# Techno-Capitalism

Source: https://kermankohli.substack.com/p/techno-capitalism

## Summary

The author argues that a new class of investors, called "techno-capitalists," is emerging as financial markets become intertwined with technology, and that these investors need both engineering discipline and market experience. Per the text, the first generation came from crypto, the second is now entering public equities around AI and semiconductors, and an undersupply of such investors exists. The text also points to on-chain smart contracts and insurance as a future intersection, citing Ilemi's balance sheet graph for modeling token dependencies and risks, and it concludes that capital must be directed carefully to avoid stalling progress.

## Article

I’ve been thinking of this idea for a while now: the one of a techno-capitalist.

In essence, the reasoning goes a little something like this:

Financial markets are a reflection of world state, priced in. Not efficiently, but just priced.

Increasing, financial markets are becoming dominated by technology and without technology our economy stalls (no growth).

Currently, financial markets are run by purely finance people. They do not understand technology nor deem it important to do so. Risk is priced on backwards looking price performance.

As financial markets become more intertwined with technological markets, there will be a new class of investors that I deem as “techno-capitalists”

In my view, the first generation of techno-capitalists were born in crypto where the intersection of finance and technology became very real.

We’re now seeing the second innings of the techno-capitalists who are now entering public market equities around ai/semi-conductors.

Make no mistake though, this class of investors requires a high degree of mastery as it requires two mindsets:

Strong engineering discipline and systems thinking with experience around how complex machines/systems are built & run.

Experience of volatility in markets, “feeling” their state, knowing how to utilize complex financial instruments and think about how new information changes future bets.

These two skills are orthogonal to each other and require real experience. It’s also unlikely to learn about money/business and then go to engineering as the ramp-up is too large and comes at a higher price later on in life. Ideally techo-capitalists start with an engineering background and then graduate to financial markets where judgement and expertise is applied with capital on the line.

I believe we have many more financial and technical markets that are going to intersect massively. One in the future will be around smart contracts and insurance:

kerman kohli@kermankohli

this is how risk will actually be priced on-chain. on-chain techno insurance markets will be possible with stuff like this. so bullish on @andrewhong5297 and team.

ilemi @andrewhong5297

The age of one-time token due diligence is over. A given "token" can easily involve 300+ changing contracts. We've built a balance sheet graph for every token, so you can see all protocol/token dependencies and then model economic and operational risks.

8:34 PM · May 24, 2026 · 2K Views

5 Replies · 2 Reposts · 9 Likes

Crypto markets are still too immature for this but the technology is being built as we speak and there is an undersupply of techno-capitalists to act as stewards.

Capital is energy that needs to be directed carefully and thoughtfully otherwise we risk stalling progress as a species.

If you’re reading this I hope you take some time out of your day and sit in peace to really understand the magnitude of how much things are changing and just how different the future is going to look.

It’s time to accelerate into the future.