By Stefanno Sulaiman
JAKARTA (Reuters) -State-owned BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, one of Indonesia’s largest institutional investors, is keen to invest in firms that provide infrastructure for the artificial intelligence industry if it gets government approval to invest overseas, a director told Reuters.
The fund is awaiting regulatory approval to invest abroad as it seeks to expand beyond limited domestic opportunities, Edwin Ridwan, the firm’s director of investment development, said on Monday. There is no timeline for the decision, he said.
The fund is seeking approval to invest up to 5% of its total portfolio overseas, he said. The social security fund has 879 trillion rupiah ($52 billion) of assets under management.
“(AI) supply chain will be a good diversification for our investment, and it could be in the U.S., Taiwan, Japan and South Korea,” he said.
The fund sees investment opportunities in companies that support the AI sector such as data centres, energy companies that power the AI industry, and cable firms, Edwin said, adding that core AI firms like the chipmakers were already “too crowded”.
He did not rule out possible investment in chipmakers such as Nvidia, but said any decision would depend on the firms’ valuation.
Reuters reported in April that the fund wants to double its exposure to local equities to up to 20% within three years from around 10%. The largest portion of its money was invested in bonds, with the remainder in deposits and other instruments.
($1 = 16,700 rupiah)
(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman; Editing by John Mair)