On this episode of the Going Long Podcast, Sarah Williamson welcomes Mark Machin, co-founder of Intrepid Growth Partners and former CEO of CPP Investments. From neuroscience at Oxford to leading one of the world’s largest pension funds — and now investing in transformative AI companies — Machin shares how an analytical, data-driven mindset shapes his approach to long-term investing and innovation.

Topics include:

• [00:02:00] From Science to Strategy:
  How Machin’s neuroscience background shapes his data-driven, probability-based approach to long-term investing and how early models of AI drew from our understanding (and misunderstandings) of the human brain.
• [00:04:00] Founding FCLTGlobal to Fix Short-Termism:
  The research that exposed corporate short-term bias and inspired FCLTGlobal’s creation, and why the mission to realign incentives for long-term value remains just as vital today.
• [00:08:00] Market Evolution: Private, Public, and Geopolitical Shifts:
  Machin’s perspective on the merging of private and public markets, the rise of liquidity tools, and how U.S.–China tensions are reshaping global capital flows and risk.
• [00:14:00] Investing in the AI Economy:
  Inside Intrepid Growth Partners’ focus on enterprise AI companies with measurable results, examples like StackAdapt and Skin Analytics, and how value is moving up the stack from chips to applications.
• [00:30:00] The Future of Finance and Work:
  Why AI may flatten traditional hierarchies, make advisors smarter (not obsolete), and change how young professionals enter finance, all while creating new opportunities for human creativity.
• [00:41:00] Looking Twenty Years Ahead:
  Machin’s long-range themes: a rebound in biotech, underappreciated Canadian and European tech, a potential commodities super-cycle, and the coming wave of quantum computing.

For listeners interested in how science, technology, and patient capital intersect, this conversation explores the evolution of long-term thinking, the realities of today’s AI boom, and where global investors should look next.

From Neuroscience to Investment Insight

Before leading one of the world’s largest pension funds, Mark Machin trained as a neuroscientist at Oxford—an origin that continues to shape his analytical approach to capital. His foundation in experimentation, data analysis, and probability carries directly into investing, emphasizing cumulative learning and evidence-based decision-making. That background also gives him a nuanced perspective on artificial intelligence, much of which was originally modeled on theories about how the human brain processes information.

Founding FCLTGlobal and the Problem of Short-Termism

While leading CPP Investments, Machin helped found FCLTGlobal in 2016  to address structural short-termism in markets. Early research found that many corporate leaders were willing to sacrifice long-term value to meet quarterly earnings targets, revealing a deep misalignment between company incentives and the interests of long-term savers. The organization was created out of a need to reconnect that chain of capital and promote decisions that prioritize sustainable value creation — an aim that remains as relevant today as when the initiative began.

Liquidity, Risk, and the Merging of Markets

Machin views today’s investment landscape as one where public and private markets increasingly overlap. The expansion of secondary markets has made private assets more flexible, but he emphasizes the importance of disciplined liquidity planning to guard against overexposure during downturns.

Drawing on two decades in Asia, he also notes the profound impact of geopolitical realignment, particularly the shift in U.S.–China relations. With major economies now treating one another as strategic competitors, global investors must navigate new regulatory and political risks while balancing opportunity and access. 

Building Intrepid Growth Partners

Now at the helm of Intrepid Growth Partners, a half-billion-dollar investment firm co-founded with Mark Shrin and Ajay Agrawal, Machin focuses on companies where artificial intelligence sits at the core of value creation. The team targets enterprise-focused businesses that demonstrate measurable results and defensible market positions.

One example, StackAdapt, applies machine learning to optimize digital advertising for small and medium businesses, analyzing billions of data points in real time. Another, Skin Analytics, provides AI-driven skin-cancer diagnostics for the UK’s National Health Service with near-perfect accuracy, helping relieve hospital bottlenecks and prioritize urgent cases. Together, these investments illustrate how focused “point solutions” can evolve into system-wide transformations in healthcare and beyond.

The Future of Finance and Human Potential

Machin anticipates that AI will reshape professional structures, flattening traditional hierarchies and streamlining fields like law, banking, and wealth management. Rather than replacing people, technology is expected to augment their capabilities, making advisors and decision-makers more effective while freeing them from repetitive tasks.

He also foresees significant shifts in how young professionals enter finance, as automation reduces the need for large layers of junior staff. Yet he remains optimistic about human creativity and entrepreneurship in this new environment. The barriers to launching companies, attracting capital, and building technology have never been lower, opening space for innovation that does not yet exist.

Looking Twenty Years Ahead

Over a two-decade horizon, Machin sees opportunity in areas that remain underappreciated or cyclical: a rebound in biotechnology, renewed attention to European and Canadian technology sectors, a potential commodities super-cycle as the physical economy catches up to digital demand, and the eventual commercial rise of quantum computing. Each represents, in his view, the continuing interplay between material resources and technological progress.

To learn more, listen to this episode of the Going Long Podcast.