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Seth Klarman

CEO & Portfolio Manager, Baupost Group

Search every verified Seth Klarman interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Seth Klarman, CEO of Baupost Group, gave a series of rare public interviews in 2026, including a 75-minute conversation with Barry Ritholtz on Bloomberg. Klarman discussed the firm's multi-strategy approach, which he said evolved opportunistically from public equities into distressed credit, private investments, and real estate. He described Baupost's team as generalists who work across asset classes and emphasized the firm's patience, stating that sometimes there is nothing to do and other times there is an avalanche of opportunity. Klarman also said he regretted not having a deeper understanding of venture capital earlier in his career. Regarding the current market, Klarman stated that he believes the environment has characteristics of a bubble, citing an optimistic tone around AI and examples such as a shoe company adding AI to its name and seeing its stock rise. He said Baupost is focusing on "AI agnostic" investments, such as credit markets and infrastructure, where he sees less competition. Klarman also expressed concern about the U.S. national debt reaching 100% of GDP and said he believes the country is taken less seriously overseas due to policy volatility. He identified assisted living commercial real estate as Baupost's favorite single idea, noting the sector is beginning to recover from post-COVID difficulties.

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“I think investors might be missing just how much money is being sucked out of the system between large IPOs. This won't be the last one. Open AI and anthropic are coming and there's a ton of other IPOs that are stuck in institutional investors portfolios that also they'd love if they could get them off at any point. ... There's so much demand for money and I think we're in a vulnerable place where ultimately supply a”

“I think that the Fed took rates down to zero after the great financial crisis and that it was really the only way to hold things together, give time to heal. But by leaving rates there for an extra decade after there was no crisis, I think we stoked a problem. We sort of incented speculation and maybe disincentivized responsibility.”

“I think investors might be missing just how much money is being sucked out of the system between large IPOs. This won't be the last one. OpenAI and anthropic are coming, and there's a ton of other IPOs that are stuck in institutional investors portfolios that also they'd love. If they could get them off at any point... So we might be looking at some um, supply demand, um, excess um, where prices soften just because t”

“I think that we probably are taken less seriously as a country overseas than we've been in a long, long time. Some of that is the tariffs, its policies that we announced and then reverse immediately. It's the recklessness of the Iran war that we've accomplished. Not that much or nothing. And it's unresolved and maybe unresolvable for the moment. So I think and just the way we talk about allies and alliances and even ”

“I worry for the US debt just hit 100% debt to GDP. And that's a alarming number. That's not immediate sign of trouble. But nobody thought it could get to this level. And of course the structural deficits are enormous. So adding to that debt, 2 trillion or more a year, it's going to its high 30s. It's going to be 50 and five years and it'll be 100 and other decade from that or something like that. Those are scary numb”

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