Wall Street's sharpest hedge funds are reading the same market and reaching opposite conclusions. Viking Global, with more than $50bn, cut net exposure below its historical average, wary of stretched AI valuations, heavy capex, and a fragile backdrop of slowing US growth. It limped to a 0.8% gain over five months, while Renaissance's models fell 6.6% in May and 11% on the year. Coatue is up 19% this year, betting an AI super-cycle is just beginning. Avala Global and Whale Rock have surged 41% and 58%. Avala alone jumped 31% in May, riding bets on Amazon, Nvidia, and Microsoft. Just six stocks make up a third of the Nasdaq 100, which shed 4.8% on June 5 in its worst day in two months. Tech-focused funds now carry their heaviest Nasdaq exposure since 1998, double the historical norm.

How does a Data Center go Bankrupt during a Bull Market? Cyxtera Technologies was the product of a 2017 carve-out acquired by BC Partners and Medina Capital and assembled into the third-largest public retail colocation operator in the US. What began as a portfolio of data centers was repositioned as an independent enterprise infrastructure platform serving over 2,300 customers across roughly 60 facilities. By 2021, the business had gone public via a SPAC merger and had grown steadily amid the data center supercycle driven by AI demand. Unlike most competitors, Cyxtera was built on leased rather than owned real estate. Then, in the middle of the largest data center buildout in history, it filed for Chapter 11. The business was not the problem. The capital structure behind it was. With its entire funded debt floating-rate and almost all of its real estate leased, rising rates and a near-term maturity wall left the company unable to refinance.   Read the Full story ⬇️

In my years on the buyside, I have experienced first-hand the democratization of institutional investing to retail investors. This said, these opportunities are still hard to find, which is why I am excited to partner with Lightstone Group in bringing you their first retail vehicle. Backed by Lightstone Group’s nearly four decades of experience and $12bn in assets under management, Lightstone DIRECT gives accredited investors access to our proprietary deal pipeline, previously available only to institutions. With a 26% IRR across 55 realized deals since 2004, they bring a proven track record of performance. As a vertically integrated sponsor, they manage every operation in-house and invest at least 20% of their own capital in every deal. If you are an accredited investor looking to deploy capital directly in real estate deals, you can sign up for free on their platform. After signing up, you will receive access to their proprietary deal flow. lightstonedirect.sjv.io/9Lbk…

Most work conversations are now being recorded by default. You should probably assume that everything you say at work is getting recorded from here on out. What’s emerging is a new category of enterprise software, organized around voice instead of text. The system of record today is structured data: CRM entries, tickets, docs. But the highest-value context lives in conversation: the nuance on a customer call, the real argument in a product review, the offhand comment in a leadership meeting that quietly changes the roadmap. LLMs are uniquely good at taking that unstructured voice data and making it structured, searchable, and queryable. That’s a large enterprise opportunity, and we’re still early in understanding what the software layer looks like and who owns it. a16z GP David Haber on what AI recording means for the future of work: a16z.news/p/everything-is-re…

Leopold Aschenbrenner’s AI hedge fund Situational Awareness has reportedly surpassed $20B in assets after gaining more than 1,000% since inception.