Accelerated AI: The Presentation Making the Case for a Second AI Boom

Accelerated AI is the title of Jason Bodner’s presentation from Brownstone Research. The core argument is that the first wave of AI investing, driven by Nvidia GPUs and the ChatGPT revolution, is about to be dwarfed by a second wave driven by photonics, the replacement of copper wires with laser beams inside AI data centers. Bodner says the next 12 to 24 months could produce “bigger gains than the entire AI boom of the past three years combined.”

That is a bold claim. But Bodner is not a typical newsletter presenter. He spent nearly 20 years on Wall Street, as Head of Equity Derivatives at Cantor Fitzgerald and running the ETF and derivatives desk at Jefferies. He flagged Nvidia at $4.50 (split-adjusted) in October 2019, Super Micro Computer 15 days before ChatGPT launched, and Vertiv Holdings a full year before Goldman Sachs’ first AI energy report. These are real calls, made in real time, that produced real gains. For more on his background, see our Jason Bodner profile.

The Big Idea

The big idea in Accelerated AI is straightforward. AI has “slammed headfirst into a wall.” The wall is copper. Every time you ask ChatGPT a question, it burns 10 times more electricity than a Google search. A single AI data center eats as much power as 100,000 homes. The bottleneck is not the GPUs but the copper connections between them. Electrons in copper travel at less than 1 percent of the speed of light.

Photonics replaces copper with light. Light travels at 124,000 miles per second. It carries more data, barely uses power, and does not generate heat. Bodner calls it “holy grail tech,” and he is not alone. Sequoia Capital used the same phrase. The Optical Interconnect Alliance, whose members include Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, Microsoft, Meta, and OpenAI, exists to accelerate this transition.

For a deeper explanation, see our photonics explainer.

The Acceleration Curve

Bodner frames the thesis inside what he calls the Acceleration Curve, a three-phase pattern that has played out twice before:

Phase 1: Technology explodes onto the scene. (Internet in the 1990s, smartphones in 2007, AI today.) Phase 2: Technology hits a wall. (The “World Wide Wait,” mobile bandwidth strain, the copper bottleneck.) Phase 3: A light-speed breakthrough smashes through the wall. (Fiber optics for internet, fiber for mobile, photonics for AI.)

During the internet transition, Equinix rose 37,000 percent and Netflix rose 188,471 percent. During the smartphone transition, Monolithic Power rose 17,000 percent. Bodner argues the AI transition will be even bigger because AI is a larger market. For more on the pattern, see our copper to fiber article.

The Free Ticker: Broadcom (AVGO)

Bodner reveals Broadcom for free in the presentation. Broadcom is at the center of the photonics transition because it designs custom AI silicon for OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic, and Google, builds the networking switches that let AI chips communicate, and debuted the industry’s first 400G optical chip. Broadcom’s AI revenue was $10.8 billion last quarter, up 143 percent year over year, guiding to $16 billion next quarter.

Bodner’s line: “No Broadcom, no communication. The AI goes dark.” BlackRock owns over 12 million shares. Fidelity, Vanguard, Morgan Stanley, and Norway’s sovereign wealth fund are all loading up. For more on Broadcom, see our Broadcom stock article.

The Three Bonus Picks

Behind the $179 paywall, Bodner identifies three smaller companies with higher upside:

  1. A secret weapon inside every major AI data center. Two of the three biggest AI spenders are customers. Nvidia just tapped it as a key partner. Sales up 35 percent last quarter. 10x smaller than Broadcom.

  2. The purest photonics play. Moves data as light between data centers across cities and states. New product cuts networking power use 70 percent. Sales over $6 billion. 20x smaller than Broadcom.

  3. Builds parts that turn electrical signals to light inside AI clusters. Nvidia signed a multi-billion partnership. Jensen Huang calls it “the next trillion-dollar company.” Sales up 42 percent year over year.

The Structural Evidence

The investment backing the thesis is substantial:

  • Nvidia has invested over $7 billion in photonics companies and partnered with Corning to build three US optical factories.
  • AMD is building a $280 million photonics research hub.
  • Ayar Labs raised $500 million from ARK Invest and Sequoia Capital.
  • Bill Gates has personally invested over $200 million in two photonics companies.
  • OpenAI filed an S-1 for a September listing at a $1 trillion-plus valuation.
  • Anthropic is preparing an October listing approaching $1 trillion.

For more on the industry alliance, see our optical interconnect article.

The Offer

The offer is for Inflection Point, Bodner’s newsletter at Brownstone Research, at $179 per year (normally $499). The 30-day money-back guarantee lets you evaluate everything risk-free. You keep all reports even if you cancel. For more on what is included, see our Inflection Point article. For the full analysis, see our Accelerated AI review.

If you want to explore the full thesis, you can access the Accelerated AI presentation through Brownstone Research.

This is not financial advice. Always do your own research before investing.