Look, I get it. You’ve been told that slow and steady wins the race, that 6% annual returns are “responsible investing,” and that chasing big gains is for gamblers. But while you’ve been playing it safe, some folks are literally minting money faster than the Federal Reserve.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: 1,000 new millionaires are created in America every single day. That’s one every 86 seconds. Meanwhile, if you’re still betting on “Old Economy” stocks, you’re basically riding a tricycle in the Indy 500.
The Secret Sauce: Companies That Make Nothing
This sounds completely backwards until you think about it for five seconds. The biggest winners in today’s market don’t make stuff – they make platforms. Uber doesn’t own cars. Airbnb doesn’t own hotels. Meta doesn’t create content (well, except for those cringey metaverse videos).
These “hyperscale” companies figured out the cheat code: build something once, then add customers at basically zero cost. It’s like having a money printer, but legal and way more profitable.
Take Shopify – it went from helping 162,000 businesses in 2015 to 5.5 million by 2025. Because it’s just software, not physical stores, it could handle that explosion without building a thousand new warehouses. The result? A $1.2 billion company became an $87 billion giant. Early investors saw 17x returns.
AI: Hyperscaling on Steroids
Now here’s where it gets really wild. Those earlier hyperscale companies still needed humans for customer service, sales, operations. AI is about to eliminate even those costs. Once you train an AI model, serving one customer or one million customers costs roughly the same.
This is why AI startups are hitting billion-dollar valuations in months, not years. ChatGPT reached 100 million users in two months – faster than any technology in human history. We’re not just seeing exponential growth; we’re seeing exponential acceleration.
The Great Wealth Transfer
Here’s the thing that should keep you up at night: we’re witnessing a massive wealth transfer. Half the Fortune 500 companies will be dead by 2035, replaced by startups you haven’t heard of yet. One in four companies has already replaced workers with AI, and that number hits 40% by 2026.
The companies that master this hyperscale + AI combo will control the future. And the investors who back them early will control the wealth.
Look, I’m not saying throw your entire 401k at the latest AI meme stock. But if you’re still thinking linearly in an exponential world, you’re going to get left behind. The middle ground is disappearing fast – you’re either riding the wave or getting crushed by it.
The question isn’t whether this transformation is happening. It’s whether you’ll be part of it or just read about it in the financial obituaries.