![\"Clancy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769071029_920_9b51ffedbfea8067245d0f75d72342db97eada67.png\")
Save<\/p>\nSave<\/p>\n
You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n
Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Superannuation giants do not believe the artificial intelligence craze has created a sharemarket bubble, but they acknowledge the risks posed by surging valuations and market euphoria surrounding the much-hyped technology.<\/p>\n Major funds delivered returns of about 10 per cent for their members in the year to June as performance benefited from big gains in overseas shares, including the world\u2019s biggest market in the US, where technology stocks play a crucial role.<\/p>\n While some investors worry markets are over-priced, investment bosses from several major funds said they did not think there was an AI-driven bubble, as they also highlighted how AI was driving profits across a widening range of companies in fields including microchips and data centres.<\/p>\n Even so, though they acknowledged there were risks created by the sector\u2019s soaring valuations, including if AI did not live up to the high expectations being priced in by markets.<\/p>\n AustralianSuper, which manages more than $410 billion, indicated it was cautious about the risk of high valuations driven by AI optimism, though the fund\u2019s investment chief, Shaun Manuell, said markets were not in bubble territory at the moment.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re in sort of rational exuberance, but the next tip-over is into irrational exuberance, and it\u2019s when you get there that you start to worry,\u201d Manuell said.<\/p>\n If the whole AI theme comes off, markets will suffer because it\u2019s been so dominant.<\/p>\n AusSuper investment chief Shaun Manuell<\/p>\n Former US Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan famously referred to \u201cirrational exuberance\u201d in markets in a 1996 speech, and the phrase has become a shorthand for how values can be inflated by investor sentiment.<\/p>\n Manuell pointed to the recent float of Elon Musk\u2019s rocket business SpaceX \u2013 and the large amount of excitment around the stock \u2013 saying the fund looked at SpaceX business as a \u201cbellwether stock in this space\u201d.<\/p>\n He said one sign of a bubble was when the high price of a business justified a \u201ccompletely unrealistic\u201d business case, but markets were not at that point. At the same time, he acknowledged that AI had been an important driver of markets. \u201cIf the whole AI theme comes off, markets will suffer because it\u2019s been so dominant,\u201d Manuell said.<\/p>\n Editor’s pick MLC\u2019s chief investment officer Dan Farmer said the fund, which manages about $185 billion, did not think there was an AI-driven bubble, but added that \u201cdiscretion is required\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t see it as necessarily a bubble over … certainly the short term,\u201d said Farmer.<\/p>\n Farmer said that over the next year, there would be growing focus in markets on the costs paid by businesses for AI, compared with the efficiency gains that the technology delivered. Like Manuell, Farmer also acknowledged the risk to markets if AI \u201cdoesn\u2019t continue on with the momentum that we expect.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been such a dominant driver of earnings and sentiment. As I said, we\u2019re not foreshadowing problems there, but that would be a risk if we did see a hiccup in AI for whatever reason,\u201d Farmer said.<\/p>\n AMP chief investment officer Anna Shelley said the super fund was \u201cpretty comfortable\u201d with its exposure to AI in listed shares, saying the AI \u201cthematic\u201d had broadened from technology stocks to other sectors such as semiconductors and infrastructure. AMP manages almost $60 billion in retail super.<\/p>\n She said the super fund was looking at the concentration of AI-related risks across other investment classes aside from shares, such as in private credit, property or infrastructure, but overall, it was \u201clargely comfortable.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s something that everybody\u2019s watching cautiously with an eye to the risk, but for now, we\u2019re comfortable. We think the benefits [of AI] are highly likely to be there,\u201d Shelley said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think there\u2019s going to be improvements in profitability across many sectors globally, and we think, in particular, that directly AI-related sectors will do very well, much like previous great innovations, for example, the iPhone,\u201d Shelley said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we think there\u2019s some prospect for some super profits in the AI space.\u201d<\/p>\n The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"AMP](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783302912_619_8b483b36bb08379b026e4823399ac4786eaec805.jpeg\")
AMP chief investment officer Anna Shelley said the super fund was \u201cpretty comfortable\u201d with its exposure to AI in listed shares. Louie Douvis<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782369857_207_a198054dc1acbf82be3c99e1e6a980463261c989.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"AustralianSuper](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/f4767cd25c872cf1d6c0be606780307269befebc.jpeg\")
AustralianSuper chief investment officer Shaun Manuell. Louis Trerise<\/p>\n![\"Clancy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/9b51ffedbfea8067245d0f75d72342db97eada67.png\")
Clancy Yeates<\/a> is deputy business editor. He has covered banking and financial services, and was previously national business correspondent in the Canberra bureau.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-785202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}