Strategy's AI Embrace: Michael Saylor Says He Built His Bitcoin Empire With Chatbot Help

Strategy's AI Embrace: Michael Saylor Says He Built His Bitcoin Empire With Chatbot Help Here’s how the company formerly known as MicroStrategy used AI to create new securities while building a $50 billion Bitcoin company. Decrypt’s Art, Fashion, and Entertainment Hub. We already know Strategy is going all-in on Bitcoin —now it’s giving space to Wall Street’s new favorite buzzword: AI. During the company's Strategy World event, founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor explained how artificial intelligence helped engineer innovative financial products that powered its Bitcoin treasury, which now holds a staggering $52 billion worth—a more than 200x increase from its $250 million starting stake five years ago . The AI workflow evolved from basic text editing to sophisticated financial modeling. When developing novel financial products, Saylor said he would use AI to analyze sources and make decisions. "I would put this chat in deep research mode and I would grind it, and it would grind through 50 sources and work for 15 minutes and come back," Saylor said during a conversation with Strategy CEO Phong Le. "It doesn't necessarily give me the answer that I can immediately act on, but it gives me somewhere between 80% and 95% of what I need." The company formerly known as MicroStrategy has seen its stock price skyrocket since adopting what Saylor calls the "Bitcoin standard era" beginning August 10, 2020. This performance has outpaced all S&P 500 companies, even topping Nvidia during the same period. This, Saylor explains, could have not been possible without the help of AI tools. Strategy’s first AI-powered securities Strategy’s AI-powered approach wasn't just for information gathering. Saylor revealed that his company's financing structures—specifically its convertible preferred stock products named "Strife" and "Strike"—were designed with artificial intelligence. "A lot of our innovative capital markets activity—things like Strike, things like Strife—we had to fight through all sorts of complicated legal issues, complicated financial issues," Saylor said. "We did a convertible preferred stock; it had never been done before. We listed it on Nasdaq; it had never been done before." Strategy’s Perpetual Strike Preferred Stock (STRK) and Perpetual Strife Preferred Stock (STRF) are preferred stock offerings launched early this year to raise capital, primarily for Bitcoin acquisitions. STRK offers an 8% dividend payable in cash or MSTR stock and is convertible into Strategy’s common stock (MSTR), whereas Strife (STRF), is non-convertible and prioritizes stability for fixed-income investors. The approach allowed Strategy to imagine financial innovations that traditional thinking couldn't produce. "Those two preferred stocks, Strife and Strike, are the first AI-designed securities that I know of, certainly in our industry," Saylor added. Saylor said his larger philosophy connects digital intelligence, digital property, and what he calls "digital capital" (aka Bitcoin). "Companies are going to create extraordinary products, extraordinary services. There's going to be a 100x increase in productivity," Saylor said. "If you're a corporation, if you're a private actor, if you're a capitalist—what are you going to do with that capital? You're going to roll it into Bitcoin." He sketched a vision where AI and Bitcoin naturally complement each other: "The explosion of productivity with digital property and digital intelligence and digital labor will create an explosion in demand for digital capital." Mosaic: Strategy’s first product created with generative AI Strategy’s CEO Le also announced a new data analytics product called Mosaic—which he said was "the first-ever within Strategy GenAI-created product"—designed to change the way companies handle their data, solving problems with generative AI. He framed Mosaic as doing for data what Bitcoin does for capital—freeing it from middlemen and giving control back to its creators. The product promises to eliminate lengthy data warehouse implementations, and allow companies to access their information in real-time without transferring control to third parties. "What you own should be yours," Le emphasized. "It's your data. Don't give (AI companies) the rights to then go train an AI with your data. And if you want them to do so, sell your data—in fact that's a great way to make money." The message to other companies considering similar transformations? Think outside the box. “Consensus thinking won't result in success in a world of 400 million competitive companies," Saylor said. Edited by Andrew Hayward Generally Intelligent Newsletter