Reading Ambitiously 9-26-25

Base Camp, AI passes CFA exam, OpenAI signs iPhone supplier, Nvidia $100B OAI investment, Chinese open source LLMs, advisor shortage, a16z generated $25B for LPs, Blackstone's Jon Gray

Happy Friday, Ambitious Readers. I’m writing from Deer Valley, UT, where we’re hosting Ridgeline’s 4th annual Base Camp conference. As a special edition of Reading Ambitiously, the Big Idea is a short clip from our keynote on Innovation & Trust.

Best of the rest:

📊 AI Can Now Pass the Hardest Level of the CFA Exam in Minutes – Researchers found advanced models like o4-mini, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and Claude Opus can clear Level III’s essay-heavy portfolio management questions, a milestone in machine reasoning for high-stakes finance. – CNBC

📱 OpenAI Taps Apple Supplier to Make AI Device – The ChatGPT maker has struck a deal with Luxshare, Apple’s iPhone assembler, to prototype a pocket-sized AI-native gadget designed to compete directly with smartphones. – Reuters

🤝 Inside the $100B OpenAI–Nvidia Pact – CNBC reveals how Sam Altman and Jensen Huang struck their mega-deal through late-night calls and high-level diplomacy, locking Nvidia in as OpenAI’s key partner while putting Microsoft, Oracle, and future cloud ambitions under the spotlight. – CNBC

🛠️ The Hard Way Pays Off: Inside Sierra’s Design Partner Strategy – By demanding payment, deep commitment, and co-building from day one, Sierra turned every design partner into a paying customer and used their toughest feedback to shape products now deployed at billion-dollar enterprises. – First Round Review

🧭 Becoming the Person Who Does the Thing – Fred Rivett reflects on how shifting identity, not willpower, drives lasting change—every small action is a vote for the self you’re building, until the new operating system takes over. – Fred Rivett

Charts that caught my eye:

→ Why does it matter? Grain of salt, but notable: on HuggingFace, the largest catalog of LLMs, downloads of Chinese open source models are beginning to surpass those of US models. Worth watching.

→ Why does it matter? Most venture firms today look good on paper but aren’t sending much cash home because M&A and IPOs have been somewhat scarce. a16z has returned $25B to its limited partners since inception, which is rare and best in class.

→ Why does it matter? We’re entering one of the largest generational wealth transfers in history, yet McKinsey projects a shortfall of more than 100,000 advisors. AI will help, but it won’t be enough. With public and private markets converging and digital assets emerging, markets are growing more complex, not less. Investors will need guidance to navigate them.

Tweets that stopped my scroll:

→ Why does it matter? What a time to be alive…

→ Why does it matter? We talked about bot farms last week. Look at the size of this industrial-grade one. All of these phones have fake accounts that are designed to promote, comment, like, and engage to manufacture influence.

→ Why does it matter? Carlota Perez is my shaman spirit guide for all things technological revolutions. She’s the world’s authority on the topic. If you’re interested in how these cycles follow a pattern, she’s a great follow, and this article from Colossus is a must-read.

Worth a watch or listen at 1x:

→ Why does it matter? Jon Gray of Blackstone distills the key forces shaping the global economy. Worth noting where the world’s largest alternative asset manager is placing its bets.

→ Why does it matter? Brett Taylor is no stranger to Reading Ambitiously. I like listening to him because he’s building a playbook for leading in the AI era. His time as Salesforce co-CEO and early Google team member informs him, but he’s also taking on new challenges such as Sierra’s APX program, a two-year apprenticeship for early-career talent. A must-listen.

→ Why does it matter? It’s fitting for Tobi Lutke to be in this week’s edition. Like Brett, he’s leading Shopify into the AI era. Tobi is both a builder at heart and a CEO who embraces early adoption. In this episode, he even talks about updating his iPhone to iOS26, which causes it to break. Most CEOs would avoid that, but for him, it’s a way to see where the world is going. Inspiring, and the Acquired team remains the best.

Quotes & eyewash:

→ Why does it matter? Meet a baby “highland cow” who joined our Base Camp evening event on Tuesday to greet our guests. Now this is some eyewash!

The mission:

The Wall Street Journal once used “Read Ambitiously” as a slogan, but I took it as a personal challenge. Our mission is to give you a point of view in a noisy, changing world. To unpack big ideas that sharpen your edge and show why they matter. To fit ambition-sized insight into your busy life and channel the zeitgeist into the stories and signals that fuel your next move. Above all, we aim to give you power, the kind that comes from having the words, insight, and legitimacy to lead with confidence. Together, we read to grow, keep learning, and refine our lens to spot the best opportunities. As Jamie Dimon says, “Great leaders are readers.”