General Atlantic CEO Sees Long-Term AI Opportunity

Author: Bloomberg Television · Watch on YouTube

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Original language: English

Original video: General Atlantic CEO Sees Long-Term AI Opportunity · Channel: Bloomberg Television · 07:20 · Watch on YouTube

Topics: Markets and economy, Robotics and autonomous systems

Summary

General Atlantic CEO Bill Ford says the firm sees a strong global opportunity for growth investing, driven by innovation and entrepreneurship, including in the Middle East once the current conflict is resolved. He views the region’s recent difficulties as a short-term issue and describes the US as an especially attractive market, with AI driving opportunities across emerging and established industries. Ford also discusses the firm’s global roots and says geopolitical and market-access risks complicate investment decisions, but globalization is being rewired rather than reversed. He remains bullish on AI over the long term while supporting efforts to address its safety risks through industry and government regulation.

Key points

Ford calls the current period one of the best times in his 30 years to be a growth investor, citing innovation and entrepreneurship around the world.
He expects the Middle East to return to growth and attract investment after the current conflict is resolved.
Ford sees AI accelerating the development of markets such as autonomous vehicles and robotics, while also affecting education, health care, and legal services.
General Atlantic has considered an IPO as one possible way to raise capital, but Ford says other options exist.
The firm’s founding focus on entrepreneurship, globality, and philanthropy remains central; more than half of its investing activity is outside the US, and it has 19 offices worldwide.
Ford says geopolitical and geoeconomic risks are elevated, but globalization is being rewired rather than rolled back.
Investors must assess whether companies, including Chinese businesses with global ambitions, will have access to markets.
A global perspective helps General Atlantic understand markets such as robotics and identify likely competitors.
Ford expects AI to bring periods of overcapitalization and overvaluation but sees substantial opportunity over a 10- to 20-year horizon.
He says AI safety risks should be addressed through some industry self-regulation and government regulation.

Chapters

Start	Chapter	Summary
00:00	Global growth opportunities and the Middle East	Ford describes a strong environment for growth investing and says he expects the Middle East to resume its development path after the conflict.
02:02	US growth investing and AI	Ford outlines opportunities in the US, particularly AI’s effects on new markets and industries that have seen fewer productivity gains.
03:37	General Atlantic’s global approach	Ford explains the firm’s global origins and discusses how geopolitical risks and changing supply chains affect investment decisions.
05:11	Market access and global competition	Ford says market access is an investment risk to assess and describes how a global view helps the firm understand sectors such as robotics.
06:12	AI’s long-term prospects and safety	Ford remains bullish on AI’s long-term impact while saying its safety risks should be addressed through industry and government regulation.

Quotes

It’s one of the best times of my thirty years to be a growth investor. — 00:31

Over a ten, twenty year view, there’s gonna be tremendous opportunities related to AI. — 02:32

I think we still believe in globalization. — 04:39

That globality gives us a real edge. — 05:42

I remain long term very positive and very bullish about it. — 06:47

Concepts and entities

Bill Ford, General Atlantic, AI, growth equity, globalization, autonomous vehicles, robotics

Full transcript (original language)

00:00 We are continuing our conversations here at the Qatar Economic Forum at the Plaza Hotel in New York on markets and the economy as investors digest the Federal Reserve’s rate increase this week and try to make sense of the path forward. Glad to have Bill Ford with us now. He’s the, CEO of General Atlantic here on set with us at the plaza in New You can hear some announcements going on behind us. I think the, the big program is about to start here shortly, so people are filing in. So we apologize for the noise. So let me ask you first just about where you see opportunity globally. Of course, the focus here today during these proceedings on The Middle East, on The Gulf, maybe we can start there.

00:31 It’s been a difficult last six, seven months for for the region. How do you see opportunity in the context of of The Middle East right now? Well, just maybe maybe to go up a level, we’ll come back down to The Middle East. Is that Sure. David’s always asking really low level questions. Let’s take us up a level. Well, it it’s it’s actually, we’re we’re a growth equity firm, and it’s it’s one of the best times of my thirty years to be a growth investor. There’s so much innovation happening. Entrepreneur entrepreneurship is now a global phenomenon, and it’s happening not just in The US, not just in AI, but all over the world, including The Middle East. You

01:01 know, Latin America, India, and China are all really hotbeds of innovation right now. And, you know, The Middle East, was really on a terrific path over the last decade with a focus on economic development and and innovation. And I think it’s been a bit derailed by what’s happened with the current conflict. But I have a lot of optimism. Once that once that gets resolved, it’ll return to growth, and it’ll be a, you know, a place for more capital formation, more investment. We were just sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. We were just speaking to the the

01:31 chair of, you know, the investment authority, and he he seemed to be approaching this as more a short short term blip on a a longer term bullish to it’s in theater for investment. Is is that how you’re looking at it? This is a short term problem, or is this reevaluating longer term investments in the region? Absolutely, the former. I think this is a short term issue. They’ve really been on a growth and development path consistently with very enlightened leadership for at least a decade. And I think they’re eager to get back to it. They know the situation has to get resolved,

02:02 but I I don’t think there’ll be significant barriers to to investors, you know, reentering the region or being active in the region once once we put this behind us. Pulling you back here to the to The US, and I’m curious how this environment looks to you for a growth investor. How how is The US how attractive is The US right now for the growth investor? It’s a terrific environment. I mean I mean, there’s just so much innovation happening. I mean, you you can’t help but talk about AI, but a way to think about it, it’s really stimulating the development accelerating development of some really exciting new markets like autonomous vehicles and

02:32 robotics. But it’s also attacking industries like education, health care, legal services that have been somewhat impervious to productivity gains and improvement with techno through technology. So it’s really having a transformative effect. So I think over a ten, twenty year view, there’s gonna be tremendous opportunities related to AI. When you look at what you guys wanna do at General Atlantic, you’ve been exploring an IPO. Do we have any kind of timeline for when we might wanna do that, or that’s not on the in the cards? Well, we’re it it it really is a great time to be a growth investor, and,

03:06 we we have found a lot of opportunities to develop the firm right now and use our capital. We’ve been developing our insurance channel, our our our private well our wealth channel, and all those have required capital. And and and IPO is something we’ve considered, and it’s one way to get that capital, but there are other ways. And I think the most important idea for us is that we just see a lot of opportunity around innovation and entrepreneurship. It is accelerating. The quality of the entrepreneurs has never been better, and it’s global. So, it’s a good time to be in our business.

03:37 Talk about the uniqueness of the firm. So I think the heritage, back to Chuck Feene, has been around for for some time. What do you do that sets you apart from, yes, other growth investors, but but firms worldwide? Well, you’re you’re nice to mention it, David, but we we got our start as a as a a really a family office for a wealthy entrepreneur who was focused on two things or three things, entrepreneurship, globality, and philanthropy. And and he set us off on a pathway of really being a global firm. And today, more than half our investing activity is outside The US. And, we have 19 offices around the world. But

04:09 but he but his business, the duty free shoppers, was a global business, and he believed passionately in entrepreneurs. So we carried those things forward. Forty six years later, it’s still at the heart of the firm, and it’s an exciting for us. Because we are at the UN and we are talking about globalization, multilateralism, how countries and nations work together, which is something you have to consider, you know, as any business, does the inconsistent tariff landscape at the moment make it a bit harder for you to decide

04:39 where to deploy capital, where to look at, where to invest? Well, I I I would say I would say it this way because, you know, I I think geopolitical risks are elevated. Across the board? Yeah. Across the board. Geoeconomic risks are elevated across the board, but I I think we still believe in globalization. Now it might be a reglobalization or a rewiring of global supply chains, but there really has not been a significant decline in global trade and and even capital flows around the world. So, yes, it’s getting rewired. Yes. It’s reglobalizing. It doesn’t look

05:11 like it did ten years ago, but I don’t think we’re rolling that back. Think How do you calibrate that when you’re looking at investments that by necessity have to be longer term? Well, I the way we look at it is you do have to you do have to consider market access. So if you’re investing in a Chinese business, a lot of the Chinese companies have aspirations to sell around the world. Yeah. And you have to put a filter on and say, will market access be fully available for that company? That becomes an investment risk that has to be assessed. So that’s different. We didn’t have to worry about

05:42 that before. But but beyond that, at the core is innovation. At the core is entrepreneurship. And I’ll make one other comment that that that’s really helped us by being global. If you’re looking at a market like robotics, you have to know what’s going on in all the major markets. What’s happening in China? What’s happening in Europe? What’s happening in The US to really understand the picture of how that market’s gonna evolve and who are be gonna the winning competitors. So that globality gives us a real edge. Now it’s it’s more complicated, but it’s still an advantage.

06:12 Let me ask you last about AI as I shout over the dawn of the of the room. It’s it’s exciting to be here. It is. You open the door so I’m gonna drive the truck through. We’re the door. We’re having this conversation about AI and existentialism. Is it a moment when capital allocation gets scaled back or pauses as a result? Do you think it’s gonna have any effect on kind of investor interest in AI? The the worries that we’ve seen, the agitation, the anxiety about the future of AI. You know, a cup a couple of thoughts, David. Every tech cycle I’ve invested in, the PC cycle, the Internet cycle, the mobile cycle, the cloud cycle, and now AI, there’s all

06:47 there’s always moments of over capitalization and overvaluation. But over a ten, twenty year period, there’s plenty of opportunity. I I think what’s happening now is a very thoughtful moment to say, this industry, like railroads, like electricity, like the Internet, has some safety risks. They have to be addressed. They’ll be they should be addressed by some degree of industry self regulation and some government regulation. But I don’t think that stops the development of what’s happening or the impact of AI. So I I remain long term very positive and very bullish about it.

07:20 But we’ll have to have these moments where we’ll reflect on how do we make it safe in the future. Bill Ford, thank you.