For the past decade, the concept of the “Smart City” has dominated urban planning and technology investment. The promise was one of optimization: a city-wide network of sensors, cameras, and data platforms designed to manage traffic, conserve energy, and streamline public services. This vision fueled massive investment in “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices and centralized data dashboards.

At B9F7 Parvis Trust, our research and investment theses compel us to challenge this model. We believe the “Smart City,” as it was originally conceived, is an obsolete and dangerously fragile concept.

The fundamental flaw of the first-generation Smart City was that it was built in silos, optimizing individual components without creating a unified, secure system. The traffic grid was “smart,” the electrical grid was “smart,” and the public water system was “smart.” But they were not integrated. More critically, they were built with a primary focus on efficiency, not resilience, creating new, catastrophic vulnerabilities.

A city operating system that is merely “smart” is a liability. It is a massive, interconnected attack surface. A “smart” grid that can be hacked is a “dumb” investment.

We believe the future does not lie in the “Smart City,” but in the “Resilient City.” This is the new urban thesis, and it represents a profound, foundational investment opportunity. Resilience is a far more rigorous and valuable goal. A resilient city is not just efficient; it is secure, self-healing, and capable of withstanding systemic shocks, from extreme weather events to sophisticated cyber-attacks.

This new thesis is built upon the perfect convergence of all our core investment sectors: New Energy, Network Infrastructure, AI, and Data Security.

First, a resilient city cannot be built on a 20th-century energy model. It requires a foundational layer of New Energy, built on a decentralized model of microgrids, local battery storage, and diversified renewable sources. This creates a redundant, high-availability power system that is no longer dependent on a single point of failure.

Second, a resilient city runs on a new Network Infrastructure. It requires a secure, high-bandwidth, low-latency nervous system, enabled by private 5G networks, extensive fiber, and next-generation IoT sensors. This infrastructure must be built with a “security-by-design” principle, not as an afterthought.

Third, this new infrastructure is managed by Artificial Intelligence. This is the brain. AI is the only tool powerful enough to manage the complexity of a decentralized energy grid while simultaneously optimizing traffic flow, emergency response, and resource allocation in real-time. This is not the “data analytics” of the past; it is an active, predictive, and autonomous governance engine.

Finally, and most critically, this entire system is encased in a non-negotiable layer of Data Security. The “cyber-physical” security of a resilient city is the single greatest challenge and opportunity. The value is not in the “smart” lightbulb; it is in the military-grade cybersecurity platform that ensures those lightbulbs, and the power grid they are connected to, cannot be weaponized.

At B9F7, we are focused on funding the builders of this new resilient infrastructure. We are deploying capital into the AI platforms that optimize decentralized energy, the advanced cybersecurity firms that protect critical cyber-physical assets, and the next-generation network hardware that forms the secure backbone of a city that is built to last.