At the Reuters NEXT Asia event in Singapore, major investors struck a cautious tone on AI, favoring infrastructure and resilient businesses as valuations and capital spending draw scrutiny.
Japan, South Korea and Australia are offering significant buyout opportunities, Goldman Sachs Asset Management's Stephanie Hui said at the Reuters NEXT Asia event in Singapore, while a broader discussion among major investors centered on a more cautious approach to artificial intelligence. Temasek chief investment officer Rohit Sipahimalani said the Singapore state investor wants to raise its AI exposure to as much as 15% over five years from 6% now, while also increasing exposure to hard-asset businesses that are less likely to be disrupted by the technology. Temasek owns stakes in Anthropic and OpenAI. Hui said Goldman Sachs Asset Management is avoiding trying to predict which AI applications will emerge as winners and is instead backing "simple stuff" that supports adoption, including liquid cooling and data centres. Primavera Capital Group chairman Fred Hu warned that rising valuations and heavy capital flows into AI raise questions about how much investment is enough, while Bain Capital Japan's Satoshi Ueyama said opportunities remain but not all AI investment will succeed and infrastructure spending still needs end-users to justify it.