Riding the Market Waves! Shih Ya-tang and Hsiao Pi-yen Reveal the Key to Investing in the AI Era: 'The Long-Term Opportunity Has Just Begun'

Amid the global surge of AI and increasing market volatility, CNBC举办了 the 'Riding the Market Waves: Returns, Growth, and Investment in the AI Era' forum. The event invited renowned investment experts Shih Ya-tang, known as 'The American Stock Dreamer,' and Hsiao Pi-yen, dubbed 'The Mutual Fund Matriarch,' along with Yuanta Investment Trust's professional research team, to jointly analyze the future growth momentum of the AI industry and how investors can achieve a long-term return strategy of 'defensive with rationale, offensive with strength' through multi-asset allocation.

In his speech, Shih Ya-tang pointed out that while many market voices worry that falling computing costs or chip obsolescence could trigger an AI bubble, the AI industry is in fact undergoing a profound structural transformation.

In the past, AI development focused primarily on one-time 'model training,' but now, to enhance the quality of generated content, the industry has entered a phase of repeated inference, causing computing demand to explode—much like printer ink cartridges, representing a continuous and massive demand. For example, NVIDIA's H100 chip, launched six years ago, is still in high demand, with companies competing to rent it through 2029, clearly indicating a massive computing power shortage.

The next phase centers on autonomous agents (AI Agents) capable of proactively executing tasks. In the future, it won't just be humans browsing the internet—it will be AI operating 24/7 to collect and process data online. This will drive network traffic to grow over 100-fold, further creating vast business opportunities in cybersecurity, database management (e.g., Quantinuum, Datadog), and network infrastructure.

Capital expenditure is the most critical indicator for observing long-term industry trends. Currently, leading enterprises like TSMC continue to raise their spending forecasts, and the entire supply chain is expanding across six key areas: 'chips, servers, data centers, power, cooling and heat dissipation, and networks.' Shih emphasized that even if there are short-term market fluctuations, AI's enterprise penetration and applications are still in their infancy. The next 5 to 10 years will be filled with rich investment opportunities. He advised investors to adopt a phased investment strategy to participate in this long-term trend.

Yuanta Investment Trust's research team analyzed the macroeconomic landscape and asset allocation, noting that the current market presents a 'good and bad' scenario. The good news is that AI has entered its golden decade, with infrastructure and applications flourishing. Localized supply chains and the revival of manufacturing across countries are driving traditional industrial operations. The risk lies in excessive capital concentration in specific popular assets, leading to a chaotic market structure and intensified short-term volatility.

To help investors 'hold on and hold long,' Yuanta launched the 'Yuanta Quality Income & Growth Multi-Asset Fund,' adopting an Income Growth 2.0 strategy. Approximately 70% targets growth through stocks and ETFs, focusing on high-growth themes such as technology, industry, defense, and healthcare, while flexibly capturing trends using thematic or actively managed ETFs.

The remaining 30% manages volatility through high-quality bonds and protective call options. The fund centers on long-term U.S. Treasury bonds with the lowest default risk, combined with a covered call strategy. This not only provides stable coupon income but also generates option premiums to supplement returns, achieving superior total returns during market volatility and effectively providing downside protection.

Yuanta Investment Trust noted that AI themes will gradually shift from Asia's supply chain (Taiwan, Korea, Japan) infrastructure to U.S. software and applications. Multi-asset allocation enables investors to flexibly adapt to sector rotations.

Regarding the most pressing investor concerns—'timing the market and stock-bond allocation ratios'—Hsiao Pi-yen stated that there is no one-size-fits-all answer; allocation depends on individual risk tolerance and funding needs. Markets never reach an all-time high, only cyclical peaks. As long as investors identify the major trend, the key to long-term investing is 'not dying from volatility.' For investors who want to participate in AI while securing stable cash flow, multi-asset funds are an ideal long-term holding tool.