Gavin Baker, Managing Partner of Atreides, on Everything You Wanted to Know About Semiconductors & Why Global Warming is a Solved Problem

On this episode of Invested, Michael sits down with Gavin Baker who is the Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Atreides Management, LP. In addition to overseeing investments and research at Atreides, he is responsible for the firm’s day-to-day portfolio management. Prior to founding Atreides in 2019, Gavin was at Fidelity Investments from 1999 to 2017, most recently as the portfolio manager of the Fidelity OTC Portfolio from 2009 to 2017. He also helped spearhead Fidelity’s venture capital investing from 2013 to 2017. Prior to managing the Fidelity OTC Portfolio, he was a portfolio manager of the Fidelity Select Wireless Portfolio from 2007 to 2011, the Fidelity Select Telecommunications Portfolio from 2007 to 2009 and the Fidelity Select Pharmaceuticals Portfolio from 2002 to 2005. Gavin started his career at Fidelity as an analyst, and focused on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, retail, consumer packaged goods and telecommunications. Gavin earned an AB in economics and history from Dartmouth College.

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KEY TOPICS 

00:00    Intro

02:10 Foundation Models: From Fastest Appreciating to Depreciating Assets

05:46 The Trillion-Dollar AI Club: OpenAI, Anthropic & xAI

10:25 The “Free Agency” Talent War and Religious Belief in ASI

12:55 Weaponizing Capital and the $600 Billion GPU Question

16:30  The 30-Year “Overnight Success” of Nvidia

20:22 Cerebras, NextSilicon, and the Power of Picking Niches

23:49 TSMC, Intel, and the Semiconductor “Chocolate Cake” Problem

26:40 Why Taiwan Semi’s Lead May Be Stabilizing, Not Existential

30:48 ”Intel Made Two Crucial Errors” 

32:42   When Washington Bought a Piece of Intel

37:00 Israel’s Role in the Allied Semiconductor Supply Chain

40:54 The New Semiconductor Cold War

47:11 Toward an “Allied Supply Chain” for Chips and AI

50:54 Why Gavin Says Global Warming is a Solved Problem

55:34 Mars, Neuralink, and the Next Human Frontier

01:00:19 Would You Always Bet on Elon Musk?

01:03:01 Mission-Driven Investing and Avoiding “Bad for the World” Bets

01:07:37 Why Tel Aviv Feels Like the Most Exciting City in the World

01:09:43 The Charlie Kirk Assassination and the Return of Political Violence

01:15:37 X Saved the Truth About October 7th 

01:23:57  SpaceX, Starlink, and the Future of Human Ambition

RESOURCES

Follow Gavin on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavinbaker-portfoliomanager/

Follow Gavin on X - https://x.com/GavinSBaker

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CREDITS

Executive Producer: Erica Marom 

Producer: Myron Shneider

Video and Editing: Ron Baranov

Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar 

Content and Editorial: Kira Goldring

Design: Rony Karadi