Philippe Laffont on Bitcoin, $10T companies, and the rise of AI agents

Billionaire tech investor Philippe Laffont has been open in the past about wishing he’d bought more Bitcoin. Today, though, he’s far less certain that Bitcoin is the most exciting place for long-term capital. In his view, the real upside may now sit in AI, space, and private markets – and one of those areas could produce the world’s first $10 trillion company.

Why Laffont is less excited about Bitcoin

Laffont admits he used to wake up at 3 a.m. thinking about Bitcoin and regretting not buying more. Now, he says he no longer knows what to think about it. The main reason: the broader market has changed around Bitcoin.

He points to a time when there were very few IPOs and public markets felt “broken” – dominated by index funds where everyone owned the same big names and had little appetite for new listings. In that environment, Bitcoin looked like an attractive “off-ramp” for anyone wanting something more speculative and outside the traditional system.

Today, that’s no longer the case. There are large, exciting IPOs in areas like space and AI, and investors have more ways to take risk in traditional markets. At the same time, crypto itself has evolved, and that changes Bitcoin’s role.

Stablecoins vs. Bitcoin: different jobs in the crypto world

Laffont highlights stablecoins as a big part of why he’s unsure about Bitcoin’s purpose going forward. Stablecoins are crypto assets pegged to fiat currencies like the US dollar, designed to stay stable in price. For people who simply want to move money into a new system or hold funds offshore in digital form, he argues stablecoins may already do the job better.

He notes that many stablecoin platforms effectively offer yield through rewards or structured products, even if it isn’t always presented as straightforward interest. That makes them attractive as a kind of crypto cash account, without the volatility that comes with Bitcoin.

In other words, if you want:

• Speculation – you now have big tech, AI, and space IPOs.
• Digital dollars – you have stablecoins.

That leaves Bitcoin in a more ambiguous spot. As Laffont puts it, to really believe in Bitcoin today, you almost have to adopt a “maximalist” mindset – treating it like a kind of financial religion where you’re either fully in or out. For him, that’s becoming a harder bet to justify compared to other opportunities. For a broader look at how Bitcoin fits into this new AI-driven era, see why Bitcoin’s recent price action is being weighed against the AI boom.

Chasing the first $10 trillion company

Instead of trying to guess where Bitcoin will be in 10 years, Laffont prefers a different challenge: identifying which company could be worth $10 trillion in the next decade or so.

He walks through the math. Today, the total US equity market is around $60–70 trillion, and the global market is roughly $120 trillion. If global market cap grows to around $200 trillion in 10–15 years, a single company worth $10 trillion would represent about 5% of the world’s equity value. That sounds huge, but not impossible.

We’re already partway there. Nvidia, for example, sits around the mid-single-digit trillions in market cap, and we’ve seen a growing club of companies worth over $1 trillion. Laffont argues that having one company reach $10 trillion is a logical extension of this trend as technology eats more of the global economy.

From “Magnificent 7” to a bigger trillion-dollar club

Laffont thinks the idea of a fixed “Magnificent 7” is already outdated. Instead, he looks at a broader set of companies with trillion-dollar-plus valuations – what he jokingly calls “MAG 11” or “MAG 12.”

That group doesn’t just include the usual US tech giants. He points to names like Berkshire Hathaway and Eli Lilly on the non-tech side, and TSMC and Broadcom in semiconductors. The key point is that the top tier of global companies is expanding and shifting, and the next wave of trillion-dollar giants may not all be public yet.

In his view, future mega-caps could include:

• Leading AI model companies like OpenAI and Anthropic
• Space companies such as SpaceX
• Possibly another major space player, like Blue Origin or a yet-unknown competitor

For Laffont, the real game is to imagine this “index of the future” – the list of companies that will dominate global market cap 10 years from now – and invest accordingly, while being able to stomach daily volatility.

Why agentic AI feels like a “big bang” moment

One of the themes Laffont is most excited about is agentic AI – AI systems that don’t just answer questions, but act as autonomous agents that can perform tasks, coordinate workflows, and effectively function like digital employees.

He sees this as one of the biggest ideas of his investment career. The vision is simple but powerful: you go to bed, and while you’re sleeping, thousands of AI “agents” are working for you – researching, coding, drafting, analyzing, and preparing work that’s ready when you wake up. It’s a completely new way of working.

Laffont admits he still scribbles notes on paper himself, but he’s already seeing how people in his own office are using AI to boost productivity and generate new ideas. The pace of improvement, in his view, is still very fast.

Will AI models be free?

A key debate in AI is whether the underlying models will become a free commodity thanks to open-source alternatives. Laffont doesn’t buy that idea.

He believes businesses will want to work with the very best models in the world, and those will command a price. At the same time, older versions of top-tier models – say, an Anthropic model from three years ago – could be offered very cheaply. That creates a tiered market:

• Cutting-edge models – expensive, but extremely capable.
• Older models – much cheaper, still powerful enough for many tasks.

In that world, companies like OpenAI and Anthropic could become central infrastructure for the global economy, much like cloud providers or chip manufacturers today. That’s part of why Laffont sees them as candidates for future multi-trillion-dollar valuations.

This AI–infrastructure view also echoes a broader trend where crypto, AI, and traditional finance intersect – for example, in the rise of AI-powered trading, on-chain AI agents, and stablecoin-driven liquidity. For another angle on how AI and digital assets are converging, see how the AI–stablecoin boom is reshaping visions like Brad Garlinghouse’s multi-trillion-dollar XRP outlook.

Why private markets are booming

Laffont also spends time on a structural shift: the rise of private markets. He argues that public markets – especially in debt – became too rigid and simplistic. For example, some investors would only lend to AAA-rated borrowers, leaving huge opportunities for others willing to underwrite more complex or riskier deals. That helped private credit explode.

He thinks something similar is happening in tech. With public equity markets heavily dominated by passive index funds, many investors are effectively outsourcing their thinking to index providers. If new IPOs don’t fit neatly into those indices or don’t get immediate inclusion, they may be overlooked. That leaves room for private markets to capture value before companies ever go public.

By his rough numbers, public equity markets are around $60 trillion, while private markets in tech are already about $5 trillion and growing. Many of the most exciting AI and space companies are still private – and that’s where he wants to be positioned.

Letting smaller investors into private tech

Historically, access to private companies, hedge funds, and complex strategies has been limited to institutions and accredited investors. Laffont points out that this is largely due to regulation: products with higher risk, leverage, or illiquidity are restricted to investors who are assumed to be more financially sophisticated.

He openly questions that assumption. In his view, it’s “offending” to automatically assume institutions are more financially literate than retail investors. He says he believes in the wisdom of the crowd, even while acknowledging that leverage and complex products do require care.

In response, his firm has launched a new fund structure that allows a broader set of investors to gain exposure to both public and private companies, within certain limits. He welcomes this direction and thinks the current regulatory environment is slowly improving to give more people access to high-growth private tech.

Why long-term capital matters more than fees

When asked whether opening up to retail investors is altruistic, Laffont is blunt: it’s not. It’s a business decision. The model offers lower fees, but in exchange, his firm gets longer-dated capital – money that can stay invested for many years.

For someone trying to pick the “index of the future” and hold potential $10 trillion winners over a decade, long-term capital is far more valuable than slightly higher fees. It lets him ride out volatility and stay focused on where the world is going, not on quarter-to-quarter noise.

He’s also clear on one boundary: his firm doesn’t lend money to investors to get them into these funds. Leverage is not part of the offer. The goal is patient, aligned capital, not turbocharged risk.

What this all means for crypto investors

For crypto-focused readers, Laffont’s perspective is a useful reality check. He isn’t anti-Bitcoin, but he no longer sees it as the obvious outlet for speculative capital it once was. With stablecoins handling the “digital cash” role and AI and space offering massive upside in both public and private markets, Bitcoin now has to justify itself as a long-term store of value in a much more competitive landscape.

At the same time, the themes he’s betting on – AI agents, private tech, and the hunt for $10 trillion companies – are likely to shape the broader macro environment that crypto trades in. Understanding those forces can help crypto investors position themselves for a future where digital assets, AI, and traditional equities are increasingly intertwined.