Justin Sun said AI will trigger explosive innovation across industries and named five areas he currently sees as major opportunity tracks for young people: crypto, academic data, biopharma, financial insurance, and AI infrastructure services.
Five areas Sun says are worth watching
Speaking on Shao Ailun’s podcast, titled “How Can Young People Seize Opportunities in the AI Era?”, Sun said the AI cycle is creating openings across a wide range of sectors. He grouped the opportunities into five categories: crypto, academic data, biopharma, financial insurance, and AI infrastructure services.
Academic data processing stands out
On data inference in academia, Sun said fields such as astronomy and biology, which depend on large volumes of experimental or observational data, present notable opportunities. He said those disciplines already have abundant data but still lack adequate processing methods, making them suitable for AI-based handling.
Biopharma and gene-based health management
Sun also said he is highly optimistic about biopharma and gene sequencing analysis. He said drug development offers high returns, while gene data has already reached the stage of full-scale sequencing capability. In his view, that can be combined with AI to predict future health management needs.
Finance and insurance still need algorithmic rebuilding
In financial insurance, Sun said sectors such as insurance, especially those closely tied to life and health, still run on outdated algorithms. He said the field is waiting for disruptive innovation built on new logic and new methods.
Why Sun links crypto with AI payments
On crypto, Sun said it is naturally suited to AI API calls because it can function as a global payment system. He said crypto supports low-precision calculations below the unit size of traditional currencies and can also settle instantly, which in his view makes it closely connected to AI-related use cases.
AI infrastructure and data labeling
Sun also pointed to AI infrastructure services and data labeling as areas with room to grow. He said there are opportunities in LLM data cleaning and labeling. As an example, he said the founder of Scale AI sold a data-labeling company to Facebook at a price in the tens of billions of dollars, which he said shows the commercial value of the segment.
His view on the age window for innovation
Sun added that ages 20 to 40 represent the golden years of creativity. He said opportunities are widespread in the AI era and that young people should make the most of them.