distribution is the asset

may 2026

One statistic caught my attention recently: the number of new products and applications being launched continues to grow rapidly, yet total downloads have remained relatively flat. More things are being created, but the amount of attention available to consume them stays largely the same.

It feels like a small observation, but I suspect it points to a larger shift.

Intelligence is rapidly reducing the cost of creation. Software, content, products and services are becoming easier to build. Intelligence itself is becoming more accessible. As a result, both intelligence and creation are becoming commoditised.

That raises an interesting question: what remains scarce?

Distribution.

Meta illustrates this well. There is nothing stopping thousands of companies from building AI agents, assistants or SME bots. The challenge is connecting them to customers. Meta already owns one of the world's largest networks of consumers and businesses, allowing it to distribute new capabilities directly into an existing ecosystem.

Microsoft's position is as compelling. It has spent decades building distribution into the enterprise through products, cloud infrastructure, sales relationships and procurement processes. More importantly, much of an organisation's knowledge already lives inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and SharePoint. The intelligence layer may be new, but the knowledge layer is already there. Distribution and knowledge loops reinforce one another.

The most valuable form of distribution may not be a channel at all. It may be access to existing networks combined with knowledge loops. Or, put another way, ownership of a piece of the collective mind.

This is one reason I continue to pay attention to both Meta and Microsoft. Their advantage is not that they can build intelligence. Their advantage is that they already sit inside the networks through which intelligence will flow. It helps that both continue to trade at valuation multiples that look surprisingly reasonable for assets of this quality.

If intelligence is a commodity, distribution is the asset.