The world's biggest stock investor says if you don't see opportunities in AI, then you are a 'complete moron'

• "If you don't think there are opportunities with AI, then in my mind you are a complete moron."
• That comes from the head of Norway's sovereign wealth fund, which is the world's biggest stock investor.
• The fund made $143 billion in the first half of the year, helped by top US tech stocks.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund is bullish on artificial intelligence, with the nascent technology contributing to the portfolio's big gains this year.

The $1.4 trillion fund, which is also the world's single biggest stock market investor, has returned 10% year to date, amounting to about $143 billion.

The gains were fueled by US tech giants like Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla, which have benefited from hype over artificial intelligence.

In fact, those "magnificent seven" stocks accounted for about a third of the fund's recent gains and 12% of its holdings.

"If you don't think there are opportunities with AI, then in my mind you are a complete moron," Nicolai Tangen, the fund's chief executive, told the Financial Times.  

He also said the fund is ramping up engagement with companies in its portfolio on artificial intelligence to ensure accountability on each board of directors.

"Boards are absolutely not on top of this," Tangen told the FT, adding that any companies lacking in AI expertise on the director level wouldn't get the fund's support.

Meanwhile, he warned that regulating AI will be difficult because the US-China rivalry has made the technology critical to the "weapons race, medical race, self-driving race, financial race."

But even as the fund has notched big gains this year on the back of tech stocks, Tangen said at a briefing Wednesday that it recently reduced its overweight position in top tech companies.

Tech holdings were about 12% of the fund's total value at the end of 2022, representing the largest sector of its equity investments.

"We are always conscious and worried about the biggest exposures of the fund," Tangen told Reuters separately. "Now they are in the tech sector. Therefore we monitor that very thoroughly."