The Brief
Every exponential technology follows a learning curve. AI is on the steepest one we've ever measured. I help the people deploying capital understand what that means.
Founder of Exponential View · Author of Exponential (FT Best Book 2021) · Executive Fellow, Harvard Business School
The Argument
We are in the early innings of the most significant repricing event since the internet. AI and adjacent exponential technologies — energy, biotech, robotics — are collapsing cost curves at rates that make traditional forecasting models unreliable. The firms and funds that understand this will generate outsized returns. Those that don't will misallocate capital at scale.
I don't just analyse exponential technologies — I invest in them, I've built companies with them, and I've spent a decade tracking the energy transition that powers them. When I brief a board on AI economics, I'm drawing on operator experience, not just research.
I don't do policy. I do deployment: where the money goes, why it compounds, and what the second-order effects look like for your portfolio, your sector, your firm.
My work is built for the room where allocation decisions get made.
Where This Matters
Five positions on where value migrates next
Economics & Growth
AI could restart exponential growth by making intelligence accumulable like capital. But it might also narrow the frontier of discovery.
Strategy & Transformation
Three inputs to civilisation crossed from extraction to engineering. Every institution built for scarcity is running yesterday's software.
Energy & Infrastructure
AI's growth constraint has moved from capital and code to concrete and copper. Physics, not software, is the bottleneck.
AI Infrastructure
Trillions of AI agents need economic infrastructure that doesn't exist yet. Identity, payments, and trust at machine speed.
Investment & Finance
Everyone is looking for an AI bubble. The data says stampede. The real danger is timidity, not exuberance.
Productivity & AI
Each order of magnitude in AI token usage transforms the technology's nature — from toy to colleague to workforce.
Geopolitics & Technology
The borderless internet is dead. The global technology economy is splitting into US-led and China-led sovereign stacks.
Markets & Investment
Why $650 billion in AI investment is not a bubble — and may not be enough. A five-gauge framework for telling the difference.
Economy & Productivity
AI is the third general purpose technology in a century. We are in the messy middle — and that is exactly where the opportunity lies.
Trusted by leaders at
Plus: BMW, Coca-Cola, Renault, IKEA, Lego, BBC, BCG, PwC, Harvard Business School, University of Oxford, and 50+ other organisations.
What They Say
"Azeem has a deeper understanding of how exponential technologies reshape business models than almost anyone I've encountered. He doesn't just describe the future — he gives you frameworks you can act on."
"After Azeem's session with our leadership team, the strategic questions changed — we stopped asking 'should we invest in AI' and started asking 'where specifically does AI compress our cost structure.'"
"Azeem delivers a comprehensive but lively take on the key issues informing what he calls the Exponential Age... Highly recommended!"
"Azeem builds the case for exponential thinking through insightful examples of technologies that have made possible discontinuous leaps forward."
"Azeem has a rare ability to connect insightful macro analysis with real-life examples of AI and its impact on our daily work. Our team really enjoyed the session and learned a ton!"
"Azeem's material was spot-on for the audience and resonated well. Loads of positive feedback."
HBS
Executive Fellow, Harvard Business School
Stanford
Visiting Fellow, Stanford HAI
286K
Senior decision-makers read EV weekly
20yrs
At the intersection of tech & capital
Featured in
Financial Times Best Book of 2021
Exponential
The economic framework for why technology cost curves are compressing faster than markets can price — and what that means for firms deploying capital today.
"The world is in the midst of [an exponential] transformation, argues Azeem Azhar..."
On the Exponential Age
"Azeem builds the case for exponential thinking through insightful examples of technologies that have made possible discontinuous leaps forward."
"Azeem delivers a comprehensive but lively take on the key issues informing what he calls the Exponential Age... Highly recommended!"
See for yourself
For Event Organisers
Champion Kit
A 3-page briefing document to help you make the case internally. Includes key outcomes, audience impact data, and preparation process.
Check your email — the Champion Kit is on its way.
~25 engagements per year.
I work best in small, high-stakes settings — a partner offsite, a board strategy day, a fireside with your most important clients. I also deliver keynotes when the room and the question warrant it.
If you're thinking about how AI reshapes your sector's economics, I'd like to hear what you're seeing.