Invest like the best

And we've been really deep in those stories in this railroad series.

Ben Thompson of Stratechery was on Invest Like the Best a few days ago with Patrick O'Shaughnessy, and I loved how he closed.

He said something like, Google built its business by buying up a lot of the dark fiber lines that were sold for scraps after WorldCom failed.

And he talked about Google deploying massive amounts of capital into the AI build out, some of which is capital from Berkshire Hathaway, who owns the BNSF Railroad, which of course, owns the Northern Pacific Railway that we're going to talk about today.

I have a sticky note on my computer that says, keep trying to open doors, make sponsors do deals with you.

This is from an interview Ari Emanuel did with Invest Like the Best, Patrick O'Shaughnessy, about deal making.

And there's always a deal to be made.

That's what Sam did early on to get his first small success, which would turn into more successes.

There is also the question of whether the underlying margins are real.

Invest Like The Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy suggested that Nvidia's margin stability might be a strategic illusion maintained through circular financing, where they back new clouds to guarantee future demand, effectively masking price cuts as off-balance sheet investments.

So we're watching a massive capital intensive build out where the value is shifting from the intelligence of the software to the physical reliability of the grid.

The implication runs deeper.