This month we are shipping more from Simple. Two things, in fact. Our AI Hub and the Simple Signals Substack both live at the crossover between family offices and AI, and we are open for contributions, so send us your ideas. Next week brings our annual Looking Ahead to 2026, our read on the themes that will actually shape the year, as opposed to the ones that merely trend.
The bubble that keeps not popping
November ran hot again, with bubble talk sitting right alongside genuinely strong signals, which is the sort of contradiction the year keeps serving up. Nvidia beat on earnings, steadying nerves about AI infrastructure. OpenAI's move to a for-profit structure put the tension between grand ambition and financial reality on full display, given how much capital is quietly going up in smoke to keep the whole thing running.
Competition sharpened too. Jeff Bezos joined the race alongside Microsoft, Google and Meta, and Google pushed out new models, including image generation and vibe coding tools for developers. Nobody in this picture is standing still.
Where the value moves
The interesting shift is underneath the noise. With the foundational models now largely mature, the money and the genuinely interesting work are moving to the application layer, to things people actually open and use.
The strain is moving too. Training and running these systems takes far more power and capital than the forecasts assumed even a year ago, and that quietly redraws the map for investors. The companies handling energy efficiency, data-centre buildout and smarter workload routing start to matter more than the headline AI brands wearing the billboards.
Into 2026, this is less one grand theme and more a short list of practical questions. Where does value accrue in the stack. How sustainable are the economics really. Which parts consolidate, and who gets left holding the compute bill. That is the list we will be working down.
Our Software & Tech Report is also out, mapping how family offices are turning technology into operational advantage, from the first tentative pilots through to deeper integration.