Laffont Sees Artificial Brains, Robots as the Next Step for AI
(Bloomberg) -- Coatue Management founder Philippe Laffont said robots powered by artificial brains will be a next big step for AI.
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Even though that may be 15 years away, it’s going to be “pretty exciting,” Laffont said in a rare interview Tuesday with David Rubenstein at the Bloomberg Invest Summit in New York. “What I wonder is, what happens when you put that brain inside of a robot and we humans then live side-by-side” with them.
In the shorter term, he said he finds AI themes, including how the industry will drive demand for energy, to be “really interesting.”
Coatue, with about $47 billion of assets under management, invests in technology stocks and also makes venture bets in the sector. AI juggernaut Nvidia Corp., which has rallied about 150% this year, is among the firm’s biggest equity holdings. But Laffont warned that an invasion of Taiwan by China would hurt Nvidia and global stock markets. Nvidia, based in Santa Clara, California, relies on Taiwanese factories to manufacture its chips.
It would be a “very significant event,” said Laffont, 56.
Speaking more broadly, Laffont said that just because enthusiasm for AI is already so high doesn’t necessarily mean that the opportunity to invest in the industry has passed. As an example, he recalled his 2009 investment in Apple Inc. a few years after the debut of the iPhone, and people would ask why he remained invested in an over-hyped company.
Since then, the stock has gone on an “incredible” run, he said. “I actually think that sometimes because someone speaks a lot about something, it might actually be a good sign versus an over-hyped sign,” he said.
For the full interview with Coatue’s Philippe Laffont, watch “Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein” at 9 p.m. in New York on July 16 on Bloomberg Television.
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