Singapore state investment firm Temasek Holdings said it will prioritize investments in artificial intelligence over cryptocurrencies due to regulatory uncertainty and the lingering impact of a $275 million write-off from the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX in 2022.
The company, with an investment portfolio valued at around S$518 billion ($400 billion), plans to increase its exposure to AI from 6% of its portfolio in the first quarter of 2026 to 15% by 2031, Nagi Hamiyeh, president of Temasek Global Investments, told CNBC on Wednesday. The AI investment cycle has just begun and will continue for decades, he said, although he cautioned that valuations in some parts of the industry have gotten ahead of fundamentals.
Temasek, the state’s largest investment vehicle after GIC Private Ltd., is still dealing with the hit it suffered following the collapse of FTX. That implosion and other failures exposed weak consumer protections in Singapore, prompting the central bank, the Monetary Authority (MAS), to lean towards stricter supervision, a move that resulted in higher compliance costs and slower licensing, among other challenges.
