At the 2025 Ben Graham Conference, Jake Taylor, Founder of Baserate, Inc., moderated the Integrating AI, Energy Policy, Server Farms panel. Kelly Morgan, Research Director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, discussed energy bottlenecks and labor shortages. Michael Ball, CFA, Executive Director at SMBC, addressed AI’s massive capital demands. John Barr, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Needham Funds, emphasized productivity and earnings quality. Jennifer Drake, Founder of Adalabs AI, urged widespread AI adoption across business operations. Gretchen Guo, CFA, Founding Partner at FACT Capital, shared insights on global AI strategy and alpha opportunities.
Also our coverage of the 2025 Sohn Monaco Conference, 2025 Global Alts New York and the Best Alternative Investment Fund Conferences for 2025.
2025 Ben Graham Conference - Kelly Morgan, Michael Ball, John Barr, Jennifer Drake, and Gretchen Guo
Key Concerns and Observations on AI
AI's Transformative Power and Concerns
Michael Ball referenced Kai-Fu Lee, whom he calls the "Godfather of AI" and a prolific financier in unicorns. Lee observed that during President Obama's visit to China, AI could simultaneously translate, and the Chinese Communist Party had already laid out a roadmap for AI, encompassing social implications and infrastructure. Michael Ball highlighted that society currently lacks a comprehensive philosophy around AI's impact.
John Barr stated that as an equity investor, one needs to be a long-term optimist, and he personally does not worry about anything regarding AI.
Jennifer Drake noted the $10 trillion labor software market, suggesting that even a 5% productivity increase from AI would be significant. She emphasized AI's ability to "do more with less," citing examples like automating agent notices into portfolio management and general ledgers, as well as creating chatbots for marketing and investor relations (IR) to free up humans for higher-level interactions. She likened AI to an intern that improves daily, can be shared with colleagues, replaces meetings, and can answer questions to avoid repetition.
Gretchen Guo highlighted the global need to reskill 60% of jobs worldwide due to AI's potential to increase unemployment.
Jennifer Drake believes we are still in the "second inning" of AI adoption, with models continually improving, becoming multimodal (not just text-based). She outlined key milestones for deeper AI integration:
- AI is essential for agents across every site.
- People interact with AI daily, similar to an intern.
- AI performs autonomous activities in the real world, such as self-driving cars and robots.
- AI augments human interaction with the real world (e.g., Google Glass was an early, albeit imperfect, example).
Kelly Morgan emphasized the concept of latency sensitivity in AI applications. Current uses like chatbots and document summarization are not highly latency-sensitive, but future applications like self-driving cars, surgeries, healthcare, and manufacturing will be. This latency sensitivity will significantly influence data center location and utility infrastructure.
Michael Ball added that the saying is often that "we always overestimate impact under the longer term," but he believes we are certainly underestimating AI's longer-term impact.
Investment Implications and Valuation:
Gretchen Guo discussed the adoption curve, starting with infrastructure for data centers, which was initially scarce. The focus is now shifting towards inference and edge computing, specifically on the foundry side. She sees the application side as a multi-year development. Many software names have not yet priced in the positive growth impression of AI. She specifically pointed out China AI, like Alibaba (BABA) trading at 10 times earnings, as a potentially significant opportunity.
Regarding the "picks and shovels" opportunity in skilled labor, John Barr likened it to Mike Rowe's "Dirty Jobs". He observed that America is training individuals for jobs that may not exist. He highlighted companies like
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