Software Moats & AI Capex Risk: Why Dominant Firms Stay Dominant | James Bessen (Boston University) #09

Many dominant firms may be harder to disrupt today than popular narratives suggest.Josef Pschorn speaks with James Bessen of Boston University’s Technology & Policy Research Initiative about how proprietary software creates structural advantages for incumbent issuers, why AI capex may carry more tail risk than many investors assume, and how software complexity can create hidden credit risk.Key takeaways:Proprietary software becomes a true moat when scale, data, and workflow complexity reinforce one anotherAI capex may be more fragile than earlier infrastructure cyclesSoftware complexity can create regulatory and operational risks thattraditional credit analysis may missTechnology spending can act as business-model defense, not just capexFull analysis: https://open.substack.com/pub/fixedfloating/p/the-invisible-tech-moat?r=718tew&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=webJames Bessen:TPRI at BU: https://sites.bu.edu/tpri/X: https://x.com/JamesBessenConnect with Fixed + Floating: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/fixed-floating | X https://twitter.com/FixedFloatingDisclaimer: Fixed + Floating is for informational purposes only. Not investment, legal, or tax advice.Recorded: 19.02.2026#CreditAnalysis #FixedIncome #CorporateCredit #TechMoats #HighYield #ArtificialIntelligence #CompetitiveAdvantage #JamesBessen #TechCapex