I wonder if, these days, the truly "contrarian" thing for a VC to do is to NOT be contrarian.
After all so many top investors made their name going against the grain that now "going against the grain" in some superficial way is the norm, and the radical and bold thing might be to buy conventional wisdom.
Really interesting to get a window in on a deal like this when normally details (like this confusing investor behavior) would usually be totally opaque to anyone looking in.
It must be tough though to bear your soul like this and take the heat he's no doubt been getting (including here).
Watching this event was definitely an interesting look at the top rungs of Apple. Their own corporate self-perception has certainly evolved in the last few years. I think many commentators have noted the way that Apple has tried to take its "decisive-break-with-the-past" marketing of prior years and prior hardware generations and make it something that can keep selling into the long term. Making their own chips seems like yet another salvo in that effort. For anyone interested in questions about the corporate structure of Apple behind-the-scenes, you might like this article: https://theorg.com/insights/the-minds-behind-apples-revoluti...
After all so many top investors made their name going against the grain that now "going against the grain" in some superficial way is the norm, and the radical and bold thing might be to buy conventional wisdom.