Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek thinks AI is going to pay off

Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek, one of the world’s largest investment houses, intends to massively increase its investment in AI over the next five years – both for its own use and across its portfolio. Temasek holds over $400 billion in assets and around six percent of those are currently tied up in AI companies, …

[Denarius]

pity

I thought Singapore government too smart to fall for techBro hubris.

[Pascal Monett]

"intends to massively increase its investment in AI"

Which will massively increase the pain when the bubble finally bursts.

Or have they not read about all the companies that are frantically backpedaling on their AI use ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "intends to massively increase its investment in AI"

TBH regardless of your view on this… from purely having a smart team of analysts/portfolio managers … feels like they have missed the boat and are buying at the top of the market.

For AI investments buying stakes in NVidia, SK Hynix etc 3-5 years ago would have been the smart move… and selling now and realising the value to investors.

[Like a badger]

Re: "intends to massively increase its investment in AI"

I think Temasek are piling in because their historic returns have been poor relative to most major equity indices, and they're rather embarrassed. Now hoping that throwing money at AI will make things rosy.

[Bebu sa Ware]

"ChatGPT, should we invest more in OpenAI ?"

"Sure. I^H we will never regret it."

One assumes Temasek has done extensive financial, economic and other modelling before betting the farm… nasty suspicion they haven't but in the spirit of the times it is "vibe investing" which in the same spirit is equally enshittifying.

[Anonymous Coward]

Singapore, the freemarket extremist dreamland that quietly laughs in the face of neoliberalists by being one of the richest countries in the world despite having the most socialist housing policy of any successful economy and the state owning a slice of almost everything.

[Persona]

Singapore is a benevolent near dictatorship that runs very very successfully on neoliberal policy. There is nothing in neoliberal policy that says the obedient populace can't be supported and made very comfortable. AI and humanoid robotics (if successful) will fit in nicely resulting in a rich population with a high standard of living and abundant leisure time.

[myhandler]

You omitted the word 'docile'.

Everything that is not permitted is forbidden.

[Anonymous Coward]

Like Dubai, Qatar, Riyadh, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi Obedient populace …. supported by millions of foreigners many living and working in dormitory squalor.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0l6w3n50k0o

https://healthserve.org.sg/story/an-outsiders-look-into-migrant-workers-in-singapore/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666623525000637

[Persona]

Replacement of a fair proportion of those millions of foreigners living in squalor becomes possible with AI and robotics. Will it be better or worse for those people? Given that they have chosen to work there rather than not, we should expect it to be worse.

[Pulled Tea]

Ah, yes, sovereign wealth funds…

…the final investment source for the usual kind of scoundrels!

Mind, neighbouring Malaysia already has money sunk into data centres and AI as well. The only difference is, their sovereign wealth funds got plundered the old-fashioned way, so I guess they're a little gun-shy. But give them time!

On the plus side, if things go south, at least Temasek won't demand an arm and a leg in recompense.