Author
Shubhi K
Writes about AI product economics, B2B software markets and what the numbers behind vendor claims actually say. Every figure published under this byline traces to a filing, an earnings call or a named dataset.
Founding Member, Zan Digital. 24 pieces published, citing 103 sources. Everything under this byline is held to the published methodology.
Published work
24 pieces- 001AI Capex 2026: The $725B Bet With No Payback MathFour hyperscalers plan roughly $725B of capex in 2026, up 77% on 2025. Here is where the money goes, what it earns today, and the three numbers to watch.
- 002AI Circular Deals: Who Actually Pays Whom, and How MuchNvidia's up to $100B commitment to OpenAI was finalised at $30B. A map of the AI circular deals: what is signed, what is only intent, and why it matters.
- 003AI Debt Issuance: The Credit Story Behind the BuildAI-related debt issuance is on track for roughly $570B in 2026. Hyperscaler bond issuance quadrupled. How the build is being funded, and why it changed.
- 004AI Took 61% of Venture Capital. What Happens to OthersAI startups took 61% of global venture funding in 2025, up from 30% in 2022. What that concentration does to hiring, valuations and exits outside AI.
- 005Anthropic IPO: The Enterprise Listing That Resets PricingAnthropic filed confidentially on 1 June 2026 for an October listing. A $47B run rate, 85% enterprise revenue, and why the mix matters more than the number.
- 006Cursor at $2B ARR: Fastest SaaS Ever or Most Fragile?Cursor doubled revenue in three months to $2B ARR and sought funding near $50B. The growth is real. So is the question about whether the moat is.
- 007Dot-Com vs AI Bubble: Six Metrics Where It Breaks DownEveryone compares 2026 to 2000. On six metrics, from P/E ratios to profitability, the comparison mostly fails. Here is the one place it does hold.
- 008Down Rounds: How to Read an AI Cap Table in 2026Structured terms are reappearing in AI rounds priced at extreme multiples. What liquidation preferences, ratchets and participation actually do to your equity.
- 009GenAI ROI: Why 95% of Pilots Show No Return, and Who DoesMIT found 95% of GenAI pilots show no measurable P&L return. What the 5% did differently, where the money is really being made, and how to measure your own.
- 010GPU Depreciation: The $176B Accounting Question in AIHyperscalers depreciate AI hardware over 5 to 6 years. One investor puts the resulting overstatement at $176B through 2028. Both sides of the argument, checked.
- 011Inference Costs Are Rising. The Software Margin MythClassic software had near-zero marginal cost. AI does not. Why per-token price cuts have not produced falling bills, and what it means for AI gross margins.
- 012Is Your AI Startup a Feature? The Kill Zone TestModel providers keep absorbing capabilities that were standalone products a year earlier. Five questions to test whether your product survives the next release.
- 013OpenAI IPO: What a Delay Past 2026 Actually SignalsOpenAI filed confidentially in June 2026, then weighed a delay rather than list below $1T. What the numbers say about why, and what each outcome means.
- 014The AI Chip Selloff: Dress Rehearsal or False Alarm?Chip and AI hardware stocks fell sharply in late July 2026 and recovered within a week. Fast recoveries signal conviction or complacency. Five indicators.
- 015The SaaSpocalypse: How Software Lost Its Valuation PremiumEarly 2026 erased hundreds of billions in software market cap on the bet that AI replaces SaaS. What happened, and whether the repricing was rational.
- 01635% of Point SaaS Gets Absorbed by Agents. Start the ClockRoughly 35% of point-product SaaS is projected to be absorbed into agent ecosystems by 2030. Which categories are structurally exposed, and which are not.
- 017Build vs Buy Just Flipped. The Procurement Case BrokeFounders are replacing tool categories with internal builds because agents made building cheap. The full cost comparison, and what the build case omits.
- 018Harvey vs Thomson Reuters: The First Real Incumbent TestHarvey reached an $11B valuation on roughly $190M ARR selling against legal research incumbents. Whether the displacement is real, or additive, on the numbers.
- 019MCP: The Standards Fight That Decides the Agent StackMCP went from one company's experiment to a Linux Foundation standard with 97M monthly SDK downloads. What it settles, what it does not, and who benefits.
- 020Salesforce in the Agent Era: Platform, or Roadkill?Agentforce repriced Salesforce around consumption and autonomous agents. Whether the system of record survives when the interface stops mattering.
- 021Seat Compression: When Success Destroys Your RevenuePer-seat pricing fell to roughly 15% of the SaaS market. If your product reduces headcount, it reduces your revenue. The trap, and the four ways out.
- 022The 291-App Problem: SaaS Sprawl Meets the Budget AxeThe average enterprise ran 291 SaaS apps in 2025, up from 110 in 2020. A practical rationalisation method, and why most cancellation exercises fail.
- 023The Agent Orchestration Wars: Zapier, n8n and What WonWorkflow automation is being redefined as agent orchestration, with open source challenging incumbents. How to compare them on reliability, cost and governance.
- 024Vertical AI Is Eating Horizontal SaaS. The EvidenceVertical AI winners share three patterns: permissioned data, outcome selling and workflow depth. What the playbook is, and where the argument breaks down.