Anthropic CEO warns of "YOLO-style investing" by AI firms…UK pension funds cut weighting in US tech stocks

Industry Raises AI Bubble Concerns

UK Pension Funds Sell US Stocks

US artificial intelligence (AI) technology companies are making large-scale investments one after another, and concerns about an 'AI bubble' have not subsided. AI chatbot developer Anthropic also acknowledged that the industry is taking significant risks through excessive spending, and major UK pension funds have moved to adjust their weighting in US tech stocks.

Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, attended The New York Times (NYT) DealBook Summit on the 3rd (local time) and said, "Some companies are managing risk excessively." He did not name specific companies, but likened their investment behavior to 'YOLO' (You Only Live Once), a word meaning to enjoy life only once.

He said the industry is caught in a dilemma between the need for and the uncertainty of data center investments. Amodei said, "If you buy too much computing capacity, you may not earn enough profit to cover the costs," and emphasized that "(Anthropic is) trying to manage as responsibly as possible."

Anthropic recently said it would invest $50 billion in new data centers. Earlier, OpenAI announced plans to invest $1.4 trillion in building AI infrastructure.

However, Anthropic argued that the "round-trip transactions" pointed out by the industry are not inherently problematic. Anthropic previously agreed to receive a $10 billion investment from NVIDIA and to use those funds to purchase Microsoft (MS) cloud services that use NVIDIA chips, sparking controversy over round-trip transactions.

Major overseas pension funds are also adjusting their portfolios. As concerns about an AI bubble arose, they reduced their weighting in US tech stocks. UK-based Standard Life said it has recently been increasing its weighting in UK and Asian markets instead of US stocks. The pension fund manages a £36 billion fund.

Aon Master Trust, which manages about £12 billion, sold £700 million, about 10% of its overseas equities, this summer. Jo Shaples, chief investment officer (CIO), explained, "We sold some US stocks to avoid risk."

Reporter Han Myung-hyun wise@hankyung.com