Inside TCI’s Conference: The Anti-AI Portfolio

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Company Deep Dives<br>Inside TCI’s Conference: The Anti-AI Portfolio<br>Chris Hohn is scared, should you be as well?

Moats & Multiples<br>Jun 18, 2026

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I was fortunate enough to be invited to and attend TCI’s annual investor conference in New York two days ago. Aside from the obligatory rubbing of shoulders with other family offices, endowment funds, and asset allocators, the conference itself featured presentations from the TCI investment team and executives at their portfolio companies.<br>The headline for me wasn’t a stock pick, it was Chris Hohn admitting he’s “scared” about what he’s seeing in equities today. This is coming from a man who has delivered 7% net alpha over 22 years. In accordance with this, he has quietly reshaped his portfolio towards more defensive businesses featuring hard assets whilst leaning into weakness for some purported AI losers.<br>Two names did draw much of the room’s attention during the day:<br>Microsoft – which TCI has now fully exited

S&P Global – which they have added to

I have strong views on both businesses and if you haven’t read my write up on Microsoft, start here:

Microsoft – Are the Windows Closing?<br>Moats & Multiples<br>Jun 9

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Where is Chris Hohn Hiding?

If you haven’t heard Chris Hohn present, his gentle monotone can even put an insomniac to sleep. However, his exceptional track record suggests it’s probably worth listening when he speaks.<br>Chris kicked off the event by providing an update on the portfolio and performance. Notable changes include a full exit from their long-standing position in Microsoft (read on to find out why) and an addition to the portfolio in Deutsche Borse.<br>Nearly half of his portfolio’s assets are concentrated in three aerospace names – Safran, GE Aerospace, and Airbus. This reflects his view that these businesses are highly protected from disruption (a common theme throughout the day) and have decades long backlogs which provides unusual earnings visibility.<br>He is also very underweight technology relative to the benchmark and has almost zero exposure to the semiconductor supply chain which has driven much of the recent market gains. This naturally means that the fund has underperformed by quite some margin year-to-date. However, his view is that under the paradigm of AI, previously established moats across software and professional service companies are being eroded and that innovation is now more important than ever which is making it harder to pick between winners and losers. Geopolitical uncertainty and rising competition are also keeping him largely on the sidelines with semis.<br>I largely echo his sentiment and there’s nothing wrong with putting things in the “too hard basket” especially when staying true to process. But I would argue there are several businesses within the software/semi complex which fit within his definition of durable compounders with pricing power that could warrant consideration – ASML being a good example.<br>Within the technology sphere, TCI maintains positions in Google and SAP. Whilst they didn’t really discuss SAP, they seemed quite bullish on Google and its prospects in AI. Notably, they pointed out that unlike its peers, Google has a strong presence across every layer of the AI stack and that AI was a self-reinforcing competitive advantage in its other businesses e.g., AI has made the search business even better for users and customers. TCI project Google Cloud to grow at a 45% p.a. rate to 2030 and see it as one of the big winners in AI.<br>The rest of the conference featured presentations from analysts discussing their thesis in businesses like Ferrovial, Vinci, Airbus as well as presentations from management at Visa, S&P Global and Aena.<br>There was quite a bit of discussion around businesses in what TCI labels financial markets infrastructure – Visa, S&P Global, Moody’s, Deutsche Borse. The common seam through these discussions was the standards/protocol nature of these businesses which makes them near impossible to disrupt. All the while, most of these companies seem to be trading at decades low valuations on the fear of AI disruption from the market. TCI’s conviction here was evidenced by the increased allocation of capital to these businesses which the firm hopes will generate a high-teens net IRR over the next five years.<br>Finally, the conference concluded with a panel of the entire investment team discussing AI and disruption. I’ll pull a few interesting snapshots from the discussion:<br>Rapid technological change is making competitive advantages harder to predict. This is why TCI prefers asset-heavy industries where the risk of disruption is very low. The investment team mentioned that Aena represents a “perfect Chris Hohn stock” and its one they never lose sleep over.

Previously, TCI described its investable universe comprising of 200 stocks. That may be shrinking. Chris noted there is a real scarcity...