Conference Presentation, Panel
Asia-Pacific Overtures: Investment Returns Through Diversification | Global Conference 2026
Milken InstituteLaura Deal Lacey, Michael DeSombre, David Elia, Jacqueline Poh, Pandu Sjahrir, Lu Yin
- The US administration aims to align trade, commercial diplomacy, and foreign assistance to open global markets and advance American companies, with plans to remove non-tariff barriers and tariffs on 99% of goods previously subject to restrictions in recent trade agreements.
- A $2 billion State Department earmark for the Indo-Pacific will fund infrastructure such as airports, ports, and digital networks, while the administration intends to track global investment opportunities via commercial diplomacy and continue focus on critical minerals and AI technology stacks.
- Australia's pension system, currently managing over $4 trillion and projected to become the world's second-largest in five years, is expanding globally due to Australia's 2% share of world GDP, with a strategy to generate strong, risk-adjusted returns that outperform peers.
- Indonesia's new sovereign wealth fund, Danantara, is in an early deployment phase and plans to utilize partnerships over the next five years to acquire knowledge and technology, specifically targeting domestic and international investments in digital infrastructure, financial services, real estate, food security, upstream and renewable energy, and downstreaming.
- Danantara intends to execute a $5 billion waste-to-energy project and a $30 billion renewable energy project for exports to Singapore, while Indonesia targets an energy transition by 2050 and aims to scale data center capacity from 1 gigawatt to 10–12 gigawatts in the coming years.
- Singapore's JTC Corporation plans to develop future industries including a quantum corridor, Kampung AI, and AI data centers for inferencing within a 3,000-hectare zone, alongside the completion of a rapid transit system to Johor by the end of the year capable of transporting 10,000 people per hour in 10 minutes.
- Singapore and Indonesia plan to establish a renewable power grid across Southeast Asia, while Singapore intends to enforce the separation of US and Chinese technology ecosystems in infrastructure while leveraging the strengths of both.
- The Solana Foundation forecasts that Asian regulatory frameworks in Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong will mature alongside the US, leading to the adoption of digital money, tokenized assets, and the upgrade of traditional exchanges like NASDAQ into the blockchain ecosystem.
- Investment trends are expected to follow a bifurcation or barbell strategy favoring traditional assets such as commodities, manufacturing, and defense, alongside frontier technologies like AI, with a prediction that AI agents will drive 24-7 settlement and nanopayments using stablecoins.
- Concerns regarding the geopolitical impact of the war in Iran include potential currency and fiscal balance disruptions if the conflict extends through the end of the year, while risks related to AI include potential corporate capital waste if led solely by tech personnel rather than CEOs.
- Singapore's national AI strategy targets graduating 100 AI PhDs annually, aiming to double the target to 200 centers of excellence, while warning that a "tech clash" or anti-AI sentiment may arise if society fails to adapt through education amidst rapid three-week technological cycles.
- The US government seeks to maintain dominance of the American AI tech stack and encourage ally adoption over Chinese alternatives, while expressing concern that safety-focused regulations may inadvertently limit innovation.
- Long-term investors are advised to look through global market noise to focus on fundamentals, with expectations that the AI revolution will create opportunities in energy infrastructure and the construction of supporting communities.
- Hostplus plans to increase allocations to North America while selectively engaging with specific European countries, and anticipates that human ingenuity will drive continued reindustrialization in the US, with manufacturing growth noted in shipbuilding and semiconductors since 2022.
- Danantara expects Indonesia to transition from a resource-based to a human-based economy within five years, supported by optimism for above-trend growth and supply chain resilience partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region over the next five years.
- The Solana Foundation predicts continuous flows of capital, human capital, and commodities will flourish in Asia under lenient jurisdictions, while considering concepts like Universal Basic Ownership (UBO) and potential UBI pushes in response to AI-induced unemployment narratives.
- Specific AI initiatives include the US government's focus on keeping the tech stack dominant, Phuong Du's top-down AI adoption despite fear of the unknown, and the potential replacement of CIO roles with AI agents by David Goggin.
- Risks identified include the potential for widespread corporate spending inefficiencies on AI capability, the disruptive pace of change causing societal friction, and the geopolitical volatility affecting fiscal balances if regional conflicts persist.