E87: Citi’s TMT Conference Insights: AI’s Real World Reckoning & Beyond
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Enterprise AI adoption has decisively shifted from question of demand to specifics of monetization including infrastructure capacity open vs. closed model selection and return on AI investment at scale
- AI infrastructure investment is a long-term, multi-year cycle spanning three to 10 years with supply-chain power and labor bottlenecks sustaining pricing power and record margins across semiconductors and data-center capacity
- Investors are closely watching AI enabled revenue growth vs. efficiency gains as the key differentiator for software sector winners, with earnings momentum not valuation multiples now driving positioning decisions heading into year-end
Heath Terry and Omar Ahmed review what they heard at Citi's Global TMT Conference, from a significant shift in tone in AI discussions and how to navigate bottlenecks to telecom trends and positioning vs. fundamentals.
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Heath Terry, Global Super Sector Head of Tech and Communications, Citi
Heath Terry is the Global Sector Head for Technology & Communications Research at
Citi Research. Prior to joining Citi in May 2025, Heath led the centralized research effort
in TMT for Balyasny Asset Management and was a Managing Director at Third Point
Ventures, leading its growth stage venture capital practice. Prior to that Heath worked
for more than 20 years in equity research, most recently as the head of Goldman Sachs’
Global Investment Research’s Technology, Media and Telecom Group. While at
Goldman Sachs Heath led research's working group on Artificial Intelligence and
created the firm’s venture capital research practice. He is a Trustee for the Southern
Environmental Law Center and Vice Chairman of The University of Alabama President’s
Cabinet.
Omar Ahmed, Co-Head of Equity Advisory Sales, Citi
Omar is Co-Head of North America Equity Advisory Sales. Omar joined Citi in 2005, working first in London, before relocating to New York in 2012. In his role, Omar works closely with partners in Research, Banking, and Execution to ensure his teams deliver OneCiti to the firm’s clients. Omar graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2004.
