The Hallstone Thesis
AI infrastructure for MediaTech and AdTech built by operators who know the stack.
The Starting Point
$3.5T
Global entertainment and media economy
The full scope of how the world creates, distributes, and monetizes media. Most of it is not venture-investable — it is content, talent, and distribution deals. We start here only to size where the addressable slice actually sits.
Where It Narrows
$150B+
The three infrastructure layers we can size against published comparables
~$55–60B
Creator infrastructure
~$68–80B
AdTech & monetization rails
~$13–14B
Frontier media infrastructure
The Imbalance
Beyond faster production: the systems that turn attention into value.
The Factory Floor
Efficiency gains
Planning, production, localization, versioning, cost, and time.
Production efficiency matters. Durable value comes from owning a workflow, not simply making output cheaper.
The Storefront
Our focus
Discovery, recommendations, advertising, and conversion.
Our emphasis is on the infrastructure that connects content to audiences and turns attention into revenue.
We favor infrastructure that drives discovery, monetization, and customer value over tools focused only on cheaper production.
The Point
The most economically powerful AI in media may not be the system that generates the frame. It may be the system that decides who sees the frame, and how that attention gets monetized.
Across all four focus areas, we look for infrastructure that becomes part of how an industry operates: clear buyers, lasting workflow value, and room to scale. Our emphasis is on how media reaches audiences and creates economic value.
Where We Invest
We back the systems that connect AI capability to real media workflows, customers, and revenue.
Where Hallstone invests
Four areas · Select to exploreThe industry infrastructure layer
Tools, platforms, and workflows that help creators and media businesses operate, monetize, and scale. We look for workflow lock-in, proprietary data layers, and measurable ROI for the creator or platform buyer.
Technologies that improve how attention is measured, packaged, priced, attributed, and monetized across media, entertainment, advertising, and creator ecosystems. We follow the ad dollar migration and the new measurement infrastructure being built around it.
Infrastructure and workflow tools supporting immersive production, spatial computing, virtual production, real-time creation, and next-generation media experiences. We look for venture-scale toolchain integration and clear enterprise or platform buyers.
Emerging infrastructure categories that may shape the future of media distribution, capture, connectivity, and experience. This includes space-enabled media infrastructure where the path from technology to infrastructure is credible and the commercial application is tangible.
Why Hallstone
We pair sector-focused investing with approximately 70 domain-expert LPs, including CTOs and technology leaders from studios, agencies, and big tech. We match founder needs with relevant operator expertise to inform diligence, test buyer assumptions, and support introductions where there is mutual fit.
How we work with founders →What We Avoid
Discipline is part of the thesis. We define what we will not do as clearly as what we will. These exclusions are not negotiable.
The Hallstone No List
Most funds tell you what they invest in. Few will tell you what they won't.
Film, TV & game content slates
Hit-driven content risk, not infrastructure
Markets without venture-scale headroom
A great business can still be the wrong fit for a fund
IP or royalty speculation
Uncontrolled rights risk
Services without software margins
No path to 65%+ gross margin
Unclear buyer or budget
GTM is not a strategy
Unmanaged IP/consent risk
Compliance kills scale
LLM wrappers without a moat
No proprietary data or workflow lock‑in
Zero unit economics insight
No CAC, payback, margins, or retention data
Building AI infrastructure for media, entertainment, or advertising?
For Founders