MBI Deep Dives (Page 11)

Latest Posts

Meta's GEM

Back in March 2025, Meta published an interesting blog post highlighting their innovation in their ad infrastructure. One such key innovation was their Generative Ads Recommendation Model or GEM. GEM, the largest foundation model for recommendation systems, is essentially a massive reorganization and upgrade of the AI that runs advertising

Nadella's truth

Satya means “Truth” and Nadella’s interview with Dwarkesh and Dylan Patel yesterday was indeed his way of disseminating his truth. It is one of the most interesting interviews I have listened to so far this year. What made the interview so compelling was that the interviewers did not tiptoe

Why I may have underestimated the potential for Airbnb Experiences

Brian Chesky has made quite the uproar in re-launching Airbnb Experiences in the last 6 months. As far as I can tell, almost none of the investors shares remotely the same enthusiasm about experiences as Chesky appears to do. I too was more on the “unenthusiastic” or “indifferent” camp when

What exactly is CSU's ROIC?

Yesterday, I mentioned “While CSU’s heydays of ~50-60% ROIC is clearly behind us, CSU’s ROIC in the last 12 quarters has been quite sticky around ~30% which is plenty good!” A couple of readers pushed back on how I calculated ROIC and after thinking through their points, I

Constellation Software 3Q'25

Constellation Software reported earnings on Friday last week. Unlike other companies, they do not hold quarterly earnings calls although I do wonder whether they will have a change of heart under the new CEO, especially if the stock continues to remain under pressure for an extended period of time. I

How would we know if market were "AGI" pilled?

During Meta 2Q’25 call, Mark Zuckerberg mentioned something potentially quite profound: “Over the last few months, we’ve begun to see glimpses of our AI systems improving themselves. And the improvement is slow for now, but undeniable” Then in Meta 3Q’25 call, he described Meta’s Family of

Digital Advertising Industry Snapshot, Portfolio Change

As is the tradition in every earnings season, I am sharing my digital advertising Snapshot after 3Q’25 earnings. Digital ads market growth has accelerated to 18.4% in 3Q’25 (vs 15.7% in 2Q’25 and 14.1% in 3Q’24). Meta continues to gain market share every

Airbnb 3Q'25 Update

Airbnb had a notable acceleration in Gross Booking Value (GBV) growth as it increased from 10.8% in 2Q’25 to 14.3% in 3Q’25. This acceleration was driven by the twin acceleration of both the nights & experience or N&E (from 7% in 2Q’25 to

Corpay 3Q'25 Update, Portfolio Change

Many payments companies are going through bit of a rough patch in the latter half of this year. Unfortunately, Corpay hasn’t been an exception. Thankfully, they reported a pretty decent quarter. I will cover my highlights from the quarter as well as some risks I see behind the paywall.

Shopify 3Q'25 Update

Despite having the good fortune of owning Shopify after the 2022 drawdown, I had the “misfortune” of selling it at less than one-third of the current stock price in early 2023. Given how Shopify powers increasingly a sizable portion of e-commerce market, I still try to follow them closely. Every