Invest Like the Best with Patrick O’Shaughnessy

Alex Sacerdote - How to Invest Through Technology Cycles - [Invest Like the Best, EP.477]

2026-06-09

My guest today is Alex Sacerdote, founder of Whale Rock Capital Management. Whale Rock is a technology focused investment firm that manages more than $17 billion across hedge fund, long only, and hybrid strategies. Over the past three years it has been one of the best performing hedge funds, compounding at roughly 44 percent a year. Alex invests through a single lens that he has refined over twenty years. He looks for technology S-curves, durable competitive advantages, and underappreciated earnings power. This conversation is a tour through how he applies that framework right n...

My guest today is Alex Sacerdote, founder of Whale Rock Capital Management.

Whale Rock is a technology focused investment firm that manages more than $17 billion across hedge fund, long only, and hybrid strategies. Over the past three years it has been one of the best performing hedge funds, compounding at roughly 44 percent a year.

Alex invests through a single lens that he has refined over twenty years. He looks for technology S-curves, durable competitive advantages, and underappreciated earnings power.

This conversation is a tour through how he applies that framework right now. We start with his highest conviction position, which is Anthropic, and use it to work through the entire AI stack from chips to models to applications.

Please enjoy my conversation with Alex Sacerdote.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠).

Timestamps:

(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like The Best

(00:02:29) Alex Sacerdote

(00:03:08) Anthropic: Highest Conviction Position

(00:13:23) Investing in Private Markets at Scale

(00:19:08) S-Curves: The Full Framework

(00:25:08) When to Buy Tech Companies

(00:30:20) Identifying the Leader from the Pack

(00:34:04) Anthropic & OpenAI's Competitive Moats

(00:37:31) AI's Threat to Enterprise Software

(00:43:18) Network Effects in the Agent Era

(00:44:22) The Hardware Renaissance: Chips & Infrastructure