MBI Deep Dives (Page 19)

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The Promise and Pitfall of Agentic Commerce

We are entering the age of agentic commerce, where autonomous AI agents, acting as our digital deputies, will navigate the endless aisles of online stores, evaluating products and making purchases on our behalf. Agentic commerce promises to crush search frictions and expand the practical consideration set from a handful of

Never Sell: Episode 9-Global Payments, AI and Software, OpenAI and Anthropic Bubble?

For the “Never Sell” podcast, Scuttleblurb and I published a new episode today. You can listen to it here: Spotify, Apple, YouTube, RSS feed As a reminder, if you have any questions for either MBI Deep Dives or Scuttleblurb, please feel free to email us the questions which we may

Challenges for Self driving Semi, ADI 3Q'25 Earnings

Challenges for Self driving Semi I touched on the potential for self driving semi in my recent Deep Dive on Union Pacific, and mentioned the lack of entrenched unions for trucking industry can be a boon for them to integrate automation compared to railroad industry which is heavily unionized. The

Airbnb's unique demand driver

Traditional travel accommodation is still quite search driven. You go to Google or an OTA website/app and insert some details from the dropdown menu (destination, travel dates, number of guests, budget etc.) to pick your accommodation. But ever since going public, Brian Chesky has been highlighting that they would

Walmart and Target Earnings

Walmart and Target announced their earnings this week and while I don’t follow these businesses rigorously, going through their earnings simultaneously was an interesting exercise. If you looked at Walmart and Target’s same store sales growth trajectory in the last eight quarters, you might be tempted to think

Constraints, and challenges of value capture in the AI race

There are a couple of podcasts I would like to highlight today. First, Acquired interviewed Sierra’s co-founders: Bret Taylor (who is currently Chair of OpenAI board and former Salesforce co-CEO) and Clay Bavor (who was at Google for 18+ years). They have an interesting vantage point; they both made

Union Pacific: Chasing the Transcontinental Dream

You can listen to this Deep Dive here Note: I first published my Deep Dive on CSX in July 2023. The introduction and industry overview section basically remain pretty relevant today for Union Pacific as well, so I have copied (and edited a couple of things here and there) those

Global Payments, Tax Shenanigans

A programming note: I will publish my Deep Dive on Union Pacific (ticker: UNP) tomorrow. Following Union Pacific, the next Deep Dive will be on ASML. I also wanted to remind you that after switching to a more topical discussion format for the “Never Sell” podcast (see here), I will

Market Bubble Talk, Frozen Housing Market Implications

Ever since I started investing in the US in 2018, I have consistently heard about valuation being in “bubble” territory. Early 2023 was perhaps the only time I can recall the bubble talk was a bit subdued, but then again, a recession in 2023 was thought to be on the

Amazon's Ambition in Groceries: Part 1

Back in 2023, Terry Smith from Fundsmith wrote the following as their rationale to exit their position in Amazon (emphasis mine): Relatively new CEO Andy Jassy enunciated some principles of investment which investment projects had to have, namely: 1. Be big and capable of delivering good returns on capital. 2.