Duquesne’s Michael Buckley says young investors skip over learning these critical skills. They could prove to be invaluable in the AI boom

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Michael Buckley of the Duquesne Family Office was recruited to work under its founder, Stanley Druckenmiller, thanks to his debt and credit expertise.

As investors race to identify the next big winners in the AI boom, standing out requires more than just spotting the next breakthrough. Michael Buckley, managing director and head of equities at investment firm Duquesne Family Office, says young investors often overlook the fundamentals of corporate finance. In the age of AI, that could give them an edge.

Buckley has built a diverse investing résumé. He’s worked across private equity, venture capital, and public equities—and his early days in debt and credit helped set him apart. Right after graduating from Harvard, Buckley learned the ropes of accounting and corporate finance at Sankaty Advisors, the now-renamed credit arm of private equity giant Bain Capital. With credit as the focus, Buckley poured himself into capital and corporate structures, as well as bonds and loans. His responsibilities unwittingly set him up to be recruited for one of America’s top private investment firms.

“I learned the importance of things like capital structure and debt, which I think a lot of people—for example, that start out their career in things like equities—oftentimes will skip that stuff over,” Buckley tells Fortune. “It’s because it’s tedious and it can be complicated,” he added.

Early-career analysts who have their heads buried in stock charts, earnings growth, and revenue projections could get a leg-up by returning to those basics. There’s a simple reason: The AI boom hinges on debt. Buckley explains that in this new ecosystem, debt is suddenly very important not only to distressed debt companies, but also to public markets and venture firms. As AI companies and their infrastructure partners take on more borrowing to finance data centers, chips, and computing capacity, investors need to assess how quickly a business might grow—and whether they can afford to pay back what they owe.

Buckley recognizes that doors opened thanks to his debt and credit expertise.

Today, at Duquesne, he’s steering some of the firm’s biggest wins.

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