Everyone wants to know which of the Magnificent Seven AI kills. I think that’s the wrong question. None of them need to disappear. IBM didn’t disappear. Intel didn’t disappear. They just stopped being the scarce asset in the next computing cycle. AI has three layers that matter: Who owns the intelligence: models and data. Who owns the factory: chips, power and cloud. Who owns the last mile: the device, workplace, feed or agent where demand starts. The obvious conclusion is that Apple and Microsoft have more to defend than most people think. Apple owns the device but rents much of the intelligence. Microsoft owns enormous enterprise distribution, but agents are coming directly for the software seat. But there’s another side to this that I think matters even more. The AI infrastructure trade isn’t seven different bets if they all depend on the same customer paying the bill. NVIDIA, Broadcom, TSMC, the clouds and the AI labs can look diversified on a screen while ultimately depending on the same AI capex cycle. Picks and shovels are only safe when the miners can pay. That was one of the lessons of 2000. Equipment demand looked enormous until the financing underneath the customers broke. I don’t think AI is 2000. The demand is real and the technology is real. But the financing still matters. So I’ve stopped asking only which company wins AI. I’m asking which companies still compound if the AI capex cycle slows for two years. That gives me a very different list.