A Wall Street Genius's Final Investment Playbook-Chapter 309: The 100-Billion Race (5)

My objective is simple. Secure an anchor investor.

But that is no easy task. To become the “anchor” of a $100 billion fund, an investor must commit at least $10 billion, or as much as $30 billion, in a single stroke. That’s about 13 to 39 trillion won in Korean currency.

There are very few entities in the world with that kind of capital. Canada’s sovereign wealth fund is one of the rare candidates.

Of course, ‘They’re not going to hand that out easily.’

Last year, Canada’s entire defense budget was only around $18 billion. In other words, I’m about to convince them to invest an amount greater than what they would spend to arm their entire country—all into my fund.

“Mm-hmm.”

I cleared my throat lightly. Time to officially begin the pitch.

“The fund we’re introducing today is ‘The Cure Fund.’ It will be the most ambitious healthcare project in human history—one that will liberate humanity from all diseases.”

“Liberate humanity from all diseases.”

I thought that line would deliver a strong impact. But unexpectedly, the audience reacted to a different, less flashy keyword.

“Healthcare…?”

Because my recent activities had focused heavily on tech and macroeconomics, people were expecting something along those lines. On their faces, I could even read a faint disappointment—“Why healthcare all of a sudden?”

‘I need to turn that disappointment into anticipation.’

The first task is to flip their expectations. In moments like this, the most effective strategy is to return to fundamentals.

“The reason we invested in AI was never because the tech sector simply looked promising. Our expertise lies in detecting ‘signals’—rare inflection points where everything changes once they occur. Those singularity-like moments that rewrite all assumptions.”

In short, events similar to a black swan. Of course, strictly speaking, this isn’t exactly a black swan...

“Are you talking about a black swan event?”

“No, not quite.”

I made it clear that I wasn’t. So I wasn’t lying.

“What we look for is the moment when technology reshapes the entire economic landscape. The moment it crosses a threshold and ignites explosive expansion—like a kind of Big Bang.”

“A Big Bang…?”

“Exactly. Just because a new technology is invented doesn’t mean the market opens immediately. We spent decades analyzing historical data and identified the precise indicators that signal when the ‘expansion point’ is about to occur. That’s why we moved.”

We know. The exact moment when the market is about to explode. Of course, the world is full of funds making the same kind of grand claims. Normally, people pretend to listen and then tune out.

But this time is different. Even if I’m saying the same kind of nonsense—I’m the one saying it. I’m the person who accurately predicted the AI boom and multiple black swan events. It’s hard to dismiss my words as mere noise.

Their eyes began to sparkle. A silent look that said, ‘Tell us more.’

The atmosphere was starting to rise. Time to deploy another classic technique—what I call “building the lineage of inevitability.”

“In fact, the principle is simple. The moment a ‘unit-level profit model’ is established for individuals, the market opens. For example, when the internet was reserved for governments and big corporations, growth was stagnant. But when the price of personal computers dropped below $1,500 and household penetration surpassed 30 percent, the market finally exploded.”

“The same was true for OTT. Once smartphone prices dropped to the $300 range and global penetration crossed 50 percent, exponential growth followed.”

“AI followed the exact same pattern. When high-performance computing became accessible to the public and cloud GPU rental prices fell to around $1… that is when we determined the market had reached its expansion point. And the result is what all of you now recognize as the global ‘AI boom.’”

Internet. OTT. AI.

Having firmly established that lineage, it was time to gently place my fund onto that same historic track.

“We believe healthcare now stands at the exact same expansion point. Just ten years ago, genomic sequencing cost tens of thousands of dollars—now it’s barely a hundred.”

“And with the rapid advancements in AI and big data, we are entering a new era of precision medicine—where virtually every disease can be treated with personalized therapy.”

“This market is on the verge of explosion. And if you want to secure the infrastructure before it happens, now is the time.”

At this point, I could see desire slowly creeping into their eyes. They kept a calm facade—but their fingertips were restless. The person in charge forced a composed expression and asked a textbook question.

“Then, what is the expected AUM of the fund?”

A predictable question. But the answer would be anything but ordinary. I looked straight into his eyes and responded clearly.

“$100 billion.”

“……Excuse me?”

For a moment, he couldn’t speak. A flicker of shock crossed his face. As if wondering, ‘Did I hear that correctly?’

Pierce hadn’t informed them of this part in advance. With a slight curl of my lips, I repeated it precisely.

“No, you heard correctly. One hundred. Billion. Dollars.”

……

Their astonishment was only natural. After all, a $100 billion fund is a scale that defies belief. In the venture capital industry, a fund is called a “mega fund” once it reaches just $2 billion. But this isn’t double or ten times that—it’s fifty times bigger.

“I thought the scale would be unusual, but… th-this is… nothing like I imagined.”

It’s like a town where everyone drives a four-seat sedan, and they expected me to roll up with, say, a 45-seat bus. But what I actually pulled out felt like a massive something that seats 200. At that point, calling it a “bus” feels almost embarrassing.

“At $100 billion… that’s not a fund, that’s comparable to a mid-sized country’s annual budget, isn’t it?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

I met their eyes and continued, enunciating every word.

“If we want to completely dominate a frontier market, an ordinary fund size won’t cut it. In internet terms, I’m talking about swallowing both Gooble and Amazons whole. Naturally, that requires nation-scale capital.”

“……”

“……”

“……”

For a while, an odd stillness hung in the room. The looks fixed on me mixed caution and shock with the bewildered fear you reserve for a madman.

‘Well, that’s understandable.’

I had, in effect, just declared that I intended to become a nation in motion. In other words, I had set a crown on my own head.

But then… 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Once the shock settled, something slowly surfaced on the person-in-charge’s face.

“Is this, by any chance, a fund connected to Masayoshi Son?”

Yes, my rival’s name finally came up. He, too, came out a few months ago waving a similarly monstrous fund and making his own imperial declaration.

“Are you in partnership with him? Or did you set up a joint fund…?”

It’s startling enough when one crazy person shows up, but now there were two of us within two months of each other. Naturally, people assume the two must be connected.

But I quietly shook my head.

“No. I was surprised as well, but we’ve been preparing this project step by step since last year.”

“Still… the timing overlaps too neatly, doesn’t it?”

“It’s not a coincidence. He must have sensed the ‘moment of expansion,’ too.”

I reached for the logic that says, “Because something unbelievable happened, we are compelled to believe it.”

Two legends of investing set out from different points and arrived at the same coordinates. Could that really be mere coincidence? More likely, it’s the inevitability of people who hold the same ‘formula for success’ converging. In other words, this itself is a sure sign of success.

That was the logic.

“....”

Silence followed. From the looks they exchanged across the table, I could tell. They were in.

***

The Canada sovereign wealth fund looked visibly shaken—in a good way. But that didn’t mean the job was done. Even if they wanted in, they weren’t in a position to jump blindly.

“We definitely want to participate in this opportunity… but realistically, the maximum we can deploy right now is $500 million.”

That was a problem. Five hundred million? That was miles away from the minimum $10 billion I was looking for.

“Five hundred million… that’s quite modest.”

I smiled lightly, and they offered a careful explanation.

“Our hands are tied by policy. If the structure is categorized as a venture asset and the cash flows aren’t clearly defined, our investment caps become extremely strict. In fact, the original cap is $300 million… We only got approval to stretch to $500 million because of your track record and reputation, Mr. Ha Si-heon.”

A sovereign wealth fund operates under stringent rules. Breaking those rules doesn’t end with an internal slap on the wrist. A sovereign wealth fund manages national assets, after all. Push it too far, and you could trigger an auditor’s investigation, a parliamentary hearing, even—at worst—controversy that dents the country’s credit rating.

So they can’t easily “cross the line.”

I nodded as if to tell them not to worry.

“That’s why we’re doing a pre-roadshow.”

A pre-roadshow is, in essence, the process of custom-designing a product to fit the client’s needs exactly. Only this time, the client can’t buy the product unless we also hand them a workaround to swipe their card beyond its limit. So we’ll create that method.

‘There are two main reasons for capping allocations to venture-type vehicles. First, ‘success risk’—it’s uncertain whether the investment will succeed at all. Second, ‘unpredictable returns’—even if it does succeed, you can’t forecast when or how much the returns will be.’

Those two shackles keep them pinned. So we’ll unfasten them—one by one.

I raised my thumb.

“First, the risk. I’ll shoulder it all. No matter what happens, I will structure this so that you can at least recover your principal.”

No one believes there’s such a thing as a principal-guaranteed investment. And yet that is exactly what I promised, right here and now.