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Nvidia logos. Illustration by Modus.
Hello to many new subscribers! Today’s newsletter is shorter and unusually markets-centric, as I worked on other things this week, including the new Modus Job Board and its accompanying list of recruiters.
Last month, Commonfund, the OCIO and investment management firm with more than $30 billion in client assets, invited a group of financial journalists to its New York office the week after the U.S. midterm elections. It would be a good time, so the firm thought, to talk about how its clients—predominantly institutional investors, but also some family offices—were feeling about their portfolios and the coming year.
Thursday morning, midterms were no longer on the agenda. Minutes before journalists and Commonfund executives mingled over pastries and coffee, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned, triggering a deluge of news articles detailing his romantic relationships with a suspected Chinese spy and an employee who reported to him.
Huang’s possible contribution to espionage, knowingly or unknowingly, alongside a second affair, meant his tenure leading one of the most consequential companies in the new era of artificial intelligence was ending.
The resignation itself didn’t shock anyone at Commonfund.
“At the end of the day, my own personal view on that is: now that a second affair, a romantic liaison, has been disclosed, the board had no choice but to do that,” Mark Anson, CEO and CIO of Commonfund, said. It was resign or be dismissed. “His board [members] are fiduciaries, and if [Huang] were allowed to stay, they would be liable for [failing their] fiduciary duty. So that was all foreclosed when the second romantic relationship became apparent.”
On Thursday morning, Commonfund was already thinking about Nvidia post-Huang and facing questions from reporters. The investment firm, like many OCIOs managing large chunks of or entirely portfolios on behalf of clients, as well as through its own private-equity business, is widely invested in the AI theme. It owns direct stakes in Anthropic, ChatGPT, Hugging Face and other software; it began investing in data centers 12 years ago, which now account for about 20% of its real estate portfolio; and it also has exposure through credit and natural resources.
“The question is what's really going to be the impact on Nvidia and the chip production? I think if it comes out that in fact Nvidia was somehow subverting the bans on chip imports into China, then of course there'd be legal and regulatory implications,” Anson said.
But the demand for its chips powering AI advancements and adoptions will not stall because of Hunag’s absence. “In terms of chip production, we don't see any diminution of that. In terms of its impact on hyperscalers, we don't see any diminution of that,” Anson added.
Concerns about the border AI ecosystem’s circular financing, or any particular company in it, are heightened and legitimate because it has never been interrupted. Still, “I don't think this necessarily undermines NVIDIA's long-term value to the ecosystem. Seems idiosyncratic to me,” Mark Hoeing, president and CEO of CF Private Equity, said.
Nvidia’s stock price fell another 2% today, and is down 28% over the past 30 days and 14% year-to-date. The U.S. stock market’s reaction to the events leading to Huang’s resignation has been mixed. But if the slide continues and keeps dragging down other tech stocks, and then the broader market, it might not be as negative as that sounds.
The “MAG seven have distorted the valuation of the S&P 500…this might bring some sanity back to that because it's been a very top-heavy index,” Anson said.
“Is this going to bring rational valuations back in, and does that mean that the S&P may decline a little bit or the PE multiples associated with those companies, will those come back to a more normal valuation? Which we think will happen.”
A message from Orbis
Same markets. Different conclusions.
Every manager claims to be different. Their holdings tell the real story.
We say we are different—and then we show you the difference. In 1998, we put 40% of the Orbis Global Equity Strategy into Japanese stocks when it was the market nobody would touch. In the dotcom bubble, we owned almost no tech. And when the Magnificent Seven became the positions no investor could be seen without, we saw little value and owned almost none of them.
How different is different?
As defined in applicable securities law, this information is intended for qualified purchasers in the United States.
More News
New to Modus? Check out the entire newsletter archive and subscriber-exclusive perks: the job board, family-office software market map and allocation index.
Have a big IPO or strategic-exit windfall coming your way? There are some good reminders about planning for that in this white paper by Partner Capital.
Marsh bought Wilshire to continue pursuing the private wealth channel and to boost research and alternative investment capabilities.
Goldman Sachs surveyed 569 of private clients, family businesses, and family offices about their philanthropy and published a 39-page report.
Among other findings, "AI is beginning to enter philanthropic practice: 20% of respondents are already incorporating AI into their philanthropic activities, with another 19% saying they would like to," according to the report.
And, of course, Investments in AI are likely to continue to have huge implications for the wealth of individual donors and philanthropic institutions.
However, despite abundant fears about AI’s impact on society (including, depending on who you ask, the end of it), "addressing negative impacts of AI" was only 1% of survey respondents' giving focus. Perhaps AI is already part of all other focus areas (education, local community, arts and culture, etc.)? Or the impact is still too unknown to start shifting philanthropic dollars?Burberry Bucks Luxury Slowdown as Shoppers Snap Up Trench Coats is the week's non-surprise. The style is a staple and always will be.
Must-read in the New Yorker: An N.B.A. player got hooked on sports gambling. Soon enough, he became the bet.
A message from FOTechHub
What’s Next for Family Office Tech?
How to future-proof your family office in the world of AI
When Microsoft went down this week, many offices were locked out of their own email and files.
Do you really own your data if you can’t get to it? And do you know where it lives and how it moves?
We’ll discuss this, alongside other topics, at FOTechHub’s 4th Annual Family Office Tech & Ops Conference next week.
Nov 18–19 | 12:00 – 4:00 PM Eastern Time | Virtual
This year’s agenda covers how to put AI to work in your office, and how to do it safely:
Moving from first experiments to real tools like MCPs and agents
The governance and security controls that come with them
Building your own AI harness and data layer
How your vendors are using AI and what you need to ask them
Where investors are putting their money in family office tech
Trends to watch in 2027
Live demos of leading tools that family offices use and trust
1-on-1 networking
Complimentary registration for family offices and their advisors.
Job Board
Staff accountant. The Kraft Group, the Kraft family's holding company (most associated with the NFL's New England Patriots) in Foxborough, Massachusetts, is hiring a staff accountant for its private family-office accounting team. This team supports the investment office and tax department; they reconcile investment partnership books, bank accounts and portfolio activity across entities, review administrator data and support investment reporting, audits and tax schedules.
Head of philanthropy. Endless, a game-based learning and technology initiative of Dalio Philanthropies that the posting calls “a satellite of the Dalio Family Office,” is hiring a head of philanthropy. The role leads Endless's grantmaking and strategic initiatives in game-based learning and youth digital creation, reporting to its managing director and working with the principal and Dalio Philanthropies.
Solutions consultant. SumIt, which makes general-ledger accounting software for family offices, is hiring its first solutions consultant. The company is looking for someone with an accounting background who is comfortable working with family office controllers and chief financial officers, according to CEO Alexandre Lin.
Other Stuff
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I’ll be…
Home, eating pizza, drinking wine and
readingwatching “Slow Horses.” (I know, I know, I’m late to that party.)I cannot believe I am typing this: holiday shopping.
Wallace or Anaïs tomorrow. Still TBD.
