What Investors Are Overlooking in AI & Semis | Val Zlatev

Val Zlatev, Portfolio Manager and Senior Partner at hard tech specialist hedge fund Analog Century Capital Management joins Other People’s Money to discuss what he thinks investors still fail to appreciate about the secular growth of AI and semiconductors. He also discusses why DeepSeek was so misunderstood, other aspects of the AI supply chain, the state of the analog chip cycle, running long/short and market neutral strategies and garnering interest from the large multi-manager platforms. Learn More About Analog Century Capital Management: https://www.analogcm.com/ Follow Max on X: https://x.com/maxwiethe Follow Other People’s Money on: Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1M Spotify https://bit.ly/3Yhaazi YouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXR X https://x.com/opmpod Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:15 What is Hard Tech? 02:41 The Evolution of the Hard Tech Sector From the 90s to Now 05:04 Investors Are Underweight Hard Tech 11:09 The Massive Impact of the End of Moore's Law 16:59 New Investment in Semiconductor Capacity 18:08 Why AI Should Be Compared to Cloud, Not Fiber 22:55 What Investors Got Wrong About DeepSeek 25:41 The US Government's Impact on AI & Chips 33:04 The Chinese Government’s Involvement in AI & Chips 35:13 Dominant Players in Chinese Semiconductor Market 39:12 The AI Supply Chain Beyond Semiconductors 43:53 Analog Semiconductors & Power Management 49:55 Winners, Losers, and Fakers in AI 57:03 Research Process for Hard Tech 01:01:25 Dispersion in Hard Tech Returns 01:03:31 Trading and Portfolio Construction at Analog Century 01:08:13 Market Neutral & Garnering Interest From Multi-Manager Platforms 01:12:20 Market Neutral vs Long/Short Investors 01:14:51 The Value of Partners and Team Continuity 01:16:42 Conclusion