The market is panicking about AI. This investor is slowing down

The AI narrative is one investors feel like they already know by heart. Each bout of volatility seems to revive the same fear: artificial intelligence will upend business models and leave incumbents behind. More recently, that anxiety has turned into something more blunt - broad, indiscriminate selling across parts of the market.

That’s where William Liu thinks investors need to slow down. Rather than buying into the idea that AI poses an existential threat to established software companies, he sees the current volatility as a moment that demands greater selectivity. 

In his view, the market is selling whole sectors on a single narrative, with little distinction between businesses that are genuinely exposed and those that may ultimately benefit.

It’s a perspective shaped by experience across cycles. Liu is a global equities investor within Wilson Asset Management’s WAM Global team and joined the firm in 2020 after more than a decade in the industry, with a strong focus on downside risk, earnings durability and valuation discipline.

This Q&A explores how he’s navigating AI-driven fear, where he’s selectively buying amid volatility, and why conviction matters most when market narratives start to dominate pricing.

What’s your most recent investment and why?

A recent investment we made was in a company called Entegris (NASDAQ: ENTG), which is a mission critical supplier of advanced materials and process solutions into semiconductor fabs. The company specialises in containers and filtering equipment that protects silicon wafers from contaminants during the semiconductor process and is the global leader in this space. 

We opportunistically acquired shares below $80 with the view that the market was underestimating the earnings potential of ENTG.

A leading-edge fab such as TSMC or Intel will spend billions on capital expenditure, Entegris filters and canisters costs are inconsequential relative to the risk of yield loss. 

Once Entegris material is designed into a process node it also stays there for the life of the node so there are extremely high switching costs. 

At the same time, its earnings are driven by total industry unit growth of total wafers shipped, which is inflecting positively in 2026 and ENTG’s wafer content will increase in newer nodes for logic and memory chips driving positive earnings growth. 

We recently met with the new management team in New York, and it was evident that there is a clear focus on shareholder value going forward. 

Which investment did you add to your watchlist this week?

Ferrari (NYSE: RACE) is a name we have been keeping a close eye on. It’s an amazing company with a fantastic track record of earnings growth, but one where valuation had been a bit too rich for us in the past.

It is now at an interesting juncture where the share price has been sold off due to a cautious mid-term guide announced at its Capital Markets Day, which was below lofty investor expectations and concerns around its Electric Vehicle Ambitions. 

However, this caution overlooks an order book giving the company visibility well into 2027 and a transition to EV that is deliberate and customer-centric. 

Ferrari will always deliver one car less than the market demands, this is a great business model as it means zero inventory risk, price inelasticity and high residual values (since Ferrari’s founding, they have produced ~330k cars of which approximately 85% of them are still on the road today!) 

What is the most recent investment you have trimmed or sold and what drove this decision?

We trimmed our position in Allfunds group (AMS: ALLFG), listed in Amsterdam following a takeover announcement from Deutsche Borse Group (ETR: DB1) in late January. The €5.3bn deal represents a 32.5% premium to the closing price on 26th November 2025 (when ALLFG announced that DB1 had entered into exclusive acquisition talks).

This was validation for our investment thesis; our view was that the quality of Allfunds Group’s business model and earnings potential was being overlooked by the market. 

The company is the leading European wealth technology platform with over €1.7tn in assets under advice and was extremely undervalued, trading at a low-teens price to earnings multiple despite being poised for low-teens earnings growth.

While not a core part of our thesis, we were not surprised to see the asset being taken over. The deal creates a global leader in fund services that will have highly complementary product suites, client bases, and partners in the key markets they serve. We remain positive on the outlook, however we are using recent share price strength to reduce our portfolio weighting. 

What’s your favourite chart or data point from this week?

This chart shows the US ISM Manufacturing PMI over the past year. After a prolonged period of contraction (<50), the index saw a significant surge in January 2026 jumping to 52.6 which marks the first time the sector has expanded in almost a year. This data point is critical as it validates our portfolio positioning towards more cyclical sectors. 

What was your weekly high – a standout market moment or highlight

Tradeweb (NASDAQ: TW) is a global leader in electronic marketplaces and is a top 20 position in the WAM Global Fund (ASX: WGB) reported very strong quarterly results on Thursday. The company announced a strong 4Q25 beat on earnings and commented positively on trading volumes for January 2026. 

We believe TW is in a prime position to capture the move from voice to electronic trading in fixed income markets, which will be a multiyear secular trend.

What was your weekly low – a market disappointment or challenge?

The indiscriminate selling of software names and the volatility we are seeing in some of these names has been challenging. 

The market is selling the whole sector on the narrative that AI will create an existential threat to established software companies. 

As a team, we have been cautious of the risks AI poses to all our investments in the portfolio; we have selectively been buying the weakness on names that will be beneficiaries of Artificial Intelligence.  

What first drew you to markets and what continues to keep you inspired today?

My first job was at the local library during high school. I would spend a few hours stacking bookshelves after school on the way back home every week. In hindsight, that time was such a gift because I would borrow and consume so many books on financial markets, business, famous global investors and investing and I became obsessed with the market at a very young age.

At the same time, my family dabbled in the share market but did not come from a background of investing, so I took up the challenge of trying to decode what moves the market through reading the news, analysing macroeconomic data and reviewing company earnings that I was interested in. 

I was fortunate that I knew I wanted to be a global investor from an early age and this experience really shaped me to be an investor looking to pay the right price for the best earnings growth opportunities.

At Wilson Asset Management, we are very fortunate to have amazing shareholders who have entrusted us with their savings. 

I feel a personal sense of duty and am inspired knowing that every basis point of return we generate translates into real tangible outcomes for our shareholders, whether it is a more secure retirement, a child’s education or day-to-day living expenses. 

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to new investors?

There is no shortage of investment ideas, particularly in global markets. One of the most valuable tenets of investing is understanding how to build conviction in those ideas. 

This is through an in-depth understanding of business models, industry dynamics, earnings growth drivers and shareholder value creation. 

How do you unwind when you’re not thinking about the market?

Recently, because there has been quite a bit of snow in New York, my fiancée and I have gone on a few weekend ski trips to Vermont. Even then, I was assessing the number of cars in the parking lot, how full the ski lifts were, pricing on lift passes and deciding whether Vail Resorts (which owns major ski resorts) was a potential investment opportunity! 

Rapid fire! 🔥

Favourite investing book?

Margin of Safety by Seth Klarman 

Favourite investing or finance/markets-related podcast?

No Priors podcast 

The first thing you read each morning?

Bloomberg, Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal.  

Favourite restaurant?

Ester in Chippendale

Something people are surprised to learn about you?

Started my professional investing career in fixed income securities and credit research. It has given me a unique perspective of a company’s financials, specifically looking through the lens of mitigating downside risk through the capital structure which I find valuable in equity investing. 

Think there’s a better pick? Prove it. Share your rapid-fire book, podcast, and daily read in the comments.