Australia's largest pension fund stays with AI chipmakers and data centres amid tech selloff

what happened

AustralianSuper, Australia's largest pension fund with A$430 billion in assets, told Reuters it will stick to the "picks and shovels" of the AI industry as global tech stocks face unprecedented turbulence. Mark Hargraves, head of the fund's international equities and private equity business, said the fund believes chipmakers and hyperscaler data centres will ride out the current storm. He spoke in an interview on October 28.

According to recent filings, the fund holds about A$3.05 billion of Nvidia stock in its balanced portfolio, and roughly A$2.3 billion each in Microsoft and Alphabet. It also has stakes in SK Hynix, SpaceX, Meta, Broadcom and Micron. Hargraves said AI and AI-related stocks now make up about 40% of the global equities market.

He also said the fund would not disclose its plans for its Anthropic stake ahead of the planned share sale, which would value the US company at $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion. He added that the IPO would give investors more insight into the financial forecasts of large language models.

why it matters

AI shares have stumbled as investors question whether earnings can keep pace with lofty valuations after a long rally. A large fund's decision to hold its positions shows that some institutional investors are not cutting exposure to AI infrastructure, which matters for sentiment in chipmakers and data centre suppliers.

market impact

Акции ИИ-инфраструктуры: крупные инвесторы сохраняют позиции, но сомнения в оценках остаются давлением на сектор

tags

instruments