect a significant inflection point for these businesses, with clearer signs of monetization emerging. However, 2026 will likely remain a year focused on infrastructure building. I continue to favor investments in cloud, semiconductor, and hardware companies. We anticipate some positive developments in 2027 that could change the narrative, but we probably won’t see these until late this year.
