May 15, 2024 - ZPTA

The Hidden Gem in Zapata's Earnings Call: Is This the Key to Unlocking Explosive Growth?

Zapata Computing's first earnings call as a public company was a whirlwind of information, covering everything from their innovative work in quantum-enhanced generative AI to exciting partnerships in diverse sectors like telecom and pharmaceuticals. While analysts have focused on the company's diverse applications and potential across industries, there's a hidden gem buried in the transcript that hints at a powerful engine for explosive growth: **the repeatability and scalability of their core mathematical approach**. This might not sound as exciting as predicting yellow flags in IndyCar races or developing cancer drug candidates, but it's the bedrock on which Zapata's success rests. The company has identified a core set of mathematical structures - sequential data modeling problems - that underpin seemingly disparate use cases across multiple industries. This realization allows them to leverage their expertise and technology platform, Orquestra, to address diverse challenges without reinventing the wheel for each new application.

Think of it like a master key. Instead of crafting a unique key for every door, Zapata has found a master key that unlocks a whole series of doors, each representing a different industry or use case. This approach offers incredible leverage for a young company, allowing them to rapidly expand into new markets without incurring significant development costs for each new application.

"Yudong Cao, Zapata's CTO, eloquently explains this core strength: "Molecules can be cast as a sequential representation. Timing of scoring and race data takes a time-series form. Financial data as well takes a time series form. Even text data is also a sequential form of data. So what we have done is that we have looked at the underlying structure of these problems, the mathematical structure of these problems, and developed quantum techniques towards those.""

The implications of this realization are profound. Zapata isn't just solving specific problems; they're building a foundational capability to address a vast class of problems that share the same underlying mathematical structure. This allows them to move quickly and efficiently across industries, applying their expertise to new challenges with minimal adaptation.

This potential for scalability is further amplified by their open-source platform, Orquestra. This allows them to tap into a broader ecosystem of hardware and software tools, leveraging the best technology available for each specific use case without being locked into proprietary systems. This flexibility is crucial in the rapidly evolving field of generative AI, ensuring they can constantly adapt to new advancements and maintain their technological edge.

The Andretti Global partnership offers a compelling example of this scalability in action. While the use cases - yellow flag prediction, virtual sensor creation, lap time prediction - may seem specific to racing, the underlying mathematical challenges are readily transferable to other industries. As Jon Zorio, Zapata's CRO, points out, "Anytime there is a large geographically dispersed complex network of anything... that we need to monitor and take action quickly, that's very much in our sweet spot." Furthermore, the Andretti partnership is more than just a technological showcase. It's a strategic marketing tool that vividly demonstrates Zapata's capabilities in action. Potential clients can experience the power of real-time analytics at the edge, witnessing the RACC (Race Analytics Command Center) processing terabytes of data in a challenging environment. This tangible proof of concept instills confidence and accelerates the sales cycle.

Zapata's Focus Industries and Potential Revenue Growth

While it's early days for Zapata as a public company, the seeds of explosive growth are already planted. Their focus on core mathematical structures, combined with their open-source platform and strategic partnerships, creates a powerful engine for rapid and efficient expansion across industries. As generative AI continues to revolutionize business operations, Zapata is well positioned to become a dominant player, unlocking hidden value in data and empowering enterprises to make better, faster decisions. The key to their success lies not just in the individual applications, but in the powerful mathematical framework that underpins their approach. This is the hidden gem that could propel Zapata from promising startup to industry titan.

If Zapata successfully applies their core technology to even a fraction of the use cases outlined in the earnings call, their revenue could easily increase tenfold within the next three years. The telecom market alone represents a multi-billion dollar opportunity, and their partnership with Tech Mahindra gives them access to a vast network of potential clients. While these numbers are speculative, they illustrate the potential magnitude of growth that Zapata could achieve by capitalizing on the scalability of their mathematical approach. This hidden gem, combined with their strong technical foundation and strategic partnerships, makes them a compelling investment opportunity in the burgeoning field of industrial generative AI.

"**Fun Fact:** The term "quantum" in quantum computing refers to the use of quantum mechanics principles, like superposition and entanglement, to perform calculations. This allows quantum computers to potentially tackle problems that are intractable for classical computers."