Spark Preview: What Will Privates Tell Us About the AI Cycle?

Private tech is a leading indicator of where capital, talent & tech are moving. At our Spark Private Company Conference (Oct. 13-15), we expect to speak to 100+ private companies across inference, vertical AI, security, semis/hardware, embodied AI, and more. We outline the themes we're most focused on. Key takeaways: Our Spark Private Company Conference will be held at Dana Point, CA, on October 13-15, bringing together founders and CFOs across private companies. We believe privates are a key signal of where the market is headed and can provide key insights on debates like power, compute efficiency, and agentic AI. Areas we're focused on: 1) rethinking the AI factory, 2) shift to agents, 3) inference-aaS, 4) security, 5) embodied AI, 6) defense, 7) healthcare, 8) fintech. We outline the key themes and companies we're watching in each of these buckets, as well as Morgan Stanley Research reports to get up to speed on these topics.