# The return of hard assets

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2026-04-24

finance, investing, real-estate, assets, software, tech, ai, business

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Back in 2011, Marc Andreessen wrote a [widely cited blog post](https://a16z.com/why-software-is-eating-the-world/) where he argued that "software is eating the world." In some ways, it feels like just yesterday that I first read it. But it has been 15 years, and boy, has the world changed. Now, the worry is that AI is eating software.

It has become significantly easier to write code, to the point that in the span of only two years, Google has gone from 0% of its new code being written by AI to now [over 75% of it](https://x.com/paulg/status/2047323487405019458?s=20)! But it's not just big companies. I know lots of non-technical people who wanted software that could do "X," and so they just vibe coded a solution. Done.

In fact, I've been experimenting and doing the same for several months now. It has become so easy that I feel an obligation to do it. But as we know, if everyone can do it, then it means there is no longer any value. The value will necessarily need to be created in other ways.

Earlier this week, we [spoke](https://brandondonnelly.com/when-asset-light-becomes-an-asset-liability) about Uber and how being asset light — previously a hallmark of the gig economy — is potentially now a liability. Well, this is a broader theme. Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, even coined a term for this: [HALO](https://www.downtownjoshbrown.com/p/the-most-important-investing-theme-of-2026-is-halo). This stands for _Heavy Assets, Low Obsolescence_.

The general idea is that you now want physical stuff with a big moat that is immune to being disrupted by someone in their parents' basement using Claude Code. Hard assets are, arguably, where you want to be today. I guess that means real estate is back, baby!

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_Cover photo by_ [_Tim Mossholder_](https://unsplash.com/@timmossholder?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) _on_ [_Unsplash_](https://unsplash.com/photos/text-GCYuuIjmiLg?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/the-return-of-hard-assets)*