D1’s Dan Sundheim – Nvidia Would Be $12 Trillion In A Real Bubble And Why He Gets Up At 3AM Daily

Dan Sundheim runs D1 Capital with a hands-on approach. He buys and shorts single names, reads earnings in the middle of the night, and still messages his traders when most of Wall Street is asleep. He describes himself as a fundamental investor doing the same core job people did twenty years ago. He also thinks the public markets that made him famous are “kind of problematic.” The tension between those two points shapes how D1 is organized, how ideas are entered and exited, and how risk is sized.

This paradox, mastering a system he views as fundamentally flawed, defines D1’s ethos, which blends analytics with an intuitive, pattern-based approach, and underscored by a personal discipline that sees him awake and active before dawn daily.

D1 Capital is a $25 billion investment vehicle spanning public and private equities. D1 Capital defines itself by an anachronistic adherence to fundamental analysis and deep research, focusing on understanding business models and company prospects over a three-to-five-year horizon.

Sundheim was recently interviewed by Stripe's Cheeky Pint podcast where Sundheim discussed his average day, shorting, running a fund, his investment process and much more.

Also see: Peter Lynch In New Interview: The Old Rules Still Work; How To Look And Verify

A public-markets specialist who does not love public markets

Sundheim’s opening view is direct. If he ran a company like Stripe, he would not go public. He calls today’s public market structure “problematic.” He is not alleging fraud. He is pointing to volatility that distorts compensation, culture, and decisions. When a stock trades at what he calls an “insane value,” employees can get paid for a run-up that has little to do with progress, and future hiring gets priced off option strikes that management does not believe in.

The paradox is familiar. Plenty of public-markets investors prefer the control and time horizon of private deals once they have the option. What’s specific to D1 is that the same work standard applies in both places. The diligence, modeling, management interviews, and industry work are the same; the difference is the path in and out. Private is a one-way door. Public lets you change your mind.