All-In's Best Ideas Pitch Competition: 4 Investors Present Their Top Trades Live

Four investors pitched their best ideas live in a competition modeled on the Zone Foundation event, which originated at Lincoln Center. Past Zone pitches included Amazon as a future trillion-dollar company in 2015, which was laughed off, and AI as the future in 2017, though the presenter chose Box over Nvidia that year.

Aaron Cowan of Surrata Capital, who previously ran equities for George Soros and served as CIO for Steve Cohen at a four-billion-dollar fund, pitched MGM as his top idea. MGM has bought back half its float over six years, which Cowan called extremely rare. Barry Diller now owns 26 percent of MGM and submitted a bid at 48 dollars per share the day before the presentation, moving the stock from roughly 37 dollars two weeks prior. Cowan argued Diller is a financial buyer pursuing MGM for its Japan and Dubai opportunities rather than a strategic acquirer, and advised shareholders not to tender at 48 dollars.

MGM holds the only casino license in Japan, specifically in Osaka, the only prefecture that approved a casino, with the property expected to open in 2030. Japan's total gambling market is approximately 40 billion dollars, larger than Macau at 30 billion and Las Vegas at 10 billion. Osaka is geographically closer to Shanghai and Beijing than Macau or Singapore. MGM owns 40 percent of the Osaka property and also collects a management fee. MGM is also building an Aria-Bellagio-branded property in Dubai with 300,000 square feet that could accommodate a casino if Dubai legalizes gambling, which has not yet occurred. Wynn is opening a casino in Ras Al Khaimah, roughly 45 minutes from Dubai, in two years. Cowan valued Vegas assets plus China exposure at roughly the low 60s per share, Japan at approximately 50 dollars per share, and Dubai at an additional 40 to 50 dollars per share if it materializes, putting total potential value above 100 dollars and possibly reaching 150 dollars, a triple from current levels.

Dan Dreyfus pitched Talon, a power producer with two gigawatts of nuclear and six gigawatts of natural gas baseload power, carrying an enterprise value of approximately 25 billion dollars against a replacement cost of roughly 45 billion dollars. Because Talon carries debt, equity value would more than double just to reach replacement cost. Dreyfus argued AI demand is not required to keep power markets tight for 20 years and merely turbocharges an already constrained market. Two decades of near-zero demand growth resulted from efficiency gains and offshoring of power-hungry industries to China. The PJM grid operator forecasts a need for 106 gigawatts of new power in the Pennsylvania-Jersey-Maryland region alone over the next 10 years, a figure comparable to Japan's total power consumption. Microsoft agreed to pay Constellation Energy 100 dollars per megawatt hour for 20 years for the Three Mile Island nuclear restart, versus a prevailing market price of 50 dollars, illustrating hyperscaler urgency. Talon was trading in the high 300s with a projected 50 dollars per share of free cash flow annually under a base-case do-nothing scenario, implying roughly seven times free cash flow. Dreyfus argued good US infrastructure assets trade at 15 times, implying a doubling with no additional deals, and with data center contracts or higher power prices, free cash flow could reach 70 dollars per share, implying a stock price of 1,050 dollars.

Oleg Nodleman of Echora One Capital, a 2.5-billion-dollar biotech fund with 10x returns since 2013, pitched Actus Oncology with ticker AKTS. Actus has a one-billion-dollar market cap, a 500-million-dollar enterprise value, and cash expected to last over three years. Its IPO was 18 times oversubscribed with Eli Lilly backstopping 100 million dollars. The platform can carry any radioactive payload, target multiple targets, and clear the body with minimal side effects, with imaging allowing physicians to verify target engagement early in trials. Initial data in both lead programs is guided for 2027, with Nectin-4 data potentially as early as Q1. Nodleman projected Actus could reach 10 billion dollars or 200 dollars per share if even one program reaches market. A questioner raised concern that China could replicate radiopharmaceutical molecules by altering one amino acid to circumvent patents, as occurred with biologics after the Amgen-Sanofi Supreme Court case.

Kyle Simani, co-founder of Multicoin Capital, pitched GeoNet, a crypto asset building RTK real-time kinematics infrastructure for AI and robotics. RTK achieves roughly two centimeters of precision versus two meters for standard GPS. GeoNet has deployed approximately 22,000 nodes, roughly twice the combined total of Trimble, Hexagon, and Topcon after 20 to 30 years of operation, and is live in 150 countries. The token trades on Solana under ticker GeoD with a fully diluted market cap of approximately 150 million dollars. Eighty percent of revenues are contractually used to buy tokens on the open market. Chamath flagged the token as too illiquid to absorb meaningful capital, estimating he could not deploy even one million dollars without moving the market, and grouped GeoNet and Aktis as lottery tickets contrasted with MGM and Talon where large position sizing is feasible.

Of 150 audience votes, Dreyfus won with 50 percent, followed by Cowan at 24 percent, Nodleman at 21 percent, and Simani at 5 percent. The bestie award placed Cowan and MGM first, with Dreyfus second.