Many of you found BEP Research because a specific piece — The Memory Wars, The Packaging Paradox, the Groq analysis — hit your feed and something clicked. You’ve been reading my work, but you may not know the full story behind why I write it.
So here it is.
I’m Ben Pouladian. I’m an electrical engineer by training — UC San Diego, where I worked in Professor Fainman’s ultrafast nanoscale optics lab on silicon photonics and micro-ring resonators, and interned at Cymer, the company that builds the EUV light sources inside every ASML lithography system on the planet.
After graduating I co-founded Deco Lighting in 2005. We built it into one of the leading commercial LED lighting manufacturers in North America, scaling past $50 million in revenue before I exited in 2019. Building a hardware business from zero taught me how supply chains actually work — not from a spreadsheet, but from the factory floor.
I’ve been an NVIDIA investor since 2016, long before AI was a consensus trade. That’s not a brag — it’s context. When I write about NVIDIA’s architecture decisions or inference strategy, I’m writing as someone with real money on the line who has studied these systems for a decade.
Today I serve as CEO of BEP Holdings and Chairman of the Leadership Board at Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation. But the work that keeps me up at night — reading arXiv papers, dissecting earnings transcripts, mapping supply chain constraints — is what you see in BEP Research.
That combination — engineering depth, operator experience, and a decade of skin in the game — shapes every piece I publish. Most semiconductor analysts miss the software implications. Most software-focused writers treat hardware as a black box. I connect the layers — silicon architecture to software stack to business model — because that’s where the real investment insights live.
As BEP Research grows, I’m expanding coverage to include the software layer more directly. The Co-Design Thesis isn’t just about chips — it’s about the full stack. Expect deeper analysis on inference optimization, AI frameworks, model deployment economics, and the software moats being built on top of silicon. The hardware and software stories are inseparable, and I intend to cover both.
What’s Changing
On March 9th, BEP Research is moving to paid subscriptions.
The timing is deliberate: NVIDIA’s GTC conference starts the following week, and I’ll be there in person. Paid subscribers will get exclusive access to real-time GTC coverage — in-depth analysis of every major announcement, on-the-ground interviews, and breakdowns of what the roadmap changes actually mean for your portfolio. Not recaps. Real analysis, in real time.
After March 9th, free subscribers will still receive post summaries and occasional public pieces. But the deep work — the Co-Design Thesis series, investment frameworks, earnings breakdowns, supply chain deep dives, and all GTC coverage — moves behind the paywall.
Pricing
Because you’ve been here from the beginning, I’m offering an early bird rate that disappears when the paywall goes live:
Early Bird: ~$350/year (13% off) — available now through March 9th only. Use the link below to lock in this rate.
→ Lock in the Early Bird rate here
After March 9th, standard pricing applies:
Annual: $400/year
Monthly: $45/month
Founding Member: $450/year — for those who want to go above and beyond in supporting BEP Research. Founding Members get permanent recognition as the people who backed this work from day one, and will get priority consideration as I build out the institutional tier.
I’ll be direct: this is premium-priced for a Substack. It’s priced that way on purpose. I’m building institutional-quality research without sell-side conflicts, without advertising, and without the surface-level takes that dominate financial media. If even one analysis helps you size a position correctly or avoid a bad trade, the subscription pays for itself many times over. Several of you have already told me exactly that.
Institutional Access
I’m also developing an institutional tier for teams and funds that want deeper engagement. I’m already in conversations with several groups about multi-seat licenses that include direct analyst calls and priority Q&A. If that’s relevant to your team, reply to this email and we’ll set up a conversation.
To everyone who’s already pledged — thank you. You’ll be among the first to convert when payments go live, and your early support is what made this possible.
For everyone else: the early bird window closes March 9th. After that, it’s $400/year.
I’m building something different here. Your support is what makes it possible.
See you at GTC.
— Ben
P.S. If you’ve been forwarding BEP Research to colleagues, now’s the time to send them the subscribe link. The early bird rate won’t last.