Bored undergrad looking to do some reading and learning... What do you see as the 'hottest' industries/sectors with the most room to grow in the next 5-10 years?
I personally think crypto/defi and metaverse/virtual reality. But those are some basic ass answers lol
Renewable energy, electricity storage/battery technology, and electric grid infrastructure
Yeah I like this - battery storage especially.
Metaverse, chip manufacturing, commercial space exploration, renewable energy, debt relief companies, gaming
What is the actual buy case for the Metaverse? Like don't people prefer to live in the real world?
I do not see all the hype behind the metaverse. It is essentially playing video games. Instead of buying COD points to buy skins you buy goods to be delivered to your doorstep aka online grocery shopping. The action and reaction are the same but the medium through which you transact is different.
I see it as escapism. As the real world becomes more depressing and dystopian people will start to migrate to the metaverse while atrophying in their shoebox apartments. I'm not a fan personally but I could see it being a big growth sector (not too much different from gaming, junk food, prescription drugs, and other self destructive outlets).
Biotech - integration of nanotech bots into our bodies, ability to upload information into our minds.
From a nutritional health perspective, nanobots will let us know what nutrients we have and are lacking and will tell us what exactly we need to do to accomplish our nutritional and fitness goals also including those who just want to stay healthy.
The nanobots will likely be able to identify low oxygen environments and could target at risk areas for cancer prevention.
Crypto / biotech / genomics / internet businesses / software / etc
Maybe metaverse but I suspect that it won't inflect as quickly as people think -- but existing services ought to do well
semiconductors/semicap and agriculture
Agriculture - I don't know how far away it is, but the only way to feed 10B people is through vertical farming. There's no way the world can support that many people growing food on flat land.
The next big thing is the Blockchain and crypto apocalypse. I think it will be a lot bigger than any of us can imagine right now.
Neurotech. Full-on mind reading, memory modification, communication with thought alone--seems like science fiction now, but as a neuroscientist I'm confident it's coming soon.
Quantum computers and computational biology will play a huge role in our lives in the coming decades. They are already being used by big pharma for drug discovery, but their use will expand to other fields. Biotech will have an impact on human longevity, brain augmentation, and space exploration.
I'd also add to the list of technologies that will come to fruition in the next ten years, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) or Strong AI will be developed in the next five to ten years. The technology is being developed today and there are companies aggressively working towards this goal. AGI is when a computer can do anything a human can do and much more so. It will be the biggest game changer in history.
Fun fact: I didn't actually write the response above...I plugged your question into GPT-3 and this was the response it spit out. So AI is probably a good one.
Fun fact, there is only one human on all of WSO. Everything else is spit out by GPT-3.
You’re a neuroscientist? What is your area of focus?
LOL, read my comment below the main comment. The main comment was generated by GPT-3, an AI language model.
Synthetic Biology (longer term play) - The price to sequence genomes has precipitously dropped in the past 20 years to levels where it is becoming economic to engage in this activity. The applications are practically endless (e.g., replacing base materials that require high-volume of feedstock to produce, improving existing food/materials). It's also highly sustainable so it plays into the 'ESG' qualitative benefit everyone seems to be talking about. In terms of companies? Well... think outside the box. All these companies need specific hardware/tools/etc. to operate. There are limited suppliers that fulfill these needs. Result: look into the companies that sell these products. They are vastly overlooked and will be more important in the years to come.
Semiconductors: I mean... this is just going to be more and more important as time goes on. Perhaps the single most important sub-sector today, IMO.
I'm bullish on quantum as well. We haven't invented the transistor equivalent, but once cleaning the qbits gets easier and more normalized I think it'll take off. For certain programs, it'll be a game changer. I think it's weirdly both overhyped (I don't think it'll crack all passwords in a single day) and underhyped (I don't think it's a pipe dream to ever work).
Also for anyone who wants a good intro to Quantum, this channel is great: https://www.youtube.com/c/AnastasiaMarchenkovaQuantum
I personally think that the crypto sector, although poised to grow, is not the absolute next big thing since the sky-high valuations we see at the moment are just the next logical step in the insane valuations observed in the wider tech sector. Despite useful innovations (lending, derivatives, etc) the crypto market remains heavily dependent on a mass of traders flipping shitcoins and speculating on digital assets. These traders use services (crypto exchanges, derivative markets) to facilitate their activities. Those services have value, but the trading operated by traders doesn't and as we've seen, is now easily influenced by changes in equity markets. FFS even fear of interest rate hikes tanked crypto.
The metaverse is fucking stupid VC/tech bro circlejerk nonsense.
“Metaverse real estate sales top $500 million, and are projected to double this year“
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/01/metaverse-real-estate-sales-top-500-mil…
Lmao - it's funny you linked that article. That headline actually inspired my original comment.
Zuckerberg's lost his touch. Facebook's only value adds come from acquisitions, not from developing new services.
Zuckerberg should have just bought Roblox and Minecraft, which are massively popular games with all kinds of virtual worlds, and turned them VR instead of betting his entire company on this pivot.
Zuck can't buy anything because both R and D, plus FTC hate his guts.
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