Investors have been enamored with the idea of top tech disruptors able to reshape the economy since the dot-com days. Meta Platforms (META) and Tesla (TSLA) didn't exist 25 years ago, but now they're among the biggest companies in the world because of game-changing innovations.
Today, the most disruptive start-ups are owned by private equity. Typically, they're small but high-potential firms operating deeply in the red as they chase new applications for big ideas like artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing or cryptocurrency.
