Jeff Bezos reveals the simple phrase that saved him countless arguments running Amazon
"Disagree and commit is a really important principle that saves a lot of arguing"
"One of my direct reports would want to do something. I'd think it was a bad idea. We'd go back and forth and I'd often say, you know what, I don't think you're right, but I'm going to gamble with you"
"You're closer to the ground truth than I am. I've known you for 20 years, you have great judgment"
"At least then you've made a decision and I'm agreeing to commit to that decision. I'm not going to be second guessing it, sniping at it, or saying I told you so"
"I'm going to try actively to help make sure it works. That's a really important teammate behavior"
We’ve agreed to a partnership with @SpaceX that will substantially increase our compute capacity.
This, along with our other recent compute deals, means that we’ve been able to increase our usage limits for Claude Code and the Claude API.
In February, activist fund Palliser Capital took a stake in Japanese toilet maker Toto and pushed it to expand a ceramics line used in semiconductors.
It recently said Japanese MSG maker Ajinomoto is “most undermonetized AI infrastructure monopoly” because:
▫️in 1908, Ajinomoto discovered umami (“the fifth taste”) and, a year later, started commercializing it based on the company’s expertise in amino acid science
▫️Ajinomoto (which means “essence of flavour”) eventually took its mastery of complex chemistry to create a “high-performance insulating film used in semiconductor substrates, enabling ultra fine wiring and multi-layer interconnects between chips and circuit boards”
▫️since 1999, the company has sold this substrate product as Ajinomoto Build-Up Film (ABF) and it has become the industry standard
▫️Palliser says ABF’s “performance characteristics (electrical insulation, reliability, manufacturability) are not substitutable at advanced nodes”
▫️ABF currently has a 95% global share in ABF and 100% share in high-end AI data center applications.
While mission-critical for high-density AI packaging, ABF still represents less than 0.1% of a GPU’s sale price.
As GPU chips advance, ABF has become even more important. There is 4x more ABF in Nvidia’s Vera Rubin vs. H100 chip (they want Ajinomoto to expand production line).
Palliser thinks Ajinomoto can increase ABF prices by at least +30% (based on price increases from other chip substrate providers).
Ajinomoto is up +65% in the past year and has a current market cap of ~$28B.
In 2025, revenue hit ~$10B with the majority of sales coming from its seasoning division which includes MSG/umami, bonito stock, seasoned salt & pepper and — my absolute favourite — anchovy soup powder (slaps very very hard).
However, ABF has climbed to 27% of profits vs. 63% of profits from seasoning. And the ABF unit is growing much faster (with higher margins).
By 2028, Palliser thinks seasoning and ABF will each do 45% of profits (frozen foods makes up most of remainder).
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Full deck here: https://t.co/3j3OkjPU58