AI investors are weighing warnings from technology executives about the safety risks posed by the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence. However, some believe that slowing AI development could leave the US behind China and other competitors in the global race. Brad Gerstner, founder and CEO of Altimeter Capital, said on CNBC that he supports AI safety measures but believes some fears are being exaggerated to advance a political agenda.
“I’ve not talked to a single person in AI who says, full steam ahead, disregard safety,” Gerstner said. “It turns out we all care about kids. We all care about the future of the country. We know the massive benefits it offers, but we also want to take the extra time to make sure that we do this safely. But what I didn’t like this week is these hyperbolic scare tactics, which I think are hiding behind a political agenda. We learn that all of this catastrophizing about data centers may in fact, have had support from the CCP. Right? So I want a little investigation. Who is behind all of this negativity? Is it coordinated? Right? Where is the money coming from?”
Altimeter’s second-quarter 13F filings show that the fund opened new positions in several technology and AI-related companies, including Qualcomm (QCOM) and Micron Technology (MU).
Altimeter bought 1.88 million Qualcomm shares valued at about $347.9 million as of June 30. The position accounted for 3.54% of the fund’s reported US equity portfolio. It also acquired 209,520 Micron shares worth roughly $241.8 million, representing 2.46% of the portfolio.
Brad Gerstner of Altimeter Capital
QCOM Bull Case: An Underappreciated AI Opportunity
Bulls say the market still views Qualcomm as a smartphone-chip company and is overlooking its potential as an AI data-center supplier.
Qualcomm could help hyperscalers get around AI-chip supply shortages with its High Bandwidth Compute, or HBC, architecture. Qualcomm unveiled HBC at its Investor Day in June 2026. The first HBC chips will come with its upcoming AI250 accelerator, so the design has not been tested at scale in real data centers yet.
HBC is designed to avoid two big bottlenecks in AI chips: high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, and CoWoS packaging. Qualcomm says HBC delivers 6 times more bandwidth per watt than high-bandwidth memory, which could lower energy use. Microsoft and Meta have already agreed to use Qualcomm’s new AI chips.
The main risk is that HBC is still unproven. Stacking memory on top of a processor is hard to manufacture, and one chip analyst said the packaging challenge moves to 3D stacking and does not go away. Qualcomm also enters a market where Nvidia and custom chips from hyperscalers already hold a strong lead, so investors will need to see real sales from Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) before the stock gets credit for AI.
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