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AI investments should be evaluated according to which of five layers of Jensen Huang's 'AI cake' framework a company occupies — base infrastructure/energy, chips, data center infrastructure, models, and applications — since capital intensity and defensibility differ sharply by layer.

Jonathan Thomas explains Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's 'AI cake' analogy — five layers from raw infrastructure up to consumer apps — as the right framework for judging whether a given AI-exposed stock's market position is sustainable, expandable, and defensible. ✦ AI generated

Jonathan Thomas · The Compound · 2026-07-17 · original ↗

starts at this moment · 60:47

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Do you worry about bubbles in pockets of the market like semiconductors, memory stocks?

There's the base level which is really the ground, the cooling, the electricity. You've got the chip level, right? The Nvidia of the world. You got the infrastructure level which are the data centers themselves. You have the model level which are the LLMs and then sitting on top of all of that is the app level where the actual value's created.

verbatim transcript · starts at 60:47

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60:28is that not really an issue for you based on the way that you manage money and how the strategies work? So, you brought up Jensen Wang earlier and have you guys heard his thing about the the AI cake >> maybe. >> Okay. He talks about the AI is a cake and he says it has five layers to >> What a what a salesman. >> Oh, he's fantastic

60:47>> cuz I'll buy cake. >> Yeah, [laughter] me too. Talk to me about cake and I'm all in. Yeah. Um he talks about the cake and you know because we use the word AI but there are really five distinctive levels to it. There's the base level which is really the um the ground, the cooling, the electricity. You've got the chip level, right? The Nvidia of the world. You got

61:11the infrastructure level uh which are the data centers themselves. uh you have the model level which are the LLMs and then sitting on top of all of that is the app level where the actual values created from an investing point of view you know down on the bottom of the cake those first two levels the base level and the infrastructure level require or base and chip require massive investment lot tons

61:42of capital as you go up that cake it requires less and less capital. But when we talk about AI investing, you got to figure out which level of the cake you're in. Okay? Because it's not just the word is used so broadly and there's so much underneath it. What level of the cake are you in? And is that position that they currently hold sustainable, expandable, and defensible? And I think

62:08>> on a stockby stock basis, >> on a stockby stock basis, >> very hard to do. >> It is. But but we use the words AI so broadly and it's there's just so much more to it than that. >> It's nuts to me how many sectors it affects. Industrials, utilities, energy, like almost every single sector maybe except for financials and healthcare. >> I mean, we wrote about Caterpillar and

62:28that's been such an AI story. I mean, who would ever think that? So, I like this idea that where the puck is going is that healthc care and financials arguably have companies that could be among the biggest beneficiaries of AI as users, as adopters. Like what? Think about insurance underwriting. Think about um drug discovery. >> Like if if AI lives up to the the promise, I was going to say hype, but I

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