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October 29, 2026
Partner, Chief Economist
With AI disruption potentially around the corner, there is a lot of discussion about moats at the moment.
Professor Aswath Damodaran’s framework looks at the sources of competitive advantage: brand strength, switching costs, network effects, cost advantages and legal protection, see chart below.
The key distinction is not simply whether a company has a moat, but how wide and durable that moat is, and how it shows up in the numbers: pricing power, customer retention, market share and profitability.
For investors, understanding the source and sustainability of a company’s competitive advantage is critical to assessing its long-term value.
With the proliferation of AI, the moat discussion is becoming even more important. Here is a simple checklist of three questions to ask.
The AI moat checklist: Data, Workflow, Pricing
Sources: Professor Aswath Damodaran, Apollo Chief Economist
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