‘Most interesting and important sector’: Asia’s family offices are putting their money in AI

Artificial intelligence has become an increasingly popular theme among family offices in Singapore and the wider Asia region, LH Koh, managing director and head of global family and institutional wealth at UBS said at CNBC’s CONVERGE LIVE event in Singapore last month.

“Our family office clients are focusing on this as perhaps the most interesting and important sector,” he said in a conversation with CNBC’s Robert Frank.

Koh, whose clients are based across the Asia-Pacific region, believes the “trend focusing on AI will still continue.”

He cited a 2024 UBS survey which found that more than three-quarters of family are keen to invest in generative AI in the next two to three years.

Tuck Meng Yee, founder and partner at JRT Partners, a single-family office, echoed Koh’s comments.

Yee, whose firm takes an “endowment style, multi-asset” approach, says he is keeping a close watch on the data classification aspect of the AI theme.

Companies in this space he is invested in include Cognaize, an Armenian software development firm.

Another company Yee is invested in is construction tech firm Consai, which has offices in Qatar and Poland.

Family offices have also been seeking out opportunities in China’s AI space.

The emergence of DeepSeek has pushed China to “the forefront in doing a lot more, especially in AI with a lot less that’s available to them. So, I think that’s quite exciting,” said Srihari Kumar, founder of single-family office LionRock Capital.

UBS’ Koh likewise pointed to “a new sort of enthusiasm on what’s going to come from [the AI sector] in China, and this remains a very interesting space for investors.”

Investor interest in China has fallen in recent years in light of its slowing economy, but that might soon change.

China has made up a “smaller part” of investors’ portfolios in the recent years given its domestic challenges, Kumar noted. But, he added, there has been a change, with investors seeking out opportunities in the country after Beijing’s stimulus measures to boost the Chinese economy and tech sector.

“For us, and I think as we talk other family offices, they say, ‘OK, what about can we reinvest in China?’ And I think that [interest in China is] definitely increasing,” Kumar said.

Previously, 40% of his portfolio was invested in the United States, 40% in India, and the remaining 20% in the rest of the world.

Now, Kumar said, he is “looking more at China,” public markets and the technology sector for investment opportunities.