CZ says he prefers AI “shovels” over AI itself as infrastructure race intensifies

Binance founder Zhao Changpeng (CZ) said he prefers investing in the underlying infrastructure powering artificial intelligence rather than AI applications themselves, framing the current boom as an “infrastructure-first” investment cycle.

Speaking during a Binance online livestream, CZ described his preferred strategy as focusing on the “shovels” of AI — including data centers, power supply systems and large-scale computing infrastructure required to support model training and inference workloads.

His comments reflect a growing investor narrative that the AI economy is not just about algorithms or software, but about energy, hardware and compute availability at industrial scale.

AI infrastructure becomes the dominant investment layer

CZ noted that while NVIDIA currently dominates the AI chip market, the long-term landscape may shift toward more specialized and customized compute solutions tailored to different AI workloads.

This view aligns with a broader industry trend in which hyperscale data centers, energy infrastructure and semiconductor supply chains are becoming the primary bottlenecks in AI expansion rather than software innovation itself.

He also said he is monitoring developments in robotics, suggesting that AI-driven physical automation may become a major adjacent investment theme alongside compute infrastructure.

The “shovels in a gold rush” analogy has become increasingly common across venture capital and macro investing circles, where capital allocators prioritize foundational layers that benefit from multiple waves of adoption rather than single-product AI companies.

Web3 remains core as CZ keeps crypto allocation dominant

Despite growing interest in AI-related infrastructure, CZ emphasized that his investment firm YZi Labs continues to focus primarily on the crypto and blockchain sector, which still represents roughly 70% to 80% of its portfolio.

He also suggested that AI’s broader economic impact will extend into biotechnology and robotics, but said the firm does not plan to aggressively expand into large-scale biotech exposure at this stage.

Instead, the strategy remains centered on digital asset infrastructure, decentralized networks and blockchain-based financial systems, even as capital increasingly flows into adjacent high-growth sectors like AI compute and automation.

This positioning reflects a broader convergence theme across technology investing, where AI, energy, semiconductors and blockchain infrastructure are increasingly viewed as interconnected parts of a single computational economy.

Infrastructure-driven narrative spans AI, crypto and global markets

CZ’s comments arrive at a time when global markets are increasingly rewarding infrastructure-heavy plays across multiple sectors — from semiconductor manufacturing and defense systems to energy grids and cloud computing.

In a similar macro pattern, investors have been rotating toward companies and assets that provide foundational capacity rather than end-user applications, especially as demand for compute-intensive technologies accelerates.

This infrastructure-first mindset also overlaps with broader macro uncertainty, where capital is increasingly concentrated in tangible capacity providers during periods of geopolitical fragmentation and supply chain stress.

Within this context, crypto infrastructure remains positioned alongside AI and data center expansion as part of a wider digital-physical convergence cycle, where compute, energy and financial networks are becoming tightly linked investment themes.