Big global investors see gold in AI but don’t buy the rush

By Nell Mackenzie, Tala Ramadan and Utkarsh Shetti

ABU DHABI, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Big investors attending Abu Dhabi Finance Week voiced concern over the high valuations attached to AI-related companies but said that investment in the infrastructure crucial to the sector’s long-term ​success cannot be dismissed.

Technology leviathans such as Alphabet, Meta and Oracle have rushed to debt markets in recent months to keep ‌pace in the Artificial Intelligence race, adding to unease about an AI bubble.

For some of the most powerful personalities in finance attending this week’s state-backed finance conference in Abu Dhabi, ‌AI was the stand-out topic.

Here’s what some of them had to say:

FRANKLIN TEMPLETON CEO JENNY JOHNSON: EARLY DAYS

Johnson characterised recent market activity and worries about an AI-related bubble as the early days of the gold rush.

“Who cares? So, there’s seven stocks. We’re talking about one of the greatest technological changes in our lifetime and it’s a bit like saying the picks and shovels (in the gold rush) got really expensive,” Johnson said on a conference panel.

“We haven’t even ⁠begun to see the impact of AI,” she ‌said, adding that it would take some years before the technology would become transformative and meaningful enough to appear in company earnings, echoing policymakers and economists who continue to assess AI’s impact on productivity, labour markets and corporate ‍earnings.

Franklin Templeton manages investments totalling about $1.7 trillion.

BLACKSTONE CEO STEPHEN SCHWARZMAN: WATCH ELECTRICITY

Trillion-dollar alternative asset manager Blackstone’s (BX.N) Schwarzman noted how AI now touches almost every part of economic activity, with massive capital expenditure and demands on electricity.

“We’re going to have to theoretically double the size of our electricity grid to deal with this. That’s a big ​thing … to create electricity, you have to have a lot of other things happen in society,” he told the conference.

ADIC CIO FOR PUBLIC ‌MARKETS SHIV SRINIVASAN: OPPORTUNITY

The Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC) sovereign wealth fund is among big Middle East investors that view AI-related stocks as a good opportunity despite soaring valuations.

“I like AI and biotech, they have been big winners. I continue to like them,” said Srinivasan.

The industry is in the middle of its journey, he added.

TCI FOUNDER CHRIS HOHN: WAIT A MINUTE

Some hedge fund managers questioned how positive AI would be on companies and their stocks.

Hohn, founder of $60 billion hedge fund TCI, said that certain companies and investments do not make any sense at this stage. He did not name ⁠any companies but he added that AI would be a force of disruption and ​not necessarily a positive one.

“Forces of disruption are increasing,” Hohn told the conference, adding ​that investors’ “best universe is limited and decreasing”.

Uncertainty and risk factors are “off the charts”, he said.

RAJ AGRAWAL, GLOBAL HEAD OF REAL ASSETS AT KKR: THAT DATA CENTRE DEBATE

Agrawal said that investment in the “massive opportunity” presented by AI was best deployed in ‍data centres.

“What you need to be ⁠cautious of is paying big multiples that require growth in a certain period to get your capital back,” said Agrawal.

Oracle invests so heavily in its AI data centres that its free cash flow will be negative for years, according to Visible Alpha data last ⁠week.

Considering data centres, Khaled Al Shamlan Al Marri, chief executive of real assets at sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company, said its tack was to stick to its investment principles ‌and not chase aggressive growth.

Investment firm KKR manages $723 billion of assets.

(Reporting by Nell Mackenzie Nell, Tala Ramadan and Utkarsh ShettiAdditional reporting ‌Gianluca Lo Nostro and Robert CryanEditing by Dhara Ranasinghe and David Goodman)