American Legacy Fund
Investing in the physical bottlenecks of artificial intelligence. Managed by Rothswell Asset Management.
American Legacy Fund is being established as Rothswell's flagship fund, with Rothswell Asset Management intended to act as general partner and investment manager. Its core strategy is a thematic public-equity strategy focused on the infrastructure that artificial intelligence depends on. The fund is organized in Delaware and is currently in structuring.
In structuring; not open for investmentFund manager
Jay Plourde
Fund Manager and Chief Investment Officer
American Legacy Fund · Rothswell Asset Management
A New York financial services executive with more than twenty-five years leading regulated investment vehicles, broker-dealers and institutional platforms. As Chief Executive Officer of CLSA Americas, the U.S. broker-dealer held by Crédit Agricole CIB, he scaled the business to about $420 million of annual revenue and 185 professionals. He has served on the boards of two licensed U.S. banking institutions, including through the global financial crisis, and most recently ran compliance, risk and operations at a regulated long/short equity fund.
Career
- 2023 to 2026
Riposte Capital
Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Risk Officer and Director of Non-Investment Operations at a regulated long/short equity fund.
- 2020 to 2022
StoryFile, Inc.
Director of Finance and Operations at a venture-backed AI platform; built the finance and operations function.
- 2019 to 2020
Wedbush Securities
Managing Director, Head of Private Capital Markets.
- 2013 to 2019
Presvic Private Investments
Financial executive and investor; CFO and COO-level leadership for technology and data companies.
- 2006 to 2013
CLSA Americas
Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. broker-dealer held by Crédit Agricole CIB, scaled to about $420 million of annual revenue and 185 professionals.
- 2001 to 2006
Scius Capital Group
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of a licensed broker-dealer; pioneered the first Intellectual Property Investment Trust.
- 1997 to 2001
Credit Suisse First Boston
Managing Director, Head of Asian Equities Americas; built a top-three market-share franchise.
Licenses
Series 65, Uniform Investment Adviser Law Examination
Passing the Series 65 does not by itself register Rothswell or any person as an investment adviser. Registration status can be checked on the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site and FINRA BrokerCheck.
Board service
Credit Agricole CIB
Director and Executive/Strategy Committee, 2008 to 2013
Covenant Bancshares
Director and Executive Committee, 2007 to 2013
Joseph Business School
Director and Faculty, 2005 to present
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Board of Advisors, 2001 to 2015
Education
B.A., Business Administration, University of Missouri–Kansas City
Executive programs: Singularity University; Heriot-Watt University (Financial Markets)
The thesis
Artificial intelligence is usually discussed as software. Its growth is limited by something more physical.
Every model runs on chips, every chip needs light to move data and materials to be made, and every data center needs power. Where those physical inputs are scarce, the companies that supply them hold pricing power for years, not quarters. American Legacy Fund’s core strategy is intended to invest in those bottlenecks.
Five themes
The strategy is organized around five areas where physical capacity, not demand, sets the pace.
Optical networking
Moving data between chips, servers and data centers at the speed AI requires depends on light: lasers, transceivers and fiber.
Semiconductors
Advanced chips, the equipment that makes them and the packaging that connects them remain a defining constraint on capacity.
Chemicals and materials
Specialty gases, substrates and engineered materials are small in cost but essential, and supply is concentrated.
Energy and infrastructure
Data centers need power, cooling and grid connections. Electricity, not demand, is increasingly the limiting factor.
The compute stack
Servers, memory, storage and the systems that tie them together turn chips and power into usable compute.
Where we invest
The core strategy invests in listed securities, primarily on U.S. exchanges, with limited exposure to companies listed in Japan.
Exchange names are used for identification only and do not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by the exchanges.
Portfolio approach
- Core strategy
- A thematic public-equity strategy, primarily in U.S.-listed companies, with limited exposure to Japan where key suppliers are listed.
- Concentrated, risk-controlled
- A focused portfolio built from fundamental research, with position sizing and risk limits set in advance.
- Liquid by design
- Listed securities, so the core portfolio can be valued daily and kept liquid.
- Private investments, kept separate
- Any private investments are intended to sit in a separate, elective allocation that investors choose to join, held apart from the liquid portfolio.
Investment philosophy
Invest where there is an advantage
Informational, analytical, operational or structural. Otherwise abstain.
Discipline the downside first
Let asymmetry, not optimism, carry the return.
Match capital to the asset
Liquid strategies stay liquid. Private positions are funded only by capital committed to them.
Keep structures simple
Complexity is a cost, not a credential.
Fund partners
The firms that formed, administer, hold and audit American Legacy Fund.
The Funds Group
Established Rothswell Asset Management and American Legacy Fund. A firm specializing in fund formation for alternative investment funds.
J.P. Morgan
Prime brokerage for the fund: custody of securities, trade clearing and settlement, financing and securities lending.
NAV Fund Services
Independent fund administration: calculating net asset value, maintaining the books and records, investor services and reporting.
Grant Thornton
Independent audit of the fund’s annual financial statements.
Names and logos are trademarks of their respective owners and are shown to identify the fund’s service providers; their use does not imply endorsement of the fund.
Governance
- Independent administration
- NAV Fund Services, an independent fund administrator, keeps the books, calculates net asset value and reports to investors.
- Documented policies
- Conflicts, allocation, valuation and personal-trading policies written down and applied from launch, not added after scale.
- Audited reporting
- Annual financial statements audited by Grant Thornton, an independent accounting firm.
- Separation of duties
- Investment decisions, operations and compliance held by different people, with oversight from the general partner.
Investor area
Offering documents, reporting and fund materials will be available in a secure area for verified accredited investors once the offering opens. Access is by invitation only.
| Organization | Delaware |
| Status | In structuring. Not open for investment; no subscriptions are being accepted. |
Nothing on this website is an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any interest in American Legacy Fund or any other security. Any offering would be made only through definitive offering documents, to investors who meet applicable eligibility requirements, under an available exemption from registration. No regulator has reviewed or approved the fund.
Let’s talk
Tell us a little about you, and we will get back to you.
info@rothswell.us646 821 3520211 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016