Chase Taylor spent most of his adult life serving in the United States Air Force. He held several positions during his 17 years of service: avionics specialist on B-1 Bombers, a geospatial intelligence analyst, and then commissioned to become an acquisitions officer. The Air Force provided him life-changing experiences and allowed him to travel the world. This worldview and his desire to understand the great financial crisis propelled Mr. Taylor into his passion for financial markets. He’s spent the last 16 years investing and writing about the markets and all they encompass. In 2018, Mr. Taylor founded Pinecone Macro Research where he publishes those writings to individuals and institutions. Chase has been the Head of Research at Bulwark Capital for the last year where he works on everything from security analysis to forecasting the big trends that shape the market. Mr. Taylor has a Bachelor of Arts in Intelligence Studies from American Military University and is finishing his Master of Science in Foresight from the University of Houston.
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Episode 449
Chase Taylor
Investment Implications of the AI CapEx Boom | Chase Taylor
Chase Taylor spent most of his adult life serving in the United States Air Force. He held several positions during his 17 years of service: avionics specialist on B-1 Bombers, a geospatial intelligence analyst, and then commissioned to become an acquisitions officer. The Air Force provided him life-changing experiences and allowed him to travel the world. This worldview and his desire to understand the great financial crisis propelled Mr. Taylor into his passion for financial markets. He’s spent the last 16 years investing and writing about the markets and all they encompass. In 2018, Mr. Taylor founded Pinecone Macro Research where he publishes those writings to individuals and institutions. Chase has been the Head of Research at Bulwark Capital for the last year where he works on everything from security analysis to forecasting the big trends that shape the market. Mr. Taylor has a Bachelor of Arts in Intelligence Studies from American Military University and is finishing his Master of Science in Foresight from the University of Houston.
In Episode 449 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Chase Taylor, head of research at Bulwark Capital Management and founder of Pinecone Macro Research about investment opportunities around the buildout of the new electric stack and the AI CapEx Boom that relies on them.
Chase and Demetri spend the first hour of this episode exploring his methodology, how he extracts signals from noise, and why a multidisciplinary approach to investing is especially important during periods of disruptive sociopolitical and technological change like the kind we are experiencing today. They then apply these ideas to two important technological trends underway in the global economy: (1) the transformation of the so-called “electric stack” or electro-industrial stack and (2) the AI CapEx Boom that relies on it.
They begin with a deep-dive exploration of the dramatic cost declines happening across the entire electric stack, beginning with the addition of new sources of energy, advancements in battery technology for storage, the use of magnets and motors that turn electricity into mechanical motion, power electronics that shape it into the precise force needed by today’s technologies, and the embedded compute that orchestrates and decides how and when to put that force into action.
They discuss the sources of China’s dominance in this industry, the horizontal complementarities in its manufacturing ecosystems, the advantages of vertical integration, and what America and Europe need to do in order to remain competitive in this new industrial ecosystem.
The second hour is devoted to exploring the implications for investors of the current AI CapEx boom, how the USD might behave in a growth slowdown scenario post-Liberation Day, and what the Trump administration’s military and covert action threats against Maduro’s regime in Venezuela can tell us about his foreign policy and whether we are returning to a more colonial phase of domination by the American empire over the Western hemisphere.
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Chase Taylor spent most of his adult life serving in the United States Air Force. He held several positions during his 17 years of service: avionics specialist on B-1 Bombers, a geospatial intelligence analyst, and then commissioned to become an acquisitions officer. The Air Force provided him life-changing experiences and allowed him to travel the world. This worldview and his desire to understand the great financial crisis propelled Mr. Taylor into his passion for financial markets. He’s spent the last 16 years investing and writing about the markets and all they encompass. In 2018, Mr. Taylor founded Pinecone Macro Research where he publishes those writings to individuals and institutions. Chase has been the Head of Research at Bulwark Capital for the last year where he works on everything from security analysis to forecasting the big trends that shape the market. Mr. Taylor has a Bachelor of Arts in Intelligence Studies from American Military University and is finishing his Master of Science in Foresight from the University of Houston.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.