Apollo Economist Trashes AI's Corporate Impact

Apollo Chief Economist had this to say about the impact of AI:

"Despite massive investments and widespread hype around artificial intelligence, the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech."

He went on to say:

"AI does not understand accountability, trust, culture, unwritten rules, ethical trade-offs or fairness, all of which shape reputational risk and ultimately drive revenue growth and profit margins."

It does know how to harm people or assist humans with harming others.  No mercy could be one AI motto.  

Elected officials have been AWOL on setting AI safety laws/standards.  That's because politicians Red & Blue love PEU (private equity underwriters who finance much of the AI stack) and their new TechGod brethren (purveyors and promoters of all things AI).  Increasingly, more are one.

Texas does seem a good fit for an industry that leaves millions out in the cold and does not protect children from danger.  

Apollo is a politically connected private equity underwriter whose co-founder Leon Black funded Jeffrey Epstein's child endangerment lifestyle to the tune of $170 million.

PEUs May Use AI to Knife Creditors

Private equity underwriters (PEU) have been early adopters of AI in their operations.  McKinsey noted that PEU affiliates that broadly embraced AI had much higher revenue multiples than companies that did not.  

AI impacts are the PEU knife that only cuts one way.  It increases revenue multiples for winning affiliates but becomes an act of God (force majeure) if that investment is severely disrupted.  

AI shares something with the greed and leverage boys, a disdain for human suffering under new operating models and a penchant for revenge if they are insulted or their secrets are revealed.  

TPG and Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe showed no care for staff terminated under their "new operating model" for a former employer, a large hospice company.  

Disruption is the TechGod model and a core part of how PEUs pick and choose investments.  Both have suckled to Uncle Sam's budget teat to the point the Trump administration looks like a Milken Global Conference or World Economic Forum (Davos) attendee list. 

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one and far too many rely on greed and revenge as primary strategies.  Lord, help us all.

Charmless PEUple with No Charisma

The PEUture of the political Red Team is below (according to former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie):

"take the two, probably two of the most prominent Trump wannabes in our party, J.D. Vance and Vivek Ramaswamy, and what they're showing America is, we want to be just as morally bankrupt as Trump, but we don't have any of the charm or charisma that people might like. 

This is the future of our party if we don't get our act together, is to have charmless people with no charisma and the lack of moral clarity and center that Donald Trump has."

J.D. Vance founded Narnia Capital, a private equity underwriter PEU), while Vivek Ramaswamy founded Roivant, essentially a pharmaceutical development PEU.  Vivek cut his teeth flipping companies for a profit at QVT Financial where Ramaswamy specialized in Cayman Islands offshore entities.

Vance and Ramaswamy are creeps.  Unfortunately, there is a political market for that.

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod/PharmaBro brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.  

Lonsdale's Intrusive Headlines

Clear the streets of homeless people.  Displace doctors with AI.  Turn everybody's private actions into data that can be mined, sold and run through some type of predictive model producing varying levels of nonsense.  

These are the gifts TechGod Joe Lonsdale is giving Americans and citizens in other countries that allow his infectious, addictive, intrusive corporate offerings.

Joe was on CNBC yesterday and his interview is so valuable it's under their Pro offering, which requires a subscription. 

I happened to be viewing that channel and was shocked by his creepy positioning in his private plane.  It gave off a Wizard of Oz meets Epstein's Lolita Express vibe.   Don't look behind the curtain, it might be the flying billionaire bonk palace.  

Joe was headed to or away from Dallas depending on what time he gave his headliner talk at Venture Dallas 2026.

“Texas is the greatest [state] in this country, and America is going to win because of people like you who are building,” said Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Miami-based software company Palantir Technologies and founder and managing partner of Austin-based 8VC. 

Lonsdale’s VC firm was an early backer of Dallas-based life insurance startup Bestow.

Red Team reject Senator John Cornyn spoke at the event.

“Every day I wake up, it seems like some other sort of science fiction thing has happened.”

Yes, Senator.  The evil overlords who usurp God at every turn have arrived on a technological chariot.

Cornyn prognosticated:

“As long as we have people like those in this room who are willing to take a few well-calculated risks and create something new and something useful and important, I think the future is bright indeed.”

Bright for whom?  Lonsdale wants in on Iran, as does nearly every private equity underwriter (PEU) and TechGod.  

Bully for John Cornyn whose Congressional peers gave TechGods free range to harm children for decades, virtually unabated and untaxed.  

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one and the whole lot is frankly insufferable.

Update 10-25-26:  Lonsdale is part of the morally bankrupt and charmless crowd referred to by former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.  Vivek Ramaswamy and J.D. Vance personify this group.

Insufferable PEU/Pharmabro Goes Low

Vivek Ramaswamy decided to enter the world of underage girl child abuse by running a political ad against his opponent who was raped by her father from age 10 to 12.  The "father" was arrested for raping his daughter and fled accountability after being charged.  Yes, it has a Jeffrey Epstein defense ring as well as a Trump "nothing is too low" quality to it.  

Ramaswamy also called Medicare and Medicaid "a mistake."  He founded offshore pharmaceutical drug developer Roivant in 2014 and served as CEO or Board Chair until 2023.  

Roivant Sciences Ltd. (inclusive of its consolidated subsidiaries, the “Company” or “RSL”) aims to improve the lives of patients by accelerating the development and commercialization of medicines that matter. 

The Company does this by creating nimble subsidiaries or “Vants” to develop and commercialize its medicines and technologies. Beyond therapeutics, the Company also incubates discovery-stage companies and health technology startups complementary to its biopharmaceutical business. 

The Company was founded on April 7, 2014 as a Bermuda exempted limited company. The Company’s subsidiaries are wholly owned subsidiaries and majority-owned or controlled subsidiaries.

The public, having had several decades for their employer to be bought and sold by private equity underwriters (PEU) and venture capitals (TechGods), now hate the whole lot.

Creeps can't help but being creeps.  It's their nature.   

PEUs Often Have Missing Arms

Bloomberg highlighted a practice by private equity underwriters (PEU) that has been going on for years.  I wrote last year:

First, sell to self, i.e. move stale investments from one Carlyle fund to another. Charge fees. Repackage. Partner with financial advisors. Sell to retirees. More fees.

In 2017 I wrote about Carlyle monetizing to self regarding PPD.   The first round went at $3.6 billion while the second flipped at $9 billion.

Non-arm's length transactions going at a "mark to whatever" price are core PEU strategies.  My wise friend wrote two years ago:

All this cross ownership/ investment in each other also raises another interesting point about arms' length transactions. What happens when they are equity holders and debt holders of the same entity? Especially with private debt transactions where they get to restructure the terms privately. If they are on both sides couldn't there be a quid pro quo under the table type of acknowledgement where there is a give and take on different deals? 

No one will know because none of this will be out in the open but many of the investors that have funds with them on both sides will be in the dark as usual. I just remember CVNA defaulting and the next minute busy restructuring which was a little unclear to this date still and that was an Apollo deal. I still think they manage the default figures through PIKS's and other covenant violations that don't seem to make it to market. 

The whole space stinks and the Fed allows it because it helps narrate the environment for policy making decisions.

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.  The greed and leverage boys' lack of arms is more than made up by the ever present open palms of elected officials.

Legacy PEUs Lose Ability to Gather in Riyadh

FII10 attendees will have to wait until 2027 to hear the following private equity underwriters (PEU) and TechGods scheduled to speak at Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's signature event.

The Power of Legacy is the theme for this year's/next year's event.

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one and they have long gone global.