And right now it's one of the most exciting times ever for investing. You have AI, robotics, tokenization. What are some of the topics that you're most excited about? And what do you think people aren't talking about enough?
Oh, what they're not talking about enough? I would say healthcare. I know that doesn't sound sexy, but we think it's the most profound application of AI.
Wow. And those stocks have just come alive.
Yeah. After almost four years of suffering. Companies like Anthropic and OpenAI are saying, you know what? I think healthcare could be the most important application of AI. And why is that? It's because we know nothing effectively about biology. And I'll tell you why. There are three billion base pairs of DNA in our bodies. Three billion.
There are 40 trillion cells.
So we are walking proprietary data factories, each one of us, and this is the... I think AI is going to crack the code to life, health, and death.
Do you think that AI could rapidly expand longevity of life and quality of life?
I absolutely do. I think that now that we can identify mutations... So mutations are some programming error in our genome or proteome. Now that we can identify them — what are mutations? They are the earliest manifestation of a disease, the earliest sign. So if we can identify them in the very early days, then there's... and the only way we can do that is with new sequencing technologies, with artificial intelligence. Now that we can identify them, we can begin to reprogram them, edit out those errors, and cure disease or prevent disease even before it happens. And it's already happening. A company called CRISPR Therapeutics is already curing beta-thalassemia and sickle cell disease, and in its pipeline is a cure for bad cholesterol.
Wow. Well, my brother needs that one.
Yeah. [laughter] A huge percentage of the US population needs that.
And you know, I think a lot of people are looking at Moderna here because it had that pop recently, but names like CRISPR have really traded sideways for years at this point. And it's almost been like a nice period of consolidation, right? And now they have a catalyst. So what's interesting about this period with those names in particular?
So if you... it's Intellia, CRISPR, Beam, Prime. What's interesting about those names is they remind me of Amazon after the tech and telecom bust. And I remember in 2003, when at another firm we tiptoed into Amazon at a $5 billion valuation.
It's trillions now, right?
I know. It's like three trillion. Yeah. I remember back then people were saying, 'What are you doing? They will never make any money.' Delivering books.
And at the time they were online, and I was doing all my Christmas shopping online with Amazon.
Wow. In '03. But very early adopter.
Very early adopter. Lost a lot — meaning I didn't get a lot of the packages — but that's innovation in its earlier days. And I knew it. I was a new mother, and it was fantastic. But as far as the stock, you know, Amazon would solve one issue that analysts had, and then they'd find another issue they didn't like, and then another one, and another one. And it took a good few years before the market started to catch on to how important Amazon was going to be, in terms of not only retail but also AWS and so forth. And same thing with these stocks. I think, you know, they solve... what do they solve? Safety — they're safe. Efficacy — it works. FDA approved — check. Reimbursement — check. They get $2.2, $2 million for each of these cures. Think about that.
Check. Because we save so much sick care money. Yeah.
That insurance companies have no problem. But still, they go sideways. And you're right. You're right. This — and I've said this about Tesla. I said it in 2019. The longer the base — we are here at a conference where there are a lot of traders, and they know this — the longer the base, the bigger the breakout. And I think that's going to be true with these stocks.
That's a great point. And you know, speaking of one of the Mag Seven here, there's another one that you've actively been talking — the team's been talking about a lot on the brainstorm, and I've seen it getting added to the portfolios, and that's Meta.
And Meta, I was curious how you look at it in terms of AI value accretion in applications versus the industrial side, and also is Meta a moat? Does it have a moat?
Yeah, all of these are live questions. That's why you hear so much about it on the brainstorm. So I can tell you, having invested as long as I have in innovation — so yeah, back into the '80s — typically when there's a technology transition, companies who were very successful in the old world did not do very well in the new world. Now, an exception was Microsoft. Microsoft has made the transition in a number of things.
Yeah. He's cooking out there.
Yes. Yes. Got to hand them lots of credit. Not under Ballmer, but under Satya Nadella. That was the consolidation. And he walked in and activated all of the gifts they did have, and was willing to go open source when it was looked upon... frowned upon.
