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CalPERS, La Caisse raise the bar for active managers
CalPERS may have doubled the fees it pays for active management in public equities, but the alpha it generates has quadrupled, says global equity head Simiso Nzima, who has spent three years pruning a roster of nearly 100 managers down to a tightly scored handful. La Caisse’s Mario Therrien describes a parallel discipline, using external managers not just for returns but as a “window to the world” on emerging strategies, from quant investing to AI.
AI supercycle widens valuation divide across SaaS stocks
Software companies are seeing two different kinds of growth trajectories following the SaaSpocalypse earlier this year, with some firms trading at dizzying valuation multiples while others sit at a more subdued price when their business models are perceived as threatened by AI. FIS at Stanford University heard that the “terminal value” of software companies in the age of AI disruptions sits at the heart of this divergence.
‘Quiet accumulation’ of US reforms raising financial crisis risk: Stanford scholar
A string of individually defensible US regulatory changes made since 2025 is weakening both the private and official checks on risk-taking, according to Stanford University Hoover Institution senior fellow Ross Levine, who warns the combination is raising the risk of a future financial crisis.
Computing power, not sanctions, the real lever over China: Kotkin
Computing power offers efficient leverage that Hoover Institution historian Stephen Kotkin argues the US has against China, with the US dominating world’s compute capacity at 75 to 80 per cent. In a keynote address to the Fiduciary Investors Symposium at Stanford University, Kotkin also examined how Nvidia’s Jensen Huang could become the central actor reshaping that balance.
Concentration and dependence are two AI issues asset owners should fear
Stanford professor Andy Hall warns that concentration of ownership of AI models and a lack of control by governments over their development are two of the biggest issues that asset owners should be wary of.
Concentration and dependence are two AI issues asset owners should fear
Stanford professor Andy Hall warns that concentration of ownership of AI models and a lack of control by governments over their development are two of the biggest issues that asset owners should be wary of.
AI, data and ‘a better job’ on retail: Blue Owl co-CEO on private markets’ next chapter
Blue Owl co-chief executive Marc Lipschultz has defended the manager’s push into the retail space, telling the Top1000funds.com Fiduciary Investors Symposium that “it’s kind of a crazy thing” to deny mum and dad investors access to illiquid assets like private credit when they are in a prime position to benefit from it through channels like 401(k).
Canada places $1.9 trillion pension pool at heart of global capital pitch
Canada will pitch the partnership with its mammoth pension pool as a key drawcard for global capital to invest in the nation, with Prime Minister Mark Carney set to host top brass from asset management giants at the inaugural Canada Investment Summit this week in the hopes of turning the country’s institutional maturity into an investment advantage.
FIS 2026 at Stanford University