General Atlantic Sees Value in Chinese Startups; Coatue Tries to Avoid AI Exuberance

The stock market is near a record high. Six public tech companies are worth more than $1 trillion. Even bitcoin has made a comeback! But the titans of private capital aren’t over the moon with optimism yet. That may be because they’re still working through the hangover of the zero-interest-rate funding boom in their own portfolios. 

“Twenty-three was a bit of a wipeout,” said Philippe Laffont, founder of New York investment firm Coatue Management. A five-point increase in the federal funds rate and “the wrong conclusion around how Covid was going to change the world crashed together in 2023,” he told attendees at The Information’s Private Capital Conference Tuesday.