Citrini Founder Who Rattled Markets Sells Firm to SemiAnalysis, Plans New Fund

James van Geelen, founder of independent investment-research shop Citrini Research, has sold the firm to semiconductor and AI researcher SemiAnalysis, according to Bloomberg. Van Geelen and SemiAnalysis Chief Executive Officer Dylan Patel confirmed the sale on Friday, adding that van Geelen will stay on as Citrini's CEO for now. The sale price could not immediately be determined. "I'm excited about what the future holds for independent investment research," van Geelen said. Separately, he plans to launch a new fund, people familiar with the matter said, though he declined to comment on it. New York-based Citrini, whose research has some 260,000 Substack subscribers, made its name earlier this year when van Geelen posted a note titled "The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis," imagining a future in which AI wipes out white-collar jobs so fast the economy cannot absorb the blow. The report sent shockwaves through markets and hit software stocks in particular. SemiAnalysis, founded in 2020, has become an industry go-to for semiconductor research. Patel said research is changing and that the way firms have historically done it is "kludgy, old, slow and not democratized to the world." He said van Geelen has the largest finance-business Substack along with other operations, and the deal is about scaling SemiAnalysis's research to be among the best in a new era in which research is democratized and can be done by people themselves.