Chapter 248 - 187: A Good Opportunity to Sell

Chapter 248: Chapter 187: A Good Opportunity to Sell

In the meeting interface, after a brief silence, a voice with a thick Southern accent spoke up.

Fred looked toward the voice. The speaker was a dark-skinned Black man who looked to be in his early forties.

Marcus Williams, CEO of a subsidiary of Big Beautiful Bank that specialized in tech investments.

Marcus’s voice was steady, his pace neither fast nor slow, but every word was spoken with clarity.

"Peter, if I may."

He looked at Peter Harris’s image on the screen, a polite smile on his face.

"If you believe that AI-related stocks will rise in the short term, then on that point, I agree with your assessment."

Hearing this, a smug look appeared on Peter’s face. He was just about to say something, but Marcus’s next words stopped him cold.

"However," Marcus’s tone shifted, becoming serious, "I believe this is actually an excellent opportunity to sell."

The moment he finished speaking, the entire meeting interface was plunged into dead silence.

Everyone was stunned.

Especially Peter Harris. The smug smile on his face froze instantly, replaced by utter disbelief.

"What? Sell?" Peter’s voice went up an octave. "Marcus, are you kidding me? Good news comes out, and you want to sell?"

However, Arthur Wayne, who was in the moderator’s seat, and several other executives who were clearly older and looked like seasoned veterans of investment banking, gave an imperceptible nod.

Marcus ignored Peter’s sharp-toned question and simply continued speaking calmly:

"If one has truly done in-depth research into the artificial intelligence industry, they would know..."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the faces in the meeting interface, some confused, others contemplative.

"This new algorithm was released to the public in this way."

"Being publicly released means it’s open-source."

"And open-source means anyone can use it."

Marcus’s pace was still unhurried, but his tone was exceptionally firm.

"Under these circumstances, the emergence of this algorithm is not good news for all AI-related companies."

"Quite the contrary," his tone grew heavier, "for certain companies, this is a fatal blow."

"For instance," Marcus said, "CloseAI, and Jask’s company, XAI."

At the mention of these two names, many of the attendees furrowed their brows.

After all, many of the investment firms present had invested heavily in CloseAI and XAI.

Especially CloseAI. As the hottest AI unicorn company in the world right now, its investors included practically half of Wall Street.

Marcus’s voice continued to echo through the meeting interface:

"These companies’ main source of revenue is providing closed-model services."

"Their core competency, to put it bluntly, is their technological barrier."

"Their models perform better than others, so customers are willing to pay to use them."

"But now," Marcus sneered, "once Chen Lin’s algorithm is implemented by other companies, those competitors who were originally technically behind CloseAI and XAI will rapidly close the gap in a very short amount of time."

"At that point," he said, enunciating each word, "CloseAI and XAI’s technological moat will quickly disappear."

"Whether it’s the tech giants in the USA or the internet companies in Huaxia, the content quality of their self-developed large models will quickly catch up to CloseAI and XAI within a matter of months."

At this point, Marcus paused for a moment, as if giving the attendees some time to digest this information.

The meeting interface once again fell into a brief silence.

Peter Harris’s expression had turned ugly. He opened his mouth, seeming to want to rebut, but for a moment, he didn’t know where to begin.

Just then, another voice broke the silence.

It was a woman’s voice, soft and carrying the unique, magnetic charm of a mature woman, making it exceptionally pleasant to hear.

Fred subconsciously looked toward the voice.

The moment he saw the face on the screen, he froze.

It was a blonde woman.

Her features were as exquisite as a masterpiece meticulously carved by God, especially her emerald-green eyes, which seemed capable of captivating one’s soul.

Her skin was fair and delicate, without a single wrinkle, and she exuded an air of mature elegance.

Fred stared at the screen, his brow furrowing slightly.

The people who could attend this meeting were all heads of Wall Street’s top investment firms.

And these people were, for the most part, old hands who had been navigating the industry for decades, generally over fifty years old.

At forty-five, he himself was already considered on the younger side for this meeting.

But this woman before him...

Fred couldn’t guess her age, but no matter how he looked at her, she didn’t seem old enough to hold such a position.

Fred’s gaze fell on the woman’s name on the meeting interface.

[Elena Caroline]

That name...

Fred quickly searched his memory, but he couldn’t recall where he had heard it before.

Just as he was wondering, Elena began to speak.

"Marcus is right."

Her voice was calm, but it carried a tone of conviction.

"The public release of this algorithm will cause AI tech companies on the US stock market, whether they’re already public or still private, to undergo a massive valuation restructuring."

As Elena spoke, she raised a slender, fair finger and tapped it lightly in the air, as if to emphasize what she was about to say next.

"Purely technology-driven AI companies like CloseAI and XAI will be abandoned by investors."

"I predict their valuations will fall by more than 50% within the next six months."

"Even," she paused, then added, "if market sentiment worsens significantly, a drop of 70% to 80% is not out of the question."

A collective gasp echoed through the meeting interface once again.

A 50% drop in valuation?

CloseAI’s current valuation, after all, exceeded one hundred billion US dollars!

By the most optimistic estimates, if CloseAI were to IPO, its market cap could break a trillion dollars on its first day!

And for the investment firms that were heavily invested in CloseAI, the losses would be astronomical!

However, Elena, as if not seeing the shocked expressions on everyone’s faces, continued speaking in an unhurried manner:

"Of course, not all AI companies will be abandoned."

"Those companies with established use cases and a large user base, like Giant Hard and Doggie, will see their valuations remain relatively stable."

"And those companies at the infrastructure level, like NVDA and cloud service providers, will continue to be sought after by capital."