Sharif Sakr

London, United Kingdom

I'm a journalist-turned-VC who led two successful fintech funds. I'm now focused on my own investments in AI and quant trading, while also taking on research and content projects and being an Industry Advisor at Saïd Business School.

01 Sep 2026

How journalists could use factor models that work even when they break

Arguments about the slippery concepts of change, probability and forecasting have been going on since Parmenides vs Heraclitus, and no doubt long before. A modern

19 Jun 2026

Even after everything, we still believe in market wizards

The people of Iceland, despite having built a modern and pragmatic economy based on fishing and metals, are said to still believe in faeries and

15 May 2026

Chip War and the consequences of not encouraging risk

I read Chip War at the same time as reading a very different sort of history book: Foundation by Peter Ackroyd. Whereas Chip War takes

04 May 2026

A late-1990s lens on how AI could transform state power

A short reflection on James Scott's classic work, Seeing Like a State (1998), and how it might relate to the AI era In

02 May 2026

Three things I didn't expect to learn from Kenneth Rogoff

A short review of Our Dollar, Your Problem (2025) I listened to Rogoff being interviewed when his book launched last year and decided it was