‍

Investor and former TV anchor Cody Willard visited the UAE last week as part of his role as advisor for the US VIP Technology Fund from Freedom Asset Management.

A former hedge fund manager, Willard is the founder of TradingWithCody.com and has built a reputation as one of Wall Street’s more unconventional voices, equally at home on the trading floor and in front of the camera.He’s contributed to major outlets including The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, and has been featured across nearly every major US financial news platform.

He's also best known for co-hosting Fox Business’s Happy Hour and serving as a correspondent on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Beyond his media work, Willard has been an early investor in companies like Apple, Google, Meta, and NVIDIA, backing what he calls “revolutionary platforms” well before they went mainstream. He now spends his time tracking trillion-dollar tech trends, from AI and robotics to space.In this interview, Willard explains why he believes we’re still in the “dial-up” phase of the AI evolution, why he’s buying Tesla and NVIDIA on the dip, and how the UAE is becoming a vital engine in the global technology boom. He also shares candid views on Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and the dangers of ignoring government debt.