The public markets are thinning, the private markets are exploding, and AI is wholly destabilizing both.
Consider the past week’s software meltdown: AI fears and stalled market dynamics vaporized $1 trillion in market value, rippling down to private companies.
“The funding mechanism for the software LBO complex has short-circuited, IPO markets have been weak, and it’s gummed up the machinery,” said Paul Wick, chief investment officer at $30 billion investment firm Seligman. “There’s no more red line where software stocks won’t go below a certain point… It’s a psychological shift, as well. People are more fearful.”
Wick has long been watching the public and private markets intersect and diverge—he started investing in tech in the 1990s. In 1999, he first met Umesh Padval, then CEO at public semiconductor company C-Cube Microsystems. The pair kept in touch over the years, bonding over a shared love of wine and a realism about tech.
“I had wanted to do something in VC for a long time, but it’s hard to find the right people and the right opportunity,” said Wick. “And then Umesh was available.”
