Paul Graham says public market investors are missing out on a potential way to get in on the AI boom, since all the good companies to invest in are still private. tweeted that those who invest in the public markets – which includes anyone who can access a stock trading account on Robinhood or Charles Schwab – have few options if they want to invest in an AI company.
And the typical pathway to the public stock market can take several years and most AI companies haven't achieved the type of scale and revenue necessary to make the transition to that market. It's also. The current volatile state of the IPO market makes it less appealing, even for the biggest and most successful private companies, like payments giant Stripe or grocery delivery startup Instacart, to go public.
Neither scenario, according to Graham, may produce a good investment since those companies choosing the first route are playing to public market opinion, while those settling for the second could probably find a private investor willing to give them the kind of capital they're looking for. AI-related stocks have soared on the public markets this year, but new research from Vanda Research shows that. Retail investors, however,"remain on the sidelines" the research firm said in its note.