Guru watch

Mary Meeker, founder, Bond Capital

“Typically, when new markets emerge, incumbents are caught off guard, which creates opportunity for startups,” says Mary Meeker, the so-called “Queen of the internet” during her time as a Morgan Stanley analyst during the dotcom bubble. “The difference now with the gangbuster – and extremely capital-intensive – growth in AI is that most of the tech companies with market capitalisations in excess of $1trn are involved.”

Tech giants such as Microsoft are “aggressively fighting for global market leadership in AI”, Meeker tells Barron’s. This may drive a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) boom as these firms, and others who are seeking to catch up with them, snap up innovators.

So Meeker’s venture capital (VC) firm Bond Capital – which she founded in 2018 after leading investments in Airbnb, Snap and Uber while working at VC giant Kleiner Perkins – has been investing in startups that use AI and machine learning in everything from cloud computing to mining exploration. AI is compelling because of the opportunity for users to become more efficient by adopting products and services that “provide the ability to focus on higher-priority tasks versus manual and repetitive ones”, she says. “We have a long way to go here, but the trends are good.”

The wider economic and political environment is messy, with “profound problems” – including war and geopolitical tensions, rising debt, poor leadership, weak education, and social issues driven by social media and constant connectivity – providing plenty of reasons to worry. Yet the strength of the tech sector has carried the US market to new highs.

There are risks to this bull market – including the potential for aggressive regulation. Still, “markets climb a wall of worry”, says Meeker. “America’s innovation in AI, growing creativity, and momentum in defence... could surprise us on the upside.”