At the All-In Summit on September 16, Altimeter Capital founder Brad Gerstner argued that AI is reshaping corporate margins. His evidence: “Every company I talk to, Uber says we’re going to grow 20%, we’re not going to grow headcount. Snowflake says we’re going to grow 30%, we’re not going to grow headcount. That’s what’s happening. That is margin expansion.”
Gerstner argued that the NASDAQ delivered roughly 38 basis points of annual margin expansion from 2015 to 2025, and AI can push that closer to 100 basis points because the single largest cost input at these companies is humans.
Scoreboard Says the Buyers Are Along for the Ride
Gerstner’s framing from the same appearance explains the market’s reaction: “The makers of the tokens are making the money and the buyers of the tokens are basically going along for the ride.”
One-year returns for his two case studies split sharply. Uber (NYSE:UBER | UBER Price Prediction) trades at $70.34, down 24.32% over the past year. Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW) sits at $334.13, up 53.3% over one year. NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) sits at $219.38, up 29.14% over one year.
Uber: The Margin Story the Market Isn’t Paying For
Uber’s Q2 2026 report matches Gerstner’s description. Gross Bookings hit $58.02 billion, up 24% year over year, with operating income of $1.89 billion (up 30.3%). Non-GAAP operating income margin expanded to 3.7% of Gross Bookings from 3.3% a year earlier.
CFO Prashanth Krishnamurthy tied the leverage to AI: “The investments we’re making in AI should result in productivity gains, and that should allow us to be moderating some of the headcount additions.” Uber reported near 100% adoption of AI coding tools among engineers and a doubling of code output, plus surgical 10% to 20% headcount cuts in select organizations. Details are in Uber’s Q2 2026 8-K.
Snowflake: Growth Accelerating, Hiring Slowing
Snowflake’s recent quarter is the cleaner exhibit. Product revenue rose 37% year over year to $1.49 billion, non-GAAP operating margin expanded to 15.3% from 11%, and net revenue retention held at 126%. CFO Brian Robbins stated: “AI is driving greater efficiency and reducing our reliance on headcount growth.”
Snowflake added 334 employees year to date, including 173 from the Observe acquisition, versus 935 in the year-ago period. Management raised full-year product revenue guidance to $6.07 billion (36% growth) and non-GAAP operating margin guidance from 13.5% to 14.5%.
NVIDIA: Why the Token Maker Keeps Winning
NVIDIA’s Q2 FY27 results explain why capital flows to the picks-and-shovels. Revenue hit $96.22 billion (up 105.8%), Data Center revenue was $89.02 billion (up 117%), non-GAAP gross margin was 75.0%, and operating income reached $63.73 billion. CEO Jensen Huang framed the shift: “AI has reached its inflection point. It’s doing useful work. Its tokens are productive and profitable. Now, compute is revenue.”
Management guided Q3 revenue to $108 billion and fiscal 2028 growth of approximately 70%. Cloud industry backlog exceeds $2 trillion, and top-five hyperscaler capex is expected at nearly $800 billion in 2026 and $1.3 trillion in 2027.
The hyperscaler capex wave lifts more than the chipmaker itself (we profiled seven picks-and-shovels suppliers powering the buildout, from electricity to cooling, in a free report you can grab here).
What to Watch
Gerstner’s thesis on operating leverage is playing out in fundamentals for both Uber and Snowflake. Snowflake gets credit because product revenue is accelerating alongside margin expansion. Uber is delivering the leverage but reinvesting savings into low-margin market expansion. NVIDIA’s supply commitments of $279 billion now function as forward guidance.