Update from the PM – August 2025

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– Andrew Macken

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Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, recently asked rhetorically: How often do you have a US$123 billion per annum revenue business which remains in its early days of growth?

Of course, he was referring to Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world’s largest cloud computing platform which is benefitting from rapid digital transformation and AI adoption. Despite its large scale, AWS grew its revenue by +17.5% in Q2 relative to one year ago, while its backlog of future commitments grew by +25%.

And yet, AWS was the relative laggard of the world’s three largest hyperscalers. Google’s cloud business grew by more than +32%, and Microsoft’s by +39% relative to a year ago – despite generating more than US$75 billion per annum in annual revenue. These are extraordinary growth rates for businesses of such sizes.

And yet, as Andy and Amit discuss in this month’s Spotlight Series podcast, we believe growth in these businesses will continue for a long time to come. We really are still in the early days of cloud computing adoption, the compute intensity of software continues to increase, and the diffusion of AI into our society is only just getting started.

Still on technological change, Andy shares a fun essay this month titled: ‘Are we experiencing an intelligence revolution?‘. It might blow your mind a little bit – it certainly blew ours. It points to a world in the not-too-distant future that looks very different to today – a world where humans, machines, natural intelligence and artificial intelligence all merge and comingle. And this is not science fiction, the technology is already here today.

Yet, despite the hair-raising rate of technological advancement, we continue to believe that investment analysis anchored in first principles – the importance of durable competitive advantages, understanding flywheels, and maintaining price/value discipline – will be critical.

In ‘Investing Like Chris Hohn: Focus on Intrinsic Value, Not Market Noise‘, Andy shares insights from legendary English investor, Sir Chris Hohn, founder of the London-based hedge fund, The Children’s Investment Fund. Hohn believes – as we do – that by focusing on the underlying competitive advantages and growth potential of a business, long-term investors can unlock substantial value that others, caught in the short-term cycle, often miss.

 

Sincerely,

Andrew Macken 

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Podcast: Join the Montaka Global Investments team on Spotify as we share real-time examples and investing tips that govern our stockpicks. Click below to listen. Alternatively, click on this link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/montaka

 

 

 

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